Binary Options Weekly Briefing 8-13/10 – Stocks Closed Mixed after Positive Employment Data

Binary Options Trading Recommendation for the upcoming week –  Market Information and Trading Tips

Equity markets closed the North American session with mixed results on Friday as tech stocks brought down the Nasdaq despite encouraging economic data showing a stronger labor market.   Specifically, the data showed that the US added 114,000 jobs to the economy last month (roughly in line with the 115,000 print that was expected by the consensus).  But with these numbers showing little surprise, the main stories quickly became the large decrease in the monthly Unemployment Rate and the upward revision for the previous month’s jobs data.  These releases showed that the Unemployment Rate fell to 7.8% and that the August jobs figures actually rose by 142,000, which was much higher than the 96,000 figure that was released previously. 

Markets React to Diverse Data

For new traders, an event like this is highly informative as it shows how markets react when data is released.  Since the headline figure (114,000 jobs created) was already priced into markets with the expectation, the actual figure has little if any influence on the day’s price activity.  But since prices never hold static, investors looked to the other released to gain some guidance and since the other two releases were positive, markets initially surged higher in the early part of the session. 

The Dow and S&P managed to hold these gains, but while the Nasdaq did retrace some of this progress, all three indices managed to close higher for the week and month.  In fact, the Dow is now posting gains of 11.4% year to date while the S&P 500 looks even stronger (up 16.2% for the same period) and this is indicative of the broader upward trend in equities seen this year.  Looking ahead, markets will be forced to assess corporate earnings releases as a means for finding direction but first we will have economic data out of the Eurozone, with Industrial Production figures to be released for Germany and the Eurozone as a whole, as well as German Consumer Inflation figures which will be released toward the end of next week.

My Trading Recommendations in 50 words

The USD/JPY has posted some strong rallies after hitting its lows in the lower 77s, and I am viewing this area as the long term bottom.  We did see pullbacks into the end of last week, and I am using this as a buy opportunity for weekly CALL options, expecting a run back up into the low 80s sometime this month.

In the Nasdaq, I will be looking to play against the latest weakness, prices are unlikely to fall below 2780 in the near term.  Use this area to enter into weekly CALL options, targeting a run back to 2865 in the coming weeks