This VIX Whale Trade Should Make You Nervous
The S&P 500 is hitting all-time highs on a regular, almost serial basis these days. When the market lets the good times roll, they roll indeed. It seems as though session after session is going swimmingly for equities. But for all swimmers, it’s what lies beneath they should worry about… In this case, it’s whales.…
What Bonds, Bitcoin, and Tesla Can Tell Us About This Market
Bonds were battered today as economic data, SCOTUS, and other news pushed prices lower and yields higher. While the bond market was anything but quiet, the reaction from interest rate-sensitive securities like REITs and financial and utility stocks was fairly muted. Sounds strange to say it, but I just did… If this all sounds like…
The Only Stock That Matters…. And The Only Sector That Counts
The S&P 500 had trouble lifting off today, courtesy of a thousand-pound weight: NVDA. Today’s price action shows once again that this is the stock. Nine other sectors actually finished higher for the session. The rally that counts today is the energy sector - largely the result of the fundamentals of oil and even energy.…
Stocks and the VIX Rise Ahead of a Week of Fedspeak
Another day, another all-time high… Traders seem to have largely shrugged off the FOMC statements of last week - might as well have been 100 years ago. That press conference didn’t exactly deliver the goods for the bulls. Then again, this week features a number of speeches from Federal Reserve members; maybe the bulls are…
Two Stocks We Need to Talk About as Powell and CPI Approach
If ever there was a week that should be wracked by volatility, this is it… Market-leading AI/chip stock Nvdia just concluded a 10-for-1 stock split - if you owned one share last Thursday, you own 10 now. Historically, these splits aren’t all that kind to stocks. The AI stock is said to be “priced to…
Here’s the Backstory on Those Potential Fed Rate Cuts
Tiff Macklem and the Bank of Canada moved to cut overnight rates 25 basis points this week. Then, today, Christine Lagarde’s European Central Bank cut Eurozone rates 25 basis points. So now everyone and their mother wants to know if Jerome Powell and the Federal Reserve are going to follow suit - sometime soon. Fed…
Bond Battering Drags Stocks and Commodities Lower
The past few U.S. Treasury auctions have attracted weak demand, particularly from foreign buyers. That’s dragged bond prices lower and pushed yields higher. This has upset the tenuous balance the market has achieved over the past few weeks, and we’re beginning to see the likelihood of the market’s worst fears being realized: higher for longer!…
Market Drifts Ahead of NVDA Earnings as Anti-Dollar Plays Rise
The S&P 500 finished barely in the green and was led by the technology sector ahead of a pivotal earnings announcement from $NVDA on Wednesday after the close. With an $82 expected move for this week, expect some significant volatility! Aside from NVDA lifting the market today, it was gold, silver and Bitcoin miners seeing…
How to Find the Next GameStop (GME) “Squeeze” Play
The S&P 500 faded today ahead of a looming raft of inflation data we’ll see over the next few days. In my view, given the recent strength of the market, traders seem to have bought the rumor… and are now poised to sell the news. The result, for the moment, is a flat market. That…
The Option Market Shows the Way Through This Low-Volume, Fed-Driven Melt-Up
The S&P 500 ended today’s session a little more than 1% higher than where it started. Not bad… but before you get too giddy, consider that gold equaled the market’s one-session gain and silver, the “junior metal,” blew them both clean out of the water. At the same time, trading volume in equities has…