Crude oil has gone above $130 p/barrel. Pre market futures are somewhat violent this morning with some large swings down and up. Expecting the volatility to rise today. The US dollar continues to decline again and gold is heading back up.
MBA MORTGAGE APPLICATIONS W/E MAY 16TH: -7.8% V +2.9% PRIOR
Some events for today:
10:30 am: Crude Oil inventories
2:00pm FOMC minutes released
Earnings
Before the Open: BJ, BRC, BWS, CHRS, EV, QXM, REDF, RTLX, ROST, SOLF, GASS, BRLC, TLB, TNP, TWB.
After the Close: ANST, BRS, CHINA, CTRN, CSC, CPWM, PROJ, DDS, GYMB, HOTT, LTD, LDG, NAPS, NTES, NTAP, PERY, PETM, CRM, SMTC, SNPS, WSTL, ZL.
6 Comments
May 21st, 2008 at 9:33 am
The ultra shorts DXD, SDS, QID, and TWM opened higher as the market opened higher. Hmmmmm?
May 21st, 2008 at 10:18 am
Dave, great minds think alike (ha ha). I bought VIX July $25 calls shortly after open when vix dropped a tiny bit. Chuck/Lisa, Some thoughts on VIX? I lost on them last month, $25 calls expiring worthless (my fault for LOUSY entry point). I believe since the REAL news is filtering into, and actually affecting the markets, there is bound to be more volatility than the flatline we have been seeing. I know I’m not being very technical on this but the fundamentals seem to be in place for this trade.
May 21st, 2008 at 10:58 am
Dave, DB rated Micron as a buy today. Any idea why and whether those reasons would apply to NVDA?
May 21st, 2008 at 11:27 am
Myles,
There is always some ‘tracking error’ between the ETF’s and the index they track. Not surprising to see some slight difference here and there.
ecklebob,
VIX is picking up momonentum as the energy sector is having a serious impact on the rest of the economy (at least as far as Wall street is concerned). we already know oil is impacting the economy, but Wall St. is now waking up to the idea that it might actually hurt earnings going forward… duh. I don’t play options on the VIX. It can be a VERY profitable play if the timing works in your favor, but tracking when exactly the VIX will make it’s next move is a tough one.
Chris,
If an analyst just made a ‘buy’ call on a stock it usulally means it is time to take profits and get out. Most buy calls are followed with a sell off soon afterwards on the ’sell the news’.
And we are not recommending any long positions in this current bear market other than the quick day trades.
May 21st, 2008 at 11:38 am
Hey Chris - Yeah. I had heard about the MU upgrade. I had been a very heavy buyer of MU since $6.60, but finally sold the balance of my holdings yesterday when it got into the $8.45 area. There has been big accumulation on this stock since early April, but yesterday was the first big distribution day. Today the price has had a nice pop back to about $8.50 after the upgrade.
Here is the message about the upgrade — (I think some of it is MU specific-like the cost cuts)……..
Micron Technology (MU:Micron Technology Inc
Last: 8.46+0.25+3.05%
MU 8.46, +0.25, +3.1%) was upgraded to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank, which also increased its price target to $11 from $7. “Improved industry pricing combined with Micron cost reductions should lead to strong margin recovery,” the broker said.
May 21st, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Dave - Thanks for the info