Daily Market Wisdom with Nick Santiago

1. The stock market is the new Las Vegas. Robinhood (HOOD) was the most highly anticipated IPO of the year. The stock came public last week and today it surged as high as $85.00 a share. Please remember, the stock opened up at $38.00 last Thursday. This is now on the Reddit boards and has become the latest meme stock. Stay away if you are not a gambler as the stock has already dipped back to $64.0...

1. The Senate is finalizing the $1 trillion infrastructure bill. This could be voted on later this week. This bill still has to get through the House of Representatives, so it could be a while before anything final takes place. Either way, the markets love debt and easy money.  2. The semiconductors ($SMH) stocks are strong again today. As long as this industry group holds up there is usually noth...

1. Amazon Selloff weighs on markets. Amazon (AMZN) is falling lower by 7.5% today after reporting earnings that failed to impress Wall Street. As you know, this is one of the mega-cap tech stocks and it carries a lot of weight in the tech heavy NASDAQ Composite. In fact, outside of Alphabet (GOOG) all of the leading mega cap tech stocks that  reported ended lower. 2. The bright spot for Tech stock...

1. Its Fed Day The 2-day FOMC meeting concludes today. The central bank will make their interest rate policy decision at 2 pm ET. The truth be told, the Fed is not expected to do anything. The verbiage could move markets, but I do not see them taking any new actions. Right now, they are buying $120 billion a month of mortgage backed securities (MBS) and U.S. Treasuries. As we all know, the Fed is...

1. Bitcoin gets a boost. The talk of the town is that Amazon (AMZN) will accept Bitcoin later this year. I find that difficult to believe since Bitcoin is so volatile, but this is an upside down world right now so anything is possible. Bitcoin is now trading at the higher end of the bearish range on the daily chart. Could hit 41.4k. Nothing goes down in a straight line and nothing goes up that way...

1. Is the 'Friday Effect" back?  This is where the markets seem to always rally on a Friday. This did not play out last week, but it seems that the 'Friday Effect' has not worked on the past two monthly options expirations (June & July options expiration). It looks to be in gear today. 2. Earnings season is underway.  Next week we get the big mega cap tech stocks reporting. Almost every trader in...

1. Markets are pausing today, but have recovered from the Monday sell-off. Every trader should be in extreme caution mode. The Russell 2000 has been very weak. It was about to break down and then came back like Lazarus. 2. More money rotation today. We continue in a hot potato market. This means that money keeps going from one area to another area. From energy to tech to leisure. On any given day...

1. Major stock market sell off taking place. You will hear the Delta variant is the catalyst, but there has been deterioration going on for the past month or so. Spydrs sold off 147 million shares. Today was straight selling. They held the 50 day moving average. Ugly sell off on very high volume. Volume was high where there was leadership, ie, the financials and energy. The leaders got slammed. Th...

1. Fed Chairman Jay Powell testified in front of a House Congressional Panel on Capitol Hill. Pedal to the metal. He said that he will keep his $120 billion a month in asset purchases going for now. Inflation is temporary (transitory). That definitely helped the precious metals. What’s the difference between transitory and temporary inflation. 2. Options expiration is this Friday. This was a mixed...

1. Markets closed at a new high today in the S&P 500 Index and NASDAQ Composite. 2. Earnings reports from JPM, GS, and PEP before are scheduled before the open tomorrow. This is the start of earnings season. 3. Options expiration for July is this Friday. Expect some whipsaw this week in the popular stocks. This is a week of institutional game playing. 4. Bitcoin chart looks weak 5. Gold/Silver tre...

1. Big cap tech holds the leadership position. Yesterday, Amazon (AMZN) broke out to the upside making new all time highs. There was also strength in Apple (AAPL), Alphabet (GOOG) and other NASDAQ-100 stocks. The leadership is very thin right now, but this is where the strength is in the market. Hated bull market, but central banks continue to monetize. This is a tired market. When was the last ti...

1. Markets are higher ahead of the Independence Day Holiday.  Earlier today, the BLS released the non-farm payroll report for June. The number came in a little better than expected at 850,000. While this is a little hotter than expectations the market does not seem phased that the Fed will have to taper or even raise rates down the road. Remember, its a Friday and rarely do we see many Friday decl...

1. ADP report was released at 8:30 a,m ET The June ADP Employment Change number was 692K. Now we shall look forward to this Fridays non-farm payroll report by the BLS. This could be a market moving event. * Small businesses: 215,000 * Medium businesses: 236,000 * Large businesses: 240,000 * Goods-producing: 68,000 * Service-providing: 624,000 2. The Delta Variant keeps making the news now. Every m...

1. The Stock markets are mixed again. This morning, the tech heavy NASDAQ and NAS-100 are the big winners reading up 0.70%. The losers are coming from transports $IYT, energy $XLE and financials $XLF. This is what I call a hot potato market. Money flees one sector and goes into another. This seems to be what is taking place and is continuing today.  We’re seeing travel and leisure get slammed toda...

1. Markets have recovered from last week's selloff.  All of the major stock indexes have staged a rally this week. The catalyst for the move higher has really been due to the Federal reserve walking back their taper talk. As we know, they are buying $120 billion a month of Mortgage backed securities, U.S. Treasuries and corporate bonds. Volume has been extremely low, the summer doldrums have come...

1. Bitcoin got defended yesterday after a big flush under 30,000.  Bitcoin successfully tested its January 2021 low yesterday. The popular crypto currency traded as low as 28,800 and then snapped back to 32,000. This is why it is so important to watch the daily and weekly closes. Right now, Bitcoin lives to fight another day, but the 21,000 level looms down the road. Confirmed downtrend. Trading b...

1. Bitcoin falls again, tests critical support. Bitcoin is falling again this morning. The catalyst for the weakness is due to China’s crackdown on cryptocurrency mining. They have now extended the crackdown to the southwestern province of Sichuan. $COIN $MSTR $GBTC $ETHE 2. The major market indexes are rebounding a little to start the week. The close will be important to see as the markets were s...

1. Bitcoin falls again, tests critical support. Bitcoin is falling again this morning. The catalyst for the weakness is due to China’s crackdown on cryptocurrency mining. They have now extended the crackdown to the southwestern province of Sichuan. $COIN $MSTR $GBTC $ETHE 2. The major market indexes are rebounding a little to start the week. The close will be important to see as the markets were s...

All markets plunge on a rare Friday decline. The selloff was broad based as every major stock index finished lower. Technology held up the best as yields declined sharply for the second straight day. Commodities and precious metals were sold off again as the U.S. Dollar strengthened. This was a quadruple witching options expiration so some of the moves made could be a bit over done. Either way, th...

1. Gold is getting hammered. Precious metals are all selling off this morning. The catalyst for the decline is clearly from the FOMC announcement yesterday. Even though the Federal Reserve is not actually tightening or doing anything yet, the jawboning was enough to scare the gold market. 2. Tech is strong again this morning. Most of the major stock indexes are declining lower today except for tec...

1. Fed day…Jay Powell and Company (FOMC) were dovish as expected, but yields jumped on the 10-year note, the dollar strengthened and gold sold off. The markets ended lower but well off the lows of the session. Not the reaction one would expect from a dovish Fed. The market is telling us a different message than the Fed. A lot of moving parts. Mr. Market seems to think so. Powell believes he’s goin...

1. Options ex is this friday. Expect a lot of whipsaw in the popular stocks this week. This is the real shark week. This is a time for a lot of institutional game playing as they seek to play the options imbalancing into Friday. Volume is extremely weak. Monster rally in the last 20 minutes of the session. Options ex makes it difficult to detect a trend. Apple is selling. 2. Copper getting hammere...

1. Friday Effect.  It's Friday again, rarely do we see a major selloff on a Friday. In fact, most Fridays are positive and often sharply higher. We shall see if the markets are able to capture another solid rally into the weekend. 2. Weak market action. How long will it last? The Russell is the good performer today.  So far this trading week has been very feeble and even fragile at times. Homebuil...

1. CPI number comes in slightly hotter than expected.  Total CPI increased 0.6% month-over-month in May.  Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, climbed to 0.7%. This number could be the catalyst for yields rising by 3 basis points on the 10-year U.S. Treasury Note to 1.518%. Yields are back to flat. 2. Initial weekly jobless claims. Initial Weekly Jobless Claims for the week ending June 5th de...