Retail Sales Post Big Gain In September As Consumers Show Unexpected Strength

[Option Beast]( 10/17/2020   |   [View in browser]( --------------------------------------------------------------- [Retail Sales Post Big Gain In September As Consumers Show Unexpected Strength]( Headline retail sales rose 1.9% in September, much better than the 0.7% Dow Jones consensus estimates. Excluding autos, the increase was 1.5%, ahead of the 0.4% expectation. Clothing and accessories led the gains while electronics was the only negative sector. [More...]( SPONSORED CONTENT [You Don't Need Need To Trade A Lot To Be Consistently Profitable]( Did you know there's a certain type of trade that appears almost every trading day between 9:30-10:45am? And if you know how to spot it -- and when to enter & exit -- you could walk away with $300 to $1,000 per contract each time. This is so simple, I don't see why anyone wouldn't take the time to master this. And this free guide shows you how. [CLICK HERE for instant access.]( [REFLECTIONS... the Blurred Puzzle by David Sager](#) The Stock Market reared its head finishing a record week, the best since July. The general feeling, whether it be investors and or analysts: expectations are that volatility will wain leading up to the Nov. 3 Election. The S&P 500 rose 3.8%, closing out its biggest weekly advance in three months as investors embraced signs pointing to a decisive result in next month's U.S. presidential election. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 161 points Friday, more noteworthy it added 904 points for the week. The tech heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 158 points or 1.4%, taking a 'breather'. For the year it is up a whopping 29%, finishing the week at 11579. Indeed, the upside of the indexes are so positive, amid this horrible pandemic, that we are all miffed to see so many negatives still lurking 'out there.' Small businesses and companies, many of which have never reopened or gone out of business have left a stain on this country and the world. There is no time left for many, even with aggressive vaccines on the horizon. The damage to these small businesses is immeasurable As the election enters the final three weeks, traders will be watching every tactic of the candidates. And the effects these tactics have on the voters. A Democratic victory, let alone a 'trifecta' would reshape our entire government. Add in the possibility of increasing the Supreme court for 'balance' and you have a quagmire of enormous equations. "Polling has further consolidated around a Biden advantage in the presidential election....and options markets have significantly reduced the premium they assign to that date," JPMorgan Chase & Co. strategists wrote in a note to clients on Thursday. Strategists say surveys and talks with investors have recently found a flip-flop on sentiment in the event of a Biden victory: Investors previously said it would be bad for stocks, but they are now predicting it would boost markets, an interesting theory. A democrat "Blue Wave" victory "has curiously flipped from consensus bear catalyst to a bull catalyst," Bank of America analysts wrote. Around the Horn.....the oily mess gets messier.......the market for jet fuels is "pretty sick and will probably stay sick," says Doug King, chief executive of U.K.-based hedge fund RCMA Capital LLP. This is one reason why the oil market has " a massive, long drawn-out demand problem" and why crude prices will stay on "the same old road to perdition over the next few months," says Mr. King. Demand for jet fuel is considerability smaller than gasoline or diesel consumption. Still, it represents a sizable chunk of the oil market and one that was growing quickly before the pandemic. The world burned 8.1 million barrels of jet fuel a day in December last year, said Natrasha Kaneva, senior commodities strategist at J.P. Morgan. Come this December, global jet-fuel consumption will stand at 5.4 million barrels a day, down a third, Ms. Kaneva forecasts. At $40.00 a barrel, nobody makes money; while attempting to mix oil and demand is a sticky mess. Box Office Blues Continue.....Movie theaters are 'reeling' and cinema operators are being squashed by the lingering effects of the Coronavirus. Theaters are mostly or completely shut down in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, representing about a quarter of domestic box-office sales, and the key markets that studios need to 'debut'' their big offerings. S&P Global Ratings sees the situation as so dire for the movie theatre operators that it downgraded the ratings for four of the major operarors and said that it believes a default, distressed exchange, or redemption appears "inevitable" in the next six months. Add to that equation the consumer shift to more 'streaming' and the situation worsens. RUMBLINGS ON THE STREET JPMorgan-Chase CEO, Jamie Diamond, on announcing a $830 billion program to help Black and Latino home buyers and small businesses, Barron's " We can do more and do better to break down systems that have propagated racism and widespread economic inequality." Rich Greenfield, a media analyst at research firm Lightshed Partners, who says that theater operators are burning through cash and may need to reorganize debt in bankruptcy if they can't kick-start sales soon. Barron's "It's a perfect storm. Consumer behavior was already shifting toward streaming and smaller screens...crushing movie theaters." Tom Lee, Fundstrat, Barron's "The future is uncertain. It is probably a worthwhile conjecture to think industrials will trounce technology in the next decade." Barry Knapp, Strategist at Ironsides Macro, Barron's "This should be the decade when the softwear boom starts to accrue to the consumers of the technology from the producers of the technology." For the past 10 years, the industrial sector hasn't been the place to be if an investor wanted to outperform the market. The S&P 500 Industrial Sector index rose 12% during the past 10 years, lagging behind the S&P 500 index's 14% return over the same period, hurt by the total collapse of once mighty General Electric. Jason Wild, Founder and President JNW Asset M management, Barron's "Cannabis taxes are going to be a vital tool for states that have huge holes in their budgets. Six or seven months info the pandemic, U.S. demand is up significantly across the country; it is becoming a bull market for cannabis." [25 Dividend Stocks the Analysts Love the Most]( When it comes to Wall Street's favorite dividend stocks, the pros are all about energy companies and utilities these days. Whether it's an increase in residential energy needs or a nascent recovery in commodity prices, analysts' most highly rated dividend stocks - firms such as oil and gas drillers, electric utilities, pipeline companies, oilfield services and other sector names - find themselves heavily over-represented. To find analysts' favorite dividend stocks, we scoured the S&P 500 for dividend stocks with yields of more than 3%, excluding a number of extremely high yielders because of excessive risk. (Sometimes, a too-high yield can be a warning sign that a stock is in deep trouble.) [Article continues...]( [10 Simple and Free Budgeting Tools]( NOT EVERYONE RELISHES the idea of proactively managing money and maintaining a budget. However, creating a budget - and sticking to it - are key first steps toward reaching financial goals large and small. What's more, selecting the right budgeting tool can make or break your ability to follow a spending plan. "It's got to be a part of your life if you want to achieve (your) goals," says Paul Miller, CPA and owner of New York City-based accounting firm Miller & Company LLP. [Click to continue reading this article...]( [Boomers' Savings Would Only Last Seven Years In 'Ideal' Retirement, Study Finds]( The average baby boomers' savings will last only seven years in retirement, a new study found, unless they curb their spending during their golden years. Boomers on average have $920,400 saved for retirement, the Charles Schwab survey found, but expect to spend $135,100 per year to sustain their ideal lifestyle in retirement. That means their savings would run out after seven years. [More here...]( SPONSORED CONTENT [Do You Have Zero Experience Trading?]( Quick!....get this free e-book that was designed to teach beginners how to trade options while you still can. Want to start trading with a small account? Got you covered on that also. 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