(DAILY NOTION): Things Look Bright as Wall Street Starts Off the Week, Next Mover: Fed Policy Meeting Minutes, U.S. Retail Sales

NASDAQ 100 (as of Feb 16, 2021 at 12.30 p.m.)

Source: Yahoo Finance

SPX 500 (as of Feb 16, 2021 at 12.30 p.m.)

Source: Yahoo Finance

US30 (as of Feb 16, 2021 at 12.30 p.m.)

Source: Yahoo Finance

Following last week’s strong performance, the US30 futures was up by 250 points, the NAS100 futures gained 95 points, and the SPX500 futures rose 27 points. As the U.S. markets open after the President’s Day holiday, fear has receded on Wall Street, as indicated by the fear gauge of Wall Street, the CBOE Volatility Index which dipped below 20.

The markets are drawing comfort from the decline in new Covid-19 cases, vaccination rollouts, and lockdown restrictions slowly easing. As progress is slowly but surely made in getting the Biden stimulus plan approved, hopes for an economic recovery is also lifting optimism in the markets.

Statements from leaders such as the U.S. treasury secretary, Janet Yellen calling out for additional stimulus and U.S. Federal Reserve’s (Fed) chairman’s Jerome Powell’s statement of maximum employment as a national goal, also clearly bode well with the markets.

Meanwhile, the New York Times has reported that 14 states in the U.S. have been instructed to start rolling cutoff of electric service due to intense storm strains. However, this has also led to a rally in energy stocks yesterday and the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose to $60.09 a barrel on Monday, Consumer News and Business Channel (CNBC) reported.

With things looking bright as Wall Street starts the week, traders would be paying close attention to the results of the U.S. retail sales and minutes from Fed’s January policy meeting minutes, as an indicator of the pace of the U.S. economic recovery.

However, the incoming World Trade Organisation (WTO) chief, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has cautioned that ‘vaccine nationalism’ could dampen progress of ending the pandemic, and subsequently impact global economic recovery. The sober warning should serve as a reminder that the virus is still beyond our control and it would serve us well to remember that.

FOLLOWME User Sentiment (as of Feb 16, 2021 at 12.30 p.m.)

SPX500

Short – 90.00%

Long – 10.00%

NAS100

Short – 79.64%                

Long – 20.36%

US30

Short – 77.07%

Long – 22.93%