The monthly jobs report came out, and the ostensible unemployment rate continues to tumble, down to 8.4% now. Keep in mind, there is only one job report left between now and the election. Incredible, yes? In any case, the rate is tumbling faster than forecast.
This good news is giving interest rates room to breathe, and bonds are thus sinking lower.
This feels a lot like yesterday morning, I must say. In short: weak tech, strong everything else. So as we look to the small caps, they are up well over 1% as I am typing this.
The Nasdaq 100, on the other hand, is down nearly triple digits.
It seems there is quite a bit of froth being blown off the beer steins of mega-caps and tech high-fliers. Take Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) (please!) Over just three days – from the wee hours of Wednesday morning versus right now – the stock lost 30%. Thirty percent! I mean, sheesh! That is a serious bite!
I lightened up yesterday. I had three put positions – XME ETF (NYSE:XME), IWM ETF (NYSE:IWM),and SPY (NYSE:SPY). I just hung on to SPY puts for the moment (November expiration). In my equity portfolio, I’ve got 50 positions and a 134% commitment level.