Stock Market Blog -Jul 24th

The market rallied and took back all of the losses from the prior week, with Technology, Energy, and Financials leading the way! News of another Greece bailout, along with good earnings reports (like AAPL) helped move the markets up.

Interestingly, the Nasdaq 100 has now surpassed the high of 2007, just before the financial crisis took the markets down.

New all time highs: AAPL, CLX, GLD, IAU, FOSL, JAZZ (same as last week!)
Also: IBM, ISRG, KO, MCD, PM
Earnings pop: AAPL, AMD, IBM, KO, MCD, MS
New all time lows: PSQ, DXD (inverse 'leveraged' Nasdaq 100 and the DOW)

New unemployment claims were up again, this time to 418,000 (chart).
This week, three more banks were shut down by the FDIC! (list).

Next week: (Economic reports link). Reports include Q2 GDP on Friday.

Earnings reports continue to come in next week:
Mon -BIDU, NFLX, TXN
Tue -BIIB, BP, CMI, F, MMM, AMZN GILD, JNPR
Wed -BA, COP, GMCR, V
Thu -XOM, SBUX
Fri -MRK,

Market commentary: Earnings will continue to move the markets next week as we get reports from some of the big oil companies, and some more DOW stocks. If we can break out above the May high in the S&P 500 and the small-cap Russell 2000, that could bode well for the markets. The NASDAQ 100 has already taken out that high. The S&P 500 is forming a nice inverted head & shoulders bullish pattern.

From my blog post last week...
"On the optimistic side, we could be forming an ABC pattern from the low in late June, with the next leg being bullish after this recent pullback."

Here is what the market actually did this week (nice ABC pattern!):


This weeks charts:
SPY -S&P 500 -maybe an ABC pattern forming
KO -new all time high
MCD -new all time high
PSQ -new all time low -be careful with leveraged ETFs!

Commodities (charts):
Oil prices were up again, closing around $99.80 per barrel.
Natural Gas was down, closing near $4.40.
Gold was up slightly, closing at $1600 for the first time ever; silver closed over $40
The 30 year Bond was down a bit, closing near $125.88.
The US Dollar was down a bit, closing near 74.46

News:
Stocks end week solidly higher
Stocks: Big week ahead
Debt ceiling: Now what?
Apple’s on a roll; now comes the hard part
BofA to give away houses
Citi and Morgan Stanley Borrowed Over $2 Trillion From Fed
American Airlines Orders 460 Narrowbody Aircraft
Borders Bookstore Will Eliminate 11,000 Jobs, Close 400 Remaining Stores
U.S. lost $14B on auto bailout... Excellent!

Day Traders' Switch to Currency Speculation
Gold to Fall Below $1320 in Second Half of 2011
Petrobras unveils $225 billion investment plan
China to Wall Street: The Side-Door Shuffle
Ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn had sex with three women...