The stock market is up slightly heading into midday trading today. News of new home sales dipping sent stock briefly negative shortly after market open. The price of oil continues to rise today and is nearing $109/barrel. The main cause to oil’s recent rise is the tensions between Iran and Western countries. Iran has recently ceased exporting oil to Britain and France. Europe had already imposed sanctions against Iran to stop importing their oil, but they were not going to go into effect until this summer. The Dow is up 23 points right now, the Nasdaq has gained 11 points and the S&P 500 is up 5 points.

SPDR S&P 500 ETF (NYSEARCA:SPY) is up 0.35% today at $137.11. SPY is an ETF that moves in conjunction with the S&P 500. If the S&P rises, and works the same way when it falls. SPY is seeing a lot of action today on the Feb 24 weekly contract at $136 strike price. Over 48,500 contracts have been traded so far today and are up $0.27 from the previous close at $1.17. The March 2 weekly contract at $137 strike price is also seeing decent volume with more than 48,000 contracts trading hands. [Read more...]