Replies to post #65284 on Options Wonderland

[3xBuBu]

US Market Tumbles As Oil Prices Crosses $104 Mark, Financial Stocks Lose Ground

Market Watch:

Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.72 percent or 88.32 points to settle at 12,169.88, and NASDAQ Composite was down 0.50 percent or 14.07 points to 2,784.67. The Standard and Poor's 500 dropped 0.74 percent or 9.82 points to 1,321.15. Among other major indices, NYSE Composite fell 0.62 percent or 52.40 points to 8,413.05; however AMEX Composite gained 0.50 percent or 12.16 points to 2,419.85.

In the currency market, dollar gained 0.16 percent against euro, and 0.99 percent against the Japanese yen. However, dollar lost 0.02 percent against the British pound.

Commodities finished on a high today as cotton futures recorded a new high of $2.13 per pound. The CRB Commodity index added 0.6 percent, and the DJ-UBS Commodity index closed with gains of 0.52 percent. Crude oil prices added 2.71 percent or $2.76 to $104.67 per barrel, and natural gas was up 0.7 percent to $3.81 per MMBtu. Silver touched a new 30-year high of $35.41 per ounce before settling at $35.22 per ounce, up 2.6 percent. Gold prices were up 0.97 percent or $13.70 to $1,429.70 an ounce.

Global Markets:

The European market closed Friday's trading on a low note amid rising oil prices due to escalating tension in the MENA region. In Europe, the Stoxx Europe 600 index lost 0.6 percent to end trading at 281.9. Among national indexes, Great Britain's FTSE 100 lost 0.24 percent or 14.70 points to 5,990.39, and Germany's DAX was down 0.65 percent or 47.06 points to 7,178.90. France's CAC 40 fell 1 percent or 40.55 points to 4,020.21. On the contrary, the Asian market closed on a high note. Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 1.02 percent or 107.64 points to 10,693.66, and China's Shanghai Composite added 1.35 percent or 39.19 points to 2,942.17. However, India's BSE 30 Sensex closed marginally lower 0.02 percent or 3.31 points to 18,486.45.

Sector Watch:

Financial sector lost 1.26 percent to become the worst performing sector of the day. The SPDR KBW Mortgage Finance ETF (AMEX: KME) lost 5.25 percent or $2.30 to $41.52, and the Ultra Financial ETF (NYSEArca: UYG) was down 2.35 percent or $1.69 to $70.29. Among major stocks, Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC: 14.13, -0.14) lost 1.19 percent or $0.17 to $14.11, and First Place Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: FPFC: 2.59, -0.66) tumbled 11.15 percent or $0.32 to $2.55. Newcastle Investment Corporation (NYSE: NCT: 7.31, -0.55) fell 7 percent or $0.55 to $7.31. The major gainer of the day was MediciNova Inc (NASDAQ: MNOV: 5.54, 1.84), which jumped 44.05 percent or $1.63 to $5.33, and the major loser was BSQUARE Corporation (NASDAQ: BSQR: 9.07, -2.65) with a loss of 22.61 percent or $2.65 to $9.07.
http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewarticlepaged/articleid/4944680/pageid/1

[3xBuBu]

Reading Tea Leaves: Wen’s Comments on Financial Reform
If you’re looking for insight into the course of financial reform in China over the next few years, Premier Wen Jiabao’s work report isn’t the place to start. Many of the comments this year were boilerplate iterations of previous work reports (“We will continue to energetically develop financial markets and encourage financial innovation”). Those that weren’t have already had plenty of air time over the past year (“We will expand the use of the renminbi [yuan] in cross-border trade and investment”).
There were, however, a few surprises—and surprise omissions.

Among the surprises: Private equity got a shout out when Wen promised a greater role for direct financing. Beijing has been promising to wean the economy off bank lending and private equity has increasingly gained currency in Beijing as a useful tool toward that end. What that means for foreign firms such as Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts and Texas Pacific Group is hard to say, but getting props during China’s equivalent of the State of the Union address may give them some extra street cred.

Perhaps more interesting was how little attention some issues got. What’s shaping up as the one of the biggest reform challenges of the new five-year plan – interest-rate liberalization – barely got a mention.

In fact, the wording of Wen’s comment on the issue (“We will push forward the market-based reform of interest rates”) was nearly word-for-word identical to his 2009 speech. (Interest-rate reform didn’t make the cut in 2010. After a year of runaway lending by banks, much of which was of dubious quality, the thought of shifting rates to a more market-oriented footing wasn’t something anyone really had the stomach for.)
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2011/03/05/china-npc-wen-jiabao-report-financial-reform/

[Fox13]

The Qs and their relatives on 130 min. Another down move is now pre-announced by the Empirical Mode.
Waiting for confirmation to go short: McClellan should drop significantly under 0 , followed by the $ADVND ribbon under 50, like on Feb 18.

[dalcindo]

Hi, 3x!

I've been working on my wife's website: www.360Durango.com - Been taking my life away ... So, I had to step away from laptop and shop some loving and technical (virtual, immersive photography).

What day is it? Have I actually been hibernating all these months? Gee ...

Yes, $SML is printing several tops with 396.7 as support - RSI is rolling over below 70, suggesting steam loss. Looking at 445 as structural resistance overhead.

UUP is breaking through support. This means a lesser valuation for the currency ... but cheaper US goods for international consumers. So, I'd expect this asymmetry with the stock market to manifest itself over the next quarter - Nothing immediate for now.

K, back to the cave for now.

David