Category: Daily Market Update

Daily Market Update – Jul 1, 2014 (Close)

Yesterday was a little busier than I had expected, but it was certainly a quiet and uneventful day as the market stayed in a tight range all through the trading session.

This morning the pre-open futures are pointing toward a mildly positive opening.

I didn’t think that was going to result in much as far as opening new positions, but I had hoped and it turned out to be especially nice to see that opening spill over into the regular session and take on some life. That gave some opportunity to wring additional income out of existing positions, although lately you do have to wring harder to squeeze much premium out. To some degree that’s offset if dividends become part of the equation or become sought after, but there is a limit to those opportunities and they are far fewer than the universe of optionable stocks.

In the absence of any news or any obvious catalysts those kinds of large moves are possible when there’s not too much trading going on. If that’s the case, any moves are usually not very well sustained and return back to where they had started in fairly short order.

Today you certainly would have been hard pressed to have identified a reason for the day long and sustained strong gain.

I suppose that with cash still in reserve and the willingness to spend some of that reserve down, I also wouldn’t necessarily mind a sharp, light volume kind of sell-off this week, especially after today’s gains. That would give enhanced buying opportunity and also lead to some increased option premiums.

It’s always strange to suggest that you wouldn’t mind some sort of a sell-off, even if highly qualifying what type would be acceptable, but there are definitely advantages, especially if there’s cash in reserve.

Unfortunately, like so many things in life, what you wish for and what you get can be very different, so even while thinking that a sell-off might be nice, that’s only if rational heads prevail.

When it comes to money rational thinking is often in short supply, whether its greed or fear that’s at fault.

This week the only known challenge will be Thursday’s Employment Situation Report. With three and a half days of markets being closed after the report any unforeseen news, such as might corroborate the revised GDP statistics, could lead to weakness, especially if other events, such as in Iraq, pile on to the nervousness.

We’ll get a little bit of a hint tomorrow as the AD
P statistics are released and any deterioration in those numbers could serve as a precursor for Thursday.

It has been a while since the Employment Situation report really mattered, but this could be one of those times that it does, perhaps exacerbated by the nervousness of staying long through an exceptionally long week-end.

Recent history, meaning for the past two years, however, indicates that traders haven’t really cared too much about weekend exposure, even when there were clear threats, so  the likelihood still has to remain that the event will be another non-event.

I’m still content to watch and wait as the rest of the week unwinds. In the event of any weakness I would likely not be of the belief that there would be anything sustained, so would probably be in the market to add new positions.

As it is, it turned out to be a nice day to watch and to actually pull off some rollovers, on a Tuesday no less, as there’s no better time to sell new options than into the face of a rally. That’s especially true when dealing with such a short week as this one that sees much faster erosion of premiums for this week’s options than for next weeks.

Of course, that doesn’t leave too much left to do for the rest of the week, now with most positions already rolled over, but you still will never know what awaits around the corner and where there may be opportunity to wring those premiums.

Daily Market Update – Jul 1, 2014 (9:15 AM)

Yesterday was a little busier than I had expected, but it was certainly a quiet and uneventful day as the market stayed in a tight range all through the trading session.

This morning the pre-open futures are pointing toward a mildly positive opening.

I don’t think that’s going to result in much as far as opening new positions, but it would be especially nice to see that opening spill over into the regular session and take on some life. Maybe that would give some opportunity to wring some income out of existing positions, although lately you do have to wring harder to squeeze much premium out. To some degree that’s offset if dividends become part of the equation or become sought after, but there is a limit to those opportunities and they are far fewer than the universe of optionable stocks.

In the absence of any news or any obvious catalysts those kinds of large moves are possible when there’s not too much trading going on. If that’s the case, any moves are usually not very well sustained and return back to where they had started in fairly short order.

I suppose that with cash still in reserve and the willingness to spend some of that reserve down, I also wouldn’t necessarily mind a sharp, light volume kind of sell-off this week. That would give enhanced buying opportunity and also lead to some increased option premiums.

It’s always strange to suggest that you wouldn’t mind some sort of a sell-off, even if highly qualifying what type would be acceptable, but there are definitely advantages, especially if there’s cash in reserve.

Unfortunately, like so many things in life, what you wish for and what you get can be very different, so even while thinking that a sell-off might be nice, that’s only if rational heads prevail.

When it comes to money rational thinking is often in short supply, whether its greed or fear that’s at fault.

This week the only known challenge will be Thursday’s Employment Situation Report. With three and a half days of markets being closed after the report any unforeseen news, such as might corroborate the revised GDP statistics, could lead to weakness, especially if other events, such as in Iraq, pile on to the nervousness.

We’ll get a little bit of a hint tomorrow as the ADP statistics are released and any deterioration in those numbers could serve as a precursor for Thursday.

It has been a while since the Employment Situation report really mattered, but t
his could be one of those times that it does, perhaps exacerbated by the nervousness of staying long through an exceptionally long week-end.

Recent history, meaning for the past two years, however, indicates that traders haven’t really cared too much about weekend exposure, even when there were clear threats, so  the likelihood still has to remain that the event will be another non-event.

I’m still content to watch and wait as the rest of the week unwinds. In the event of any weakness I would likely not be of the belief that there would be anything sustained, so would probably be in the market to add new positions.

Daily Market Update – June 30, 2014 (Close)

A 3 1/2 day trading week that ends with the Employment Situation Report as many of the big boys head out to the Hamptons early to start the summer can make for a quiet trading week.

In volume, but not necessarily in outcome.

Other than some surprise that might be contained in the monthly numbers reported Thursday morning, there really isn’t much that should move markets, but you can never tell what kind of anomalous moves can be found during light volume trading.

While last week seems as if the market was already on vacation this week it definitely becomes reality and my expectation isn’t to be doing too much trading.

For most of today it seemed as if most everyone had gone away as well, even as the market drifted lower in the final hour after having spent the day in a pretty tight trading range.

This was one of those days that I could have done something else or maybe tried multi-tasking, even though there were a few, not terribly exciting trades to be made.

Coming off a forgettable week I would have loved to see a return to the ability to sell calls on existing positions rather than aggressively adding new positions. With only a handful of positions expiring this week and with premiums reflecting a much shorter week it’s a little more challenging to find any opportunities that will expire this week. That may result in adding on to the list of positions set to expire next week, as that same challenge was present last week when looking for rollovers.

With sufficient cash to start the week I didn’t mind bringing the level down to about 20%. That would have meant 5 to 6 trades, but I just don’t believe that will end up being the case. I’m actually stunned that even three opening trades were made, but even those may have simply been done to try and fight off boredom.

One thing that I would like to see, but have now been waiting a while, is any kind of market commitment toward direction. That could be a higher or a lower direction, but at least a short term path. Maybe tomorrow, because today didn’t quite live up to that expectation.

This morning’s pre-open futures didn’t help to give much of an indication of any commitment, as moderation continued to be the theme. As so often has been the case lately, the early indication is for a slightly negative opening and most often that has gotten into the habit of leading to a meandering day.

And that’s exactly what today was.

With weeks as short as this one just about the only way to capture a reasonable premium on a weekly trade is to be able to make it fairly early in the week’s opening session, as the remaining time until expiration ticks away very quickly.

With some nice dividends this week it may simply be a good time to add to some of those positions, such as in JP Morgan and Bristol Myers, particularly as they trade off from their recent highs and their sectors may be in line for the next rotation, as that has continually been the market’s character as it reaches new highs but its component pieces aren’t always following along as you would normally expect.

That might make it a very easy kind of week.

But as usual, it’s not terribly often that a plan really goes as envisioned.

While clarity is always a nice thing to have I don’t think that vision will in any way be advanced this week.

Hopefully, there will at least be opportunity to generate some income, with or without much in the way of new purchases.

Daily Market Update – June 30, 2014 (9:00 AM)

A 3 1/2 day trading week that ends with the Employment Situation Report as many of the big boys head out to the Hamptons early to start the summer can make for a quiet trading week.

In volume, but not necessarily in outcome.

Other than some surprise that might be contained in the monthly numbers reported Thursday morning, there really isn’t much that should move markets, but you can never tell what kind of anomalous moves can be found during light volume trading.

While last week seems as if the market was already on vacation this week it definitely becomes reality and my expectation isn’t to be doing too much trading.

Coming off a forgettable week I would love to see a return to the ability to sell calls on existing positions rather than aggressively adding new positions. With only a handful of positions expiring this week and with premiums reflecting a much shorter week it may be challenging to find any opportunities that will expire this week. That may result in adding on to the list of positions set to expire next week, as that same challenge was present last week when looking for rollovers.

With sufficient cash to start the week I don’t mind bringing the level down to about 20%. That would mean 5 to 6 trades, but I just don’t believe that will end up being the case.

One thing that I would like to see, but have now been waiting a while, is any kind of market commitment toward direction. That could be a higher or a lower direction, but at least a short term path.

This morning’s pre-open futures aren’t helping to give much of an indication as moderation continues to be the theme. As so often has been the case lately, the early indication is for a slightly negative opening and most often that has gotten into the habit of leading to a meandering day.

With weeks as short as this one just about the only way to capture a reasonable premium on a weekly trade is to be able to make it fairly early in the week’s opening session, as the remaining time until expiration ticks away very quickly.

With some nice dividends this week it may simply be a good time to add to some of those positions, such as in JP Morgan and Bristol Myers, particularly as they tradeoff from their recent highs and their sectors may be in line for the next rotation, as that has continually been the market’s character as it reaches new highs but its component pieces aren’t always following along as you would normally expect.

That might make it a very easy kind of week.

But as usual, it’s not terribly often that a plan really goes as envisioned.

While clarity is always a nice thing to have I don’t think that vision will in any way be advanced this week.

Hopefully, there will at least be opportunity to generate some income, with or without much in the way of new purchases.

Daily Market Update – June 26, 2014 (Close)

Yesterday was really a day that had government imprints on just about everything from before the opening bell until after the closing bell.

It started with a government decision regarding oil exports that significantly hurt the refiners across the board.

Then came the Supreme Court decision that may have killed off Aereo and its technology while boosting the networks and local broadcasters.

Finally, there came an IRS ruling in favor of Iron Mountains quest to be considered a REIT. That battle and open question had been going on for at least three years and the sudden spike in its option premiums suggested that some kind of decision was forthcoming.

It would otherwise likely have been a very quiet day if not for those stories that continue this morning with allegations by the New York State Attorney General against Barclays and its “dark pools,” Most people would believe that whether a violation of the law or not, Barclays wouldn’t be the only one involved.

Like they say, there’s usually more than one cockroach, so that may explain some weakness to all of the others that wouldn’t be likely to let a good scheme go unused. They certainly wouldn’t let Barclays be the only one to prosper from doing something of questionable ethics or legality.

The latter two of yesterday’s decisions were known to be coming, it just wasn’t exactly clear when they would be announced, nor what the decisions would be. The oil exporting rules came as a complete surprise, not just in timing, but in content, as well.

Ultimately, whether you’re on the right side of the wrong side of a government decision it’s an unsettling way to go about things. You really can’t get any closer to pure gambling as you’re fully dependent on a decision that is going to move markets in one direction or another, with very little chance of leaving the stock unchanged.

Even worse, there are no leaks or well placed rumors to give any ideas of what is to come. Watching SBGI in the days before the decision was released was pretty laughable as the shares alternated between going higher and going lower on multiple occasions on an intraday basis. People were simply guessing and rushing to place their bets.

While that may have been the case for IRM and SBGI, it wasn’t really part of the equation for those with positions in the oil refiners. Doing a quick glance at four of the major refiners there was a market capitalization d
ecline of more than $10 billion on yesterday’s unanticipated news and then its unexpected content.

Today doesn’t seem as if yesterday’s theme will have legs, as it’s a new day and one beginning to appear as if it will have no catalysts nor any new big stories, save what may further develop from the Attorney General’s office.

Unfortunately, lately bad news and the over the top reactions are much slower in rebounding than I can remember during any upward moving market.

While government intervention is certainly needed it can raise havoc with markets whether through direct intervention or indirect. It’s much easier to navigate the markets when the intervention is below the radar and more geared toward creating a liquid and credible environment for trading.

Yesterday was a bit heavy handed. In the case of Aereo, it’s not even very clear that the Justices understand technology nor considered the history of the development of television, its transmission and reception. Their decision, as reflected in Justice Breyer’s eyes, was as much about definitions and drawing parallels to existing models as through an interpretation of the law.

For those old enough to remember “rabbit ears.” the Aereo is essentially a  new iteration of rabbit ears that allows transmission through public airwaves to be delivered through an internet connection. They charge a monthly fee for that service. The broadcasters claim that they are pirating protected content and charging for that content.

Go back 60 years as television was being introduced and those broadcasts over the public airwaves were worthless without antennae. The only difference between Aereo and those antennae makers of days past is that the latter didn’t lease out their products. They sold them. Had they chosen to follow a leasing model today Aereo would be nothing more than a mobile version of an old product and sales model. You paid for the product that captured protected content back then and Aereo was just evolving the relationship to a new device, unforeseen 60 years ago.

But because the past was as it was the future will likely be deprived of a new technology and some businesses suffer and others prosper, as a result.

And investors, too.

Today, though, turned out to be one of those days that wasn’t any where near as bad as it could have been, as the market showed a nice recovery from early losses. Maybe that will have some legs and take us out for the week on a positive note.

At least today there was some opportunity to rollover some positions and get into decent position to maybe get some more accomplished tomorrow if there’s any residual strength left over to end the week.

Daily Market Update – June 26, 2014 (9:00 AM)

Yesterday was really a day that had government imprints on just about everything from before the opening bell until after the closing bell.

It started with a government decision regarding oil exports that significantly hurt the refiners across the board.

Then came the Supreme Court decision that may have killed off Aereo and its technology while boosting the networks and local broadcasters.

Finally, there came an IRS ruling in favor of Iron Mountains quest to be considered a REIT. That battle and open question had been going on for at least three years and the sudden spike in its option premiums suggested that some kind of decision was forthcoming.

It would otherwise likely have been a very quiet day if not for those stories that continue this morning with allegations by the New York State Attorney General against Barclays and its “dark pools,” Most people would believe that whether a violation of the law or not, Barclays wouldn’t be the only one involved.

The latter two of yesterday’s decisions were known to be coming, it just wasn’t exactly clear when they would be announced, nor what the decisions would be. The oil exporting rules came as a complete surprise, not just in timing, but in content, as well.

Ultimately, whether you’re on the right side of the wrong side of a government decision it’s an unsettling way to go about things. You really can’t get any closer to pure gambling as you’re fully dependent on a decision that is going to move markets in one direction or another, with very little chance of leaving the stock unchanged.

Even worse, there are no leaks or well placed rumors to give any ideas of what is to come. Watching SBGI in the days before the decision was released was pretty laughable as the shares alternated between going higher and going lower on multiple occasions on an intraday basis. People were simply guessing and rushing to place their bets.

While that may have been the case for IRM and SBGI, it wasn’t really part of the equation for those with positions in the oil refiners. Doing a quick glance at four of the major refiners there was a market capitalization decline of more than $10 billion on yesterday’s unanticipated news and then its unexpected content.

Today doesn’t seem as if yesterday’s theme will have legs, as it’s a new day and one beginning to appear as if it will have no catalysts nor any new big stories, save what may further develop from the Attorney General’s office.

While government intervention is certainly needed it can raise havoc with markets whether through direct intervention or indirect. It’s much easier to navigate the markets when the intervention is below the radar and more geared toward creating a liquid and credible environment for trading.

Yesterday was a bit heavy handed. In the case of Aereo, it’s not even very clear that the Justices understand technology nor considered the history of the development of television, its transmission and reception. Their decision, as reflected in Justice Breyer’s eyes, was as much about definitions and drawing parallels to existing models as through an interpretation of the law.

For those old enough to remember “rabbit ears.” the Aereo is essentially a  new iteration of rabbit ears that allows transmission through public airwaves to be delivered through an internet connection. They charge a monthly fee for that service. The broadcasters claim that they are pirating protected content and charging for that content.

Go back 60 years as television was being introduced and those broadcasts over the public airwaves were worthless without antennae. The only difference between Aereo and those antennae makers of days past is that the latter didn’t lease out their products. They sold them. Had they chosen to follow a leasing model today Aereo would be nothing more than a mobile version of an old product and sales model. You paid for the product that captured protected content back then and Aereo was just evolving the relationship to a new device, unforeseen 60 years ago.

But because the past was as it was the future will likely be deprived of a new technology and some businesses suffer and others prosper, as a result.

And investors, too.

Daily Market Update – June 25, 2014 (Close)

It’s often said that the market discounts the future and reflects the situation six months from now.

With another revision of the first quarter’s GDP now indicating a negative 2.9% GDP if you could go back in time by about 6 months, I would bet you that those investing would be pretty unhappy to discover that they were following a fantasy and plowing their money into that fantasy.

Except that there may now be much consequence for that kind of misrepresentation of the health of the economy. And if you didn’t believe that could possibly have been the case, just look at today’s market, which shook off early concerns about the revisions and closed with a decent gain, despite the lack of anything resembling good news.

With all of the reasons to believe that the economy had been growing, albeit slowly, the market chugged along in anticipation that it would keep going that way. Except it turns out that’s not really the way it had been going.

The real optimists would shrug this off and simply say that six months from now our economy will be even more robust than it is today and that alone makes it reasonable to invest in stocks, as it’s all about the future and not the past.

You do have to wonder whether such large revisions begin to put some seminal metrics into the same league as those provided, and regularly derided by us, by the Chinese government. Those numbers are routinely dismissed despite the fact that they will move the markets on the day of their release and then so frequently those moves are quickly reversed as investors remember that the data often has no basis in fact.

This morning as the revision came out the immediate response was negative, but that fairly quickly corrected itself. Coming off yesterday’s very surprising loss that accelerated into the close you might believe that any negative news would be magnified, but that’s not appearing to be the case.

Approaching mid-week, this is shaping up to be one of the slowest trading weeks that I can recall, especially when having so much to spend.

What I thought were relative bargains yesterday got caught up in the sell-off that characterized the afternoon and that has to be a concern for additional positions that may be considered for purchase. Given the current environment it would be nice to see something tangible to provide confidence that the market can sustain itself at these levels.

Today’s digestion of the bad news should have been one of those signs, but it just didn’t have a really positive feeling about it.

Despite assurances from the Federal Reserve that would favor stocks over bonds, the deluge of IPO offerings leaves a bad taste for many who remember that as being a clarion call for bad things to come. Certainly, for those who look at the need for confirmatory volume for any kind of move, there hasn’t been any of that sort of thing.

While there may be a basis for that belief the rise of the market has been fairly slow, regular and sustained and is
n’t the kind that could be grouped together with past speculative bubbles, it’s hard to escape that feeling.

While the Employment Situation Report hasn’t been very important lately, I think that next week’s report may conceivably become a market mover if it doesn’t significantly advance the thought that there are many more people in a position to spend their money and support economic growth.

Although I think that retail is strengthening and that should reflect increasing consumer ability to make discretionary purchases, the numbers coming along haven’t done much to confirm that belief.

With what remains of this week, I hope that there is some opportunity to rollover positions or get some assignments, but my preference at this point would be to see rollovers as a means of generating income stream, rather than adding to the already ample cash reserve.

To its credit, given the horrible revision of this morning and sell-offs in Asia, the preliminary read on this morning’s market wasn’t terribly bad, so you can never really know what awaits. 

Turning away from the stock ticker may be done only at peril, but by the same token trying to apply a logical frame of mind in understanding what is going on may be equally perilous.

Daily Market Update – June 25, 2014 (9:00 AM)

It’s often said that the market discounts the future and reflects the situation six months from now.

With another revision of the first quarter’s GDP now indicating a negative 2.9% GDP if you could go back in time by about 6 months, I would bet you that those investing would be pretty unhappy to discover that they were following a fantasy and plowing their money into that fantasy.

Except that there may now be much consequence for that kind of misrepresentation of the health of the economy.

With all of the reasons to believe that the economy had been growing, albeit slowly, it was believed to be growing and the market chugged along in anticipation that it would keep going that way.

The real optimists would shrug this off and simply say that six months from now our economy will be even more robust than it is today and that alone makes it reasonable to invest in stocks.

You do have to wonder whether such large revisions begin to put some seminal metrics into the same league as those provided, and regularly derided, by the Chinese government. Those numbers are routinely dismissed despite the fact that they will move the markets on the day of their release and then so frequently those moves are quickly reversed as investors remember that the data often has no basis in fact.

This morning as the revision came out the immediate response was negative, but that fairly quickly corrected itself. Coming off yesterday’s very surprising loss that accelerated into the close you might believe that any negative news would be magnified, but that’s not appearing to be the case.

Approaching mid-week, this is shaping up to be one of the slowest trading weeks that I can recall, especially when having so much to spend.

What I thought were relative bargains yesterday got caught up in the sell-off that characterized the afternoon and that has to be a concern for additional positions that may be considered for purchase. Given the current environment it would be nice to see something tangible to provide confidence that the market can sustain itself at these levels.

Despite assurances from the Federal Reserve that would favor stocks over bonds, the deluge of IPO offerings leaves a bad taste for many who remember that as being a clarion call for bad things to come.

While there may be a basis for that belief the rise of the market has been fairly slow, regular and sustained and isn’t the kind that could be grouped together with past speculative bubbles.

While the Employment Situation Report hasn’t been very important lately, I think that next week’s report may conceivably become a market mover if it doesn’t significantly advance the thought that there are many more people in a position to spend their money and support economic growth.

With wh
at remains of this week, I hope that there is some opportunity to rollover positions or get some assignments, but my preference at this point would be to see rollovers as a means of generating income stream, rather than adding to the already ample cash reserve.

To its credit, given the horrible revision of this morning and sell-offs in Asia, the preliminary read on this morning’s market isn’t terribly bad, so you never really do know what awaits.

Turning away from the stock ticker may be done only at peril.

Daily Market Update – June 24, 2014 (Close)

There wasn’t too much that gave any reason to think that the market would behave much differently today than it did to begin the week.

My hope was that wouldn’t extend itself into my personal actions, because I can’t really recall the last time a week started without a single trade of any kind being made.

With the appearances of another flat start to the trading day it was hard to see where the contrast to yesterday was going to come from.

Any one who has a reason to give for the strong sell-off that materialized and then picked up steam in the early afternoon is just making it up. Nothing changed, although someone will surely point to some obscure signal on the charts and try to make everybody believe that they are idiots.

Ultimately the ending market change for the day isn’t very significant, as it’s what transpired in-between that has much in the way of importance. Yesterday was one of those days where there wasn’t much going on in-between the opening and closing bells.

Today was one of those days when there was lots of intra-day movement. If you’re selling options your favorite scenario is when there’s lots of movement but you don’t really go anywhere, especially if it happens all in the same day and you also happen to be lucky enough to have timed it just right.

When talking about volatility it also is not simply a case of looking at the beginning and at the end. It is really a measure of the variation that takes place in going from Point A to Point B. Yesterday was one of those days when the distance between those two points was nearly a straight line and with very little variance from the path.

Part of the reason that it was difficult making any trades yesterday was the lack of clarity regarding any short term directional move. Directly related to that was the extremely low premiums that were being offered for contracts of any kind. Neither call buyers nor put buyers had any real commitment or strongly held belief in their thesis and they surely weren’t willing to pay and put their money where their silent mouths used to be.

Trying to seek out decent premiums by looking at expanded weekly options, such as for next week’s shortened trading week, didn’t really offer anything worth pursuing, although news like an 8% drop in Dubai overnight could have some trickle down effects, such as necessitating sale of US assets in order to meet Dubai asset margin requirements.

But that’s pretty farfetched for the moment, although it could increase the uncertainty that feeds premiums.

Not that I want to be the guy that offers a reason for today’s sell-off, but that’s at least something to consider. It’s not an obscure technical, but it’s the best I could do.

For the remainder of the week I’m still hopeful that something will occur or at least some opportunities will make themselves known, but it may end up being an unusually slow week from every perspective.

Having money to invest makes it difficult to accept that fact, although as long as the portfolio does well it’s a little easier to have some patience when it comes to deploying that cash, although I and many others do like the flow of income that’s generated from activity and won’t simply generate itself, other than from the occasional dividend payment that finally gets credited to the account.

While no trades were made yesterday I still had my eyes on both Deere and Dow Chemical in order to capture those dividends. Unfortunately, my preference would have been looking at the July 3, 2014 expiration, but neither offered expanded weekly options and the monthly options weren’t offering the kind of reward that warranted the 4 week commitment. In fact, if bullish and shares do climb in value, those low premiums could end up being costly while awaiting expiration or a chance to close the positions early.

More unfortunately the market decided to accelerate its losses after the purchase of Dow Chemical shares, but there’s still tomorrow and many days after.

So with today in the books and it being a rare one sided day to the downside it will likely begin all kinds of speculation as to whether this is finally the correction that we’ve all been waiting for.

I for one really don’t want to hear any potential retreat in prices being referred to as “healthy,” at this point.

Even with lots of cash still looking for redeployment, I’d rather see some lack of health as long as that translated into a growing bottom line. If today was healthy I really don’t want any part of it.

.