June 3, 2017 The Week Ahead

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This year has been about two narratives:

    1. President Trump is a disaster.
    2. The stock market continues to break all-time highs, week-after-week.

It’s been 231 trading days without having a 5% drawdown from our peak, making this the longest streak since 1996.

The thing is, trading volumes are drying up as we enter the summer months and most of Q1 earnings releases are out.

Markets could continue to grind higher despite being at highs.

The VIX closed below 10 for the second straight week, an indication that the markets are fearless.

Here is how some of the most traded ETFs performed over the week: SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) +1.00%, iShares Russell 2000 (IWM) +1.65%, SPDR Dow Jones Industrials Average ETF (DIA) +0.63%, and PowerShares QQQ ETF (QQQ) +1.77%

Here is how some futures/commodity related ETF’s performed over the week: United States Oil Fund (USO) -1.79%, iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond (TLT) +1.91%, SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) +1.78%.

It’s a slow week in terms of economic data and earnings. That said, Apple is hosting its worldwide developers conference in San Jose from June 5 to the 9th. An event that should garner strong media attention.

Below you’ll find what is else is on the schedule for the week:

Key Economic Data:
07 June 2017- EIA Petroleum Status Report 10:30 AM ET
08 June 2017- Jobless Claims 8:30 AM ET

Key Earnings:
05 June 2017- ASNA, COUP, THO
06 June 2017- CONN, CSIQ, FRAN, FRED, HDS, LE, MIK, AMBA, DLTH, KEYS, PLAY, SIGM, UNFI
07 June 2017- NAV, ABM, MIND, ONVO, TLRD, VRNT
08 June 2017- CMD, DVMT, FCEL, SJM, VNCE, PAY

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February 5, 2017 The Week Ahead

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Overall, the markets were relatively flat during the week. With that said, earnings thus far haven’t been really exciting. We got some positive results out of Apple and Facebook. However, Amazon disappointed some, but nothing bad where it caused a significant sell-off in other areas of the market.

In economic news, the FOMC meeting resulted in no changes to the key interest rate. However, they still have a plan for several rate hikes this year. One important change in their language was that they are now saying that inflation will rise vs. expected too.

Outside of that, a lot of the media attention is around the first 100 days of President Trump.

Despite all the protesting and the media trying their best to make the new regime appear toxic, the market thus far is not buying into any of it. With that said, the VIX closed at 10.97 on Friday.

Going into the week, traders will be mainly focused on earnings.

Moving on to energy.

Crude oil futures closed the week pretty strong, having 3 out of 5 winning days and ending up 1.21%. On the other hand, gold futures prices finished the week down more than 1.3%

Now, here is how some of the other closely followed ETFs did on the week: United States Oil Fund (USO) +1.23%, iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond (TLT) -0.31%, SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) +2.33%.

Some key earnings include: Disney, Time Warner, Twitter, CVS, and Coca-Cola to name a few.

Here are a list of events that traders will be watching:

Key Economic Data:
7 Feb 2017- International Trade 8:30 AM ET
8 Feb 2017- EIA Petroleum Status Report 10:30 AM ET
9 Feb 2017- Jobless Claims 8:30 AM

Key Earnings:
6 Feb 2017- BWP, HAS, L, NEWL, TSN, CBOE, SYY, DO, FOXA, HMN, LYB, MAC, TSO, YRCW
7 Feb 2017- ADM, BP, CAH, CDW, EMR, FIS, GM, ICE, KORS, MNK, NOV, SABR, TDG, TEN, VMC, AKAM, BWLD, DIS, GILD, GNW, JIVE, LITE, MCHP, MDLZ, NUAN, ORLY, PAA, PNRA, PAGP, PXD, TCS, TDW, TTWO, TWLO, ULTI, YUMC, ZG
8 Feb 2017- AXTA, CTSH, EXC, GRA, GRUB, HUM, LPX, RIO, OC, SNY, TWX, VOYA, DNB, FISV, GLUU, IRBT, LVLT, MC, PAYC, SCSS, TRMB, TYL, WFM, ZEN
9 Feb 2017- BATS, BWA, BZH, CLF, COTY, CVS, DNKN, K, KKR, KO, LIVE, MAS, MHK, OXY, PTEN, RAI, TDC, TWTR, VIAB, VRTU, WWE, YUM, ATVI, CERN, CYBR, EXPE, INFN, JCOM, LPLA, MNK, NCR, MPWR, NVDA, NWSA, P, RICK, UBNT, VRSN, WU, YELP, ZAYO, ZNGA
10 Feb 2017- AXL, G, MT

Key Events:
6 Feb 2017- Credit Suisse Financial Services Forum (runs till 2/8)
8 Feb 2017- Cowen 38th Annual Aerospace, Defense & Industrials Conference (runs till 2/9)
9 Feb 2017- KBW Winter Financial Services Symposium (runs till 2/10)

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January 29, 2017 The Week Ahead

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Unless something drastic happens, the month of January will be another strong month for the stock market. However, how long can this low volatility environment continue? After all, it seems like there is one political protest after another in the US, with some uncertainty and concerns about the new President. With that said, the market is telling us something different from what the news is saying. It’s actually pretty wild if you consider that the VIX closed at $10.58 on Friday. Going into the week, traders will be watching earnings and what comes out of the FOMC announcement.

Moving on to energy:

Crude oil futures closed pretty flat on the week, having two out of five winning days. On the other hand, gold futures prices finished the week down more than 1.3%

Now, here is how some of the other closely followed ETFs did on the week: United States Oil Fund (USO) 0.09%, iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond (TLT) -0.26%, SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) -1.36%.

Some key earnings include: Apple, Amazon, Exxon, United Parcel Service, Visa and Mastercard to name a few.

Here are a list of events that traders will be watching:

Key Economic Data:
30 Jan 2017- Personal Income and Outlays 8:30 AM ET
1 Feb 2017- ISM Mfg Index 10:00 AM ET; EIA Petroleum Status Report 10:30 AM ET; FOMC Meeting Announcement 2:00 PM ET
2 Feb 2017- Jobless Claims 8:30 AM
3 Feb 2017- Employment Situation 8:30 AM ET

Key Earnings Release Dates:
30 Jan 2017- EPD, BAH, BOFI, GGG, GGP, PFG, RMBS, SANM
31 Jan 2017- ABC, AET, ALLY, CIT, CNX, COH, HCA, HOG, LLY, LYB, MA, MAN, NDAQ, NUE, PCAR, PFE, S, UA, UPS, VLO, XOM, XRX, AAPL, AMD, APC, CB, CHRW, EA, ILMN, OLN, X
1 Feb 2017- ANTM, ADP, BAX, D, IP, JCI, MO, MPC, MPLX, MTOR, TUP, WEC, AVB, CAVM, CRUS, FB, HOLX, IAC, LM, MAA, MET, MLNX, NXPI, QRVO, SFLY, SYMC, TSCO
2 Feb 2017- S, AZN, BSX, CME, COP, DB, EL, ETN, IP, MMP, NOK, NOV, PM, RDSA, RL, SIRI, VOD, WFT, AMGN, AMZN, CMG, DATA, CY, DATA, DECK, FEYE, FTNT, GIMO, GPOR, V
3 Feb 2017- AN, APO, HSY, WY

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October 26, 2016 Market Wrap Up

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The S&P 500 closed relatively flat today in what is one of the busiest earnings week of the year. Last night we heard from Apple, which disappointed by posting its third straight quarter of declining iPhone sales. This put a damper on the Nasdaq composite today as it dropped about .7%.

In the after hours we got earnings out of Tesla Motors (TSLA), which is up more than 6% at the time of this writing. This morning we got earnings out Biogen (BIIB), which is a gain of nearly 4%.

Stocks in play today included: Edwards Lifesciences (EW) -17%, Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) -9%, NCR +14.5%, and Akamai Technologies (AKAM) +14.6%

The VIX sold rose nearly 6%, closing at 14.24.

Crude oil futures prices sold off for the third straight day, and is now down more than 3% on the week.

On the options front, we saw large call buying activity in SolarCity (SCTY), which traded 2.1 times normal option volume. In addition, we saw heavy put buying in Western Union Company (WU), which saw 9.8 times normal options volume.

Here’s what’s on tap for tomorrow and the rest of the week:

Key Earnings:
27 Oct 2016- AET, ALXN, AMT, APD, BMY, BOFI, BWA, BX, CAB, CELG, CL, CLF, CME, COP, DB, DOW, DPS, F, GNC, HACA, IP, LAZ, LLL, MJN, MO, MPC, NOK, NOV, PENN, POT, PX, SIRI, SWK, TMO, TPH, TPX, TROW, UPS, VW, WWE, AIG, AMZN, BIDU, CA, CBI, CRUS, CY, DLR, ELLI, EXPE, FLEX, FTNT, GOOGL, HIG, MCK, PFG, STRZA, SYK, SYNA, TWTR
28 Oct 2016- ABBV, AN, CVX, CBOE, HSY, MA, NWL, PSX, SNY, SHPG, TEN, WY, XOM, XRX, SIMO

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October 23, 2016 The Week Ahead

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The S&P 500 closed the week slightly higher snapping a two week losing streak. About one third of the S&P 500 will be reporting in a heavy earnings week. With that said, we’re not that far off all time highs. Some earnings to watch include Apple, Amazon, Google, Coca-Cola, Exxon, and Tesla.

With earnings thus far not that awful and the likelihood of a Hillary win increasing, we saw volatility come in, closing the week at 13.34.

Crude oil futures prices rose about 1% over the week, closing above $50 and not too far off 52-week highs.

Moving on, gold futures prices rose four out of the five trading days and gained more than 1.2%. In addition, T-bond futures prices rose four out of the last five trading days, gaining nearly 1%.

Over the weekend we got news that AT&T would be buying Time Warner for $107.50 per share, or $85.4 billion dollars. It will be interesting to see if we start to see if regulators have any issues with this deal and what it means for the industry.

Here is what else is on the schedule for the upcoming week:

Key Economic Data:
26 Oct 2016- International Trade in Goods 8:30 AM ET; New Home Sales 10:00 AM ET; EIA Petroleum Status Report 10:30 AM ET
27 Oct 2016- Durable Goods Orders 8:30 AM ET; Jobless Claims 8:30 AM ET
28 Oct 2016- GDP 8:30 AM ET

Key Earnings:
24 Oct 2016- BEAV, CYOU, EXP, KMB, PETS, SOHU, TMUS, VFC, AGNC, AVB, CDNS, ISIL, KN, RE, RMBS, SONC, SWFT, V, ZION
25 Oct 2016- AKS, AMTD, BAC, BHI, CAT, CIT, CVLT, EAT, FCX, GLW, GM, JBLU, JNS, KEY, LLY, LMT, MAS, MDSO, MMM, MRK, NLSN, PG, R, S, SHW, TRU, UA, UTX, VLO, WAT, WHR, AAPL, AKAM, CAKE, CB, CHRW, CMG, COF, DFS, ESRX, IRBT, JNPR, NBR, NCR, P, PNRA, T, VRTX
26 Oct 2016- ALLY, BA, BEN, BIIB, BSX, CMCSA, EVER, FCAU, GRMN, GRUB, HBAN, HES, KO, LH, LUV, NOC, OC, PAG, SC, SPG, STT, WM, AXS, BWLD, GRPN, FFIV, INFN, NEM, NXPI, ORLY, SFLY, TSLA, VMW, WDC, TXN, WLL
27 Oct 2016- AET, ALXN, AMT, APD, BMY, BOFI, BWA, BX, CAB, CELG, CL, CLF, CME, COP, DB, DOW, DPS, F, GNC, HACA, IP, LAZ, LLL, MJN, MO, MPC, NOK, NOV, PENN, POT, PX, SIRI,SWK, TMO, TPH, TPX, TROW, UPS, VW, WWE, AIG, AMZN, BIDU, CA, CBI, CRUS, CY, DLR, ELLI, EXPE, FLEX, FTNT, GOOGL, HIG, MCK, PFG, STRZA, SYK, SYNA, TWTR
28 Oct 2016- ABBV, AN, CVX, CBOE, HSY, MA, NWL, PSX, SNY, SHPG, TEN, WY, XOM, XRX, SIMO

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October 25, 2015 The Week Ahead

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The S&P 500 continued its hot streak, closing the week up more than 2%. In fact, the SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) is up more than 7% on the month. Not only that, but we’re about 15% of this year’s lows.

The NASDAQ also got a giant boost after getting good earnings out of the likes of Microsoft, Amazon, and Google.

With that said, the VIX is below 15, a signal that there isn’t much fear in the market at the moment.

The United States Oil Fund (USO) was down more than 6% on the week. We continue to see a dislocation from the equity market and the energy market.

This is an extremely busy week in regards to earnings and economic data. Key economic information that will be released includes GDP and an FOMC meeting announcement.

On the earnings front we’ll see releases out of the likes of Apple, Starbucks, Twitter, GoPro, Exxon, and Pfizer to name a few.

Key Economic Data:
26 October 2015- New Home Sales 10:00 AM ET
27 October 2015- Durable Goods 8:30 AM ET
28 October 2015- FOMC Meeting Announcement 2:00 PM ET
29 October 2015- GDP 8:30 AM ET, Jobless Claims 8:30 AM ET
30 October 2015- Personal Income 8:30 AM ET

Key Earnings:
26 October 2015- CHKP, XRX, BRCM, CAKE, HIG, PMCS, PRE
27 October 2015- AKS, AMTD, BEAV, BMY, CMCSA, CNX, COH, DD, F, GLW, GRUB, HUN, KKR, LXK, MAS, MRK, UPS, PFE, WYN, AAPL, AKAM, ESRX, APC, GILD, INFN, MAC, PNRA, SFLY, TER, TWTR, VDSI
28 October 2015- GRMN, HLT, HOT, IMAX, IP, LVLT, MDLZ, NOV, TMUS, VLO, WBA, VW, AMGN, ATML, CRUS, FFIV, GPRO, LOCK, WMB, PYPL, NE, MUR, CAVM
29 October 2015- AET, CLF, COP, ESV, JAH, JCI, KERX, MO, NOK, MTH, TEVA, TWC, VALE, ZBH, BIDU, EA, LNKD, MOBL, SBUX, WU, SCTY
30 October 2015- ABBV, CVS, XOM, MYL, CVX, CL, ETN

August 12, 2015 Market Wrap Up

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August 12, 2015 Market Wrap Up

The S&P 500 finished the day higher; however, there was some heavy volatility that went with it. We saw nearly a 40 point swing from the high to low today. The market saw heavy selling pressure in the morning, a reaction to China’s back to back currency devaluation.

With that said, the VIX jumped above 16.25, but settled the day down, closing at 13.61.

We also saw some wild swings in stocks. For example, Apple moved nearly $6 off the lows, Sunedison $3 off the lows, and Skyworks Solutions rebounded $4 off the lows.

On the options front, we saw bullish call buying in Hasbro Inc (HAS). We also saw bearish option activity in Novartis AG (NVS).

The energy complex was weak again, the United States Oil Fund (USO) closed the day negative.

Here’s what’s else on tap for the rest of the week:

Key Economic Data:
13 August 2015- Jobless Claims 8:30 AM ET, Retail Sales 8:30 AM ET
14 August 2015- PPI 8:30 AM ET, Industrial Production 9:15 AM ET

Key Earnings:
13 August 2015- COTY, FLO, KSS, AMAT, JWN, KING, PRTY

Key Conferences:
13 August 2015- Jefferies Industrial Conference

August 4, 2015 Market Wrap Up

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August 4, 2015 Market Wrap Up

The S&P 500 closed lower for the third straight trading session. However, as mentioned yesterday, we’re not too far off the yearly highs.

A lot of the sell-off can be attributed to the sharp decline in Apple shares, dropping more than 3%, more than six points off the 200-day moving average. On the bright side, Netflix hit 52-week highs, after announcing a date on when it will enter Japan and catching a few price target raises.

Interestingly, the Chinese market rebounded last night. Which was good enough to see commodity prices rebound slightly.

The VIX saw a slight pop, closing the day at 13, a move of 3.5%.

On the options front, we saw bullish call buying in Rite Aid Corp (RAD). We also saw bearish option activity in Cirrus Logic Inc (CRUS).

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August 3, 2015 Market Wrap Up

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August 3, 2015 Market Wrap Up

The S&P 500 closed negatively today, causing the index to drop below its 50 and 100 day moving averages. As mentioned yesterday, traders have been focused on China’s market and economic data.

With that said, we saw weaker manufacturing data from them, which caused commodity prices to tumble.

Crude oil futures are now at 3 month lows after dropping nearly 3%. In addition, gold futures are near 12-month lows.

Despite the negative tone, the VIX was only up around 4%, closing at 12.56. Interestingly, Apple saw a pretty sharp sell off, down over 2% and trading below its 200-day moving average for the first time since 2013.

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