4/15 Almanac

On Thursday, April 15: Industrial production. & more!

There are two trading days left before April options expire, 37 the May and 65 the June.

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

Blue chip stocks (SPY) closed the latest regular session up 1.1% from the prior close. During the day SPY traversed 0.9% low to high in a net move up intraday of 0.8%.

Today's extremes: Open $120.27, high $121.19, low  $120.08, close $121.19.

SPY closed 73¢ above the DeMark pivots.The next DeMark pivots are $120.64/$121.75.

In total, 4.2 billion shares were traded on the three major U.S. stock exchanges, up 600 million from the prior day.

Mediawatch: AP and Reuters both pegged today's rise on earnings of specific companies. OK. That's part of the rise. But other companies in other sectors moved the other way. So I think it's too narrow a focus for the broad phenomenon that is the trading day.

Financial consultant Leslie Masonson describes a strategy for using relative strength to trade exchange-traded funds for increased returns.

Econ reports: A second busy day.

The weekly jobless claims report is out at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. This is the leadingest indicator of whether companies are laying off nor not.

The Treasury Department reports on international capital flows at 9 a.m. Are foreigners betting on America or hedging their bets? (China: We mean  you!)

Industrial production figures at 9:15 a.m. The key point here is the breakdown by sector: Consumer goods? Capital goods? construction supplies and stuff? It tells us where we are in the economic cycle as capitalism moves from bust to boom to bust again.

Natural gas inventories at 10:30 a.m. This is mainly an energy sector thing.

And the ever popular, often ignore Fed balance sheet and money supply report at 4:30 p.m.

And once again, speeches. (I wonder how big an honorarium all these Fed folks get for a single speech?):

• Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker, 10:30 a.m. and 3:15 p.m.
• St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, 12:15 p.m.
• Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhart, 1:40 p.m.
• San Francisco Fed President Janet Yellen, 8:30 p.m.

The Fedfolk don't always commit news. In fact, they don't often commit news. But the potential is there.

My portfolio consists of . . .

April expiry:

• MCO, covered call, -c29

May expiry:

• BBY, bull call spread, c44/-c45 
• EEM  bear put spread, -p43/p44
• GE, bull call spread, c18/-c19

Dividend shares: AOD, JNK, NLY
 
Zombie shares: PALM.

Good trading!

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