1/6 Morningline

The fear index (VIX) opens with little movement, but with a pps bear signal from very late yesterday. Bearish on fear is bullish on the blue chips. The VIX has been mainly downtrending since late October. The 200-50-20-day moving averages are all pointing downward and line up in descending order on the chart, a bearish sign. The macd is also crossing the zero-line back into bear territory.

Treasury long bonds (TLT) shows a pps bull signal from yesterday's close, unconfirmed by the trend, downward since early October, and by the inversed moving averages (200-50-20). The stochastic and macd, however, are peeking through into bull mode.

Neither the indicators nor the currencies nor the shares are showing movement this morning in the few minutes after the start of trading, prior to the 10ae (7ap) non-manufacturing index and the 2pe (11ap) FOMC minutes.

Indicators:

• Blue chips (SPY) open at 113.52, entered bull mode at close on Jan. 4 (at 113.33)
• Fear index (VIX) 19.59, bear (bearish for stocks), Jan. 5 (19.35)
• Treasury long bonds (TLT) 90.17, bull, Jan. 5 (90.39)
• Corporate junk bonds (JNK) 39.70, bull, Jan. 4 (39.32)
• Gold (GLD) 110.71, bull, Jan. 4 (109.08)
• Oil (USO) 40.32, bull, Dec. 16, (36.74)

Currency pairs:

• Dollars per euro (EUR/USD) 1.4365, bear, Dec. 4 (1.49)
• Yen per dollar (USD/JPY) 91.70, bull, Dec. 15 (89.60)

Holdings, January expiry:

• KO, iron condor (p50/-p52.5/-c57.5/c60) 56.35, bear, Dec. 29 (57.74)
• LVS, covered call (-c16) 18.03, bull, Jan. 4 (16.62)
  
• SBUX, bull put spread (p22.5/-p24) 23.48, bear, Dec. 30 (23.31)
  
• SMH, bull put spread (p27.5/-p29) 28.21, bull, Dec. 21 (27.62)

Holdings, February expiry:

• MRVL, bull put spread (p20/-p22.5) 21.53, bull, Nov. 25 (15.90) 

Topics: S&P 500, SPDR, Spiders, Treasury bonds, high-yield corporate junk bonds,gold, precious metals, oil, petroleum, Coca-Cola, Las Vegas Sands, gambling, resort, Starbucks, coffee, semiconductors, Marvell Technology