July 20, 2017 Market Wrap Up

All eyes were on the ECB this morning, as the group decide to leave key interest rates unchanged. Overall, the the markets closed flattish today.

Appliance retailers took a hit today after Sears and Amazon agreed to a partnership. Shares of the Home Depot, Lowes Companies, and Whirlpool closed sharply lower.

Earnings highlights included: eBay -4.9%, Microsoft +1.34%, and Visa +1.04%

The VIX closed below ten, an indication that there isn’t much fear in the markets at the moment.

Index ETF movers: SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) +0.01%, iShares Russell 2000 (IWM) +0.01%, SPDR Dow Jones Industrials Average ETF (DIA) -0.07%, and PowerShares QQQ ETF (QQQ) +0.13%

Commodity and futures related ETF movers: United States Oil Fund (USO) -0.83%, iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond (TLT) +0.29%, SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) +0.15%.

On the options front, we saw large call buying activity in Obsidian Energy (OBE), which traded 4.3 times normal option volume. In addition, we saw heavy put buying in Franklin Resources (BEN), which traded 2.3 times normal option volume.

Key Earnings:
20 July 2017- GPC, KEY, PM, SAP, UL, UNP, COF, EBAY, ISRG, MSFT, SWKS, V
21 July 2017- C, FRC, JPM, PNC, WFC

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January 29, 2017 The Week Ahead

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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