May 25, 2016 Market Wrap Up
The S&P 500 continued its climb back to all-time highs; we’re now a little less than 2% off that. Not to mention, 15% higher than our 6-month lows. One could argue that this is all being done on anemic volume, however; fighting the tape can be very costly during times like this.
Stocks in play today: Alibaba Group (BABA) -7.3%, Express (EXPR) -8.4%, Whiting Petroleum (WLL) +14.5%, and Sarepta Therapeutics (SRPT) +26%
It was no surprise to see the VIX sell off as hard as it did. Overall, the VIX closed below 14, finishing the day 3.6% lower.
The United States Oil Fund (USO) was up nearly 2% today. In addition, crude oil futures closed at this year’s highs. We’re now nearly 50% off the 3-month lows.
On the options front, we saw large call buying activity in Craft Brew (BREW), which was 69.2 times normal volume. We also saw a ton of bearish bets being placed in Alibaba Group (BABA). Overall, the option action in Alibaba was 5.9 times above the average.
Here’s what’s left for the rest of the week:
Key Economic Data:
26 May 2016- Jobless Claims 8:30 AM ET, Durable Goods Orders 8:30 AM ET
27 May 2016- GDP 8:30 AM ET
Key Earnings:
26 May 2016- ANF, DG, FRED, GME, PANW, SPLK, ULTA, VEEV, VNET
Key Events:
Morgan Stanley China Conference (runs till 5/26)
UBS Global Oil & Gas Conference (runs till 5/26)