A summer day of hanging around as the Dow fell 165 points on heavy volume. The advance/declines were positive. The summation index continues higher. The NASDAQ had a slight gain and the S&P 500 a slight loss. The S&P remains short term overbought. My open order is still out there for the SPY July puts but I may cancel it soon. No real downside follow through in the overall market to yesterdays drop. Gold dropped thirty bucks on the futures. The US dollar finished flat as did interest rates. The XAU fell 9 3/4, while GDX slid 2 3/8. Volume was heavy to the downside. Yesterday I thought that we'd missed out on the gold share calls and today we are glad that we didn't purchase any. Not sure what's going on here but a longer term up trend line for GDX comes in now at 49. As always markets know more than we do. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was lower today and remains short term oversold. Not sure what's next for the VIX. Asia and Europe were both higher as the tariffs have been postponed once again. Busy day for me today so the blog is a little short. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Sellers returned today as tariff turmoil returned and the Dow fell 451 points on heavy volume. The advance/declines were shy of 4 to 1 negative. The summation index is still moving up. The Dow barely led things lower. We were looking for some type of decline and we saw it today. I canceled my open order for the SPY July puts that wasn't filled on Thursday and replaced it with another at a different strike price. My hope is that we see a light volume up move from here back to the recent new high and roll over from there. The S&P 500 remains short term overbought despite todays drop. Gold finished up $6 coming back from early selling. The US dollar was higher along with interest rates. The XAU was up 2 1/4, while GDX added almost 1/4. Volume was average. The gold shares opened lower and closed higher for a one day upside reversal. The short term indicators for GDX are moving higher with room to go and tight Bollinger bands. Perhaps the gold share calls were the way to go today. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX gapped higher today and the short term indicators turned up. Still short term oversold here though. I do not think that todays price action is the start of a sustained decline just yet. But I could be wrong. I would like to see sideways to higher price action from here to try the SPY July puts before expiration. However markets rarely cooperate. Not a lot of economic data out this week. We will probably just move from tariff headline to headline. Asia was generally lower and Europe higher to begin the week. I'll keep an eye on the overnight news.

The employment report came in better than expected and stocks took off to the upside as the Dow gained 344 points in a shortened pre-holiday session. The advance/declines were better than 2 to 1 positive. Volume was light. The summation index is moving up. The NASDAQ continues to lead the way higher and that's a plus. The short term technical picture for the S&P hasn't changed. Overbought, staying that way and now getting extreme. Back above the upper Bollinger band. This one reason why I still favor the SPY puts for now. But this may be a fools errand as the rally goes on. I'll figure out what to do over the long weekend. My SPY July put order is still out there but another positive session would most likely fill it. Gold dipped $16 on the futures. the US dollar was higher along with interest rates. The XAU added 1 3/8 and GDX was up 1/8. Volume was very light. The short term technical indicators for GDX remain at mid-range. No GDX trades for me here at the moment. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was still lower today and remains short term oversold. Its 50 day moving average is about to cross the 200 day to the downside. This would imply lower VIX readings and higher stock prices. I'll be going over the charts this weekend to try and figure out what to do with two weeks remaining in the July option cycle. Asia markets contiue to be mixed while Europe finished higher. It's Thursday and time to take a break during the long holiday weekend.

The overall market conitinued to rise today but the Dow dipped 10 points on heavy volume. The advance/declines were better than 2 to 1 positive. The summation index is moving up. We are in summer rally mode despite the mixed picture of the last two days. The NASDAQ took the lead higher today. The S&P 500 remains short term overbought. Only a half day trading tomorrow with the employment report out early in the morning. My guess is that many traders have already left for the holiday weekend so the price action tomorrow could be skewed. I still have my order out there for the SPY July puts but it may be time to rethink this idea. Markets can stay overbought for extended periods of time during good rallies. The S&P continues to hug its upper Bollinger band. Gold was up $19 on the futures. The US dollar was barely lower and interest rates were up a bit. The XAU rose 3 1/4, while GDX added about 2/3. Volume was light. The short term indicators for GDX are now pointing up at the mid-range level. The tight Bollinger bands imply some type of decent move coming soon. At this point it appears that move will be to the upside. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was lower today which fits with an overall higher market. Still short term oversold here. Asia continues to be mixed and Europe was higher again with the exception of the FTSE. We'll see how the holiday mode market reacts to the jobs report tomorrow.

Kind of a mixed bag today as the Dow gained 400 points on pretty heavy volume. The advance/declines were 3 to 1 positive. The summation index is moving up. Both the NASDAQ and S&P 500 posted losses on the day with the NASDAQ having a decent decline. We received another signal last night from the McClellan oscillator for a big move within the next two days. We got an outsized move from the Dow today but not the overall market. The indicators for the S&P 500 remain overbought. The 50 day moving average is moving up through the 200 day on the S&P daily chart. That is a longer term positive for this index. I'm leaving my open order out there for the SPY July puts. Gold was up forty bucks on the futures. The US dollar was a bit lower and interest rates a bit higher. The XAU had a fractional gain and GDX finished flat. Volume was about average. Gold up forty and the gold shares just hanging around is not a positive. The short term indicators on GDX are now tracking sideways. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was up slightly today and remains short term oversold. Not sure what's in store next for the VIX. Only a day and half of trading left this week in the US. Jobs report due Thursday. Asia continues to be mixed and Europe was lower with the exception of the FTSE. I'll keep an eye on the overnight developments.

Continuing higher as the Dow gained 275 points on heavy volume. The advance/declines were positive. The summation index is moving higher. The Dow led things to the upside to close out the month of June. We got a signal from the McClellan oscillator on Friday for a big move within the next two sessions and today takes care of that. The S&P 500 continues to travel above its upper Bollinger band and remains short term overbought. There is no overhead resistance. I'm not sure how much longer this goes on but I did place an order for some SPY July puts overnight. We do have a short term sell signal from one of our indicators but sometimes it remains in place for more than a day. It will take some more rally to get the put order filled so I am comfortable leaving it out there. We are still at the mercy of the next headline and we've got the jobs report on Thursday. It is also a short trading week in the US. Gold was up $32 on the futures. The US dollar continues to fall and interest rates were lower. The XAU was up 4 3/4, while GDX added 1 1/3. Volume was just about average. The short term indicators for GDX are turning up. It is possible that the decline for the gold shares is over. The Bollinger bands on the XAU are about as tight as they can get. Something big is probably about to occur in the gold shares. Which way is the question. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was up today and that does not fit with an up market. The last time this happened it led to some selling. The VIX is short term oversold but in rallies it tends to stay that way. Beginning of a new month tomorrow and we should see some positive money flows but we'll see. Asia continues to be mixed and Europe closed lower to begin the week. We'll see how things go tomorrow.

An interesting day to say the least as stocks stormed higher out of the gate, gave it all back and then some only to rally on in the final hour to new all time highs in the NASDAQ and S&P 500. The Dow gained 432 points on extremely heavy volume. The advance/declines were slightly positive. The summation index is trying to move higher. The inflation data came in about where expected. The S&P is still climbing above its upper Bollinger band and the short term indicators are overbought. There is no overhead resistance. I will probably try the SPY July puts at some point next week. The question is when and where? Half a day trading on Thursday and a long holiday weekend coming up. Employment data will be released on Thursday. Monday is the end of the month and quarter. Not sure what kind of position squaring that we'll see there. All signs seem to point to higher prices going forward but as we saw today things can turn on a dime. Gold got clobbered as the futures fell $65. The US dollar was up a little as were interest rates. The XAU lost 7 1/2 and GDX shed 1 7/8. Volume was good to the downside. GDX is now at its 50 day moving average. The up trend line in place that began in January comes in just above 48. GDX is getting to short term oversold but is not there yet. The problem we now have here is that gold itself has now broken down through that same up trend line that started in January. Will the gold shares follow? This is something that we have to consider over the weekend. Mentally I'm feeling OK. The VIX was lower today and is now short term oversold. It can stay that way for a while during rallies which is where we find ourselves at the moment. Not sure what's next for the VIX. Plenty to do this weekend as we try and figure out the next trade. I'll be going over the charts as usual. Asia was mixed and Europe higher to close out the week. It's Friday afternoon and time for a rest.