Updated late Tuesday and Friday nights
Friday’s Close for June 5th, 2009
Written by: Mike Coval

We end the week on a flat note but overall the gains outweighed the losses for the 13th week in a 15 week period. So what do we do from here? Will the gains just keep on coming? Until they do stop I’ll trade slightly more neutral since we are still so overbought.

To watch a video of Friday’s market action, along with my thoughts, Click here. The DOW closed up 12 points at 8,763 while the NASDAQ closed flat to finish the day at 1,849.

Energy: Energy prices turned flat after the employment report. Late in the day, the price of crude futures was trading down $0.41 at $68.41 a barrel. Track the price of crude with the Oil ETF, USO.

The fat cats are coming after us from all sides…

Economic News: Stocks wavered after the release of a May jobs report revealed an unexpectedly soft drop in payrolls, but also a disappointing rise in the unemployment rate.

The economy lost 345,000 jobs last month, far fewer than the 520,000 economists had been expecting. The job loss was roughly half the average monthly decline for the last six months, the Labor Department said. The jarring change could suggest the labor market has reached a bottom.

The bad news: the unemployment rate, which ballooned to 9.4% in May, up from 8.9% in April and a bit above economists’ estimates.

Technology: So is Sandisk giving us a picture of a potential pullback before moving hiring again or would selling a July $15.00 put for $1.08 (naked put) give us an excellent cost basis on the stock to use for covered calls if we were assigned the stock?

Good and or bad stocks to watch: RIMM, POT, AMZN, CTSH

Cheers,
Mike Coval