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The stock market chopped its way to a flat finish after struggling to find direction during the first half of the session. Yet despite a sense of uncertainty among stocks, neither Treasuries nor precious metals found favor. After the close, ACE, AFL, BRCM, NSC, PNRA are the only notable names that reported after the close.
Five of the ten sectors were in positive territory, led by utilities (+1.6%), consumer staples (+0.4%) and financials (+0.1%), health care (unchanged), while the energy (-0.4%), materials (-0.6%) and industrials (-0.8%) sectors were in the red.
Tomorrow morning, two economic reports are scheduled to be released before the open including: Initial claims (consensus 464K) and 2) Continuing claims (consensus 4550K).
Tomorrow before the open, of the many companies scheduled to report, some of the bigger names include: MT, BA, CP, CCE, CMCSA, COP, CEG, GLW, GD, HES, LAZ, MSO, NEM, S, WLP, and WYN
I mentioned after the close on the chatroom that OII was reporting tonight, I was mistaken, it is tomorrow after the close. I issued a short today at $49.
Today can be defined as a consolidation day for the bulls and the action was frustrating and choppy. It was actually healthy action. Charts still look bullish and barring any bad news, we should drift higher. We do have jobs on Thursday and GDP on Friday so we will have our stocks in a tight leash.
I still think we can drift towards 1150-1160 on this move, so there will be some money to be made. Let’s not get complacent and continue to trade what is in front of us and not what we think. The market will give us our opinion when it wants it.
We got stopped on OXY today after their earnings disappointed. I still like it and will reenter, maybe tomorrow. Wall Street still shoots and asks questions later. It is my favorite oil.
In the spirit of keeping it fresh, I’m throwing out some names that I want to short on a further rally and the approximate levels for entry, they are country ETF’s, mainly Europe, so put them on your watch list.
EWP 42-43, GUR 45-46 EWK 13, EWI 17, EWZ 70-71
I have added a SHORT ETF tonight and two longs. I want to be short gold via DZZ, the double short ETF. The trade is still crowded and if the risk trade is back on for a while, the yellow rock will be taken to the woodshed. Also, I’m watching XLF, it is hitting resistance hard, it better break out soon or this rally may be short lived, JPM, WFC and BAC all look like they want higher prices so maybe this week. GS looks pretty good too.
