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Posts Tagged ‘CY’

Working Class Thursday – Show Us the Jobs!

UnemploymentJobs, jobs, jobs!

That’s what it’s all about, or not about today.  Last week we got much better than expected numbers as Job losses fell from 640,000 to 565,000 but how much of that was due to the July 4th holiday weekend we will see this morning.  Analysts have quickly lowered their expectations to match last week’s figure (as they don’t have a clue of their own) and now we are expected to lose "only" 550,000 jobs this morning – still a 6.6M annual pace so keep that in mind should the markets decide to "celebrate" that number.  Looking at the chart, you’ll see that July of ’08 had a sharp downturn in Job losses as well, down from 400,000 to 350,000 with July 4th celebrated on a Friday last year too.  Those reports arrested a slide in the Dow from 13,000 in May to 11,000 in mid-July and the market ran back to 11,800 on Aug 11th and we held around 11,500 until things fell apart in September and we fell all the way to 8,000.  I know – history is just soooooo boring, what could possibly be learned from it?

David Fry SPY ChartYesterday was an amazing day as we ran right up to the target levels I predicted on Monday, which I reiterated in yesterday’s morning post, saying:  "Our upper targets to break the dreaded head and shoulders pattern are:  Dow 8,500, S&P 930, Nasdaq 1,825, NYSE 6,000 and Russell 510."  We had what we call a "Free Money Day" as the markets went up and up and up some more with the Dow topping out way up at 8,620, a 6.4% move off the bottom, which is just about a 20% retrace of the 33% drop so, of course, we shorted it!  The S&P made it right to 932 and finished there, up 7.1% since Friday.  The Nasdaq made it all the way to 1,860 after gapping just over our target at the open, up 6.9% for the week.  The NYSE hit 6,000 on the nose and finished just under it – up 7.1% while the Russell over-achieved to 515, up 8.4% in 3 days. 

As I mentioned yesterday, just because we made our targets, we are not automatically expecting a "breakout."  We are not happy with the WAY in which we got here – a short rally on fairly low volume leaves what I call an "air pocket" below…
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Brazilian Markets Beckon Option Bulls

www.interactivebrokers.com

Today’s tickers: EWZ, NOK, YUM, EXPE, CY & COF

EWZ – The exchange-traded fund was boosted higher today as Brazilian stocks gained the most in nearly two months. EWZ has experienced a 5.5% rally in shares to $52.80. Option traders populating the fund were seen making bullish plays to take advantage of today’s upward momentum. The near-term July 53 strike price had approximately 9,200 calls purchased for an average premium of 53 cents per contract. Individuals positioned at the July 53 strike are hoping the price of the underlying stock rallies 73 cents higher to breach the breakeven point on the trade at $53.53. One option trader selected the August 52 strike price to initiate a bullish reversal. It appears that this individual shed 6,500 puts at that strike for 2.60 each in order to purchase 6,500 calls for an average premium of 3.10 per contract. The net cost of the reversal amounts to 50 cents and yields a breakeven share price of $52.50. Reducing the price of getting long the calls by selling put options has dramatically reduced the breakeven point to the upside. The investor has already started to profit on the rally as the current market value of the stock is approximately 30 cents higher than the breakeven point. – iShares MSCI Brazil Index Fund

NOK – The world’s biggest maker of mobile phones has rallied higher by more than 6% to stand at $15.63 ahead of earnings scheduled for release tomorrow. The broad-based gains experienced by the market today have bolstered bullish traders who were seen picking up calls and selling puts on Nokia in the October contract. Put options at the out-of-the-money October 14 strike price were sold 2,700 times for 66 cents each while 3,200 puts were surrendered at the October 15 strike for an average premium of 1.05 apiece. Perhaps these investors do not feel the need for downside protection on the stock. The traders may retain the premiums received for writing the puts if shares of NOK remain higher than the strike prices described previously. They may also utilize the option premium to offset the cost of purchasing the shares in the case that shares slip and the puts land in-the-money. Just in-the-money puts were sold 2,400 times at the October 16 strike price for a premium of 1.58 per contract. Again, the full premium is retained if the puts
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Another Weak Weekly Wrap-Up

This is getting tedious!

We were bearish going into the week but not this bearish.  It is unusual though that we have a weekly wrap-up with nothing but negative plays as we did last week but there was nothing very positive in the outlook after the action of the week of the 16th through the 20th, pictured here on this chart.

As I said in the last Weekly Wrap-Up: "Of course nothing beats sector specific covers against your own mix of positions but we like using the DIA puts as general portfolio coverage although, as I mentioned last week, both the DAX and the Qs may now have farther to fall."  The Qs ended up dropping 8.5% for the week while the DAX tumbled 6%, underperforming other global indexes as we had expected it would.  Our hedge play , the DIA June $77 puts, which we went with at $8.22 on Friday and half covered with March $75 puts at $3.85 ended up at $9.85 and $5.40, not much improvement but accomplishing it’s goal of converting a net $6.29 entry into puts that are now 100% in the money to our net entry.  At this point, every point down on the Dow is a penny we realize in intrinsic value.  Per our original plan, the $75 puts can still be rolled to 2x the Apr $66 puts, now $2.32, allowing for our long puts to be $11 in the money against the puts we sold.  The reality is more complex than that as we day-traded the covers around and rolled up the longer puts but we went into this weekend with the same bearish half-cover, not wanting to take chances after Friday’s poor performance.

On Monday morning, I was not at all enthusiastic about our prospects for the week as we had the Bernanke testimony Tuesday and Wednesday and Trichet started us off with a thud by stating: ""In recent weeks we have seen the first signs of falling credit flows.  An important part of this fall is demand-driven. However…there are indications that falling credit flows reflect also supply-side factors and tight financing conditions associated with a phenomenon of deleveraging.  If such a behavior became widespread across the banking system, it would undermine the raison d’etre of the system as a whole."  Perhaps he was channeling Nouriel Roubini, who on Saturday had told the Wall Street Journal: "J.P. Morgan took
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Phil's Favorites

Jobless Claims Improve, Leading Indicators Decline: Economic Report Card

Courtesy of John Nyaradi.

Jobless claims improve while leading indicators decline in today’s economic report card

by Wall Street Sector Selector Staff

Weekly jobless claims declined to 424,000 from last week’s 432, 000 but stubbornly stayed above the all important 400,000 level for another week.

August Leading Indicators came in at +0.3% compared to 0.5% for July, as the economy continues registering weakness.

Good news came from July Home Prices which rose to +0.8% from the previously reported +0.7%.

But the biggest economic news of the week came yesterday when the Federal Reserve said it saw  “significant downside risks to the economic outlook, including strains in global financial markets.”

Global stock markets responded negatively yesterday an...



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Insider Scoop

Priceline.com Trades Higher on Q1 Earnings Results (PCLN)

Courtesy of Benzinga

Shares of Priceline.com Incorporated (NASDAQ: PCLN) are trading higher in the after-hours following the release of its Q1 earnings results. Currently, shares are up 2.74%, trading at $548.60; they closed the regular session down 0.67 %, at $533.97.

The company said that its Q1 EPS came in at $2.66 on revenues of $809.3 million; this compares to the Street's estimate of $2.46 per share on revenues of $779.5 million. Revenues rose 38.6% year over year.

"In the 1st quarter, the Group benefited from strong growth in our global hotel business, particularly at Booking.com and Agoda," said Jeffery H. Boyd, Priceline President and Chief Executive Officer.

He added, "Room nights booked grew by 55.8% and our international gross bookings grew by 79% compared to prior year...



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Zero Hedge

Fukushima Explosion Update: Core Presumed Intact As Sea Water Used To Bring Temperature Down, Radiation Level At 1015 Microsieverts/Hour

Courtesy of Tyler Durden

The damage control to the Fukushima explosion reported earlier is coming fast and furious. According to CNN, "the explosion at an earthquake-damaged nuclear plant was not caused by damage to the nuclear reactor but by a pumping system that failed as crews tried to bring the reactor's temperature down, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Saturday. The next step for workers at the Fukushima Daiichi plant will be to flood the reactor containment structure with sea water to bring the reactor's temperature down to safe levels, he said. The effort is expected to take two days." While the government is trying to play down the threat from the explosion, it has nonetheless double the evacuation zone radius from 10 to 20 kilometers: "Radiation levels have fallen since the explosion and there is no immediate danger, Edano said. But authorities were nevertheless expanding the evacuation ...



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Chart School

The Mega-Bear Quartet and L-Shaped "Recoveries"

Courtesy of Doug Short

Note from dshort: I retired this chart series last summer in deference to my prefered inflation-adjusted series that aligns the S&P 500 2000 high with the Nikkei peak in 1989. However, I continue to receive requests for this version, despite the "V" shape of the the recovery since the March 2009 low. This chart series overlays the current S&P 500 with the L-shaped "recoveries" after the Dow Crash of 1929, the Nikkei 225 after Japan's 1989 bubble, and the post Tech Bubble NASDAQ. Click the chart below for a larger version and use the links to see various comparisons.


Click for a larger image

I've ...



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Sabrient

Sabrient Risers - 3/12/2011

Top 5 RisersStockRatingAnalysisVLOSTRONGBUYAn increasingly positive growth rate of past earnings, along with improving expectations for long term growth, make Valero a good prospect for high returns.KROSTRONGBUYKronos Worldwide has been gaining recognition from analysts as a good canditate for achieving higher than expected earnings along with higher overall projected valuation.SFIBUYiStar is one of the top candidates projected to achieve both higher than previously projected earnings in the short run and a higher earnings growth rate in the long run.AMATSTRONGBUYApplied Materials has been...

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Option Review

Bulls Scoop Up Sprint Nextel Corp. Calls

 Today’s tickers: S, FTR, JTX & SBUX

...



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OpTrader

Swing trading portfolio - week of March 7th, 2011

This post is for live trades and daily comments. Please click on "comments" below to follow our live discussion. All of our current virtual trades are listed in the spreadsheet below, with entry price (1/2 in and All in), and exit prices (1/3 out, 2/3 out, and All out).

We also indicate our stop, which is most of the time the "5 day moving average". All trades, unless indicated, are front-month ATM options. 

Please feel free to participate in the discussion and ask any questions you might have about this portfolio, by clicking on the "comments" link right below.

To learn more about the swing trading portfolio (strategy, performance, FAQ, etc.), please click here

Optrader 

Swing trading portfolio

 

One trade portfolio

...

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Stock World Weekly

Stock World Weekly

Here's the newest Stock World Weekly:  Illusion Based on a Fantasy 

Comments welcome... share your thoughts. 

Download Newsletter 3/6/11


Stock World Weekly archives here >

...

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Pharmboy

Biotech Junkies Update and Momenta Pharma Moving Forward

February is now past, and the Biotech Porfolio is loaded with winners and a miss (PLX).  MRK is down a bit, but I expect that trade to recover, and one could be more agressive and double down on it, or play another round at the Jan13 $30 options for roughly the same price.  Below is the summary, and note the grey boxes are ones that did not fill.  I am still a fan of BMRN, and like DEPO as well.  Now let's look at a few others.

Table 1.  PSW Biotech Plays Since January 2011

 

Our newest play is Momenta Pharmaceuticals (MNTA), who is pursuing a three-part business model which includes complex generic equivalents in partnership with the Sandoz division of Novartis, proprietary compounds, and follow-on- biologics (FOB).  It seems that this company is tied up in competition/litigation wit...



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About Phil:

Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...

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