US Mid-Morning Recap by TradeTheNews Staff - Equity futures dipped to new lows after December data showed producer prices rose at a greater clip than had been expected. Since the NY open equities have held their ground along with US Treasury prices. Treasuries are fractionally lower after yields spiked to session highs post PPI. 10-year â1/32 at 4.75% INTC has been weighing on the both the DOW and the NASDAQ as it trades down 5% post eps release. SMH â1% Rackable Systems has give back close to a third of its market value after providing preliminary Q4 numbers. Earrings reports from AMR and LUV have initiated some profit taking within the airline group after is recent run-up on lower crude. CAL â1.3% JBLU â3% LUV â1.8% LCC â1.4% UAUA â1.5% Interestingly, homebuilding stocks are advancing after some positive comments from LEN +4.5% regarding the 2007 outlook. TOL +1.3% RYL +2% PHM +3% CTX +2.5% - Feb Crude futures traded as low as $50.28 in early morning electronic trade and are currently down 0.6% at $50.90. Oil service names continue to search for footing as the OIH is up about $1. XOM is one of the best Dow performers up 0.5%. Feb Gold has rallied some $10 from pre-floor trading levels. Chatter of far east selling pressured prices into COMEX open and there has been talk that the reversal has caught some traders by surprise forcing the election of stops. Some buying in the Euro is also supporting gold. The EUR/USD sits just off todayâs high of 1.2949. Silver futures are near todayâs highs as well up more than 1%.
It's impressive how little the indexes are down. INTC and CSCO are down significantly, losing $5 to $10 billion each in market value, the core PPI was larger than expected, but the S&P is up and the Dow is down by only 5 points. If INTC had actually had a good report last night, we'd probably be up close to 1%.
INTC and CSCO do not matter to the indices anymore. In fact, all single stocks do not matter. It seems in this market all components of a major index these days could be down, the index would still be up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If INTC was up 3-4% these markets would be UP HUGGGGEEE.. DOW up at least 85 + and NASDAQ up 20-25 points. Expect AAPL to push the markets even higher tomorrow, DOW to 12750 and nasdaq 2525 tomorrow. No risk buying as everyone says.
PPI data, ha PPI comes in at 0.9 and the market trades higher on this number, again if this number came in perfect the dow would be skyrocketing now. Every pathetic person is looking for any excuse to see the fed ease in the 1st qu. Of course with todays number there is a less chance of this happening, however if the CPI comes in well below forecasts everyone from that moment on will expect rate cuts right away. Most of these fools anticipating a ratet cut are going to have to wait a long, long time. Watch the BOJ on thursday, may raise their rates.
No cross below support---not allowed. Stair step higher. Bang against support. Nice flip turn though at top today around 2 pm EST with the buy stops triggered. Still in an attenuated range though consolidating the last move up. This is getting monotonous low pre-market. Make it red then the slow ride up with quick moves back to support.
All I know is that I was uncomfortable holding short SPX ETF CALLS 15 points above the morning S&P500 levels so I closed them. It is VERY easy to get 1% to 1.5% upswing in option expiration week and that means mostly by 4 PM tomorrow through mid day on Friday. With VIX/volatility being so low it looks like the market pretty much has to continue its moderate uptrend to keep trend. TS P.S. Glad I dumped my call options in INTC rather than hold through earnings reports. It just did not "feel" right. On the other hand I think I will have a windfall on my APPL options in the AM open.
Well, apparently AAPL is doing a good job of pushing the futures down. QQQQ down around half a percent, all because fewer iPods may be bought next quarter.