Stock Market Blog -Jul 6th

We got a good Jobs report on Thursday and the market rallied some more, with the DOW closing over 17000 for the first time. The unemployment rate fell from 6.3% to 6.1%, with 288,000 new jobs created in June. Bonds dropped, as did Oil, and Utilities (XLU).

New all time highs:   ABT, ATVI, CSX, CELG, DIS, EXPE, GILD, JNJ, MMM, SNDK, PNC, QCOR, WFC, WLP,  UNH, YUM, etc.
All time lows:   -

Pops:    PETM,    Drops:  

Next week:  Economic reports,  

Earnings:     

Market Commentary

Last week's comments:  "I continue to think we will see the S&P500 hit the 2000 mark, and the Small Caps (IWM -Russell 2000) finally take out their previous high near 120. the long term up-trend is still in place."

Well, we're almost there! The DOW did take out 17,000 though (not mentioned last week). The rally probably has a little more steam left in it. Then we start getting earnings reports.

Once again, this week Implied Volatility in the Options market continues to hold near multi-year lows. If you are an Options trader, because of the low Volatility, this is a good time to trade Calendar Spreads, or trade long positions on the VIX or other volatility products.

This week's charts:

S&P 500 -new all time highs
10yr Interest Rates -
Labor Force Participation Rate (10 year chart)

Commodities/Futures (charts):
Crude Oil was mostly flat, closing at 103.77 -holding above $100

Natural Gas was mostly unchanged, closing at 4.36
Gold was mostly unchanged, closing at $1321 -holding above $1300

The 30 year Bond was down a bit, closing near 135.18

The US Dollar was up a bit, closing at 80.28

NEWS:

Don't ditch your U.S. stocks just yet
Great jobs report: Strong hiring, unemployment down
Jobs return, but low pay remains a problem

Pimco’s Gross Bets $200 Million of Own Cash on Low Interest Rate

Starbucks: Undervalued With A Price Target Of $101
Covered Calls – $1,000 in July Options Income
Top performing stocks of the first half