Monday Morning Musings

With the lack of any market moving news this morning, I have been watching the coverage of the Madoff sentencing, which will be announced shortly. As someone who works to help people acheive their financial dreams, it is heartbreaking to listen to these victims. I hope the judge gives Bernie a heavy sentence, even if it offers small comfort to those who have lost everything.

Oil is the only real story this morning, which is higher on news of a pipeline attack in Nigeria combined with a story that China is looking to boost its oil reserves by 160%. Also, the IEA cuts its annual oil demand forecasts through 2013 by about 3 million barrels per day due to the economic slump.

Energy and industrial stocks are leading the way, while healthcare stocks are lagging. Also, while most of the indexes are higher, small-caps (IWM) are still negative.

Asian markets were mixed overnight; the dollar is slightly higher, while gold is slightly lower; the 10-year yield is drifting down a bit to 3.50%; and the VIX is lower again to 25.86.

Trading comment: The market has had its quarter-end bounce I was looking for. The S&P 500 has bounced roughly 38 points, or +4%, since tagging SPX 888 last week. That's not a huge bounce, but it is still pretty substantial. Now the test will be to simply hold those gains into quarter-end. Trading will likely lighten up as we near Thursday, as the markets are closed Friday for the 4th of July weekend.

I have not added any new trading positions so far. I am still considering adding to some of my hedges later in the week.