The market ended another week mostly higher as oil continued its decline and the dollar once again had another strong showing. The finance stocks continue to be volatile but there were no major surprises as most of them held steady despite the debate that continues on what is their fair value.
Oil ended the week at $113.77 after bouncing off the $110 level. Taking a look at other commodities: gold is at $792 (oz), silver $12.93 (oz) and copper is going for $3.31 (lb). The euro stands at $1.47 versus the dollar while the British pound is at $1.87.
As far as the market, the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 ended the week up 1.6% and 0.1%, respectively. The Nasdaq gained 38 points for the week and ended at 2,452 while the S&P 500 added two points to close at 1,298. The Dow lost 0.6%, or 74 points to finish at 11,660. Although you wouldn’t believe it if I told you, Tech has been hot and it was the Nasdaq’s fifth straight up week.
If the Dow can get back on track this week, it may still have a tough time breaking the 12,000 plateau. The index climbed to a high of 11,933 and immediately sold-off back down to 11,580 just last Monday. This battle has been fun to watch as bulls pull for “Dow 12k” while the bears are trying to slam the door on any continued rally.
Target (TGT, $51.40, up $1.75), Home Depot (HD, $27.53, up $0.36) and Lowe’s (LOW, $24.50, up $0.69) report earnings this week. I blogged on a few of the retailers last week, of course, and most of them put up good numbers with a cautious outllook. You can’t really blame them on the outlook because the future is still be shaped.
Actionable options from Friday for Target were the September 52.50 calls (TGTIX, $2.00, up $0.35), Lowe’s September 25 calls (LOWIE, $1.05, up $0.30) and Home Depot’s September 27.50 calls (HDIY, $1.37, up $0.14) also had decent volume.
Rick Rouse
Rick@OptionsMentoring.com
