Options Market News

It was a banner year for stocks and the last time the S&P 500 rallied by this much the index continued with a strong outing in 1999.

Earnings from Broadcom and GameStop are in focus while Bitcoin-related stocks are also likely to remain under the spotlight as BTC hovers around 100k.

USD/JPY bulls are on the back foot as US bond yields retreat, triggering a key technical break. With Scott Bessent’s bold fiscal plan easing fears and Fed rate cut bets fading, the pair now skews firmly to the downside.

It's not every day you see gold plunge alongside yields. But that is what Monday served on reports of a potential ceasefire in Gaza and Trump's picking a relatively 'safe pair of hands' for the US Treasury Secretary role. With a prominent swing high on gold, I suspect it could be headed much lower from here.

US banks kick off Q4 earnings season, with JP Morgan and Wells Fargo reporting. PepsiCo will also report earnings.

Earnings this week from Nike, Carnival and Tesco will be under the spotlight.

Earnings from Costco, Micron Technologies and AutoZone are due this week,

GBP/JPY is coiling up and primed to fire, sitting in a strong uptrend while bumping up against horizontal resistance dating back to when the Bank of Japan initiated a record FX market intervention to support the Japanese yen in April.

Chinese stock futures have surged on the resumption of trade on Monday, finding buying support after hitting multi-week lows on Friday. If the gains stick, it points to a potential trend change in both the Hang Seng and China A50. The gains track similar moves across the Asian region and follow a late surge on Wall Street to end May.

Obvious month-end window dressing in Australia and United States stocks drove significant late session rallies on Friday, sending Australian ASX 200 futures surging 1.5% from the lows hit in Asia. But with commodity prices down heavily on Friday including iron ore, whether the gains can stick is questionable.

A UK general election will be held on July 4th. Since the announcement, the FTSE has fallen around 1%, and GBP remains well supported. In short, the market is calm about the prospect of Labour, which is ahead in the polls, winning power. This is because it is expected, and the policies aren't radically different from Conservative policies. The economy as a whole isn't expected to change its course and the timing of the BoE rate cut could be more of a market driver. That said, there are some policies that could affect specific sectors, which we consider below.

If the 2-year yield is right, it suggests the USD could be set to rise over the near term. And I suspect that PCE inflation could be the trigger. For now, risk off tones are in the air.

It’s said the stock market isn’t the economy and based on the performance of Hang Seng futures on Wednesday, it’s hard to argue against. Because on the same day the International Monetary Fund upgraded its China economic growth forecast, stocks in Hong Kong are getting hammered.

Nvidia is expected to report $5.18 in EPS on $22.9B in revenue, but the company’s outlook for the rest of the year will be even more significant for the Nasdaq 100 as a whole.

After record highs on Wall Street last week, attention now turns to earnings from Nvidia, the darling of Wall Street, to see whether the AI stock can push for further record highs.

Japan’s Nikki 225 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng have been like chalk and cheese coming out of the pandemic. As one surged, the other floundered. But the tide looks to be turning, and fast.