At first the week didn't start off too bad with slight losses on Monday and a huge gain on Tuesday. But with oil prices hitting one new record high after the other, the 3 Major US indices and the European markets couldn't hold their heads above water anymore. On Wednesday the markets submerged deep into the red. Thursday stocks just managed to emerge for a breath of air again just to go down deep again on Friday.
With strong demand for diesel fuel and concerns about global supplies crude oil climbed as high as $126.25 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange yesterday breaking it's own record high twice this day. It closed below the intraday high at $125.96, up $2.27 for the session. This is a weekly gain on over 8%.
I've said this several times before in articles that I wrote
(
www.stockbreakthroughs.com/articles/oil-prices.htm and
www.stockbreakthroughs.com/newsletters/oil-prices.htm ) and to my subscribers and I'll say it again. Oil will keep on going up. And one day we will even see the $200 mark. The biggest problem is that the world depends too much on oil. And it goes without saying that if oil continues to climb at such a fast pace, the world economy will face serious problems!
With the first-quarter earnings season almost past, investors will continue to face
mounting concerns about consumption and the U.S. economy next week, with retail sales and consumer-price data likely to reflect the impact of surging energy and food prices.
The Dow Jones fell 120.90 points or 0.9% on Friday to close at 12,745.88 giving it a weekly loss of 2.4%. The Nasdaq fell 5.72 points or 0.2% on the day to close at 2,445.52, bringing it to a 1.3% loss for the week. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index lost 9.40 points or 0.7% on the day to close at 1,388.28. The index's loss for the week was 1.8%.
On account of the recent market drops I got stopped out of my Apple options trade on Wednesday but still cashed in a 70,7% gain in 13 days! This just shows me over and over again that the system of my mentor works like gangbusters; if you stick to the system and to disciplined money management rules!
But despite the present market drops, there are always stocks that are worth
watching. One is still Apple although it's been trading very high already. Maybe a put option could become a possibility like it did at the beginning of the year.
Others stocks: MT, ACI, CNQ, CVX, GILD, HP, PXD, SPN, WLL, UNT.
My trading bias has become neutral again.
Have a great week.
Yours in Successful Trading,
Ricky Schmidt
www.stockbreakthroughs.com
www.stockbreakthroughs.com/blog