Stock Market Blog -Apr 6th

Stocks rallied for the week, then gave it all back on Friday after the Jobs report. Biotechs and some of the Techs were hit hard.  JNJ closed at an all time high however. This could be the beginning of a correction here. Meanwhile Bonds and Gold rallied on Friday as stocks dropped.

Note that the S&P500 hit an all time high on Friday before the sell-off!

Keeping an eye on the debt clock (on the left) -it is now over the $17,500,000,000,000 mark! It crossed $17T last October.

New all time highs:   APC, HAL, JNJ, MDT, PNC, SNDK, WFC, WDC, UTX
All time lows:   -

Pops:  APC, MNKD     Drops:  FB, NFLX, P, YELP, etc.

Next week:  Economic reports,  

Earnings:     AA, JPM, WFC

Nasdaq and Small Caps already in a down trend...

Market Commentary

Earnings season kicks off next week -lets see how the market reacts. The deluge of earnings really starts a week from now, so this week we may just be in a wait and see mode. The DOW looks like it may have double topped, while the NASDAQ and the Russell small cap index are already in a short term down-trend. The momentum and high-flier stocks have been hit hard too (e.g. BIIB, FB, NFLX, AMZN, TWTR...).

Implied Volatility on individual stocks tend to rise ahead of earnings, then drop sharply once the earnings are out. Options strategies can be used to take advantage of these predictable moves.

This week's charts:

S&P 500 -topping?
10yr Interest Rates
Labor Force Participation Rate (10 year chart)

Commodities/Futures (charts):
Crude Oil was mostly unchanged, closing around $101.14  -still above $100!
Natural Gas was mostly unchanged, closing  at $4.44
Gold dropped again, closing at $1303  -so much for $1400!
The 30 year Bond was down, closing at 132.97
The US Dollar was mostly unchanged, closing at 80.57

NEWS:
Stocks: brutal finale to week
Irrational Nonexuberance for Stocks
The Rate Of Share Buybacks Has Doubled In The Last Decade
Google's stock split: not evil, just smart
Why Amazon faces an uphill battle in streaming video