Important Note: Starting this week, our weekly members meetings will now take lace on Thursdays at 1 pm Irish Time (previously on Friday mornings).

US benchmark equity indexes closed mixed on Monday, as the US and China initiated the latest round of trade negotiations. The Nasdaq was up 0.3% to 19,591.24, while the S&P 500 increased 0.1% to 6,005.88. The Dow Jones Industrial Average remained flat at 42,761.76. Among sectors, consumer discretionary headed the gainers rally, while utilities paced the decliners.

US Treasury yields were lower, with the 10-year rate decreasing 2.3 basis points to 4.49% and the two-year rate dropping 3.1 basis points to 4.01%.

July West Texas Intermediate crude oil increased 1.2% to $65.35 a barrel on Monday.

Officials from the Trump administration are holding trade talks with representatives from China in London. US President Donald Trump said last week that he held a phone call with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.

In economic news, consumer expectations for one-year US inflation growth eased to 3.2% in May from 3.6% in the previous month, according to a survey released by the New York Federal Reserve Bank on Monday. Total inventories of merchant wholesalers in the US were $908.7 billion at the end of April, up 0.2% from March. On a year-over-year basis, inventories increased by 2.3%.

In company news, Edison International's EIX shares fell 8.1%, the worst performer on the S&P 500. Wolfe Research downgraded its rating on the company's stock to peer perform from outperform.

Intuitive Surgical ISRG was down 5.6%, and HCA Healthcare HCA declined 2.9%.

ON Semiconductor ON shares jumped 4.4% after BofA Securities raised the price target on the company's stock to $60 from $55.

Gold increased 0.2% to $3,354.60 per troy ounce, while silver was up 2.3% to $36.96 per troy ounce.

Portfolio News

Active Trading Portfolio:
Check Out the Active Trading Portfolio.
Option Trading Portfolio:
- SPY June 20th Short $550 Put:
  - On May 20th we sold the June 20th $550 Puts on SPY and generated $214 in premium per contract. The trade had a 96% probability of profit at the time of placing.
  - If SPY drops below $560 we will consider rolling this trade out and down to the July $520 contract.
  - Right now, SPY at $600. So nothing to do now.
- SPY Financed Bear Put Spread:
  - SPY is trading at $600 and this trade has worked out perfectly so far. The index is trading well above the June $520 short put the remaining leg of the trade. The index is also trading well above the breakeven for the entire trade of $506.
  - We rolled out the short May 16th $535 put to the June 20th $520 strike and generated an additional credit of $189. There is nothing to do with this part of the trade.
  - The $560/$550 bear put spread portion, expired Thursday April 17th to yield the maximum $1000 profit per contract.
  Check Out the Option Trading portfolio.
Buy and Hold Portfolio: Our long-term buy-and-hold portfolio has returned to positive territory yielding an annualised ROI at 25%. We will notify Pro and Premium members via WhatsApp immediately upon making new purchases. We have identified over 15 potential stocks for potential investment. Check out out the Buy and Hold Portfolio.