There’s not much happening in the market right now, which means the Jackson Hole symposium is the only game in town. Janet Yellen speaks tomorrow at the mountain retreat. Maybe she can be dovish enough to get trading volume out of the cellar and break the major indices' two straight weekly losses.
"The main event this week is Janet Yellen’s speech tomorrow although I’m sure Draghi will be interesting as well" said Dave in Momentum Trader. "I bet we get some swings in the morning followed by a thin to win day into the close. Should be the highlight of the week."
The market doesn’t feel like moving much at the moment. Tuesday had a nice rally, but everything else this week has been muted…including Thursday. The S&P was off 0.21% today to 2439, while the Dow declined 0.13% to 21783.4. The NASDAQ slipped 0.11% to 6271.3.
In the portfolios, Counterstrike added a company that plunged on a crazy rumor, but is likely to resume a path upward. The portfolio also short-covered a couple positions for gains. Meanwhile, TAZR expects more short-term challenges for the market, so it added an ETF that will help it take advantage of the volatility while also offering some protection.
Today's Portfolio Highlights:
Counterstrike: Everything was going great for PetMed Express (PETS). The mostly online pet pharmacy had reported a strong quarter that led shares sharply higher. Then out of nowhere, a crazy story came out that PETS was “aggressively marketing painkillers to human opiate addicts”. Needless to say, the stock plunged. The company vigorously denied to charges…and Jeremy believes them. Now there’s a great opportunity with PETS as the company’s stock gets back on the right track, so the editor bought an 8% position on Thursday.
Also today, Jeremy decided to take some profits. He coveredProShares Short VIX Short-Term Futures ETF (SVXY) since the soft market continues to fuel the VIX. The position brings a gain of 3.8%. The editor also shortcovered the first half of Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) for 5.6%, as the company would be susceptible to a stiffer pullback. The second half could be covered any day now. Read more about all of today’s moves in the full write-up.
TAZR Trader: Kevin is convinced that we are stuck in a short-term downtrend. Therefore, the editor decided it was time to get back into ProShares Ultra VIX Short-Term Futures ETF (UVXY), one of his favorite tools for buying volatility and protecting the portfolio. Originally, the plan was to buy only a 5% position, but the market continues to stumble. So the position was doubled in the afternoon to 10%. The complete commentary has more.
Surprise Trader: "And we saw some more news from Amazon today, as it looks as if the deal to buy Whole Foods will close next week. Amazon isn’t wasting any time though, as it is saying that it will begin lowering prices on a number of best-selling products on Monday. Amazon also said that eventually Prime would be integrated and would allow for specials in-store, but that will be a bit further down the line.
"This announcement—and the speed at which Amazon is moving—had a negative impact on grocery store stocks again today, sending Kroger (NYSE:KR) down another 7.5%, but also putting pressure on names like Costco (NASDAQ:COST) and Target too. The Amazon threat continues to grow for grocery stocks, and I think this may just be the tip of the iceberg for this group, unfortunately." -- Eric Dutram
All the Best,
Jim Giaquinto
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