Stock Market Blog -Aug 5th

The market rallied on Friday after a better than expected monthly Jobs report, recovering losses from earlier in the week. Bonds dropped as stocks rallied. Earnings season is just about over, so the market will need a new catalyst to move in one direction or the other. Europe may come back into focus again. Interesting to note is that the small cap stocks (IWM) are lagging way behind the rest of the market (SPY, DIA).

New all time highs:   ABT, ATHN, DKS, EXPE, PM, SPG, SWI, TJX, UA, VTR
All time lows:  FB,MCP, ZNGA, ZIP

Pops: CRUS, GMCR, LNKD, MELI
Drops: ANF, COH, HUM, KCG, MCP, ZIP

Next week: Economic reports   ...slow week?

Earnings reports:   Among companies reporting next week are: 
CF, CHK, DIS, ESRX, JCP, M, ODP, PCLN, WEN

Market Commentary

As I mentioned last week, we could see 1400 on the SPX before long.Where we go from there is anyone's guess, but if we take out the April high of 1422, we could go much higher. Also we are at the top of the up-channel started in early June in the SPY, and could pull back into the channel again.

Bonds might start looking attractive again too (TLT).

This week's charts:

Weekly Unemployment claims
S&P 500 -up-channel still intact
OptionsMakeSense -trade with low cost and high probabilities

XOM and CVX -bouncing off the top again, or going higher this time?

Commodities/Futures (charts):
Crude Oil rallied, closing near $91.40
Natural Gas pulled back a bit, closing near $2.88
Gold pulled back a bit, closing near $1606
The 30 year Bond dropped, closing near $149.53
The US Dollar pulled back a bit, closing near 82.45

NEWS:
Wall Street Week Ahead: Positive momentum in the face of headwinds
The Bad News In Friday's Jobs Report
The dollar is now corporate America's worst enemy
Oil at 2-Week High, Biggest 1-Day Gain in a Month
Central Banks Can’t Save the World
How about quantitative easing for the people?
The depression is here — it’s just invisible
How the 2004 Olympics Triggered Greece's Decline
After five years of crisis, the euro area risks Japanese-style economic stagnation