Nasdaq new high...

For Trading August 4th

Nat Gas +17%

TTWO Beats

Another New High for NASDAQ

Today’s market got off to a positive start and rallied to the high of the day by noon and then spent the afternoon backing and filling and closed pretty close to the day +236.06 (.89%), NASDAQ +157.52 (1.47%), S&P 500 +23.49 (.72%), the Russell +26.38 (1.78%) and the Transports +16.91 (.17%). Market internals were positive with NYSE 9:5 and NASDAQ 2.5:1 higher with volume about average for this time of the summer. ISM data was strong with the manufacturing number 54.2, up from 53.4 estimate and 52.6 in June. All around, a pretty good day. AAPL & MSFT were the stars with AAPL +10.71 (2.5%) after its 10.5% rise on earnings last Friday and MSFT +11.53 (5.6%), but the Russell was the highlight and the biggest gainer. The only negative was that there is still no agreement on the next Coronavirus relief bill.

Our “open forum” on Discord, which allows me to interact with subscribers and others to allow direct questions and chart opinions on just about any stock, continues to grow with more participants every day. It is informative and allows me to share insights as the market is open and moving. The link is: https://discord.gg/ATvC7YZ and I will be there and active from before the open and all day. It’s a great place to share ideas and gain some insights, and we’ve grown to almost 3000 members. I also did this video over the weekend on a day-trade, (actually 2) that I made in AAPL on Friday. I think it’s highly informative as a guide to under what conditions these kind of trades in expiring options make sense. The link is https://youtu.be/qIV0G-hP3aM Enjoy!!

Tonight’s closing comment video https://youtu.be/mZvr4ijnVKw Today’s video on the UNG Trade: https://youtu.be/RBWaSke96O8

SECTORS: There was plenty of news around in M & A deals with Marathon Petroleum (MPC) selling its Speedway business (gas stations and convenience stores) to 7-11 for $21Billion in cash. Clearly this was a premium well above what was expected as MPC rallied to just over $40 and settled at the end of the day $38.57, +.37. Also in the news, Alphabet (GOOGL) took a 6.6% stake in ADT to develop home security and ADT traded as high as $17.21 and finished $13.48 +4.87 (56.56%). Biotech and Semiconductor stocks were also strong groups. FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN was HIGHER with TSN +.78, BGS +.29, FLO +.50, CPB +.14, CAG +.32, MDLZ unch., KHC +.41, CALM +.57, JJSF +.43, SAFM -1.03, HRL -.06, SJM +1.62, PPC -.23, KR +.12, and PBJ $33.37 +.25 (.74%).

BIOPHARMA was HIGHER with BIIB +3.47, ABBV +.80, REGN +17.43, ISRG +3.50, GILD +2.28, MYL +.34, TEVA +.65, VRTX +7.52, BHC +.73, INCY +3.88, ICPT +1.59, LABU +6.71, and IBB $138.44 +4.07 (3.03%).

CANNABIS: was HIGHER with TLRY unch., CGC +.79, CRON +.22, GWPH +5.24, ACB +.11, NBEV -.05, CURLF +.55, KERN +.17, MJ $13.34 +.40 (3.09%).

DEFENSE: was MIXED with LMT -.98, GD +.96, TXT +.96, NOC -1.43, BWXT -.16, TDY +3.92, RTX +.90, and ITA $158.90 +2.20 (1.4%).

RETAIL: was MIXED with M UNCH., JWN +.44, KSS +.26, DDS +1.23, WMT -.22, TGT +2.12, TJX -.19, RL -1.90, UAA -.72, LULU +3.00, TPR +.01, CPRI -.88, and XRT $48.25 +.92, (1.94%).

FAANG and Big Cap: were HIGHER with GOOGL -4.45, AMZN -54.43, AAPL +10.56, FB -2.27, NFLX +9.37, NVDA +15.82, TSLA +54.24, BABA +7.28, BIDU +1.15, CMG -6.16, CAT -1.10, MSFT +11.19, BA +4.40, DIS -.74, and XLK $113.15 +2.72 (2.46%). PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THESE PRICES ARE LATE MARKET QUOTES AND DO NOT REPRESENT THE 4:00 CLOSES.

FINANCIALS were HIGHER with GS +1.13, JPM -.54, BAC +.07, MS +.52, C +.38, PNC -.75, AIG -.88, TRV -.02, AXP +.19, V +.42, and XLF $24.10 +.07 (.29%).

OIL, $41.01 + .74. Oil was lower in last night’s trading before we rallied in the morning. I mentioned in last night’s charts with comments section in the Weekly Strategies letter, that it is a toss-up for a move in either direction. The stocks were HIGHER with XLE $36.16 +.13 (.38%).

GOLD $1,986.30 +.30. It was a continuation rally and a new recovery high of $2,009.50. I have only the NEM August 65 / 70 spread on in the Gold market. The spread was put on at $1.30 and finished the day @ $2.66.

BITCOIN: closed $11,135. After trading back to 8985 we rallied back to close – only $5. Since last week we have closed between 9200 – 92.85 every day with narrow ranges and today was a good start to move higher. A break over 10,000 still sends us higher. We added 350 shares of GBTC @ $10.02 to our position of 400 @ $8.06, bringing our average price to $8.97. GBTC closed $13.33 +.52 today.

Tomorrow is another day.

CAM