9/30 Almanac

On Friday, Sept. 30: Personal income and spending.

There are 22 trading days before the October options expire, 50 the November, 78 the December and 113 the January.

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

Stats

Blue chip stocks (SPY) closed the latest regular session up 0.8% from the prior close. During the day SPY traversed 3.2% in a net move down of 0.9%.

The day's extremes: Open $117.05, high $117.63, low $113.93, close $116.05.

SPY closed within the DeMark pivots after trading below their range. The next DeMark pivots are $113.14-$116.84.

In total, 3.4 billion shares were traded on the three major U.S. stock exchanges, 17% more than on the prior trading day.

Five-year bond yields imply inflation at 1.63%, two basis points higher than the prior trading day.

Econ reports:

The Commerce Department at 8:30 a.m. Eastern reports on personal income and spending (or "outlays", in the agency's terminology). Subtract the second item from the first, and the result is savings. All three figures are important gauges of whether working people are going to stand up and spend us back to prosperity. Not quite what Marx envisioned as the power of the working class, but it is what it is.

Also out, the Chicago Purchasing Managers' Index at 9:45 a.m. -- a regional indicator -- and the Reuter's/University of Michigan consumer sentiment report at 9:55 a.m.

St. Louis Fed Pres. James Bullard makes a public appearance. Bullard doesn’t have a seat on the monetary policy committee. He took office under President George W. Bush after rising through the Fed system.

The Federal Reserve maintains an archive of speeches and testimony.

Trading Calendar:

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

Good trading!