From the monthly archives:
DJIA (8168.12 -17.61) SPX (872.81 -0.83) The market was whistling along racing higher on the back of some pretty good earnings… ready to cap a great month of April (up roughly 9.5%) when today’s rally did an abrupt about face. President Obama had hoped to avoid Chrysler filing for bankruptcy protection but the [...]
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Stock trading in Dendreon Corporation (DNDN) yesterday illustrates the danger of thinking stop-loss orders can protect long stock positions. The price plummeted from $25 down to a low of $7.50 on the rumor that they were going to announce results from the Provenge Phase-3 trial. The NASDAQ halted trading and the results [...]
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Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (VRTX) is up 5% today on renewed takeover chatter and options volume is concentrated on the call side – specifically the May 35 calls. This possibly indicates more upside is being looked for in this drugmaker. Also, if you look at implied volatility levels, there is about a 10-point [...]
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Once again, the market is trying to overcome early weakness to battle back to unchanged. The Journal article stating BAC and C would likely have to raise more capital to satisfy a shortfall on the stress test was blamed for the early selling. A stronger than expected consumer confidence number got the bulls out [...]
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Companies in the same industry tend to announce earnings at the same time. We have seen the domestic financial releases, and many retail numbers have already lifted the market with their generally better-than-expected numbers. The industries in focus this week are insurance, energy, and media. I expect option volumes to increase in [...]
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Bank of America (BAC) and Citigroup (C) are both lower in pre-market activity after a Wall Street Journal report indicated that federal regulators have warned these and several other banks that they may need more capital, based on early results from the stress test. The banks are objecting to the result and have the [...]
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I am sitting at my desk wondering if I should blog about the swine flu and how it is affecting the markets today. Is it too cold to look at markets as they pertain to disease and tragedy? I am not sure of the answer.
However I will say that, in my [...]
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…to be up for the week. Only two more points in the S&P 500 Index (SPX) by day end, and the winning streak will continue. I was worried the White House evacuation scare would derail the market, but so far, it hasn’t…
–Steve Claussen
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The S&P 500 Index (SPX) needs about an 18-point rally today to avoid bringing the weekly win streak in the market recovery to a halt. For the past six straight weeks, the market has posted a gain. The energy and materials sectors are showing early strength.
–Steve Claussen
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We are seeing a huge amount of Citigroup (C) stock trading every day by day traders and swing traders. I totally understand this, as the stock’s spread is typically one penny wide with huge liquidity on both sides of the market. A day-traders dream. As I pointed out in last night’s Market-on-Close video [...]
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