SPY down, TLT up, JNK down, GLD down, USO down, EEM down.
Yesterday's moves were mainly blamed on the debt crisis in the euro zone, especially Greece. Today's reports are following the same line.
But I wonder. Search the Google News archive for last year and you'll find plenty of news stories about the debt crisis in Europe. This is old news.
Also, of the companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, all but three are down, most by more than 1%. I don't understand how the long-running debit problems in Greece and other euro countries could depress CAT, GE and MCD, while leaving INTC, WMT and CSCO unfazed. Are the Europeans, who are as rich as we are, really unable to engineer a soft landing? SPY remains just above the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement from the March 2009 to January 2010 rise. It is, for the third time, pausing at a support level that was resistance in August 2009. That level was touched before in October and November 2009. |
I don't deny that euro can have an impact on the American economy. I distrust glib explanations as to why stock markets move, especially when the alleged motivating issue has had years in which to be priced into the marketplace.
My scan of the high-volume exchange traded funds has uncovered no new signals.
Also, on the corporate shares scan, I'm not finding new signals on stocks that also meet my trending requirements.
This is decision day on CVS, which I wrote about in a posting yesterday. Briefly, I hold a February iron condor, with a maximum profit at expiry range of $31 to $34. Waiting until expiration triples my profits.
The price of the shares has dropped below the lower end of the range but remain profitable both now and at expiry.
Earnings will be released before the market opens on Monday. Do I close or do I hold?
The stock is trading a $30.94 in an area of congestion created in December. The price hit a low today of $30.36, one cent below a signicant support level set on Dec. 8. And in trading today, the price has rebounded sharply from that level.
A negative earnings surprise could just kill all profits, but a fortunate report could pull the iron condor out of the danger.
At this point, I think, my decision is to hold. I have an hour to change my mind, though.
New to private trading? Here's a look at How to Become a Private Trader.
Topics:
S&P 500, SPDR, Spiders, Treasury bonds, high-yield corporate junk bonds, emerging markets, gold, precious metals, oil, petroleum, CVS, pharmacies, drugs, Caterpillar, General Electric, McDonald's, Intel semiconductors, Cisco, Wal-Mart.
No comments:
Post a Comment