Wednesday, April 21, 2010

4/22 Almanac

On Thursday, April 22: Producer prices, existing homes, jobless claims, natural gas. AP gets poetic.

There are 30 days before the May options expire, 58 the June and 86 the July.

On the jump, market stats, mediawatch, rules, econ reports, portfolio and a good book...

Stats

Blue chip stocks (SPY) closed the latest regular session down 0.2% from the prior close. During the day SPY traversed -1% high to low in a net move down intraday of -0.2%.

Today's extremes: Open $120.95, high $121.23, low  $119.99, close $120.66.

SPY traded for awhile below the range of the DeMark pivots but closed within the range. The next DeMark pivots are $119.71/$120.95.

In total, 3.8 billion shares were traded on the three major U.S. stock exchanges, up 600 million from the prior trading day.

Mediawatch


AP grew poetic, with the fading glow from Apple's earnings sending stocks into a muddle. It brought forth visions, for me, of streamers of orange light flying skyward from the waning fire of a burning western sunset, and thoughts of transience and the brevity of youth and life and glory filled my mind. No wonder stocks were muddled!

As a former AP guy, I can say that I have rarely seen such imagery in a market story written for the wire. Well done, Stephen Bernard and Tim Paradis! It's good to see writing that breaks the mold.

Meanwhile, those prosaic utilitarians at Reuters simply had health care offsetting Apple. I mean, come on! Where's the imagery? If AP can do it, Angela Moon, you at Reuters can, too.


Technical analyst Martin Pring reveals the secrets of the craft. No trader should be without this book.

Econ reports

Producer price indexes will be out at 8:30 a.m. Eastern, along with the weekly jobless claims. Producer prices are a leading indicator for consumer prices, which is the most reported inflation number. (Although not necessarily the most used: The GDP price index and implicit price deflator are probably more influential than the CPI.

Existing home sales will be reported at 10 a.m. This is the key measure for the health of the housing industry, which is the engine that must underly any recovery.

At 10:30 a.m., look for natural gas inventories. Influence on the UNG exchange-traded fund and the energy sector, but not much else.

My Holdings

May expiry:
  • BBY, bull call spread, c44/-c45 
  • EEM  bear put spread, -p43/p44
  • GE, bull call spread, c18/-c19
  • QQQQ, bull call spread, c49/-c50

Dividend shares: AOD, JNK, NLY

Special situation: PALM

Zombie shares: MCO

Good trading!

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