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(Justin Vaughn, Editor, Options Trading Report) Russia’s war of destruction in Ukraine has disrupted and curtailed many ‘grain’ products from one of the world’s top grain-exporting regions, pushing up prices for wheat and corn. The loss in exports from the Black Sea region has pushed wheat prices up about 40% this year. Other big crop-producing countries, such as South America, are also affecting the supply shortage. Worldwide demand remains strong for food, fuel made from … Read more…

(Justin Vaughn, Editor, Options Trading Report) Worries about slowing corporate earnings (so far most incoming earnings look good) and Federal Reserve’s plan to rapidly raise interest rates, dragged the Dow Jones Industrials to their worst day since 2020. Friday’s declines, which worsened throughout the day undid gains from earlier in the week, affecting all markets. The broad-based S&P 500, fell at least 1% for the third consecutive, while the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite Index lost at … Read more…

(Justin Vaughn, Editor, Options Trading Report) Inflation, Growth Worries Drag Down Indices… Stocks fell, with major indices posting a weekly loss, on Thursday. The week was shorter, as the markets closed in observance of Good Friday. Investors are beginning to show more worries that soaring inflation is starting to affect businesses. The Dow Industrial fell 113 points or 0.3% to 34451. The S&P 500 lost 54 points or 1.2% to 4392, a day after the … Read more…

(Justin Vaughn, Editor, Options Trading Report) A Bullish Slant On The Markets… is unfolding. As Wall Street analysts continue to revise upward their forecasts for 2022 and 2023 corporate earnings, war broke out in Ukraine, and geopolitical risks escalated, sending the S&P 500 to a dramatic low on February 24. Meanwhile, inflation continued to confirm prices were rising at a troubling rate, which alarmed Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, and his colleagues, to take a … Read more…

(Justin Vaughn, Editor, Options Trading Report) U.S. stocks nudged higher Friday, steadied by a solid employment report that showed the country’s jobless rate returning to pre-pandemic levels. Given the booming labor market, the March employment data reported on Friday showed non-farm payrolls continuing to grow robustly, up 431,000 last month (March) after an upwardly revised 750,000 increase in February. March’s jobless rate fell to a post-pandemic low of 3.6% from 3.8% the previous month, and … Read more…

(Justin Vaughn, Editor, Options Trading Report) The U.S. is ramping up shipments of liquified natural gas to Europe, as the continent mounts a worldwide hunt for ‘new’ supplies to finally phase out total reliance on Russian energy, after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The globe-spanning effort to wean Europe off Russian energy supplies was at the forefront of President Biden’s summit with European Union Leaders this week in Brussels. The U.S. aims to ship 50 billion … Read more…

(Justin Vaughn, Editor, Options Trading Report) The Month Businesses Went To War… Businesses reacted as Putin invaded Ukraine. The invasion forced CEOs across the U.S. and Europe into a crisis mode. Massive bombing, and slaughtering of Ukraine citizens, unmercifully, prompted a giant response – never seen before, to the Russian economy. Two years after the pandemic tore into the global economy, another crisis emerged. The pandemic had given leaders a crisis playbook. Years of corporate … Read more…

(Justin Vaughn, Editor, Options Trading Report) The market had plenty of reasons to fret. Russia showed no sign of wanting to end its war on Ukraine and appeared ready to escalate attacks, not halt them. In response, the U.S. said it would remove “Most favored nation” trading status from the country and blocked Russian oil imports. Big U.S. corporations, including Goldman Sachs Group, McDonald’s, and JPMorgan Chase continued to flee, joining the many already to … Read more…

(Justin Vaughn, Editor, Options Trading Report) The U.S. labor market is rotating toward a post-pandemic world, with a steady stream of adults joining the labor force and employment approaching levels before Covid-19 began its rapid spread. Employers added 670,000 workers to their payrolls in seven months, the Labor Department said Friday. The jobless rate fell to 3.8% from 4.0% a month earlier, edging closer to the 50-year low of 3.5% hit just before the pandemic. … Read more…

(Justin Vaughn, Editor, Options Trading Report) The stock market capped a turbulent week, by rallying on Friday, as investors ‘weighed all the negatives’; How the Federal Reserve will proceed with interest-rate-increases, and the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Energy is at the crux of this conflict. Oil prices rose sharply when the invasion began, with brent-crude rising as high as $105 a barrel Thursday morning (2-24-22), the highest level since 2014. European natural gas prices … Read more…