Skip to main content

Morning Update


Yesterday Alcoa kicked off earnings season with a mediocre report that showed declining cash flow and a bottom line loss despite better than expected EPS and revenue. The shares are modestly lower ahead of the market open. In Europe sentiment has been negative after the IMF said that by 2013 European banks will have to dispose of up to $4.5 trillion in assets. However, there was some good news out of Italy and France, whose industrial production numbers were bother better than expected. Later today in the US wholesale inventories and the Fed’s Beige Book are set to be released, and Bundsbank president Jens Weidman is scheduled to speak, which could generate anti-ESM headlines.

Yesterday call options were unusually active in Ford, with the top trades occurring in the January calls. We saw one trader buy the Jan. 11/12.5 call spread 1,853 times for a net debit of $0.18. This was done with Ford stock trading at 10.10 and is a bullish trade betting Ford will be above 11.18 at January expiration. This means that the trade will require the stock to appreciate by 10.7% in the next 100 days to break even. The maximum profit this spread can return is $1.32, which will occur if Ford is at or above 12.5 at expiration. Since this spread only risks $0.18, it has a very favorable risk/reward ratio. The reason for yesterday’s call activity is likely the news the Ford’s sales in China have increased 1.7% year over year and 10.5% since August 2012. To capitalize on China’s growth, Ford is planning to launch 15 new vehicles in the country and double its production capacity by 2015. Ford’s strong growth in China may have caught investors by surprise due to news out of the region focusing on the slowing economy. Additionally, yesterday Ford was named a top pick by Morgan Stanley, who said the company is leveraged to the US housing recovery and a European restructuring. It appears that this trader is willing to risk a little to gain a lot in the event the global economy does better than forecasted over the next 100 days.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Morning Update

ECB officials said last night that ECB President Mario Draghi will likely wait to hear Germany’s Constitutional Court’s ruling on the EFSM before publicly unveiling his plans. Many were hoping Draghi would unveil his plan after the ECB’s September 6th meeting, but this is becoming increasingly unlikely. Today Reuters is reporting that Germany is the latest European nation to begin studying the possible impact of a Greek exit from the Euro. This comes ahead of Chancellor Merkel’s meeting with Greece’s Prime Minister today. Merkel has repeatedly said that she would like Greece to remain in the common currency, though clearly someone in Germany believes a Greek exit is possible outcome worth preparing for. This morning US new durable goods orders numbers we released for July, coming in at a gain of 4.2% M/M. Though this was strong than expected, it was primarily driven by strong aircraft sales. Non-defense orders excluding aircraft were down a sharp 3.4% M/M versus a 0.2% decline expecte...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is the KCJ Foreshadowing a 2008 Repeat?

The CBOE Correlation Index (KCJ) is close to the lowest level we have seen since it was first listed in 2007. The KCJ measures the implied movement of the S&P 500 components options, compared to the implied movement of the S&P 500 index options. Simply put, the higher the number, the more likely all stocks are going to move together. Conversely, a low number will be characterized by sector rotation, and flat markets; one sector moves higher, another moves lower.  (Source: Access Hollywood) Correlation, for lack of a better term, is correlated with volatility. Not surprisingly, 30-day S&P 500 historical volatility is near the low level of 6.5%. Currently at 33.5, KCJ is sitting close to rock bottom, lower than where it was in 2007, (but not lower than where Lindsay Lohan was in 2007).  So far this year, the market has been able to grind higher, characterized by leadership in FANG(Facebook Apple/Amazon, Netflix, Google) and sector rotation. A...
Post a Comment
Read more

Morning Update

This week a troika of international inspectors will come to Athens. The inspectors, from the European Commissions, the IMF, and the ECB will formally appraise Greece’s delayed overhauls implemented since the June 17 elections. Without gaining approval from the troika Greece risks being cut off from aid, the next round of which is due in September. Domestically the focus of this week’s data will be Friday’s final revision of first quarter GDP. However, next week’s data is likely to rile markets more with both an FOMC meeting and Non-farms payroll report. This morning McDonalds reported second quarter EPS of $1.32, down from $1.35 a year earlier. Revenue grew $0.01 billion to $6.92 billion year over year. This came against consensus EPS estimates of $1.37 on revenue of $6.94, which had already been revised down $0.08 in the preceding weeks. McDonald's U.S. generated comparable sales growth of 3.6% for the quarter, while the European division delivered comparable sales gr...
Post a Comment
Read more