May 17, 2015 The Week Ahead

The S&P 500 ended Friday’s trading at all-time highs. However, the market was in an extremely narrow trading range. Possibly, a hint that summer trading is around the corner.

The VIX is back below the 12.5 level. It will be interesting to see if we break below 12.

Crude Oil futures are near their 3 month highs, closing slightly below $60 per barrel.

Earnings worth highlighting this week include Wal-Mart (WMT), Home Depot (HD) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ).

In addition, there are a number of conferences coming up. With that said, we’ll be watching the options activity ahead (or during) these conferences. It’s worth noting that Memorial Day is on 5/25, with that said, it wouldn’t be surprising if volume dies out by Thursday of this week.

Here’s what’s on the schedule:

Key Economic Data:
19 MAY 2015- Housing Starts 8:30 AM ET
20 MAY 2015- FOMC Minutes 2:15 PM ET
21 MAY 2015- Jobless Claims 8:30 AM ET, Philly Fed Survey 10:00 AM ET, Existing Home Sales 10:00 AM ET
22 May 2015- Consumer Price Index 8:30 AM ET

Key Earnings:
18 MAY 2015- A, LF, TTWO
19 MAY 2015- HD, TJX, WMT, VOD, SSI, ADSK,
20 MAY 2015- LOW, SPLS. TGT, CRM, NTAP
21 MAY 2015- ARUN, GPS, MRVL, ROST, HPQ, LGF
22 MAY 2015- ANN, CPB, DE

Key Conferences:
18 MAY 2015 (runs till 5/20)- JP Morgan Global TMT Conference
18 MAY 2015 (runs till 5/20)- UBS Healthcare Conference
18 MAY 2015 (runs till 5/21)- UBS Oil & Gas Conference
19 May 2015 (runs till 5/20)- JP Morgan Homebuilding Conference
19 May 2015 (runs till 5/20)- JP Morgan Consumer & Retail Conference
19 May 2015 (runs till 5/20)- SunTrust Financial Services Conference