Apple’s split bails out the NASDAQ today
Shares of Apple (AAPL) split 4-1 today, helping the stock to a 3.39% gain on the day. If not for Apple (with a little aid from Amazon (AMZN), up 1.45% at the close), the last day of August might have looked a bit ugly. Even with the help from Apple and Amazon, the...
“Re-opening dependent” stocks outperform tech shares for another day–time to nibble on AAL, SIX, SHAK puts?
For yet another day shares of companies dependent on the re-opening of the U.S. economy and continued good news on job and spending gains during a time of coronavirus outperformed shares of tech companies. For example, while, as of 3:30 p.m. New York time today,...
Let the stimulus logrolling begin (I hope): Republicans near $1 trillion (maybe) with Democrats at $3 trillion as McConnell describes his plan on Senate floor
Of course, there isn't actually a Republican bill in the Senate yet, but in a floor speech today Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said “The American economy needs another shot of adrenaline.” McConnell also noted that infections are “climbing in hot spots around...
Today it’s Amazon’s market
This morning shares of Amazon (AMZN) burst higher out of the box, gaining 5.98% as of noon New York time. The catalyst, it appears, was a new target price from Goldman Sachs of $3800 a share, up from the previous target of $3000. The shares had closed at $2961.97 on...
Market worries that a smaller-than-expected drop in new claims for unemployment portends future downturn in economy
Initial jobless claims in regular state programs totaled a seasonally adjusted 1.3 million in the week ended July 11, down just 10,000 from the prior week, the Labor Department reported this morning. That's the smallest drop in the new claims since March and feeds...
Vaccine hopes drive stock prices higher today–and tomorrow?
U.S. stocks broke strongly higher today as Moderna (RNA) disclosed results from an initial safety trial. Investors also got a report on the ITV.com website that new findings from the vaccine candidate being developed at the University of Oxford could be published as...
A promising trading strategy for upcoming earnings season
I'd like to see this pattern season for a few more days--until next week I'd say--but I think I see a promising trading strategy for the second quarter earnings season that begins, in my mind at least, with JPMorgan Chase (JPM) before the market open on Tuesday, July...
Patterns and positioning after today’s weakness in stocks
I think anyone who tells you they "know" where stocks are going next week is either smoking something (and I'd like some, please) or is looking to sell you something. In the last two weeks we've seen a market that was totally willing to look past all the evidence that...
Buying Put Options on theme park operator Six Flags
Think of Six Flags (SIX) as Disney (DIS) without the movie studio, streaming service, and cable and TV assets. In other words, the company is just theme parks. 25 of them with 22 in the United States. Right now the company says that the parks are closed through...Download Jim’s eBook for Free
