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Daily Market Update – May 12, 2016 (Close) Yesterday the market lost 217 of the 222 points it gained the previous day. I don’t think that the losses by some of the nation’s largest retailers yesterday had any kind of similar offsets the previous day and it’s pretty unclear when those may start getting better. This morning the early futures were pointing higher, but there wasn’t too much reason for any conviction, as they seemed to be tied again to oil. The lack of conviction and the continuing tie to oil was evident all day, through the ups, the downs and then the ups again. Yesterday, that tie broke, as the overwhelmingly bad news from the retail sector just trumped everything else. Today there was lots more retail pain, but oil may have saved the day. There may be still more of that to come as more of the retailers are ahead over the coming weeks, but it is hard to imagine that some of them will go much lower, after being taken down by the big wave caused by Macy’s and now Nordstrom. I had just a single position that was to expire this week and after a rocky start it was still fairly well in the money as the day was approaching the mid-point of the afternoon. However, as I mentioned yesterday, I was interested in rolling that over, possibly even to a higher strike, if the premiums allowed, particularly as there is also a small dividend next week. I did get that rollover, although staying at the same strike. Now, with that done, I am actually hoping for an early assignment, since the premium is already pocketed. Otherwise, I was expecting it to be a quiet day and it was. Definitely the same tomorrow. |
