US and global markets are volatile again and the VIX close to 20 right now signaling a rise in uncertainly and volatility marked by large moves in the market.
In the short term there are a few major risks in the market that we see converging within the next 30 days. Crude oil remains in a downtrend despite the demand from summer driving, and the recent rise in crude has been from geo-political attacks around the Straight of Hormuz near Iran.
Copper prices along with many other commodities have been recovering over the past year, rising from a low of $1.94 per lb. in January 2016 to $2.69 today representing a 39% rise.
Earlier today President Trump gave some insights to his administration's plans on government spending and the proposed budget which should be released sometime tomorrow. There was one clear area where he planned to increase spending significantly, that is the defense sector.
As choppy as the S&P has been this year, it's only 3.5% off of it's high over the trailing twelve months, however there is a clear trend in the market that is either propelling or killing individual stocks.
We entered into a basket of stock positions in May 2014 and we are at the point where these positions are now long-term positions which lowers our capital gain taxes on gains, and we are closing all of these positions.
We sold Bebe Stores Inc. shares short on May 22nd at $4.33, and it's currently trading at $3.47. We are buying the shares back today at $3.47 and closing this position for a 20% gain in less than 2 weeks.
Bearish trade on Zillow
Costco looks appealing but not a buy yet, trade the options instead
Option trade on Gap, Inc
Airlines are ripe for picking