The futures are down, pointing towards a lower open this morning. The Dow futures are off by 14, to 8,525, while the Nasdaq futures are slipping by 3, to 1,194. The S&P 500 futures are unchanged at 873. Earlier this morning, the market was looking to open in positive territory as futures we up but have reversed course as we are about 45 minutes from trading.

I had mentioned in the weekly wrap that the trading volume could be light this week and yesterday was no exception. Many traders seem to be steering clear of the market due to the holiday-shortened week and the market held up rather well on Monday despite Toyota Motor (TM, $60.88) dropping a nasty bomb.

The stock drop $4.50 yesterday after the company forecast its first operating loss in 70 years. Toyota said it will post a $1.7 billion, or 150 billion yen, loss in the upcoming quarter. The automaker had previously forecast a profit of $6.5 billion. Toyota’s president said they we’re “facing an unprecedented emergency situation” and added “unfortunately, we can’t see the bottom.” This could have a ripple effect on Japan’s economy. As you can imagine, the January 60 puts (TMMY, $3.80) had a huge day and easily doubled on the news. I wouldn’t go chasing here but these options could pick up steam if the stock continues lower.

Walgreen (WAG, $24.98) was the shoe on the other foot as it missed Wall Street’s expectations by a nickle. The company reported earnings fell to $408 million, or $0.41 a share, down from $456 million, or $0.46 a share, from a year ago. Quarterly sales did improve by nearly 7% but same-store sales were only up 1.7%. The company’s bread and butter are its prescription sales which rose 6.2% from the prior year and accounted for 65% of sales. The stock was down $1.10 on Monday.

As far as today, we got a couple of economic reports that the market didn’t digest too well this morning and it could be an uphill battle for the market close higher today.

Rick Rouse
Rick@OptionsMentoring.com

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