Before the Open (Aug 5)

Posted on by Jason Leavitt

Good morning. Happy Friday. Happy Employment Numbers Day.
The Asian/Pacific markets got crushed. Every market dropped, most lost more than 3%. Europe is down across-the-board. Losses aren’t as bad as Asia, but they’re still pretty stiff. Futures here in the States point towards a flat open, but I’m writing this prior to the employment numbers.

When I stated my SPX target was 1200, I figured it would take a couple weeks to get there. No way did I think we’d be there in one week. Here’s the chart…

I looked at many charts last night. They are more destroyed than I can ever remember – even during the financial crisis. So many stocks have not just broken down, but have free-falled. Some stocks (with no news) have literally lost two years worth of gains in two weeks. Obviously the market is not healthy. It’s due for a bounce, but a bounce will get sold into. Absent the Fed stepping in, the market has no chance of just bottoming and moving up. Sure it’ll bounce, but there are too many bag holders wishing they would have sold at the beginning of last week.
Here are the employment numbers:
unemployment rate: 9.1% (from 9.2%)
nonfarm payrolls: up 117K (vs. 84K estimated)
private payrolls: 154K
average workweek: will post when I see the number
hourly earnings: up 10 cents, or 0.4%
The market’s reaction was straight up. Let the good times roll. I think 120K jobs is needed just to keep up with population growth…and of course lots more to bring the unemployment rate down. So things aren’t really better, they’re less bad, and that’s a reason to be optimistic? S&P futures went from being up a point to up 20 and now are up about 11. I expect today to be a busy day. I’ll have more to say 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 (Aug 5)”

  2. If you are a day trader like me, one thing I like to do is
    keep a DIA call option in buy status with no real intenton
    of buying it at the moment. But what it does folks, it
    monitors the amount of bids vs. the asks, and if anything
    at all it gives you a short term signal as to who is
    buying and who is selling at the moment. Just keep on
    hitting the refresh button every so often and you’ll
    see what it is I am talking about. HW

      1. RichE: You sound like an honorable businessman. I wish I could
        take out a loan from you at 1% interest. 2) Daily charts are
        still pushing down hard, so in my opinion we need a few more
        days of zig zag (consolidation) until we make our next move.
        3) Notice how Jason never comments on his own blog during
        the day unless he is forced to do so by some person calling
        out his name in vein and must respond to the venemous
        outcry of lies, lies and more lies! HW

        1. Why should Jason defend the Sunrise? Jason is just stating his observations, the sun came up, the sun went down. Why should he need to defend that? Clarify, if needed, but not defend.

  6. if the markets cant rally into the close on good news then its not ment to just yet
    the instos–hedgies have been seting this up for over 2 months
    i have been watching them world wide take price to a opt strike and hold it there till filled
    they are after the mutuals/long only pension funds and Neals money
    and price has to go lower before mutuals liquidate
    im going to have a midday nap now

    1. It’s Friday, it’s August I don’t see a rally until the politicians come back from their break. Oh! I forgot, the gov’ment doesn’t affect price. Duh!

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