1:35pm (EST)
The market held up well following the jobs data before the bell and caught a bid after better-than-expected economic news afterwards which helped the bulls make a push higher. We mentioned in our Weekly Wrap today would be a monster day for headline news and the market was able to recoup all of its losses and moved higher after the ISM Manufacturing Index for August came in at 50.6.
Although this was down from the 50.9 that was posted for July, it was way better than the 48.5 that had been penciled-in. Some of the talking heads were predicting a number south of 45! A reading over “50” indicates expansion so the bulls were relieved when they heard this bit of good news. Elsewhere, Construction Spending for July fell 1.3% but was overlooked by the bulls as Wall Street had expected some kind of spending.
Despite more good news than bad, there is still some nervousness ahead of tomorrow’s Nonfarm Payrolls data along with the Unemployment Rate which has kept the indexes in the red.
As we head to press, the Dow is down 42 points to 11,571 while the S&P 500 is lower by 5 points to 1,214. The Nasdaq is off 15 points to 2,564.
We have been adding some new names to our Watch List as we get ready for next week’s action which will be all about Obama. The President will be talking about increasing job growth while growing the economy and his speech will be crucial for his reelection bid. More importantly (sly grin) is what he says will have a major impact on the market.
The bulls have been able to chip away at resistance over the last few weeks so we have some explosive call option trades lined-up that could do well if the market hears something good. We will also be ready with some put options if we get the same old rhetoric.
We have more on this story that we will talk about tomorrow but for now we need to go check on our current trades. Subscribers, hit the Members Area for the updates.
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