Swing Trade Ideas – January 26, 2026
Laurie’s Abbreviation Index:
** ‘div’ – dividend
** ‘m/m’ – month over month
** ‘y/y’ – year over year
** ‘Inven’ – inventories
** ‘mfg’ – manufacturing
** +/- – plus or minus, positive or negative
** Underlined text – higher volume premarket
** ‘d’ – day
** ‘Y’ – year
**govt – government
Color Key: Positive – Neutral – Negative
Global Markets: USA, Europe, Japan, China, Hong Kong – negative set-up
· Commodities: Gold, Silver, Copper, Palladium, Oil, natgas, AGGS, Bitcoin
· Yields: 30Y Bond +0.36% Currencies: USA$ -0.44%, CAD +0.18%, YEN +1.23%, BTC/USD-1.8%, Vix:18.45
· Events: USA: Durable goods 830ET . Trump threatening 100% tariffs on Canada over China trade deal or Carney’s speech at Davos:)
· Stock News: USAR+11% USA govt investing $1.5B and taking 10% equity stake
·
Equity: USA indices are slightly lower but within
recent range ahead of major earnings release and FOMC meeting. Japan in
focus with discussion of currency intervention which has led to Yen higher and
US$ lower which adds fuel to the metal rally. US govt is providing $1.6B in
combination of cash and load to USAR and taking a 10% equity position. USAR is
a critical metal miner and this is lifting other names like MP as well as other
names like antimony miner UAMY as traders buy the periodic table in the hope
that USA govt is a buyer:) Silver, gold, uranium and related miners continue to
move higher with US$ debasement one of the memes but given the rise in IV, a
squeeze is underway until it’s not. MAGS are mixed with AAPL, META, MSFT bid
ahead of this week’s earnings which may be short covering or monkeys buying
into earnings. Semis are pulling back premarket with MU, NVDA, AMD all lower
after moving higher last week. Energy strong with cold weather pushing natgas
futures higher in the short term and XLE higher as a general commodity trade or
due to ongoing risk of USA bombing Iran. Bitcoin lower and below 85k so
at a level where a breakdown can occur or a bounce is possible. Bitcoin related
names like MSTR et al are lower. Main catalyst before earnings and FOMC is
likely the Yen with a spike in the Yen potentially negative for equity due to
the Yen carry trade. Impact of the latest Trump tariff salvo towards Canada is
unclear and CDN govt has not responded. Energy and metals higher is positive
for Canadian market. SPX 0DTE positioning indicates positive gamma with 6915
the largest strike so potential for mean reversion trading today around that
level absent news. Durable goods 830ET may move some of the related names like
appliances but otherwise not significant.
Daily Expected Move. SPX(6955-6876) SPY(693-685) QQQ(627-618)
IWM(267-262)
Stocks to watch AAPL MSFT META NVDA MU TSLA Speculative
USAR
SKYT UAMY MSTR RKLB
Indices SLV UNG GDX XME GLD XLE XLB EWC TLT EFA MSOS IBIT
ETHE UFO ARKK SMH XBI KWEB US$
S&P500 FCX CSCO
AAPL NFLX COIN INTC MU
Other USAR AG SKYT PAAS UAMY HL ALM CDA UUUU RVMD BMNR
MSTR IREN CRCL RKLB
AAPL
AAPL is run into earnings name. 250 is a key level and can consider long above with targets 255 and 260. Expected move for the week is +/-11 so 260 is a potential upside target. AAPL has been a laggard so this is a counter trend idea. AAPL IV is slightly elevated for earnings but overall is not high. Option skew is tilted to puts so traders are leaning to hedges or downside which can lead to a stronger upside move should AAPL have a positive reaction. One concern for AAPL is the rising cost of memory, which may impact the margins. Can consider spreads or butterfly trades for directional trades.
