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When I saw that anemic jobs report on Friday, I thought the worst about today's market open. And the futures were down early this morning, although not as badly as I feared. The markets indeed opened lower, but it didn't last long. Those poor bears were frustrated once again as the bulls bought the dip. SPX closed up $14 at $2081 and RUT added $5 to close at $1261. Interestingly, the VIX was flat at 14.7%. Trading volume was up with two billion shares of the S&P 500 stocks trading. Trading volume rose 5% on the NYSE and increased 6% on NASDAQ.
We start the earnings announcement cycle this week. Normally Alcoa is considered the opening of earnings season, although it won't be the first announcement this quarter. But it will be closely watched as always since aluminum plays a key role in so many industries. Many analysts are expecting a mediocre series of announcements because of the effects of a strong dollar on the multinationals. It is true that we have had a record low number of positive earnings guidance announcements this quarter and a relatively high number of companies guiding negatively. We'll see. More importantly, will it matter to the market?
I read an interesting note about our government's unemployment rate calculation today. If the labor force participation rate were the same today as it was in 2007, our current unemployment rate would be 10%. As people have given up on looking for work, that reduces both the numerator and the denominator of the calculation. Ten per cent unemployment fits my sense of the labor market; I know far too many people that have been out of work for a year or more. We have yet to recover from this recession. In fact, we are setting a record for the slowest economic recovery in history. Maybe we should try capitalism.
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The major market indexes traded higher today, but on weaker volume than normal. I suppose many traders took the day off to extend the long weekend. SPX gained $7 to close at $2067 and RUT closed at $1256 for a gain of $4. Volatility contracted with VIX losing less than half a point to close at 14.7%. Trading volume fell off with 1.8 billion shares of the S&P 500 stocks trading. Trading volume declined 13% on the NYSE and dropped 15% on NASDAQ.
The Challenger job cuts came in at +6.4% for March, but that was actually a big improvement from the +20.9% report for February. Initial unemployment claims dropped to 268k from last week's 288k, and continuing claims also decreased to 2.33 million. Factory orders grew 0.2% in February, but that was a welcome change from the 0.7% decline in January.
The non-farm payrolls report will be issued tomorrow morning, but the markets will be closed. I will be watching the S&P futures early Monday morning to get a feel for the impact, if any, on the markets.
Enjoy your long weekend.
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Today was another one of those days. Just when we think the market is bouncing back, it trades off. SPX opened this morning at $2084 and traded sideways through early afternoon. If the market had closed around 1:45 pm ET, we would have had a flat day, but then it simply traded off into the close, losing $18 to close at $2068. RUT lost $5, closing at $1253 and the VIX moved up almost one point to 15.3%. The VIX struck me as behaving somewhat benignly on a 1% drop in SPX; maybe we are all becoming accustomed to this whipsawing price action. Trading volume was mixed with slightly higher trading volume in the S&P 500 stocks at 2.0 billion shares (up from 1.9B yesterday), and a 15% rise in volume on the NYSE; but trading volume was flat on NASDAQ.
The Case Schiller housing price survey reported an annualized rise of 4.6% for January, up slightly from December's +4.5%. The Chicago PMI reported at 46.3 for March, up from 45.8. And the Conference Board consumer confidence survey rose to 101.3 from 98.8. I saw a couple of news headlines for today's markets, claiming the market dropped on mixed economic data - really?
The markets will be closed on Friday, but the jobs report will be issued anyway, so that could be interesting. Layering on that report will be the possibility of another shoe dropping over the weekend in the Greece/Euro Zone negotiations. We may see traders taking off more vulnerable positions this week, and we may see the VIX move a bit higher as traders seek protection from events over the long weekend.
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SPX dipped down to $2046 last Thursday, and then down to $2048 today before recovering to close at $2060, down $8. RUT closed essentially unchanged at $1252 (down one dollar). SPX has a solid support level at $2040 that goes back to the correction low in mid-March, so that is the line in the sand that many analysts are watching. We have two data points that suggest support is holding at $2040, but with this market's volatility, that could change at any moment. That mid-March correction low on the NASDAQ Composite was $4850 and that is where NASDAQ's intraday low hit today before recovering. RUT is trading even more strongly; its March high was $1243 and its low today was $1240. The small and mid-cap indexes are trading more strongly than the blue chips (SPX); that gives me some confidence that the market is finding support here. The fact that the VIX actually declined two tenths of a point, closing at 15.1%, appears to support this more positive interpretation. Trading volume picked up today with a 2% increase on the NYSE and volume was up 5% on
NASDAQ. As of 5:00 pm CT, trading volume for the S&P 500
stocks was not yet available.
ADP's private employment report cam in a little weak at +189 thousand jobs, down from last month's +214k. But the correlation between ADP's report and the non-farm payrolls report, due Friday morning, has been sketchy. The ISM manufacturing index came out at 51.5, for March, down a bit from February's 52.9. Construction spending improved in February with a smaller decline at -0.1%, up from January's -1.7%. This set of economic data isn't strong, but it doesn't support a rationale for the market to turn downward either.
My May iron condor on RUT at 1110/1120 and 1330/1340 stands at a net gain of 7% today and is delta neutral at about one dollar per contract.
With the markets closed on Friday, we may see some reduction in trading volume tomorrow. One would think that might also be accompanied by some lazy sideways trading, but all historical norms are trashed by this market.
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Once again, the market takes a little tumble, but then it rockets back higher. The "buy the dip" game is still working like a charm. SPX tacked on $25, closing at $2086 and RUT followed suit with a $17 gain, putting that small cap index at $1258. Volatility contracted a bit more with the VIX closing at 14.5%, down six tenths of a point. Trading volume was pretty flat with 1.9 billion shares of the S&P 500 stocks trading. Trading volume contracted 3% on the NYSE, but rose 5% on NASDAQ.
SPX gapped open this morning and never looked back. RUT gapped open even more strongly, so small caps are again leading the way - a bullish sign.
Pending home sales surprised analysts with a 3.1% gain in February, up from a positive 1.2% gain in January. Tomorrow brings the Chicago PMI report.
On Friday I closed my April iron condor position on RUT at 1110/1120 and 1310/1320 for a debit of $0.38, resulting in a net gain of $108 per contract or +12.6%. This brings our year to date gains for the Flying With The Condor™ service to +11.2%.
