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I don't think I am alone in being bewildered by this market. I feel like a mouse in the middle of a sumo wrestling match. Today SPX lost $41 to close at $1928 and RUT traded down $29 to $1068. Let's review: SPX traded down $30 on Tuesday, then it traded up $34 on Wednesday. then we lost $41 today. "Good grief", said Charlie Brown. I'm not sure anyone has a good answer for it, but the facts are that more one percent moves in the stock market occur in October than any other month. But I think recent markets are setting records for the huge whipsaws back and forth. Thirty and forty dollar moves on the S&P 500 back to back, and in opposite directions, are largely unprecedented. This market is rattling even the institutional traders. Over 2.6 billion shares of the S&P 500 traded today. But just to keep the data bewildering, trading volume was down 2% on the NYSE and trading on NASDAQ dropped 9%.
The number of initial unemployment claims reported today at 287k, flat from last week's 288k. Continuing unemployment claims were down slightly at 2.38 million, up from 2.40 million.
I took the opportunity to close my remaining SPX Oct 2080/2090 call spreads for five cents. This closes the October position for a gain of 8.2%. I am freeing up cash for a new November position. Our current November trade is doing well, but I expect we will close it early some time after this market bounces. When we see the market bounce (that will be a risky call, given the price volatility), I will sell more November put spreads. Our current November put spreads are over one hundred dollars OTM.
Time to relax and call it a day...
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The markets opened weakly this morning but appeared to be just chopping sideways most of the day. Something changed around 2 pm ET. SPX closed down $30 at $1935 and half of that loss occurred in the last two hours of trading. But I can't find any news items that appear responsible. Several analysts blamed concerns over weaker European economies, but those reports came out yesterday and this morning. Why did everyone run for the exits this afternoon? RUT has been trading weakly all year and today was no different with RUT closing at $1076, down $18. RUT's 50 dma crossed below its 200 dma about two weeks ago and RUT is now $65 below its 50 dma and down 7.3% for the year. By contrast, SPX remains up almost 5%. RUT's close today was lower than any of this year's corrections, but SPX is still above the August low at $1910. Another day like today might change that.
Trading volume on the S&P 500 peaked on October 1st on the big drop that day and has steadily declined until today, when it spiked back up to 2.1 billion shares. Trading volume rose 9% on the NYSE and rose 21% on NASDAQ. I may not understand the impetus, but a lot of traders were heading for the exits.
Volatility, as measured by the VIX, popped back up today, closing at 17.2%, up almost two points. That takes VIX back to the highs of the August correction. In fact, VIX only closed slightly above 17% in August.
Some observers probably thought I was being too conservative when I closed our October put spreads about ten days ago, but conservative looks good on a day like today. The October calls spreads on SPX at 2080/2090 are really far OTM now. I had thought my two sigma rule would close them on Friday, but it looks like we may let them expire worthless unless we get a strong bounce this week. My November condor on SPX at 1810/1820 and 2090/2100 is weathering the storm very well so far and remains modestly profitable (+4%). It is hard to imagine the 1810/1820 spreads being seriously threatened, but today's big drop has me thinking...
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SPX lost another $26 today, closing at $1946. SPX has now broken a couple of key support levels. Is the low of the August correction at $1910 the next support level? SPX set a closing high at $2011 on September 18th. Today's close is a correction of 3.2% from that high. That doesn't seem like much of a pull back, but consider RUT - a completely different story. RUT closed down $16 at $1085 today. RUT passed the low set back in August yesterday and matched the low set in May today. The closing low on May 15th was $1096 and the intraday low was $1083. RUT's intraday low today was $1083 - precisely the same as on May 15th. Is that just a weird coincidence or is $1083 a strong support level for some reason? RUT's recent high was $1179 on September 2nd. Today's close represents an 8% drop from that high and a 10.2% drop from RUT's July 3rd high at $1208. It is safe to say that we are in correction mode; the current question is how far will it pull back? Will SPX continue to hold up relatively well?
Volatility has risen the past couple of days with the VIX hitting an intraday high today at 17.6% and closing at 16.7%. For the record, the intraday highs on VIX in the April/May and August corrections were 17.9% and 17.6%, respectively. The February correction was more severe with VIX hitting 21.5%.
Trading volume picked up a little bit today, but today's increases are off relatively large numbers from yesterday. Traders may not be flooding through the exits just yet, but the selling pressure is significant. Trading in the S&P 500 stocks came in at 2.5 billion shares (the 50 dma = 1.9B); trading on the NYSE was up 2% and trading volume rose 14% on NASDAQ.
ADP's private employment report came out with an increase of 213 thousand jobs. The ISM manufacturing survey reported 56.6 for September, down from last month, but still a good number. Construction spending dropped off by 0.8% in August, down from July's +1.2% increase.
How low can it go?
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It appeared on Friday as though the bottom of this correction was in. SPX displayed a classic hammer candlestick on Thursday and then traded strongly higher on Friday. The S&P futures were positive this morning and the markets opened higher. Everything seemed to be lining up. But then those pesky bears came back, pulling SPX down to close at $1965 for a loss of three dollars. RUT traded even more weakly with a loss of $10 to close at $1095. SPX tried to break out above its 50 dma at $1975 and traded as high as $1978 before being pulled back down. Volatility popped back up about one point to 15.5% on the VIX. Trading volume fell off from last week with 1.8 billion shares of the S&P 500 stocks trading; this is below the 50 dma at 1.9 billion shares. Trading volume dropped 8% on the NYSE, but rose 5% on NASDAQ.
There was no significant economic news to drive the market one way or the other. Maybe the markets needed some additional positive news after the jobs report to continue the buying.
This sideways to slightly lower sideways churn is good for my iron condor trades. My October position only consists of the SPX 2080/2090 call spreads, which are essentially worthless now with less than two weeks to go. Assuming they expire worthless, the October position closes for a gain of 8.8%. The November SPX position was entered earlier than I do normally, and consists of the 1810/1820 put spreads and the 2090/2100 call spreads. Both spreads are far OTM and the position currently stands at a P/L of +$1,140 on 20 contracts or +7%. Position delta on 20 contracts is delta = +$5 and theta = +$57. The position is delta neutral and theta will continue to build.
We will see the minutes from the last FOMC meeting on Wednesday; that could move the market. Trading sideways into the earnings announcement cycle may be the best alternative for this overbought market. It allows the various indicators, such as the average P/E of the S&P 500, to move closer to long term averages without a dramatic market correction or crash. In any case, this market is dangerous; keep a close eye on it.
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Are the markets at a tipping point and about to go over the edge? That seems to be the question on traders' minds. I haven't updated the calculations, but several weeks ago, I noted in one of my newsletters that the P/E ratio of the S&P 500 would be roughly back to the median of the historical range by simply trading sideways into October. So which is it to be? Will we correct and bring the market back in line painfully or simply wander sideways for a few weeks and blow off some steam in a more innocuous manner? If we look at the small caps, the answer appears to be that we are going over the cliff. Today RUT lost $16 to close at $1102 whereas SPX lost $6, closing at $1972. For the past few trading sessions, SPX appears to be setting up the area around 1965 to 1970 as a solid support level. But that could just be a temporary stop on the way lower. If we continue sideways for another week or so, we will be into the next earnings cycle, and then we could see the markets tip one way or the other, depending on the market's reaction to various earnings announcements - always hard to predict.
Today's market action occurred on huge volume, as the big funds made last minute changes to portfolios to "look their best" for the third quarter statements. Over 2.3 billion shares of the S&P 500 stocks traded today; volume was up 26% on the NYSE and was up 21% on NASDAQ.
Volatility rose less than a half of a point with the VIX closing at 16.3%.
The Case Schiller home price survey posted a 6.7% gain for July, down form June's +8.1%. The Chicago PMI dropped a bit in September with a 60.5 reading, down from 64.3 in August. The consumer sentiment survey from the Conference Board was up huge in August at 93.4, but came back to earth in September with a reading of 86.0. The consumer sentiment surveys from the University of Michigan appear to have less scatter in their data.
So the broad blue chip market is holding up well, but small caps continue to fall off. That is a concern. I don't regret my decision to close the put spreads in my October condors. RUT is now trading lower than it did at the bottom of the early August correction, and is over $50 below its 50 and 200 dma. But SPX is now solidly below its 50 dma, so RUT's weakness may finally be contagious. I think it pays to be conservative at this point. If in doubt, close or hedge.
