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Daily Market Update – June 18, 2015 (Close)
Yesterday couldn’t really be labeled as a disappointment. With the market having gone higher on Tuesday and erasing all of Monday’s losses and with lots of anticipation about even the slightest changes in the wording of the FOMC’s Statement release, anything was possible. The fact that there was to be a Chairman’s press conference following the statement release was probably a source of some comfort as boih Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen have been able to bring some optimism to light, regardless of the sentiment perceived to have been in the statement itself. This time was a little different, though, but still not disappointing. The market had already moved reasonably higher prior to the press conference and maintained that level all through the conference. It was only in the final thirty minutes of trading, after the conclusion of the question and answer period that the market gave up some of those modest gains. During that conference, as one of my subscribers said, Yellen should have changed her name to Wallenda, as she did the best tightrope walking act ever. Yellenda. I like the sound of that. She did indeed do a great job of not really answering questions, but she did make it clear that the data would lead the FOMC into action, unlike the “robotic” increases seen in an early Federal Reserve. So that brings us to today and tomorrow. With the pre-open futures again up modestly, there was still some hope for some assignments and maybe even some rollovers. Not only was there a rollover, but an uncovered position actually had calls sold on it, although both reflected the really low volatility thought to reflect the market over the next few months. As this morning was getting ready to begin, it was extraordinarily unlikely that I’d be adding any new positions this week, particularly since there were no interesting dividend plays today, tomorrow or on Monday of next week. I much rather preferred to see a couple of those assignments that appear to be possible and build up cash reserves, even if only slightly, than spend any money at the moment. More importantly was being able to add to the pitiful income stream of late, but that would have required some more nice gains this week. Who knew that they would come today? Even in the context of some negative news from overseas. At the moment I’d be happy to meet or exceed the market’s performance for the week, but would still be a little greedy and like to add some income into that mix. After the past 2 weeks of having lots of ex-dividend positions, this week’s single position doesn’t make up for the lack of premium income. Hopefully some of the optimism that may have been expressed by Janet Yellen ye Otherwise, today’s party wasn’t even the least bit upset by Oracle’s poor earnings and attempts to spin the news into something good at the expense of its competitors. Even though Oracle reported yesterday and blamed currency exchange for its woes of the first quarter, those reporting the second quarter’s results, beginning early in July, may have a very different story to tell, as USD/Euro parity hasn’t occured, as expected. That should only add to top line and bottom lines and should be good for us all. But first, we have to get to that point. Today was a nice step forward and tomorrow could be another toward at least keeping us above the water line.
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