March 5, 2017 The Week Ahead

Week after week, traders are all asking the same question… when is this market going to pullback? Well, we didn’t see a whole lot of upside during the week. However, the market SPDR S&P 500 is up 5.39% over the last 30 days. With earnings mostly behind us, the attention will focus on an FOMC meeting which is 11 days from now, and politics out of Washington.

Where is the volatility?

The VIX continues to hangout below 11. On Friday, the VIX closed at 10.96. Based on some of the volatility estimators that we look at, the SPDR S&P 500 has a 20-day volatility of 7% compared to its median of 11% over the last 3 years.

Moving on to gold and oil.

Crude oil futures closed the week closing, lower at -1.16%. In precious metals, gold futures prices finished the week lower, dropping -1.79%
Now, here is how some of the other closely followed ETFs did on the week: United States Oil Fund (USO) -1.49%, iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond (TLT) -2.01%, SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) -1.85%.

One of the main highlights over the last week was the IPO of SNAP Inc., the parent company of Snapchat. A successful IPO to say the least, the company has a market cap of $31.35B, after gaining 59% it’s first week.

Here is a list of some events that traders will be following:

Key Economic Data
7 March 2017- International Trade 8:30 AM ET,
8 March 2017- EIA Petroleum Status Report 10:30 AM ET
9 March 2017- ECB Central Bank (ECB) policy decision at 7:45 AM ET, Jobless Claims 8:30 AM ET
10 March 2017- Employment Situation 8:30 AM ET

Key Earnings
6 March 2017- ASNA, MEET, THO
7 March 2017- DKS, MIK, NAV, HRB, NMBL, URBN, WIFI, ZAGG
8 March 2017- CIEN, EXPR, BOBE, HOV, OA, SMRT, VAL, CWH, RATE, VVUS, UNFI, WATT
9 March 2017- FCEL, PRTY, SIG, SSYS, ZUMZ, FNSR, FRPT, LOCO, PAY, ULTA

Key Events
6 March 2017- Citigroup 22nd Annual Global Property CEO Conference (runs till ⅜); Cowen 37th Annual Healthcare Conference (runs till ⅜); Deutsche Bank 25th Annual, Media, Internet and Telecom Conference runs till (⅜); Raymond James 38th Annual Institutional Investors Conference (runs till ⅜)

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February 12, 2017 The Week Ahead

The markets keep rolling higher… seems like nearly every other day an all-time high is being made. For the S&P 500, that makes 3 straight weeks where it’s gained. Despite the majority of the media hating on the new President, the markets are painting a totally different picture.

President Trump has announced that he has plans to make some major changes to the tax code. Some market participants believe that this will benefit corporations greatly. This might explain some of the recent optimism in the markets.

Earnings continue to pour in. Thus far, they haven’t been especially great nor especially bad. One only needs to look at the VIX to get that picture. The VIX closed the week below 11, at $10.85.

Moving on to gold and oil.

Crude oil futures closed the week slightly higher, gaining the last three days and ending up .10%. In precious metals, gold futures prices finished the week higher, gaining more than 1.1%

Now, here is how some of the other closely followed ETFs did on the week: United States Oil Fund (USO) -0.35%, iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond (TLT) +1.48%, SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) +1.27%.

Some key earnings include: Teva Pharmaceuticals, T-Mobile, McDonald’s, and PepsiCo, Inc.

Here is a list of some events that traders will be following:

Key Economic Data:
14 Feb 2017- PPI 8:30 AM ET
15 Feb 2017- Consumer Price Index 8:30 AM ET, Retail Sales 8:30 AM ET, Industrial Production 9:15 AM ET, EIA Petroleum Status Report 10:30 AM ET
16 Feb 2017- Housing Starts 8:30 AM, Jobless Claims 8:30 AM ET, Philly Fed Survey 8:30 AM ET

Key Earnings:
13 Feb 2017- FDC, HCP, ON, TEVA, VSM, AMKR, BRKR, CRX, CSOD, FLO, GPOR, OMF, VNO
14 Feb 2017- AMAG, CS, DBD, DISCA, DPS, GNRC, FLIR, INCY, SALE, TAP, TMUS, TRU, VG, A, AIG, BYD, CALX, CSR, DVN, ENLK, ESRX, FANG, FOSL, HIVE, HUBS, LC, NBIX, VDSI
15 Feb 2017- ANGI, GRPN, HLT, LAD, OZM, PEP, SHOP, SODA, SONS, WIX, WYN, AMAT, CAR, CBS, CC, CF, CSCO, CVA, GDDY, GRPN, HAWK, KHC, MAR, MRO, NLY, NTAP, NTES, PKD, SPWR, TIVO, TRIP, WMB, WPZ
16 Feb 2017- AVP, CAB, CHTR, ALXN, DF, DUK, EPAM, GNC, H, MGM, NCI, RS, TIME, TPX, WEN, ZTS, WM, ANET, BCOV, CUBE, DVA, ED, FLS, KEYS, TRUE, WWAV
17 Feb 2017- AAN, CPB, CTB, DE, FNMA, MCD, VFC, SJM, LPNT, FLR

Key Events:

14 Feb 2017- Goldman Sachs Technology & Internet Conference (runs till 2/16)
15 Feb 2017- Leerink Global Healthcare Conference (runs till 2/16)

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