Wednesday, January 27, 2016

No upside!

The Fed was not supportive enough to rally stocks today, even though oil prices rose. All major indexes are still (barely) holding their Friday opening levels, making the gains since then negligible.



Oil seems to have decoupled a bit from the SPX index. Now, the focus seems to be more on US domestic data and earnings. Facebook posted results that beat market expectations and the shares are up strongly after hours. This may provide some upside potential for the market tomorrow.

The VXST is still above the VIX and the SKEW remains high - albeit below 130 for yesterday and today. Until volatility moves lower, significant pullbacks can be expected.

Our put spreads at 1815/1805 look relatively safe being 3% OTM currently, but any sharp down swings could put them in jeopardy by Friday evening. I will look to roll them or close them if they come under pressure.