Retail sales up three months in a row, following three straight declines PCE, which includes services, probably better gauge of consumer behavior How consumer spending fares depends on consumers’ willingness to lever up Once every month, U.S. markets await with … Continued
From the mid-May high of $49.75 to the low this Monday of $47.46, XLP, the SPDR Consumer Staples ETF, quickly lost 4.6 percent. In three weeks! Monday produced a doji, right around its 200-day moving average. By that time, daily … Continued
From a bear call spread to now short IWM, the iShares Russell 2000 ETF, a decision time is at hand. Hypothetically on May 26th, a June 5th 125/126.50 bear call spread was opened for a credit of $0.56 (short 125 … Continued
Back on June 1st, I talked about a naked call strategy on XLY, the Consumer Discretionary SPDR ETF. To refresh, the ETF closed at 76.52 then. Weekly June 5th 76.50 calls were sold for $0.47. Last Friday, XLY closed at … Continued
There are some interesting dynamics taking place in the U.S. jobs market. The JOLTS report for April was released this morning. Turns out the March drop in non-farm job openings was an aberration. March openings were still down from 5.14 … Continued
There is a trade brewing on GLD, the SPDR Gold Trust ETF. First some background. Ever since gold peaked in September 2011, the metal has lost its luster. Back then, GLD had $77.7 billion in assets, becoming the ETF with … Continued
Bears point to action in transports to drive point home Bulls cite how financials are acting to prove why bears are wrong VIX remains pinned by 15, bullish (financials); VIX past 15, bearish (transports) Much ink has been spilled over … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of June 2, 2015. Change is week-over-week. 10-year note: Yields have decisively broken out of a five-month downtrend channel. The only question is what triggered this. To quote the Beige Book: “The … Continued
For U.S. corporations, there was a trio of bad news in yesterday’s revised productivity numbers for the first quarter, and this potentially has earnings repercussions. U.S. non-farm business output per hour year-over-year was revised lower from growth of 0.6 percent … Continued
The saga continues. VIX (13.66) continues to get sold off around 15. Since April, intra-day the so-called fear index has traded above 15 nine times, and only once has it been able to close out above (Chart 1). That was … Continued