Good morning. Happy Friday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly down, but only Hong Kong lost more than 1%. Europe is currently posting solid, across-the-board gains. Futures here in the States point towards a big gap up for the cash market.
The dollar is down. Gold and silver are down slightly. Oil very quickly has retreated from the 100 area down to the low 90’s.
One reason for the good feelings this morning is French President Nicolas Sarkozy hinted at progress regarding a deal to resolve the Greek debt situation. Greece is a teeny tiny country, but it’s failure to pay its debt and its possible exit from the European Union threatens both the EU and the euro, and this is not viewed as a positive for Europe or the US.
The S&P is down about 3 for the week. Today’s gap up will put the index solidly in positive territory, and as long as the gains can be held, a seventh consecutive down week will be avoided.
For all the bad news the market has had to absorb, today’s open will be at the close of 7 days ago. That’s not bad. The market is trying to find a bottom. I’ve made a handful of comments the last few days about 1) not getting too bearish, 2) taking partial profits on shorts and 3) having a game plan in place should the market move up. Whether today’s gap up holds or not is not something I know, but since trading is a game of odds, taking a few bucks off the table was a no brainer.
There will be lots of event risk going into this weekend. If a Greek bailout package does emerge, the market could definitely follow through on today’s gap up gains. But if not, everything could be given back very quickly. It’s probably not a bad idea to lay low and wait til this passes before initiating new positions. More after the open.
headlines at Yahoo Finance
today’s upgrades/downgrades
yesterday’s sector performance
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers
0 thoughts on “Before the Open (Jun 17)”
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Alan Greenspan was on CNBC yesterday, and he said that
the Greek default was inevitable. So now that everybody
knows about this, the EU will probably try to put a little
window dressing on the event and enable Greece to go into
default with a minimal amount of political risk to the
rest of the Eunion. A good comparison would be the state
of California handling it’s own debt within the confines
of the United States. HW
Bearish! Bearish! Bearish! What is the concensus.
Do we hold the rally, or do we start to roll over
around mid-day? I’ll keep an eye on the Russell 2000
to see if it holds up as we get into the mid-day
lunch hour today. HW
gruesome and awesome -my deadcats have voted for a 2 day countertrend bounce
teddy and grizelly bear –my longer term alter egos have voted for a down key reversal
when trading all 4 are locked out of my trading room as i only trade what is –reality on the 1-5 min charts,with no room for bias
already well into profit from my preopen shorts,but it will be volitile
so have to go and concentrate on reality
I have to concentrate on my duality. I have ‘both’
California citizenship as well as Greek citizenship.
Why? Because my US tax dollars support both at the moment.
usa should buy a greek island and turn it into club med for pensioners
i beleive u dont have to pay tax in grece and can drink as much ozo as u want
I saw a comment similar to that on another website.
How the US should just buy Greece and be done with it.
Almost like Anthony Weiner resigning from congress.
Sell the God damn thing and take the loss! HW