April 28, 2016 Market Wrap Up

April 28, 2016 tvcuser Education, Trading AAPL, AMZN, Crude Oil, Data, Earnings, Economic, LNKD, P, S&P 500, SWKS, SYNA, TROX, VIX

It was a pretty busy day in the markets, so let’s highlight some of the key events that went down. First, the futures took a hit pre-market after the Bank of Japan decided not to add further stimulus. It was widely accepted that they would continue to add stimulus and that was not the case at all.

With that said, the S&P 500 managed to rally into the green. That’s with a weaker than expected GDP number. However, we started to see some selling pressure after Billionaire Investor, Carl Icahn gave some cautious views on the market, not to mention, he sold all of his Apple (AAPL) stake, which took the stock and the overall market down.

The S&P 500 closed down nearly 1%, gold futures were up nearly 2%, and silver futures were more than 2%.

The VIX caught a bid, closing the day at 15.22, an increase of more than 10%.

Crude Oil shrugged off the weakness in the equity markets as it continues to chase the $50 per barrel level. The futures are currently trading above $46 per barrel.

On the options front, we saw large call buying activity in Tronox (TROX). In addition, we saw heavy put buying in Synaptics Incorporated (SYNA), which saw 3.2 times usual options volume.

This evening we got earnings out of Amazon (AMZN) +11.7%, Linkedin (LNKD) +11%, Pandora (P) +8%, and Skyworks Solutions (SWKS) -4.1% to name a few.

Here’s what’s left for the last trading day of the month:

Key Economic Data:
29 April 2016- Personal Income and Outlays 8:30 AM ET

Key Earnings:
29 April 2016- CBOE, PSX, SHPG, XOM, TYC

March 24, 2016 Market Wrap Up

March 24, 2016 tvcuser Education, Trading Crude Oil, Data, Economic, ODP, P, PTLA, SIX, VIX, XLNX

The market bounced back from earlier lows to close nearly flat today. Of course, it was done relatively low volume, but still a nice recovery to close out the week.

The VIX traded higher for a good portion of the day, however; as the market rallied, the VIX fizzled, closing the day lower at 14.72.

Crude oil has recently come under pressure after a massive spike in prices over the last month. Prices dropped more than 4% yesterday and were weak to start the US trading session, however; they also bounced back to close nearly flat. With that said, they’re still below $40.

On the options front, we saw large call buying activity in Six Flags (SIX). In addition, we saw heavy put buying in Xilinx (XLNX), which was 4.9 times usual options volume.

Stocks in play included: Pandora (P) +15.6%, Office Depot (ODP) +9.3%, and Portola Pharmaceuticals (PTLA) -29%

The markets will be closed for Good Friday tomorrow.

Key Economic Data:
25 March 2016- GDP 8:30 AM ET

December 17, 2015 Market Wrap Up

December 17, 2015 tvcuser Education, Trading ATVI, Data, Earnings, education, ETE, FOMC, KBIO, P, RWLK, S&P 500, SFL, SPY, TK, TOO, trading, VIX

The S&P 500 closed lower, a day after the FOMC announced that they would be raising key interest rates. Initially, futures were trading higher pre-market. However, as the day progressed things got uglier. In fact, we saw some heavy selling pressure in the after-hours session. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF closed the day down more than 1.5%.

Surprisingly, the VIX didn’t really blast off, only gaining about 6% and closing below 19.

Oil names took a hit, not a surprise, as crude oil futures closed below $35 per barrel. Some oil and gas names also took a hit. For example, Teekay Offshore partners (TOO) was down over 50% after they announced that they would be cutting their dividend.

Stocks in play today included: Kalobios Pharmaceuticals (KBIO) -53%, Teekay (TK) -57%, Pandora (P) +13%, and ReWalk Robotics (RWLK) +80%.

On the options front, we saw large call buying activity in the Energy Transfer Equity (ETE) and Activision Blizzard (ATVI). We also saw massive put buyers in Ship Finance International (SFL).

Here’s what is going on for tomorrow:

Key Earnings:
18 December 2015- BBRY, DRI, KMX, LEN