The Stock market is down this morning an hour or so before the open. Most indexes are down only slightly except for the Nasdaq which is down almost 1%.
Nothing else very remarkable as much is slightly above or below the 0 line this morning.
As I view it the market is getting in a precarious position at this point as the market has rebounded nicely from the lows.
The Nasdaq has led for some time now but that is in jeopardy and might change this week. If it does that will be a signal of the change I am predicting.
It falls in line with the news also. From Trade, China, N.Korea, Russia hysteria, EU and more, all these are going to have the potential to weigh down the markets.
One thing the markets do have for them is that this President thrives on Chaos. Good or bad he excels at maneuvering through the minefields, some of his own making. And some intentional while others a bad delivery of the message.
As I have said in the past it is important to be able to get through the news of the day and figure out the real issues and facts. You cannot rely on the media anymore. Find your unbiased experts and stick with them for an analysis of what is going on.
What we have now is generated hysteria on everything the President does. From Stormy to Charleston, Trade, Tax Cuts and now the Press conference it has not been logical discourse. Its all been hysteria in unison with the President opponents leading the charge with the media.
Now, for those caught up in this Press Conference hysteria and wish to have an open mind, one only needs to listen to Stephen Cohen who gave an interview on Tucker Carleson’s show last night.
Cohen is one of the leading Russia experts in the U.S and has a very impressive background. And if your wondering he did not vote for the President in the last election.
This is how you get through the hysteria that you will continue to see every day with this President. It’s essential to getting a good perspective on international and U.S. politics which often shapes the direction of the markets.
Let me add one more comment on this topic. If Bush would have been as skeptical of the intelligence on Iraq we might have stayed out of the disastrous Iraq war! It’s many of the same people that are saying rely on the intelligence that said the same thing before the Iraq invasion.
I am long a basket of equities and ETFs, and bonds weighted toward income production. Also, I have been doing some day trading on select stocks which has been pretty successful. Small gains but have avoided the big losses.
A good example was NFLX. I day traded that two days ago, held into Monday, got a bounce and exited before the close with a very small loss. The reason I decided not to stick with the trade was typically my trades are day trade only right now. And earnings were going to be announced after the close. And as you can see I avoided at -13% gap down on NFLX this morning.
It appears that NFLX has caught the SJW curse. Every company that decides to mix politics with business has at some point taken a big hit in the share price of their stock. I had thought several months ago that NFLX would be a great short but it keeps going up. Then I doubted my analysis:) And here we are, off 13% because of reduced subscriptions. You cannot alienate 1/2 the population that is polarized and not face the consequences.
Good Luck Trading today
If you want to follow some of my trades along with my thoughts typically given after the open you can go to @rickjswings. Typically I talk about the overall day expected with the markets and also give some levels on the ES and NQ for failed breakout scalping.
It’s my private twitter feed for the stock market and its free. Sports Handicapping is the subscription-based part of this site. But considering the cost of joining it’s almost free:)
Good Luck Today
RickJ
RickJ’s Handicapping Picks
https://rickjshandicappingpicks.com/investing
Skype: Ricca
