Good morning. Happy Friday.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly down. China and Taiwan posted the biggest losses. There were no big winners. Europe is currently mixed. Austria, Czech Republic and Greece are posting the biggest losses; there are no big winners. Futures here in the States point towards a flat open for the cash market.
The dollar is up. Oil and copper are down. Gold is down, silver up.
If the market closes flat today, this will be the biggest up week since July. Not bad considering how bearish some traders had gotten, and if you listened to the talking heads, you would have bought into September being the weakest month of the year.
Sentiment has shifted. Many indicators have turned and are now supporting the bull’s case. And the indexes have moved up enough to neutralize the intermediate term and switch the odds to be in their favor.
Next week is options expiration – probably insignificant. The big story is the FOMC. Will they taper? How much? A lot? A little? It’s the most important FOMC announcement in years. It will move the market. Unless something happens with Syria, it will be the only thing Wall St. talks about between now and then.
Almost everything I’m looking at gives me a green light going forward….except one thing. There aren’t many good set ups to be had. I looked at 1000 charts yesterday…almost none look playable. There are many near 52-week or all-time highs…many others that just don’t look playable. Normally I have a lack of set ups when the market is directionless; it’s odd to have a lack of set ups when trend is up.
Of course the intermediate term trend isn’t really up. The S&P is almost unchanged since the middle of May. Given the FOMC, perhaps it’s better to not force anything right now anyways.
It’s been a good week…lots of good set ups triggered. Now it’s time to shift to a defensive posture. Don’t force trades.
Stock headlines from barchart.com…
Under Armour (UA -0.71%) was downgraded to “Neutral” from “Outperform” at Credit Suisse.
According to The Hill, House Speaker John Boehner said Republican leaders have been unable to agree to a plan to fund the government after September 30.
Safeway (SWY -0.04%) rose nearly 2% in pre-market trading after Credit Suisse upgraded the stock to “Outperform” from “Underperform.”
The Guardian reported that Monsanto (MON +0.04%) is under investigation after samples of alfalfa tested positive for genetically-modified traits in Washington state.
Aetna (AET -0.09%) was upgraded to “Buy” from “Neutral” at BofA/Merrill.
Intel (INTC -0.79%) climbed 1.4% in pre-market trading after Jeffries raised its recommendation on the stock to “Buy” from “Hold.”
Northrop Grumman (NOC +0.66%) was awarded a $169.85 million government contract modification for contract logistics support for the RQ-4 Global Hawk.
Honeywell (HON -0.30%) was awarded a $550.36 million government contract modification to provide system and maintenance engineering, network support integration, on-site and off-site depot level maintenance, and software maintenance of the Air Force Satellite Control Network.
United Natural Foods (UNFI +1.97%) reported Q4 EPS of 65 cents, stronger than consensus of 60 cents.
Ulta Salon (ULTA -1.96%) jumped over 13% in after-hours trading after it reported Q2 EPS of 70 cents, better than consensus of 67 cents.
Earnings and Economic Numbers from seekingalpha.com…
Today’s economic calendar:
8:30 Producer Price Index
8:30 Retail Sales
9:55 Reuters/UofM Consumer Sentiment
10:00 Business Inventories
Notable earnings before today’s open: none
Notable earnings after today’s close: none
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings
this week’s Economic Numbers
0 thoughts on “Before the Open (Sep 13)”
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PPI disappoints and inflation up a little. The housing market seems to be in trouble, Reits down,Lumber down and home builders have fallen 20% recently. This suggests the stimulus program was not much help to anyone but mortgage vendors and Case-Shiller numbers. Mimi bubble? David Kotock says he sees high single digit growth for the next decade. Just a hunch, no rationale offered, Jason will like his remarks. Gold is going to 1280-1300 before the next attempt. Today? Who knows it is OPEX. Oh yes, Syria is not fixed, just papered over – other times, other places.
Avoid unhappiness by not watching too much financial news
black fri the 13th or just weekly opts ex
darn,boo hoo,yuk ect ,i missed the full bull this week,whilst vacating in smoogy beijing
or having fun whilst waiting for the bulls to fattern up for sale
the instos are in full control of any bull or bear moves and quad witchinging fri 20th will matter and probably more than the fed announcement that they also control
the fed works for the instos not the govt or tax payer therefor jamie of diamonds for fed
there is no trend except intraday–all else is illusion and if we move to new highs –jaws of death broadining pattern ,then its just the instos getting set for a very long crash
which they profit from and will save their bacon
JASON DID A VERY GOOD BLOG ON EMOTION and the above shows that their is positive and negative emotion
positive emotion is essential for a trader–stay at cause not effect of ones trades
as a daytrading snipper ,i often close winning trades early ,just for the fun of it and staying a cause –sometimes i have to kid to myself to get me to pay attention to 24 hour futures as i dont need to trade
TRADING IS 90% MINDSET–i could rant on forever but i dont want to take away your enjoyment of experiance ,which is the best teacher–fall into a few traps as we all have learn from them
find the best mind set for ur style and trading plan
OH—AND I WANT SOME FAT BULLS TO SELL ,when i return to work in a few weeks
but a daytrader can trade anything but a flat market
on china
this is my 2nd visit to china this lifetime and first to north and bejing area
the basic chinesse i find refreshingly up tone joyouse people with a great ability to duplicate–what ever asked of them they duplicate simplistly and litteraly and have a great sence of wanting to help–all admirable qualities
some of the beijing buildings are art deco 1950’s new york other boxes are ny 1980s and more modern and extensive over/under passes and expressways every where
other older heritage buildings and country buildings are traditional ,very mystical buildings
of many centuary old culture of which i was once part of 1000’s of years ago