May 24, 2016 Market Wrap Up

May 24, 2016 tvcuser Education, Trading Crude Oil, Data, Earnings, Economic, Events, S&P 500, USO, VIX, XLNX

The S&P 500 was in full panic buying mode today, as the index closed 1.37% higher. The catalyst? A better question, do we really need one anymore? All jokes aside, there was no real news that pushed the Dow, S&P 500, Russell 2000, and the Nasdaq. With that said, we’re not too far off the all-time highs.

It was no surprise to see the VIX sell off as hard as it did. Overall, the VIX closed at 14.42, closing the day 8.9% lower.

The United States Oil Fund (USO) was up more than 1.37% today. In addition, crude oil futures closed at 6 month highs. We’re now more than 80% higher off the 6-month lows.

On the options front, we saw large call buying activity in Xilinx (XLNX), which was 5.2 times normal volume.

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

Key Economic Data:
25 May 2016- International Trade in Goods 8:30 AM ET, EIA Petroleum Status 10:30 AM ET
26 May 2016- Jobless Claims 8:30 AM ET, Durable Goods Orders 8:30 AM ET
27 May 2016- GDP 8:30 AM ET

Key Earnings:
25 May 2016- BMO, TIF, COST, HPQ, LGF, NTAP
26 May 2016- ANF, DG, FRED, GME, PANW, SPLK, ULTA, VEEV, VNET

Key Events:
JP Morgan Technology Media & Telecom Conference (runs till 5/25); SunTrust Financial Services Conference (runs till 5/25); UBS Global Healthcare Conference (runs till 5/25)
Morgan Stanley China Conference (runs till 5/26); UBS Global Oil & Gas Conference (runs till 5/26); Wolfe Global Transportation (runs till 5/25)

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