Today is Equity Index Derivatives expiration day. The expiring March SPI Futures contract traded in a 272 point range last night, with a high of 5005, low of 4733, and a close this morning of 4834, down 80 points. June expiration, which now becomes the current contract, traded in a 273 point range, with a high of 4988, low of 4715, and a close this morning of 4826, down 70 points, on volume of 35,339 contracts. Still large nightly ranges, but seem to be getting smaller.. well, it's all relative.
Trump has been pressing the Fed to lower rates all through his presidency.. well, he got what he wanted, almost zero interest rates, and guess what... yes, you guessed it, the US market have now pretty much lost all of the gains he said were due to him being president. The Dow was below 19,732 points last night, briefly dropping past the index's closing level on January 19, 2017, the day before President Trump took office. Well, in fairness, he wasn't talking about emergency cuts due to the virus.. 5 pct circuit breakers hit during the US futures night session, leading the XJO down with them, and 7 pct ones hit during the day session. The US day ended with the DOW down 6.30 pct, SNP down 5.18 pct and Canada (resource driven) down more, at 7.31 pct. Gold down 2.74 pct and Oil - WTI Crude futures, down 16.43 pct. VIX up .71 pct to 76.45, and probably won't be long till it surpasses the GFC high of nearly 90, if thing's continue to deteriorate. Fear the name of the game at the moment, and seems to be growing, with two NYSE employees testing positive for the coronavirus, causing them to switch to electronic trading as of next Monday. In Australia, warnings from the PM about not panic buying food and toilet paper etc., as coronavirus cases are approaching 560, an increase of 400 in five days, and six people unfortunately, have died. Sorry for the doom and gloom report... I was trying to find something positive to say, but alas, the media reports are all over the bad news relentlessly, which doesn't really help with traders, investors and the general populations decision making. However, during chaos, there lies opportunity. We just need to look harder. Have a nice day.
Today in 2019, a "Superbloom" of poppies in Walker Canyon, southern California was visible from space, after high rainfall. Yes traders, not sure about the superbloom, maybe when the market recovers our super may bloom, but at the moment, it appears to be a superboom, or put another way, if we, and the people pulling the strings, are not careful, we might be left with that "My super just went boom" feeling.
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