May 3, 2015
Stocks ended the past week relatively flat as it showed little reaction to the economic data, earnings and the FOMC meeting. Changes in the FOMC statement may mean that they will be immediate in the reactions to data as they took out the time frame portion of the report. The horrible GDP number showed that the economy continues to under-perform despite near full employment and the low gas prices. We are seeing some big drops in specific Sectors and individual stocks recently. The past week saw big drops in the Pharma sector and stocks like Twitter (TWTR) and Facebook (FB) broke trends and sold off. Conservative guidance for their Watch also had market-leader Apple (AAPL) reeling for part of the week. The S&P 500 Index (SPX) was down 0.4% and the Blue Chip-heavy Dow Jones Industrial Average’s ($DJI) fell 0.3% for the week. The tech-heavy Nasdaq (QQQ) finished the week down 1.7% and the small caps (RUT, IWM) led losses as it fell over 3%.
Despite the relative weakness in equities, option volatility was stagnant. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) rose only 3% and can’t get away from the support level near $12. The moves in stocks has had no significant buying in options and we feel that traders are too complacent here. Treasuries fell sharply this past week as the moves lower gained momentum into the end of the week. Is the sell-off signaling that traders may be betting on a rate hike at the June Fed meeting? This was basically off the table as late as 7days ago but the dump in Bonds may have other ideas. The 10-year yield spiked to 2.1%, which we haven’t seen since the beginning of March. Oil futures (/CL) continued its grind higher and settled just below the $60 a barrel level. Inventories are still near record levels and production remains strong so its puzzling to see crude up.
Earnings will continue to sway markets this week as Pharma results are due. This is also a busy week for economic news ending with April employment data on Friday. The report that could affect rate-hike expectations and where the consensus is very wide. Weekly Jobless Claims were at low levels last week so many economists upped their predictions to over an expected 250K. Building up to the report will be updates on manufacturing with factory orders on Monday and updates on services with two related reports on Tuesday. The ADP employment report on Wednesday and jobless claims on Thursday will keep talk alive going into Friday.
Major Earnings for the Upcoming Week:
Monday:
A.M. – CVC, CAN, CMCSA, D, L, MGM, SYY, TSN
P.M. –APC, NUVA, THC
Tuesday:
A.M. – ADM, DTV, EOG, H, K, ODP, VMC, ZTS
P.M.– AGU, ALL, EA, DIS, FISV, FOSL, GRPN, HLF, NDLS, SCTY, ZU
Wednesday:
A.M. – CHK, DDD, OXY, SODA, VG, WEN
P.M. – ATVI, ALXA, ATML, CZR, CLR, DYN, MET, MRO, NUS, TSLA, RIG, TRIP, WFM
Thursday:
A.M. – ALU, MT, GOGO, MWW, OWW, PCLN, SEAS, TAP, TIME, VC
P.M. – ED, MED, NVDA, RMAX, TSO, ZNGA
Friday:
A.M. –AOL, NILE
Economic Releases (5/4 – 5/8):
Monday:
9:00 am CT – Factory Orders
11:25 am CT – Fed’s Evans Speaks
11:30 am CT – TD Ameritrade IMX
2:10 pm CT –Fed’s Williams Speaks
Tuesday:
7:30 am CT –International Trade
8:45 am CT –PMI Services Index
9:00 am CT – ISM Non-Mfg. Index
11:25 am CT –Fed’s Evans Speaks
Wednesday:
6:00 am CT – MBA Purchase Applications
7:15 am CT – ADP Employment Report
7:30 am CT – Productivity & Costs
8:15 am CT – Fed’s Yellen Speaks
9:30 am CT – Oil Inventories
12:15 pm CT –Fed’s George Speaks
12:30 pm CT –Fed’s Lockhart Speaks
Thursday:
7:30 am CT – Weekly Jobless Claims
9:30 am CT – Natural gas Inventories
Friday:
7:30 am CT – April Jobs Report
9:00 am CT – Wholesale Trade |