Sponsored by the Dr. Stoxx Options Letter

Here are 5 things to keep in mind as you go about your trading activity today:

1. U.S. Markets are hovering around the breakeven line following 6 days of bullish rallying to new all-time highs.  This kind of consolidation near recent price highs is bullish, despite the modest weakness seen today.

2. The short covering rally in Crude Oil is over.  Prices topped out at $54 and are now trading between $50 and $52.  If Crude closes below $50 by Friday, we should see more selling next week.  Some experts are now calling for crude to trade down to $30.

3. The ECB called Greece's bluff by rejecting the plea for an extension on the bailout funds.  ECB and Athens are playing "chicken" on the Grexit possibility, but the markets both here and in Europe know the chances of that happening are very slim.  It's all about political posturing from here.

4. Wal-Mart hiked its starting pay to $9 per hour, well above minimum wage.  While workers might like this news, investors don't.  Shares of WMT are down 3% today.  

5. Yesterday's FOMC minutes were unexpectedly dove-ish, sending volatility lower and markets higher in response.  Of course, the FOMC hadn't yet taken into account the huge January jobs numbers; but for now, investors are hopeful that rate hikes will not begin in June as they had been widely expected to do.  

Be blessed and trade well!  TC