Thursday Wrap-Up

Another tricky but satisfying day for the markets. Never in trouble but not fulfilling the promise of the morning either. A huge drop in oil took out the sector but a lot of oil stocks are still holding on to those peaks, tomorrow will be a good day to pick around for some short plays unless we get some new sabre rattling from the usual suspects. Gold has totally disconnected from oil which is either huge for gold or just a sign that a $30 drop is just over the hill from here. Copper says this is a real commodity rally as does GE with a nice 1% gain today. Dow 11,500 is halfway to Dow 12,000 – a super magic number so let’s hope nothing messes this up between now and Monday! ===================================== ABX finally had its day! I was really concerned by the slow start in the morning but people caught on eventually and the Jun $32.50s are now $1.90 (up 200%). I’m going to hold this down to $1.50 but I refuse to give up 150% profits even though I really think this thing should go to $35 (we can always buy more with our profits). XOM $62.50s were real slow movers, barely making .80 (up .10) but that’s better than the wrong way they started the day: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=XOM&t=1d HAL proved my point today that it’s good to have a VP in your pocket (but it won’t last): http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=HAL&t=1d&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=slb MSFT was a great play for a half hour then did nothing all day but I see nice underlying strength for the $22.50s, now $1.05 (up 30%) if you didn’t stop out at $1 like you should have! I hate being wrong! I said MOT will hit resistance at $22.25 and they just had to diss me! http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=MOT&t=1d I just got done reading their 10Q and I feel like writing a love letter to Ed Zander! http://biz.yahoo.com/e/060503/mot10-q.html How about that GME? I couldn’t believe it sold at $48.25 for 5 minutes before falling off a cliff! I’m glad I missed it though because then it recovered and that would really annoy me. ATVI also recovered so I guess people decided ERTS’s problems were unique to them but I think that’s a mistake but not enough so to keep playing in this sandbox. If this is what FDX does after a downgrade, I can’t wait to see what happens when they upgrade it: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=FDX&t=5d JOE looks like it’s consolidating for a move down – we’ll have to keep an eye on that one. GE finally took the knife out of my heart and made a real stab at $35. The Jun $32.50s made it to $2.60 (up 20%) and the Jan ’08 $35s moved just a touch to $3.80. BIIB continued to roll right over the 50 dma with the $45s now $2.25 (up 80%) so I really like the Jul $50s, now $1.35 (up 50%). ADP was a very poorly timed pick with the Aug $50s down 30% to .20 but now I am warming up to the Aug $47.50s at .55 but I’m going to wait a bit more this time! ATI continues to rock and roll with the $75s just out of the money at $1.90 (up 70%). S is finally breaking out of its range, still sitting on those $25s for .30 all week! My other annoying stock, EXPE finally did something too (must be the fact that I wasn’t watching!) and now the $20s are .45 again.