February 28, 2017 The Week Ahead

February 28, 2017 tvcuser Education, Trading GLD, out, PANW, PCLN, prgo, TGT, TLT, USO, wtw, yndx

The markets sold off a little today, as traders positioned themselves ahead of President Trump’s speech, which will be tonight. In addition, we received GDP numbers earlier in the session, which came in at 1.9% for Q4, a number that was below the estimates of 2.1%

Strong earnings performers included: The Priceline Group (PCLN) and Weight Watchers (WTW)

Weak earnings performers included: Palo Alto Networks (PANW), Perrigo Company (PRGO), and Target (TGT)

ETF Performers: United States Oil Fund (USO) -0.17%, iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond (TLT) +0.37%, SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) +0.09%.

On the options front, we saw large call buying activity in Yandex (YNDX), which traded 3.1 times normal option volume. In addition, we saw heavy put buying in Outfront Media (OUT), which traded 6.9 times normal option volume.

Here is what is left for the rest of the week:

Key Economic Data
1 March 2017- Personal Income and Outlays 8:30 AM ET, ISM Manufacturing 10:00 AM ET, EIA Petroleum Status Report 10:30 AM ET
2 March 2017- Jobless Claims 8:30 AM ET

Key Earnings
28 Feb 2017- AZO, CNP, DDD, ENDP, NRG, NLNK, PAH, QVCA, SEAS, SHOO, TGT, VRX, AMBA, BUFF, CRM, DAR, ETSY, EVHC, HALO, LOGM, PANW, TSRO, UHS, VEEV, WTW
1 March 2017- AEO, BBY, CROX, DLTR, DY, IEP, KERX, LOW, MYL, ODP, WIN, AVGO, BOX, KIN, SHAK, XON, VSI
2 March 2017- ANF, BKS, BUD, BURL, JD, JOY, KR, TD, ZEUS, COST, HABT, MRVL, SGMS, WING

Key Events
27 Feb 2017- Mobile World Congress (runs till 3/2); Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference (runs till 3/2)

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August 14, 2016 The Week Ahead

August 14, 2016 tvcuser Education, Trading Conferences, Crude Oil, DKS, Earnings, Economic Data, Gold Futures, HD, LOW, S&P 500, T-Bond Futures, TGT, VIX, WMT

The S&P 500 closed the week nearly unchanged, holding on to record high levels. Earnings have been fairly decent across the board as we head into next week. Despite the market being near all-time highs, it hasn’t really been met with too much excitement as witnessed by the below average trading volume.

The VIX didn’t really change much from the previous Friday’s close, still trading below 12 at 11.55.

Crude oil futures prices gained more than 6% on the week. OPEC is set to meet next month, earlier in the week, the Saudi Oil Minister made comments that they’d be willing to work with other OPEC nations to stabilize prices.

Moving on, gold futures prices were relatively unchanged. In addition, T-bond futures prices gained nearly 1%, and are now about 2.5% off their 52-week highs.

Earnings season is slowing down, but we’ll be hearing from big retailers like Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS), Home Depot (HD), Lowe’s (LOW), Target (TGT), and WalMart (WMT) just to name a few.

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

Key Economic Data:
16 Aug 2016- Consumer Price Index 8:30 AM ET, Housing Starts 8:30 AM ET, Industrial Production 9:15 AM ET
17 Aug 2016- EIA Petroleum Status Report 10:30 AM ET, FOMC Minutes 2:00 PM ET
18 Aug 2016- Jobless Claims 8:30 AM ET, Philly Fed Survey 8:30 AM ET

Key Earnings:
15 Aug 2016- SYY
16 Aug 2016- AAP, COTY, DKS, HD, TJX, CREE, URBN
17 Aug 2016- AEO, LOW, SPLS, TGT, A, CSCO, NTAP
18 Aug 2016- BONT, WMT, AMAT, GPS, ROST, DV
19 Aug 2016- DE, EL, FL, MSG

Key Conferences:
15 Aug 2016- Enercom Energy Conference (runs till 8/18)

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May 11, 2016 Market Wrap Up

May 11, 2016 tvcuser Education, Trading AMZN, Data, Earnings, Economic, Events, KORS, M, MAS, ODP, S&P 500, SALT, SPLS, TGT, TIF, USO, VIX

The S&P 500 sold off today, giving up nearly all of yesterday’s gains. Two sectors that got really beat up where retail and pharma. For example, we saw heavy selling in: Macy’s (M) -15%, Target (TGT) -5.4%, Michael Kors (KORS) -11.9%, and Tiffany & Co. (TIF) -6% to name a few.

On the other end, Amazon.com (AMZN) was up more than 1%, which appears to be the winner from all this. Not to mention, the Office Depot (ODP) -40% and Staples (SPLS) -18% was called off due to regulatory issues…which might have also helped Amazon out as well.

The United States Oil Fund (USO) was up more than 3% today after we got a surprise draw out of the DOE numbers this morning.

The VIX gained more than 7%, closing the day at 14.69.

On the options front, we saw large call buying activity in Scorpio Bulkers (SALT). In addition, we saw heavy put buying in Masco (MAS), which saw 3.9 times usual options volume.

Here’s what’s left for the rest of the week:

Key Economic Data:
12 May 2016- Jobless Claims 8:30 AM ET
13 May 2016- Retail Sales 8:30 AM ET, PPR-FD 8:30 AM ET

Key Earnings:
12 May 2016- AER, KSS, MTW, PRGO, RL, JWN, NVDA, SHAK
13 May 2016- JCP

Key Events:
11 May 2016- Bank America Global Metals, Mining & Steel Conference (runs till 5/12)
11 May 2016- Bank America Healthcare Conference (runs till 5/12)
11 May 2016- Jefferies Technology Conference (runs till 5/12)

November 30, 2015 Market Wrap Up

November 30, 2015 tvcuser Education, Trading ADT, AMZN, ANF, Data, Earnings, Economic, education, Events, GLD, GPS, S&P 500, TGT, trading, URBN, USO, VIX, WMT

The S&P 500 closed the day relatively weak, as traders came back from Thanksgiving break. With that said, we still finished the month higher. On the other hand, energy, the United States Oil Fund (USO) finished the month down more than 12%. In addition, gold, the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) was down nearly 7% on the month.

There was a decent amount of attention on retail names, stats for Black Friday and Cyber Monday were hitting the tape. Unfortunately, Target (TGT) had issues with their website today, the stock price was down 1.3%. Here’s how other retailers fared: Wal-Mart (WMT) -1.6%, Gap (GPS) -2.3%, Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) -3.8%, and Amazon (AMZN) -1%.

The VIX finished the day a point higher, closing the month at 16.13.

On the options front, we saw large call buying activity in ADT (ADT). We also saw massive put buyers in Urban Outfitters (URBN), which was down over 5%.

Here’s what is going for the rest of the week:

Key Economic Data:
01 December 2015- ISM Manufacturing 10:00 AM ET
03 December 2015- Jobless Claims 8:30 AM ET
04 December 2015- Employment Situation 8:30 AM ET, International Trade 8:30 AM ET

Key Earnings:
01 December 2015- BMO, BOBE
02 December 2015- AEO, AVGO, ARO, VMEM
03 December 2015- EXPR, G, SHLD, AMBA, BKS, FIVE, ULTA
04 December 2015- HOV

Key Events:
30 November 2015- Credit Suisse Industrial Conference (runs till 12/3), Credit Suisse Tech, Media, Telecom Conference (runs till 12/3)
01 December 2015- Citigroup Basic Materials Conference (runs till 12/2), Cowen 4th Annual HealthCare Conference, Cowen 5th Annual Ultimate Energy Conference (runs till 12/2), Goldman Sachs Metals & Mining Conference (runs till 12/2), Piper Jaffray HealthCare Conference (runs till 12/2)
03 December 2015- Wells Fargo Boston Gaming Forum
04 December 2015- American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting

November 15, 2015 The Week Ahead

November 15, 2015 tvcuser Education, Trading ANF, Data, Earnings, Economic, education, Events, FOMC, JWN, M, SPY, TGT, USO, VIX

The SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) has been on a 3-day sell off, closing the week 3.5% lower. It’s hard to point to exactly what caused the sell of, but per usual, there are a number of theories ranging from profit taking to weak retail sales numbers. What looked like a sure December rate hike, now appears less uncertain.

As mentioned retailers took a hit. Nordstrom (JWN) -19%, Macy’s (M) -17%, Target (TGT) -8%, Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) -12% … just to name a few. Could this be the catalyst to put a rate hike on hold? We shall see. One thing though, we’ll be getting the FOMC Minutes transcript on 11/18, which should shed some light on the matter.

The VIX shot off like a rocket, and is now trading above 20.