All index, energy, metals, and grains futures are higher today. The Dow futures are up fifty three points, S&P futures are up five and a half, and Nasdaq futures are up eleven. Crude is up a half of a point, while gold futures are up fifteen, silver is up a quarter and platinum gains thirteen. Corn bounces back up seven points.
Marriott (MAR) released its earnings after the market closed yesterday, beating the estimate of $0.40 by four cents. However, the company lowered its yearly earnings outlook. Marriott has been bolstering its lagging US revenue by focusing on overseas growth, especially in China.
Weekly jobless claims are reported today, which may be pushing futures higher this morning as well. Jobless claims are expected to grow this week up three thousand from its prior revised count of 363 thousand.
There is plenty of news to play to today. The Jobless claims Report and Producer Price Income Reports are set to come out at 8:30 AM EST, the FOMC Forecasts at 2:00 PM EST, followed by the Bernanke’s press conference at 2:15 PM EST. Last week, there were 365 thousand new jobless claims reported and projections have a growth in claims to 370 thousand with a possible high of 380 thousand. The Producer Price Index, which measures the average change in prices received by domestic producers, is projected to increase 1.4%, but only 0.2% not including food and energy.
The Fed estimates released today will cover GDP growth in 2012 and 2013, inflation and unemployment. The market’s movement over the past couple weeks suggests that investors and traders expect an announcement of intervention, and the only tool the Fed has left is a quantitative easing. I expect heavy movements late in the day today or early tomorrow morning during higher trading volume.
The Apple (AAPL| 669.79) iPhone 5 event has finally passed and consumers are left with an upgraded version of the iPhone 4. AAPL was up $9.20 at the end of the day after many volatile movements, hitting new highs and lows throughout the day, a $15 range. In pre-market trading today, AAPL is up again another $5.71 to around 675.50, which is less than ten points from its all-time high hit at the end of last week. One company that should be highlighted during all the hubbub about the iPhone 5 is Nokia.
Nokia Corporation (NOK| 2.75) has had a tough year with a 52-week range of 1.63 – 7.38. NOK has been in steady decline since the beginning of the year. In pre-market trading today, NOK is up 1.82% and expect it to continue to grow if iPhone fanatics get bored with the new upgraded model. If you have seen the Lumia, you know that Nokia has built a beautiful product worthy of competing with the best smartphones. The new Lumia phones are said to run on the windows phone 8 operating system. An earnings report is expected around mid-October, estimating a $-0.12 EPS. I might look away from a short play on NOK, but a long-term and cheap OTM call spread would be a play that interests me.
Alex Kalish has a master’s degree in economics from Suffolk University.
Before I joined KeeneOnTheMarket I was a clueless trader that struggled to find consistency. Since signing up for the KOTM options education course I...
Frank C.
I am very pleased with Andrew Keene and his trading strategy. I tried other rooms in which the host shows up a total of 2...
Jokie M.
When I attended Andrew's workshop in late September 2013, I immediately saw the power of implementing trades triggered by unusual options activity so I signed...
