The 2Q16 earnings season is winding down. As of August 3rd, 430 of S&P 500 companies have reported results, with 297 beating (69.1 percent) on operating earnings, 40 meeting and 93 missing. (By now, 453 have reported, so the above … Continued
Back in 2013, by August 20th, non-commercials had built 116,317 contracts in net shorts in VIX futures. In the next 10 weeks (by October 29th), net shorts dropped to 39,673 (Chart 1). Intra-day, spot VIX jumped from 11.83 on August … Continued
U.S. equities continue to enjoy short-interest tailwind, but are likely to face difficulty doing so in the weeks to come. In the latest period, on an index level, short interest continued to drop. The July 15-29 two-week period saw it … Continued
U.S. tech stocks have come to life. The Nasdaq composite (5213.14) is within spitting distance of its all-time high 5231.94 of July last year. On a weekly closing basis, last week was a new record. The Nasdaq 100 index (4784.74) … Continued
Breakouts galore in U.S. equity indices! The S&P 500 large cap index broke out to a new all-time high on July 11th, and has since made several more highs. The breakout came after having gone sideways since essentially February 2015 … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of August 2, 2016. Change is week-over-week. 10-year note: Mixed messages from two major central banks! On Friday last week, Haruhiko Kuroda, BoJ governor, decided not to live up to markets’ lofty … Continued
A crucial test probably lies ahead for the S&P 500 large cap index (Chart 1). The index, trapped in a sideways pattern since essentially February last year, broke out nearly a month ago – potentially a huge development, with the … Continued
U.S. stocks have done phenomenally well since the February lows. In less than six months through the intra-day high yesterday, the S&P 500 large cap index has rallied north of 20 percent, the Nasdaq 100 index 22.5 percent, and the … Continued
July turned out to be an important month for the S&P 500 large cap index. More than a year after it peaked in May last year, the index reached a new high, rising 3.6 percent for the month. The July … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of July 26, 2016. Change is week-over-week. 10-year note: The Fed stopped short of signaling a rate hike near term. That said, the statement also said “near-term risks to the economic outlook … Continued