"The White House on Friday assured fans of the television show "Lost" that President Obama's State of the Union address would not disrupt the show's highly-anticipated three-hour premiere.
I don't foresee a scenario in which the millions of people who hope to see a conclusion to 'Lost' are pre-empted by the president," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said at his daily briefing. You can quote an administration official on that," he added cheekily."
Television was not intended to make human beings vacuous, but it is an emanation of their vacuity. ~Malcolm Muggeridge
I can give you the state of this union in one quick phrase: we're in a sorry state of affairs when the citizenry is more interested in a tee vee show than knowing what their leader's intentions are for their real lives. I can't say I blame them particularly when it's just more smoke and mirrors, but who's allowing the smoke and mirrors to continue? We were discussing amongst ourselves on Friday the possibility of the SOTU delivery date, which is how I stumbled on this story I'm sharing with you. How does this intertwine with the market? I suspect that any significant correction may not be coming until after dear leader has his day in the sun, but things can change rapidly with or without that event out of the way. And for sure, the premiere of "Lost" has got to be more important than silly things like governance and the economy. Even your leader thinks so! Wrapping your head around that is just about as easy as wrapping your head around this tape, so I wish you luck with that.
Time to move on to some charts for the week ahead. Many thanks to Leisa, btw, for consistently sharing her sector work each weekend- what a wealth of information it is for trading and stock picking. Thank you, Leisa! I'm reading various calls all over the trade-o-sphere tonight as to the direction we'll go this week, but it's nothing more than speculation and we'll know what we're dealing with once the bell rings tomorrow morning. The best thing to do is have a plan for either direction.... nothing more, nothing less. We don't know for certain if the /DX:SPX correlation is truly broken or not, but both charts are showing bullish potential (emphasis on potential.) The bull flag on DX might see more “fill in” before a breakout happens. Furthermore, we shouldn't have been surprised at Friday's moves on bad economic data either- perception seems to be nine tenths of the direction of this tape, and perception is currently on an acid trip, so let's just adapt as best as we can and trade the rotation(s.) For all we know we're trading against peeps who actually took time to protest for a TV show to be aired. There's a saying about how to deal with crazy people- make them think you're crazier than they are and they'll back down. So, let's get crazy and make some cash, shall we?
Before I forget: earnings season gets the official kick-off tomorrow with AA reporting after the bell, with INTC on Thursday, followed by JPM before the bell on Friday. You can click here for the full schedule of fun and games. Good trading to us all!