As expected, that was more of a bounce than a rally…
The Nasdaq did get it’s head over 2,300 so tomorrow is super critical but that was a big position to hold, especially with Google and Apple crashing and Yahoo and Intel offering no help at all.
Today it was Osama’s turn to pump up the price of oil. What a coincidence he happened to make his announcement just after a huge build in crude inventories was announced… The fact that oil couldn’t break yesterday’s high on this news shows you just how flooded with oil the markets are.
The gold market was goosed by Bin Laden’s guest appearance and kicked right back to $560. Aren’t you glad I told you to buy ABX this morning – up 4% today thank you very much!
The worst part of today is that, with all the mineral and oil stocks flying up, the rest of the market must have been fairly anemic.
Meanwhile Bush was out giving a rah rah speech about the economy. He said we can fix this deficit by not collecting all those darn taxes.
New home construction bottomed out last month giving most builders a hit today but BZH pulled it out for a 2.5% gain, amazing!
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Google got whacked by additional negative tones from analysts and a recycled story about the Government wanting to check out what porn is being downloaded by who. 25% of Google’s revenues come from porn so this is not a place they really want people poking around.
AMD was down a bit from its $38 open and I think that may be high enough for that stock.
Apple had a really lousy day. Although it recovered 50% from last nights sell off, the late day action was very soft. Usually it takes a few days for them to bounce back but the buyers just weren’t there today.
Yahoo gave up another .85 today – it is taking a lot of restraint for me not to buy this one.
All our gold plays were good today, even NEM had a good day before giving half back. BVN is now lagging the rest. Somehow MRB gained 6% but if you owned it you wouldn’t have thought so from watching today. GG was good for 5% too. My new favorite, NAK had a chart of beauty today gaining 6.5%.
BSX opened up but then people realized they were still buying Guidant and everyone sold. JNJ opened down but then people realized they were not buying Guidant and started buying in.
MOT is getting hammered on so-so guidance. This will be a buy once it comes down a bit.
SNE had a great day coming off a poor open – this will be a real buy for next month, I like the Feb $40s for just $3.60 (a .60 premium).
Speaking of Japan – TM rocked on with a 3.4% bounce. I remember when we were wondering if it could break $100.
EBAY surprised me by going up 5%, up 10% from last night, this makes for a very different trading environment than we had last year – could be a good sign.
STX tacked on another 7% today – I was very surprised but happy that it broke $25 and stayed above it. With a p/e of just 14, this stock has room to grow.
Forbes is catching up to me (only a month or so later) with a nice article on CY: http://www.forbes.com/2006/01/19/cypress-earnings-0119markets01.html?partner=yahootix
MER marches onward, outperforming the other brokers with another 3% today.
McDonald’s is great. MCD is a good stock. McDonald’s is great. MCD is a good stock. Got it? Good! The March $32.50s are only up .10 from this morning’s pick, still a good deal…
Microsoft is alive!!! I’m very confident in the Feb $27.50s but they are up 30% from Wednesday’s repick.
The ATYT Aug $17.50s are just back to where I bought them and looking very good! I am still looking to sell the Feb $17.50s when they hit .90 or better.
VZ announced a stock buyback today but 100M shares sounds like a lot only until you realize there are over 2Bn shares out there… I still like the stock but earnings are right around the corner which is why we said get out on Monday (which was a great call).
Finally GTRC moves! Up 2% today but a huge disappointment so far.
INFY zoomed up 3.5% today so that was a nice call this morning. I will be pleasantly surprised if they break $75 on an option expiration day tomorrow.
Gotta love Friday’s TOTD PFE and the March $25s, now in the money for 15% so far with 2 full months to play.
Friday TOTD # 2 NKTR is looking solid right at the $20 target. Remember, we don’t care if it goes above $20 because we already sold the calls.
On Friday I said: “YRCW is pulling back after a very nice run, I think we can get a nice buy in at the 50 dma of $47 but earnings are 1/26 so this could be interesting.” Check out this chart: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?t=5d&l=on&z=m&q=l&p=&a=&c=&s=yrcw I only wish I had remembered to buy it myself! 8-(
I am still a little bearish but considering a couple of positions. A long on apple seems attractive and many golds if we break $565. The builders are making so much money I think an end to fed hikes will give us another boom in that industry and EK is just sitting there waiting to be bought.
So, on the whole, lots of opportunities but I still sleep better day(s) trading until the market calms down and picks a direction.
