Interest in Economic News Surges

Summary of Findings

Interest in news about the U.S. economy

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skyrocketed last week, with 70% of Americans following economic developments very closely, up from 56% the previous week. Interest in economic news is broadly bipartisan with equal proportions of Republicans, Democrats and independents following news about current economic conditions very closely.

The public also paid close attention to the battle in Washington over a plan to use government funds to stabilize financial markets. That debate melded economic news with closely-followed presidential election coverage, as John McCain briefly suspended his campaign to return to Washington to play a role. As lawmakers and administration officials worked on an ill-fated compromise last weekend, 60% of the public was following developments very closely.

11 Complaints About iOS 8

Apple will update its iPads at an event on Oct. 16, according to according to Re/code's John Paczkowski.

Re/code also reported that Apple may update the iMac and OS X Yosemite at this event as well. 9to5Mac's Mark Gurman reported this week that the new iMacs were likely to have Apple's retina display.

Specifically, Apple is expected to unveil a new iPad Air. 

The company may also tease a 12.9-inch iPad that it is expected to launch mid-2015.

Invitations have not been sent out to the press, unlike last month's iPhone 6 event.

Apple isn't expected to radically change the iPad's design with this update, though it is rumored to be adding a Touch ID fingerprint sensor and a new A8 processor to the device.

Mapping the Marriage Market for Young Adults

The share of American adults who have never been married is at a record high (20%), and young adults are at the leading edge of this national trend. For those in the “marriage market,” location matters. Pew Research Center has compiled census data on the number of unmarried men and women ages 25 to 34 in many of the nation’s metropolitan areas. We’ve also sorted the data by employment status. Finding a spouse with a steady job is a high priority for 78% of never-married women who may want to get married in the future(and 46% of men), though the pool of employed young men has shrunk

OpenClose Mortgage Software

Friday’s bond market has opened in negative territory following the release of September’s employment figures. The stock markets are reacting positively to the data with the Dow up 151 points and the Nasdaq up 47 points. The bond market is currently down 13/32 (2.48%), which should push this morning’s mortgage rates higher by approximately .250 of a discount point.

The Labor Department gave us this morning’s highly important economic data with the release of September’s Employment report at 8:30 AM ET. It showed that the U.S. unemployment rate fell 0.2% to 5.9% last month while 248,000 new jobs were added to the economy. Both numbers were stronger than expected. The average earnings reading showed no change from August’s level, falling short of the 0.2% that was forecasted

US Government Shutdown

Here we go again.The market has been experiencing a bit of a drop and while news to me always takes a backseat to my ability to make a trading decision without it this is one event that I will not be ignoring.

The US government shutdown — what does this mean to us?

Last week the US government furloughed approximately 800,000 government workers (of that number about 40,000 were called back to work since they are in the area of defense).

The bigger picture will come next week when a decision to raise the debt ceiling (again) or for the first time ever in the US default on its interest payments to government bonds that have been issued to individuals, corporations and other countries. Oh boy.

Because of the uncertainty of the outcome of the serious market impact I recommend that we not take directional trades. I recommend that we be hedged in all of our positions at least until 17 October 2013 when a decision needs to be made regarding the potential default.

May everyone have a safe, pleasant, blessed and prosperous trading week!

Pre-Market Activities-Part 2

If you have missed part 1, read here.

What this means is that the market is getting ready to open for trading at a price that is lower than it opened.  This is known as a gap (a space between the previous day’s closing price and the next day’s opening price).

On average 70% of all gaps will be “faded” or closed in the same day and the highest probability is that it will occur between 10:30AM EST and 11:30AM ET.  Remember that I said 70% which means that not all stocks and/or indices will close their gaps the same day.

If I am in a bullish position and it is time to exit the trade and I see that the market is getting ready to open almost 200-points to the downside do not panic.

You can actually wait until 10:30AM EST (no later than 11:30AM EST) to see if the stock can close its gap (unless of course the Stop Loss was triggered at the open

Pre-Market Activities -Part 1

Today we will discuss about pre-market activities and how to know how the market will open, the potential direction for the day and how to manage a position.

Pre-Market Open

The stock market closes for trading at 4:00PM EST although trades can still be settled after it closes.  There are orders which are designed to trigger when the market closes (Market on Close orders).  There are also options (e.g., QQQ which may be traded up to 4:15PM (when the futures market closes for the US trading session).

The futures market then opens for trading at 4:30PM EST on the Globex (or Global Exchange).  Depending on how that market is traded around the world during the US evening hours depends on how the futures will open for trading the next day.

A positive futures market (considering fair value) will mean a positive open and a negative futures market (again considering fair value) will mean a negative open for the market.  We now have a glimpse of how the market will open for trading that day.

If I am already in a shorter style of trading for a few days, I can use this information to enable me to time my exit