7/8 Almanac

On Friday, July 8: Employment, unemployment rate

There are eight trading days before the July options expire, 43 the August, 71 the September and 106 the October.

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



Stats

Blue chip stocks (SPY) closed the latest regular session up 1.0% from the prior close. During the day SPY traversed 0.6% in a net move up of 0.2%.

The day's extremes: Open $135.16, high $135.70, low $134.88, close $135.36.

SPY traded entirely above the DeMark pivots. The next DeMark pivots are $135.12-$135.94.

In total, 2.7 billion shares were traded on the three major U.S. stock exchanges, 14% more than on the prior trading day.

Five-year bond yields imply inflation at 2.19%, six basis points higher than on the prior trading day.


Econ reports:

The Labor Department releases its monthly comprehensive employment report, including the unemployment rate, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern.

This is a strange report. From the standpoint of planning, it is backward looking and says little about where the country's economy will be a month or a quarter or a year down the road, or even where it is the day of the release.

Yet, this report, among all that the government releases each month, makes the biggest headlines and shapes the most impassioned political rhetoric.

The employment report is the Paris Hilton of the economy: Famous for being famous.

Also out, wholesale trade at 10 a.m. and consumer credit at 3 p.m.

No Fedsters at the podium. 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 August vertical and calendar spreads, and October or later straddles, strangles, calls and puts. And of course, shares are good at any time.


Good trading!