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Daily Market Update – August 15, 2016 (Close) Last week saw us hitting highs on all 3 major indexes, yet finishing basically unchanged on the week. This week we could be facing a big push from earnings from national retailers once again. Last week it was a strong push higher, but this week we really may be at an inflection point. If the news is good, there may be reason to push the market even higher as there becomes a sense that perhaps the FOMC will act soon to raise interest rates. If the numbers or the guidances are weak, then it’s really anyone’s guess. My guess is that it would be hard to justify a market doing anything but going lower. But if I was being judged on just today, that guess would have been pretty off base, as all 3 major indexes again hit new all time closing highs, as oil led the way, but retail was again strong. For the coming week, coinciding with the end of the monthly cycle, there are 2 expiring positions and 2 ex-dividend positions. While I do have money to spend, I really don’t see where the real attraction is going to come from, although there may be reason to consider the very small handful of choices this week. I imagine that I’ll be doing a lot of watching this week. The market looked as if it is going to open fairly flat, but you never do know what surprises there may be. The only surprise today was more rebound strength in oil, but that was more than enough. Last Thursday, for example, was a nice surprise higher, but it’s hard to imagine that this week’s retail earnings numbers will really continue to surprise. That’s especially so when you consider that there really wasn’t anything very good to report last week. Hopefully, that will change this week and we find a real reason to see the market take off. In either direction. . |
