US equities open broadly lower, not helped by the retail giants of WMT and HD. VIX has picked up to the 22s… which is marginally interesting.
sp’60min
VIX’60min
Summary
So… the only issue is do we have a ‘dumb bounce’, before 4K is hit?
Very difficult to call.
My guess… is a bounce, but I’m biased to ‘hope’ for that.
Yours truly will NOT chase lower.
If the SPX prints 4K without me… I can live with that.
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notable stock: HD
Headline earnings were fine, but the outlook is a concern. Orange gap set to be tagged.
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notable weakness: WMT
As for Home Depot… headline earnings were fine, but Walmart isn’t very confident about the year. Certainly, there was no nonsense talk about a ‘second half recovery’.
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notable strength: META
META directly copying Twitter, set to roll out paid verification for Facebook and Instagram. I’d imagine the subscribers will receive some number of extra features.
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notable miner: FCX
Largely due to copper printing $4.23. The latter is surprising, although its supportive of underlying inflationary pressures… which is arguably a net negative for the economy/market.