Daily Market Update – February 29, 2016 (9:00 AM) This week seems to be starting like so many weeks of late, except that the less than effusive bad news around the world doesn’t seem to be taking hold here this morning. Foreign stock markets are lower, as is oil. While that’s the case the US stock market futures have turned around from their lows during the early trading in the session and were getting ready to start the day at the flat line. There’s not too much of note this week other than the week ending Employment Situation Report and maybe some more gyrations for the price of oil, as some cautious bulls are coming out of hiding and predicting significant gains by the end of the year. On the surface that would seem like good news, but I wonder if the market would actually feel that way if they started seeing some tangible increases in prices, not just for oil but also for those products that rely on oil. As with most gains, I prefer that they come slowly and methodically, so I’m not really hoping for any kind of drastic move higher this week. With a little money in hand I could per persuaded to use some of it to open new positions this week, but I’m going to remain cautious. While the tenor of February has been very good for the last two weeks, just as last Friday’s GDP could have been a major mover in either direction, the same holds true for this week’s Employment Situation Report. As has been the case of late, I would like to see the market move higher, but more so that I can get some more opportunity to get some calls sold on currently uncovered positions. That has been a very, very slow and arduous process, but it does feel good each time something that has been sitting for far too long as an unproductive member of my portfolio actually does something worthwhile. With lots of ex-dividend positions this week I don’t have quite the compelling need to make trades, but I wouldn’t run away from the opportunity either, particularly as there are no positions that could be potentially rolled over this week. . . |