Stocks started on a weak note last week, falling nearly down to SPX 2070 by Tuesday morning. As I had stated before there is strong support between 2080 and 2070. Markets mainly followed the news coming out of Europe revolving around the negotiation on Greek debt and the release of its bailout funds. On Wednesday, stocks popped higher as there seemed to be some optimism in Greece reaching a deal with its creditors. On Thursday morning, SPX climbed back to 2115. Hope faded on Friday, as the negotiating parties parted without getting a deal done.
As I said last weekend, market indices were becoming more vulnerable. Wednesday's pop brought the indices back to neutral. But, Friday's drop put pressured on the major indices again!
However, through the volatility of the market, we did exceptionally well last week, giving the value of my Ecstatic Plays portfolio yet another jump! Our trades on NFLX, MBLY, and WBAI gave us some nice upside gains! Our VIX calls gave us nice protection on the downside. Here are the closed trades for the week:
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For the week, the Dow was up +49.36 points; SPX added +1.28 points; Nasdaq slid 17.36 points. Gold bounced higher to close above $1180/ounce. Oil (WTI) was basically unchanged, trading around $60/barrel. Asian markets were down at the time of this writing, as the latest proposal from Greece was rejected again! Let's see where the US markets stood after Friday's close:
SPX
Nasdaq
SPX now looks weak, closing below its daily MAs. Nasdaq is neutral with a bearish bias, as its MACD slid. For the new week, focus is still on Greece/EU. Also, on Wednesday, we will hear from the Fed, regarding interest rates. FDX reports on Wednesday morning, followed by ORCL in the afternoon.
Unless some good news from regarding Greek debt deal develops overnight, we will most likely see weakness to start the week. Financials have held up well so far. Biotechs have seen some weakness. Energies have been trying to establish a bottom, but, to no avail thus far. Software is staying strong ahead of ORCL's earnings.
Sector Watch
FAS (financial)
XLE (energy)
BTK (biotech)
IGV (software)
FDN (internet)
Good night and HappyTrading! ™