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Daily Market Update – August 29, 2016 (Close) It;s the final week of summer and the confusion about interest rates has now been all cleared up. That is to say that there should be no confusion about the continuing confusion over the timing of those rate increases and their number during the remainder of 2016. So that leaves this week’s Employment Situation Report and not much else That is, unless oil and stocks re-establish their strange relationship, which they seem to have done over the past week or two. That didn’t seem to be the case this morning as the futures were evolving, but this is likely to be a very quiet week on volume traded and some things may get exaggerated on the light volume. But as the day started out it became clear that oil and stocks would go their own ways, as oil went lower. The confusion, however, continued, as there was an indication of increasing consumer participation, but that was interpreted as not leading to an earlier interest rate hike than a single one in December. In other words, good news was good news, but not for any logical reason. With a little bit of cash to spend, I wouldn’t mind opening some new positions for the week, but would really love to have a repeat of last week. Last week there were 2 rollovers and the sale of calls on two uncovered positions, in addition to having opened a new position. What was missing last week were any ex-dividend positions. This week already has 4 ex-dividend positions so there is already some income accounted for, but it would be nice to add to those and especially to put more of those uncovered positions to work. Last week’s single new position came on the last day of trading for the week, which is something that I don’t often do. This week there is some considerable uncertainty with Friday’s data release, but I would probably execute any new position trades prior to then, especially if there’s a dividend capture in the equation, as well. Otherwise, it may be a return to the quiet weeks that have been the hallmark of this summer. This may, again, just be a good week to hang out at the beach. . |
