May 7, 2017 The Week Ahead

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The stock market shows no signs of slowing down. It’s been resilient to say the very least. That said, the next obstacle comes this Sunday, with the French presidential election being the catalyst. The markets are hoping that Emmanuel Macron wins, who represents the establishment. On the other hand, if Marine Le Pen pulls off the upset, we could see an increase in market volatility on Monday. That said, the markets aren’t betting on it, on Friday, the VIX closed at 10.57.

Here are how some of the most popular ETF Indices performed: SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) +0.68%, iShares Russell 2000 (IWM) -0.05%, SPDR Dow Jones Industrials Average ETF (DIA) +0.33%, and PowerShares QQQ ETF (QQQ) +1.44%

Earnings continue to flow, some of the interesting names reporting include: Disney, Snap Inc., Yelp, and Electronic Arts.

Here are how some futures/commodity related ETF’s performed: United States Oil Fund (USO) -5.66%, iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond (TLT) -0.87%, SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) -3.11%.

Below you’ll find what is else is on the schedule:

Key Economic Data:
10 May 2017- EIA Petroleum Status Report 10:30 AM ET
11 May 2017- Jobless Claims 8:30 AM ET, PPI 8:30 AM ET
12 May 2017- Consumer Price Index 8:30 AM ET; Retail Sales 8:30 AM ET

Key Earnings:
08 May 2017- JD, LBTYA, NWL, ON, ONDK, SYY, TSN, AMC, EOG, FN, HTZ, MAR, P, TSO
09 May 2017- AGN, CBOE, DF, DISCA, DUK, RESI, SEAS, TDG, VRX, BUFF, DIS, EA, FOSL, JAZZ, MCHP, NEWR, NVDA, PCLN, TRIP, TRUE, TWNK, YELP, ZAYO
10 May 2017- COTY, CROX, IPXL, MYL, SODA, TIME, VSI, WIX, FOXA, HOLX, LPSN, SNAP, WFM, SYMC
11 May 2017- KSS, OA, M, SNK, TPB, VSTO, JWN, CA, JAG
12 May 2017- GOLF, JCP

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August 9, 2016 Market Wrap Up

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The S&P 500 traded slightly higher today on below average volume, a theme over the last couple of weeks. The SPDR S&P 500 traded about 50 million shares, whereas on average it’s been trading around 76 million shares per day.

Stocks in play today include: Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX) +26%, Rackspace (RAX) + 6.7%, and Wayfair (W) -19.7%.

The VIX closed higher, still trading below 12 at 11.66.

Crude oil futures closed mildly lower, closing under $43 per barrel. Gold and Treasury bonds both caught a bid today, both gaining about .5%.

On the options front, we saw large call buying activity in Splunk (SPLK) at 2.5 times normal option volume. In addition, we saw heavy put buying in Phillips 66 at 2.2 times normal options volume.

This evening we got earnings out of Disney (DIS) -.5%, Yelp (YELP) +13.8%, Sunpower (SPWR) -22.7%, and Fossil (FOSL) +3.7%.

Here’s what’s on tap for tomorrow and the rest of the week:

Key Economic Data:
10 Aug 2016- EIA Petroleum Status Report 10:30 AM ET
11 Aug 2016- Jobless Claims 8:30 AM ET
12 Aug 2016- Retail Sales 8:30 AM ET, PPI 8:30 AM ET

Key Earnings:
10 Aug 2016- JD, KORS, PRGO, RL, WEN, BUFF, SHAK
11 Aug 2016- BABA, EAT, FLO, CSAL, KSS, M, JWN, NVDA, RT
12 Aug 2016- JCP

Key Conferences:
Credit Suisse Transports Conference (runs till 8/10); Jefferies Industrials Conference (runs till 8/11); JPMorgan Auto Conference (runs till 8/10); Oppenheimer Tech, Internet, and Communications Conference (runs till 8/10); UBS Financial Services Conference (runs till 8/10)

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August 7, 2016 The Week Ahead

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The S&P 500 closed the week higher, holding on to record high levels. Earnings have been rolling out pretty smoothly and on Friday we received a really strong employment number. Sure, a lot of these gains in the market have been on extremely low volume, however; that hasn’t been raised as a concern yet. The economic schedule is light but there are more earnings to look forward too.

The VIX continued to decline during the week, closing on Friday below 12, at 11.39.

Crude oil futures prices gained almost 1% on the week, however; we’re nearly 12% off our one month highs.

Moving on, gold futures prices dropped more than 1% on the week, turning a weekly gain into a loss after Friday’s employment numbers. In addition, T-bond futures prices dropped more than 1.5%, as they fell back from yearly high levels.

As mentioned earlier, earnings season continues to roll. We’ll be hearing from Michael Kors (KORS), Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX), Alibaba (BABA), Yelp (YELP), and Disney (DIS) just to name a few.

Here is what is on tap for this upcoming week:

Key Economic Data:
10 Aug 2016- EIA Petroleum Status Report 10:30 AM ET
11 Aug 2016- Jobless Claims 8:30 AM ET
12 Aug 2016- Retail Sales 8:30 AM ET, PPI 8:30 AM ET

Key Earnings:
8 Aug 2016- AGN, DF, HZNP, TSN, ENDP, MCHP, NUAN, ONDK, NWSA, RAX, TWLO, WBMD
9 Aug 2016- CHTR, COH, INCY, LAMR, LNG, MYL, SNI, VRX, W, WWAV, ZBRA, CYBR, DIS, FOSL, JAZZ, MDVN, SCTY, SPWR, YELP
10 Aug 2016- JD, KORS, PRGO, RL, WEN, BUFF, SHAK
11 Aug 2016- BABA, EAT, FLO, CSAL, KSS, M, JWN, NVDA, RT
12 Aug 2016- JCP

Key Conferences:
8 Aug 2016- Credit Suisse Homebuilding & Building Products Conference (runs till 8/9)
9 Aug 2016- Credit Suisse Transports Conference (runs till 8/10); Jefferies Industrials Conference (runs till 8/11); JPMorgan Auto Conference (runs till 8/10); Oppenheimer Tech, Internet, and Communications Conference (runs till 8/10); UBS Financial Services Conference (runs till 8/10)

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September 1, 2015 Market Wrap Up

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September 1, 2015 Market Wrap Up

The S&P 500 got absolutely smoked today, down nearly 3 percent. The market was weak overnight because of poor data out of China, PMI was worse than expected. Interestingly, the SPY straddle going into Monday was implying a 2.6% move. With that said, not too many traders were expecting this kind of volatility heading into Labor Day.

The VIX closed at 31.40, up more than 10%. Not only that, but the VIX remains in backwardation. This is when near term futures are more expensive than farther dated futures.

VIX Futures Term Structure

The energy sector saw a big sell-off after seeing recent gains. The United States Oil Fund (USO) is down nearly 9%.

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