August 14, 2023

Markets:

Stock futures rose slightly Monday as Wall Street looked to shake off a rough start to August.

The moves come as stocks have struggled to sustain their rally in the late summer. Last week, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite fell 0.3% and 1.9%, respectively. It was the Nasdaq Composite’s first two-week losing streak of the year.

This week could be driven by insights into the state of the U.S. consumer, with earnings reports due from Home Depot, Target and Walmart. Retail sales data from July is also due out on Tuesday morning.

The earnings reports are coming after a mixed batch of inflation reports last week, which show that price increased have eased from their post-pandemic peak but are still above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.

Base metals saw prices tumble Monday morning due to ongoing concerns over China’s property sector, a key consumer of metals. A stronger dollar also weighed on the prices for the industrial metals.

U.S. Steel announced on Sunday that it is reviewing strategic options after the company received unsolicited proposals for deals, including potentially buying the entire company.

Portfolio:

We enter the new trading week holding set-ups in APCX, HPE, TSLL, CVE, IQ, and KEY. The market continues to hold the line and continues to coil up names. Whether you want to believe in this market or not, forgetting the ugly trade pattern the last two weeks with nothing but zig zags, it continues to hold the line technically and refuses to break. It's going to be really interesting to see how we trade into and after Labor Day should these names continue to coil up. If the selling in AAP dries up, which it will, watch out!

Patience this week. Mid-month and vacations are in full swing with traders. Next week we begin to see the return of volume and after Labor Day it's GO mode! This has been the historical pattern but more so this year after a great run-up for the first half. In fact, the Hamptons are reporting one of it's busiest seasons ever over the last few weeks. Guess where the majority of wall street is. Stay patient here, don't press and be ready for updates and a new trade possibly.