5/24 Almanac

On Tuesday, May 24: New home sales.

There are 25 trading days before the June options expire, 53 the July, 88 the August and 116 the September.

On the jump, market stats, econ reports, and the trading calendar . . .


Stats

Blue chip stocks (SPY) closed the latest regular session down 1.2% from the prior close. During the day SPY traversed 1.6% in a net move up of 6¢.

The day's extremes: Open $131.98, high $133.65, low $131.59, close $132.06.

SPY closed below the DeMark pivots after trading within their range. The next DeMark pivots are $131.83-$133.89.

In total, 2.7 billion shares were traded on the three major U.S. stock exchanges, 5% fewer than on the prior trading day.

Five-year bond yields imply inflation at 2.08%, three basis points lower than the prior trading day.


Econ reports:

The government releases new home sales figures at 10 a.m. Eastern. This is the lesser of the home sales reports; existing homes loom far larger in the marketplace.

Also out: Two weekly retail reports: ICSC-Goldman at 7:45 a.m., and Redbook at 8:55 a.m.

Treasury auctions 4-week bills at 11:30 a.m. and 2-year notes at 1 p.m.

Fedsters flock fearlessly (but what have they to fear?): Fed Gov. Elizabeth Duke, who has a vote on monetary policy, gives a speech, and so do three Fed bank presidents who lack a seat and a vote on the Federal Open Market Committee: Fed James Bullard of St. Louis, Tom Hoenig of Kansas City and Eric Rosengren of Boston.

All but one were appointed by President George W. Bush; the exception is Hoenig, who was appointed by Daddy Bush.

Duke's resume shows institutional ties to the American Bankers Association, the Virginia Bankers Association and several Virginia Banks, including the giant Wachovia Bank, which was taken over by Wells Fargo during the 2008 financial crisis.

Bullard, Hoenig and Rosengren all came up through the Fed system -- Fed kids.

The Federal Reserve maintains an archive, where it posts transcripts of speeches and testimony within a few days of the event.


Trading Calendar:

By my rules, at this point in the cycle I can trade June vertical, calendar, diagonal and butterfly spreads, covered calls and iron condors, as well as September or later straddles, strangles, calls and puts. And of course, shares are good at any time.


Good trading!