Market News

Among the underlying components of the S&P 500 index, we saw noteworthy options trading volume today in Molson Coors Brewing Co. (NYSE: TAP), where a total of 7,842 contracts have traded so far, representing approximately 784,200 underlying shares. That amounts to about 47.5% of TAP's average daily trading volume over the past month of 1.7 million shares. Especially high volume was seen for the $110 strike call option expiring January 20, 2017, with 2,501 contracts trading so far today, representing approximately 250,100 underlying shares of TAP. Below is a chart showing TAP's trailing twelve month trading history, with the $110 strike highlighted in orange:

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Yelp is in the stable of what I call mad caps. Like Facebook and its ilk it does not respect classic valuation models but are driven by momentum and sentiment. I still think it’s got huge potential.

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For all the concerns about the pace of U.S. growth, consumers are still spending money, especially when it comes to their cars and homes.

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Among the underlying components of the Russell 3000 index, we saw noteworthy options trading volume today in Citigroup Inc (NYSE: C), where a total of 128,160 contracts have traded so far, representing approximately 12.8 million underlying shares. That amounts to about 43.9% of C's average daily trading volume over the past month of 29.2 million shares. Particularly high volume was seen for the $44 strike put option expiring July 15, 2016, with 17,122 contracts trading so far today, representing approximately 1.7 million underlying shares of C. Below is a chart showing C's trailing twelve month trading history, with the $44 strike highlighted in orange:

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Brexit has been met with a variety of reactions from across the political spectrum. Those in favor of globalism mourn the loss of the world's fifth largest economy. Those in favor of nationalism see Brexit as both a signal of the peoples' desire for independence and as a harbinger of a wave of national independence movements.

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The stock market had another very strong week as the Spyder Trust (SPY) is already getting close to the next upside target in the $218-$220 area. Many media traders and investment banks are looking for another weak earnings season but last week's numbers had some positive surprises.

In the next two weeks we will get a better idea but since May I have been looking for better than expected earnings. This is diametrically opposed to Goldman Sachs who commented a week ago that " A worse-than-expected earnings season especially for banks and Apple will cause the S&P 500 to pull back 5 to 10 percent from its current all time high".


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Netflix Q2:16 earnings imminent

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By now you've read the stories. People staring at their phones, trying to capture small digital creatures and walking blindly into traffic. A woman discovering a corpse while hunting for a cartoon on her phone near a river. Groups of gamers congregating near complete strangers' homes, seemingly at random. All of it, connected to the latest mobile craze courtesy of Nintendo - Pokemon GO. The new virtual, mobile game is getting a tremendous amount of buzz in the media, among users and on Wall Street. In the first week post launch, Nintendo moved from its usual spot around 24th in the LikeFolio Top50 all the way up to 6th-- getting more Twitter mentions of its brands and products than powerhouse companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Netflix and Facebook.

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Recent news reports would have investors believe that the entire online lending sector is in trouble – when in fact, default rates remain largely in line with expectations and securitizations of consumer and student loans are on the upswing. And while many reports paint the entire online sector with a single brush, asset-based lending (such as collateralized real estate loans) is a different animal from consumer credit lending -- a key distinction for investors.

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