Moving higher as the Dow gained 237 points on heavy volume. The advance/declines were positive. The summation index is moving higher. New all time closing highs for the Dow and S&P 500. Waiting on the NASDAQ but at least it was the leader today. The jobs report had no surprises. The S&P 500 is short term overbought on some of its indicators but not completely. No overhead resistance for the S&P. I did place an overnight order for the SPY January calls again but it wasn't filled and I canceled the order. We've missed this trade and there are only five days left in the January option cycle. Might try the SPY puts near the end of next week if we get a set up. Gold was up $56 on the futures today. The US dollar was higher and interest rates finished mixed. The XAU was higher by 7 1/4, while GDX gained 7/8. Volume here remains on the light side. GDX is still short term overbought. No trades for us there right now. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was lower today which fits an up market. Some of the short term indicators here are starting to turn back down. The VIX is implying more near term upside for stocks. I'll be going over all the charts this weekend but the odds of a trade for us in the January option cycle appear to be slim at this point. We'll see. Europe and Asia were higher to close out the week with the exception of India. It's Friday afternoon and time for a break.

A mixed bag today with the Dow up and NASDAQ down. The most watched index rose 270 points on heavy volume. The advance/declines were better than 2 to 1 positive. The summation index is trying to move up. Just waiting on the jobs report at this point. The S&P 500 finished flat. The short term indicators there are still moving sideways. That should change tomorrow. There are a couple of up trend lines on the S&P that we are looking at. The shorter term one comes in at 6890, while the longer term one is at 6875. If the S&P can drift down to those levels we will be trying the SPY January calls. Running out of time in the January option cycle but that is the game plan at the moment. I may put in an open order for the calls overnight. Gold was up $25 on the futures. The US dollar was higher and interest rates ticked up. The XAU and GDX had fractional gains on light volume. GDX has gotten to short term overbought on some of its indicators. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX finished little changed. Still in a mid-range spot for the short term indicators there. So you could make your case either way. I'm not sure where the VIX goes from here. We'll see the market reaction to the employment report and take it from there. Asia was lower and Europe little changed overnight. We'll close out the first week of January tomorrow.

Sellers took control today as the Dow fell 466 points on heavy volume. The advance/declines were shy of 2 to 1 negative. The summation index is now beginning to stall again. The Dow was the underperformer as the NASDAQ actually posted a small gain. The S&P 500 was off over twenty points. The short term indicators there are trying to turn down. We now have to determine if this is a chance to try the SPY January calls or if the market is going to roll over. We were pretty sure that we were going to 50000 on the Dow and 7000 on the S&P in short order. However todays price action puts that thesis in jeopardy. We thought we would simply drift higher into Fridays employment report. Now, that is not the case. We'll be checking things over again tonight. Gold took a breather as the futures were down $32. The US dollar was up a bit and interest rates were slightly lower. The XAU was lower by around 3 2/3, while GDX shed 1 1/8. Volume was light. No GDX options trade in mind at the moment. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was up today and the short term indicators here are now at the mid-range level. The VIX now looks like it wants to go higher which would send stocks lower. We would really like to see a clear signal one way or the other for our first trade of the new year but that doesn't seem to be happening here. Asia and Europe were generally lower overnight but the DAX posted a solid gain. I'll keep an eye on the overnight developments.

Up we go as the Dow gained 485 points to a new all time high on heavy volume. The advance/declines were shy of 2 to 1 positive. The summation index is moving higher. The S&P 500 set a new all time high as well. The short term indicators there are moving up and are not yet completely overbought. It looks like that we've missed the beginning of the year SPY call trade. The laggard here is the NASDAQ which will only be a problem if it doesn't make a new high going forward. There is no overhead resistance for the Dow and S&P. At the rate we are going we will look for the Dow to hit 50000 and the S&P to make it to 7000 before option expiration. Gold continues to shine as it was up over fifty bucks on the futures. The US dollar was higher and interest rates finished flat. The XAU gained 16 3/4 and GDX was up 3 2/3. Volume was average. GDX closed at another new high and is not close to being short term overbought. We are not going to chase it here although that might be the correct strategy. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was down a bit today. The short term indicators are tracking sideways. They are neither overbought or oversold. Not sure where the VIX is heading next. Eight days left in the January option cycle. Haven't figured out at this point if we'll put on a trade ahead of Fridays jobs report. Europe and Asia were higher with the exception of India again. We'll see how things go on Wednesday.

We have all the players back now and the Dow posted a gain of 594 points to a new all time high on heavy volume. The advance/declines were 2 to 1 positive. The summation index is turning back up. The NASDAQ and S&P 500 posted gains but not as much as the Dow. The Dow leading isn't the most bullish scenario. The short term indicators for the S&P are starting to turn back up. I did place an order overnight for the SPY January calls but it wasn't filled and I canceled it. Might try this idea again depending on the market price action going forward. However the Santa Claus rally did not take place this year and that could be a warning sign. Gold was up $123 on geo-political tensions. The US dollar finished lower along with interest rates. The XAU climbed 11 1/4, while GDX jumped 2 3/4. Volume was a touch above average. The short term indicators for GDX have turned back up but it did finish well off of the highs on the session. However there is no shortage of buyers it seems on any sell off. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was up today which doesn't fit with higher stock prices. The short term indicators here are inching higher. Not sure what's next for the VIX. Employment data this week is the main economic event. The market price action ahead of that will determine which way we go, if we go at all. I am expecting the market to move higher this week though. I could be wrong. Europe and Asia were higher to begin the week with the exception of India. We'll see if we get any upside follow through tomorrow.

Another day of hanging around but the Dow had a nice gain of 319 points on average volume. The advance/declines were 2 to 1 positive. The summation index is starting to stall again. The S&P 500 had a slight gain and the NASDAQ posted a small loss. I expected more buying today and we didn't see it. We are now getting a short term buy signal from one of our indicators. I am looking at the SPY January calls now but the market action isn't that bullish. The short term indicaors for the S&P have rolled over but are beginning to stall. They are at or close to the mid-range area. The short term up trend line here remains intact at the 6825 level. We bounced off of that level today. A break below there would put us back in a bearish stance. Gold was off a couple bucks on the futures. The US dollar was higher and so were interest rates. The XAU and GDX had fractional moves one way or the other on average volume. The short term indicators for GDX are still moving lower but look like they want to turn around. The up trend line for GDX remains at 80. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was a little lower today. The short term indicators here are beginning to move sideways. Not sure where the VIX is heading next. This is a tough market at the moment as we have a short term buy signal but the NASDAQ is a laggard. That isn't the most bullish set up. I will go over the charts as usual over the weekend to try and come up with a game plan. Two weeks to go in the January option cycle. The Santa Claus rally isn't happening for the S&P. That is usually a warning sign for the bulls. Most of the markets that were open overseas finished higher. It's Friday afternoon and time for a break.

2025 ends with a thud as the Dow fell 303 points on light volume. The advance/declines were 3 to 1 negative. The summation index is now moving lower. It appears that we are too late for the SPY January puts but we'll see. However we are almost back to short term oversold on some indicators, which would set up a call trade for the beginning of next year. I'll go over things tomorrow and take it from there. The Santa Claus rally is fading away though. I do expect beginning of the year buying on Friday. Gold was off sixty bucks on the futures. The US dollar finished unchanged and interest rates rose. The XAU fell 4 3/4, while GDX dipped a point. Volume was light. The short term indicators for GDX are back to moving lower. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was higher today which fits the down market. The short term indicators here are now moving up from oversold. This supports the idea for the SPY puts. But again, we'll look at things on the day off tomorrow and go from there. Asia was lower with the exception of India. Europe was slightly down with the exception of the DAX. Happy New Year to all.