Stocks Flat, Gold Pushes To New Highs

Stocks are roughly flattish in early trading on relatively light news flow. There were no economic reports this morning to speak of, nor earnings reports. Today is options expiration, which could add some volatility to the session.

Asian markets were mixed overnight, with China lower by -1.8% after the PBOC said that the country's economic growth might slow in the second half of the year. China has been a major driver of global economic growth, so its slowdown will be felt everywhere, and could effect commodity prices, etc.

The dollar is flat so far today, with oil and gold prices mixed. Crude prices are lower to $76, while gold has hit new highs for the year near $1260.

The 10-year yield is a tad higher to 3.20%; and the VIX is another -3.5% lower, now below 25 to 24.13.

Among the sector ETFs, utilities are down the most (-1.32%), followed by energy (-0.40%); materials (-0.13%) and financials (-0.30%) are down the least, but all sectors are in negative territory so far.

Trading comment: The S&P has been holding above that 200-day average (see below), which is a good sign. The market is a bit overbought short-term, so we could see a pullback. But there is also a good chance that we see another rally into quarter-end later this month. If that occurs, we will probably start talking about the overhead 50-day average as the next area of resistance. As it stands currently, the S&P is exactly flat on the year.

long GLD, VXX