I’ll be on IBD LIVE this Wednesday, March 31st. It’s a product where the IBD experts get together to talk markets during the first 90 minutes of the trading day. Here’s the link with a more detailed description. There’s a FREE 2-week trial if you want to check it out: https://shop.investors.com/offer/splashresponsive.aspx?id=IBD-Live&src=A00459A&&refcode=JF_IBDLiveLinks

Topics covered:
1) 0:00 Announcements
2) 1:25 Market Commentary and Index Review (Nasdaq Composite, S&P 500, and Russell 2000)
3) 13:40 Stock Review – Semiconductors: AMAT, LRCX, ASML, UCTT, ICHR, CAMT, AMKR, MX, SMH (ETF)
4) 16:35 Stock Review – Mega Caps: FB, GOOGL, MSFT, QQQ (ETF)
5) 19:05 Stock Review – Steel: X, STLD, MT, NUE, TX, SLX (ETF)
6) 20:20 Stock Review – Watch List/General Ideas/Commentary: MGNX, PUBM
7) 21:45 Conclusion/Summary

Market Summary:
We continue to see two different markets. Growth stocks are still in a correction (as seen in the Nasdaq Composite) but other sectors are in strong uptrends (as seen by the all-time high in the S&P 500). What to do from here? I discuss a few different strategies in this weekend’s video. What I am doing is keeping a blend of growth stocks that are holding up well and also owning some SPY (the S&P 500 ETF) to give my broad exposure to the market. I still think it’s worth keeping positions light in the growth area until we see more consistent accumulation in the Nasdaq Composite and more growth stocks setting up.

A few favorable things for the market include: 1) A decent increase in Equity Only put buying the past 3 days. From a contrarian point of view, it’s a good sign when put buying increases. 2) This upcoming week is a holiday shortened week, as the US markets are closed on Friday for the Good Friday holiday. Holiday shortened weeks tend to trend to the upside. 3) The Semiconductor ETF is back above its 50-day moving average. That could be a leading sign for growth stocks. 4) Earnings season is coming up again. In other words, if we do see one more flush in tech, I think it will be the last one of this correction, and then we will start to rally in anticipation of the next set of earnings reports. Again, please be patient until conditions improve in the growth sectors. If you have any questions, you can ask them during the next webinar which will be Sunday, March 28th at 8PM EST. Thank you and enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Unusual Option Activity
3/26/21 Steel Dynamics (STLD) buyers in the August $55 calls for $3.00 to $3.10 today 1250X
3/26/21 US Steel (X) 1400 May $20 ITM calls bought for $3.40
3/26/21 Nucor (NUE) with 1000 April 30th (W) $77 calls bought up to $3.10 from $2 early.
3/26/21 Nucor (NUE) seeing July $80 calls active 1100X into Infrastructure news
3/26/21 Nucor (NUE) also with 2,000 July $85 calls bought today for $3.50 to $3.60
3/26/21 Snap (SNAP) in early trade seeing 6000 June $60 calls bought $3.50 offers looking to add to 14,350 in OI.
3/26/21 Snap (SNAP) also April 1st (W) $55.50 calls active with buyers 11,000X
3/26/21 Schrodinger (SDGR) with 500 September $60 puts sold to open for $7.30 this morning
3/26/21 Texas Instruments (TXN) with 1000 August $210 calls bought for $4.00 to $4.10
3/26/21 Applied Materials (AMAT) with 850 January 2023 $70 puts sold to open this morning for $5.60 to $5.40
3/25/21 Microsoft (MSFT) with 1,600 October $175 puts sold to open today for $3.60
3/25/21 Micron (MU) with 1600 April 1st (W) $85 calls bought $1.88 to $2.10 into early weakness, earnings next week
3/25/21 DocuSign (DOCU) trading 1250 June $230/$240 call spreads early after positive investor day
3/25/21 Nasdaq 100 ETF (QQQ) between 11:27am and Noon EST the April $310 calls with big blocks bought 10,500X
3/25/21 Semiconductor ETF (SMH) with 10,000 August $220 calls opening $23.45 as May $190 adjust.
3/25/21 Semiconductor ETF (SMH) also 4475 May $235 calls bought today $8.70+