Market Opens Higher but Struggling

10:10am (EST) I wanted to see how we opened this morning before doing an update… The retail sector reported their monthly figures this morning and they were not pretty. Most of the retailers are reporting a decline in same-store sales for June and I cannot say I’m surprised. The problem is that consumers are saving more and the credit cards and home equity loans are being put on hold or are hard to get. Throw in unemployment and lower working hours and you can still see why businesses are struggling. Alcoa (AA, $9.68, up $0.22) came in with better-than-expected numbers but it was still the third quarter in-a-row the company has bled money. After a quick pop to over $10 the stock is having a hard time holding those gains. The company did do a good job of cost-cutting and I mentioned that was the key for the stock of either holding where it was at or retesting its March low of $5. Under $8 I might start backing the truck up… The Dow opened with a 50 point pop but is now up only single-digits as I type. More great news for the American International Group (AIG, $11.59, down $1.51) trades. I have been talking about the negative effect the reverse stock-split would have on the shares and they are now down nearly 50% since the conversion. Tuesday night I told you the July 18 puts (AIGSR, $6.45, up $1.15) looked good and they opened yesterday at $4.80 yesterday and traded to a low of $3.50. They are approaching a 50% return if you got in around $4.25 so start putting stops in. The July 15 puts (AIGSO, $3.85, up $1.11) could have been picked up for $2.80 and hit a low of $2.34 on Wednesday. Set stops at $3.50 or sell half now and see how they do for the rest of the week. The S&P 500 is up 2 points to 881 as I get ready to send this out… Rick@MomentumOptionsTrading.com]]>

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