Stock Market Blog -Dec 21st

The market rallied strong after the Fed meeting on Wednesday, catching most people by surprise. We could see this rally continue to finish off the year, and as 'short' positions are covered. Next week could be a light trading week because of the Christmas holiday.

There are still good trading opportunities using Options, because Implied Volatility is still somewhat elevated. Credit Spreads and Iron Condors would be appropriate trades.

New all time highs:   ABT, ACN, ALL, AET, BIIB, CL, CVS, DG, HD, HON, ISIS, MMM, PG, PNC, TJX, UNH, UPS, STX, WDC, etc.
All time lows:   ARCO

Pops:     ORCL,   Drops:   

Next week:  Economic reports,   

Earnings:     WAG, 

This week's charts:

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

Commodities/Futures (charts):
Crude Oil was mostly unchanged, closing near $57.13  

Natural Gas dropped a bit, closing at $3.46
Gold was down a bit, closing near 1196 

The 30 year Bond dropped a bit, closing near 144.31

The US Dollar was up, closing at 89.84

NEWS:

Biggest weekly gain in nearly two years for S&P 500

Chart of the Day - Biotech stocks in a strong uptrend

Frothy.com: Is Part II of the Dotcom Crash Coming?
China’s stock market goes boom
The sun is setting on the emerging market miracle
For the West, Russia Has Become Too Big to Fail

Why Russia's crisis could have a ripple effect