Tech slide continues casting doubt on “buy on the dip” strength

Tech slide continues casting doubt on “buy on the dip” strength

June 15, 2017 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing, Short Term, Volatility, You Might Have Missed | 3 comments

Anyone who bought technology stocks on the dip last Friday and Monday is feeling unhappy today. And that spells a worried market. Especially since key stocks in the sector such as Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZN) are showing signs of breaking through important support. The NASDAQ Composite Index is off 0.93% today as of 12:30 p.m. New York time.

Intraday volatility picks up: What’s the message (if any)?

Tech stocks down again but not a replay of Friday rout

June 12, 2017 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing | 0 comments

The market is more anxious today but it doesn’t seem anywhere near panic country. The CBOE S&P 500 Volatility Index (VIX), was up another 10% today (10.75% as of 1:30 to be exact) on top of a greater than 10% gain on Friday, but that’s a relatively restrained move considering that what is known as the “fear” index has been trading near record lows and that this index can tack on moves of 30% to 40% in a day when investors get really fearful.

Intraday volatility picks up: What’s the message (if any)?

Buy on the dip reflex is still in force today

May 19, 2017 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing, Short Term, You Might Have Missed | 0 comments

Last night I posted that today would be critical for this market’s buy on the dip reflex. Yesterday’s move up after the Wednesday rout wasn’t convincing. As long as traders and investors treat any dip as an occasion for buying, it will be difficult for this market to build up any downside momentum. So far, today’s market action is a very strong vote in favor of the continued working of the buy on the dip reflex.

Oil back down this morning as “hedgies” reposition

Oil back down this morning as “hedgies” reposition

May 9, 2017 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing, Short Term, Volatility, You Might Have Missed | 0 comments

So much for Monday’s oil rally. This morning, a day after Russia and Saudi Arabia succeeded in talking up oil prices with promises that OPEC and allied non-OPEC producers would extend the current production cuts past their June expiration until the end of 2017, U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate is down 0.8% to $46.06 a barrel and international benchmark Brent crude is off 0.81% to $48.94 a barrel as of noon in New York

Volatility is absent in the S&P, but pops up in the NASDAQ ahead of tech earnings

This is one odd market: How odd? Look at the SKEW

April 26, 2017 | Daily JAM, Morning Briefing | 0 comments

On one level the U.S. stock market makes perfect sense. The Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index is up 6.64% for 2017 and as you’d expect volatility has tumbled with the CBOE S&P 500 Volatility Index down 22.72% for the year. But another volatility index the CBOE SKEW Index is up 7.5% for 2017. How can two volatility indexes be giving such different pictures of the level of fear, nervousness, and expected volatility in the S&P 500?