Last week ended pretty calmly for options expiration. We have the S&P within a few points of being positive for the calendar year right now, which is quite a statement when you look at how the world has changed over the last 6-7 months.

We have congress back in Washington this week with exactly 2 weeks to pass another fiscal stimulus bill before the CARES Act expires and they go on their August recess. There is the potential for congress to stay in session in August if nothing is done in the by the end of this month, but with tens of millions out of jobs and the $600 additional weekly unemployment benefits expiring this has the potential for a harsh reaction from the market if nothing is done in a timely basis.

We're now 105 days from the presidential election - look for the market to begin pricing in some nervousness about the results. The worst case scenerio is a result that is contested, and President Trump already looks to be laying the groundwork for calling the results illegitimate.

Companies making up about 25% of the S&P are set to report earnings this week.

Some of the companies with earnings this week:

Monday: Halliburton (HAL), Lennox International (LII) before market open

Tuesday: Lockheed Martin (LMT), The Coca-Cola Company (KO) before market open; Texas Instruments (TXN), Philip Morris International (PM), Capital One Financial (COF), United Airlines (UAL), Snap (SNAP) after market close

Wednesday: Baker Hughes (BKR), Biogen (BIIB), HCA Healthcare (HCA) before market open; Chipotle (CMG), Whirlpool (WHR), Align Technologies (ALGN), Tesla (TSLA), Microsoft (MSFT), Equifax (EFX), Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS) after market close

Thursday: Southwest Airlines (LUV), Dow Inc. (DOW), The Travelers Corp (TRV), Quest Diagnostics (DGX), PulteGroup (PHM), Hershey (HSY), AT&T (T), Cintas (CTAS), Citrix Systems (CTXS), American Airlines (AAL), Alaska Air Group (ALK), Twitter (TWTR), Union Pacific (UNP), Intel (INTC), E-Trade Financial (ETFC), Boston Beer Co. (SAM), Skyworks Solutions (SWKS) after market close

Friday: Schlumberger (SLB), Verizon Communications (VZ), American Express (AXP), Bloomin’ Brands (BLMN), Honeywell (HON) before market open

Crude continues to face resistance at the $41.05 price level, which is the gap from March 6th when the Saudis dramatically cut prices and we saw Oil drop almost $20 over that weekend.

With Gold making such a perfect cup formation on the monthly basis I imagine it is headed for at least it's high of $1,923 from September of 2011.

The 10-year is yielding just above 0.60% and this is where it seems like it's most comfortable for the time being.

Disney and Uber have both pulled back to a 382 retracement from the previous high, we will be watching both of them closely as they approach their b points to see how they trade at those recent highs.

We initiated our first position last week in Disney with a half position for our long term portfolio at around $118.63. Disney is trading just under that price level right now. on a long term basis, Disney is fundamentally a strong company that will come out of this better off in the long run. Disney announces their earnings August 4th, and while the parks business has been horrid you can expect stellar numbers from Disney+.

Once normal life resumes, Disney parks will be full again in the next few years, sports will be played in front of full stadiums, and movie sets will be back to bustling business.

in the future, content will be king. NFLX will be the predominant player in the business as they are now - but just think about their content brands. How many actual pieces of content that NFLX produces can you think about right now? How many of those brands would you be wiilling to bet on being around and recognizable in 15 years?

Ozarks is one of my favorite shows on NFLX and no one is going to talk about that show in 5-10 years after its final season airs. Stranger Things was also a show I enjoyed. I tried to watch Orange is the New Black but never got into it.

Do you really "need" to be a subscriber to NFLX? It's a great service but it comes with very few recognizable shows for the tens of billions it spends on original content. When compared with DIS, at least in this country where I'm familiar, many households will, in fact, "need" to have the ability to watch Mickey Mouse, Star Wars, Marvel, PJ Masks, Donald Duck etc.

There is no comparing the content library that Disney has with any other company on this planet, and in a world where content is king DIS will soon reap the benefits of a higher valuation once the drain of their parks and ESPN and movie production business stop weighing on them. If you have the desire and ability to hold positions for the long term in any of your portfolios I would add some exposure to Disney as I see the risk reward at these levels as very attractive.

We will be watching Uber closely as their earnings approach on August 6th for a potential long term and short term exposure.

Canopy has pulled back to a 50% retracement of its recent run higher and has bounced nicely. They missed their earnings in a big way at the end of May causing the stock to pull back dramatically. Cannabis legalization is one of the few non partisan topics that most Americans agree on, and with the election looming there is the small possibility that we see either candidate pushing federal proposals to ease federal regulations. We will keep our eye on the cannabis stocks as they have huge potential in the long term.

As of this morning CGC is a $6.6 billion company. As one of the biggest players in the industry, there's no way these companies stay this small for so long, and I expect they will begin to mature over the next few years and we will look for positions along the way, as well as short term trades potentially around earnings volatility.

Constallation brands owns a huge portion of CGC and if you're looking for exposure to cannabis without as much risk and volatility this could be a possible play, which we will also consider for our long term portfolio in the near future. STZ has a strong portfolio of beer and wine already in their arsenal and is positioned well to capitalize if and when the regulations are eased in the US.

Thank you for signing up for my new report and trading service, Rocket Equity and Options Report. I will be publishing weekly reports every Monday morning about what to expect for the week ahead, as well as updates throughout the week.

As we look to build the core aspects of our longer term portfolio, I anticipate more updates on almost a daily basis. I will be recommending some of my strongest bull cases for our long-term portfolio and will look to build positions in 5-10 stocks. I'm always on the look out for positive expected value short term trades as well.

Current long-term portfolio:
Long 1/2 position in DIS at $118.63.

Stay tuned for updates each day this week!

Cheers,

Tommy O'Brien