Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Stocks Finish Lower on Rising Apprehension Ahead of Tomorrow's Fed Announcement

Indices
S&P 500 1,531.02 -.65%
DJIA 13,792.47 -.56%
NASDAQ 2,816.71 -.03%
Russell 2000 816.15 -.68%
Wilshire 5000 15,403.50 -.65%
Russell 1000 Growth 630.91 -.42%
Russell 1000 Value 840.44 -.90%
Morgan Stanley Consumer 745.25 -.19%
Morgan Stanley Cyclical 1,052.74 -.81%
Morgan Stanley Technology 673.32 +.01%
Transports 4,842.16 -.05%
Utilities 526.46 +.01%
MSCI Emerging Markets 163.92 -.82%

Sentiment/Internals
Total Put/Call 1.05 +23.53%
NYSE Arms 1.30 +72.4%
Volatility(VIX) 21.07 +6.04%
ISE Sentiment 153.0 -19.90%

Futures Spot Prices
Crude Oil $89.80 -3.98%
Reformulated Gasoline 224.65 -3.48%
Natural Gas 8.01 +.44%
Heating Oil 242.09 -1.77%
Gold 785.30 -.92%
Base Metals 243.96 -2.41%
Copper 347.50 -1.31%

Economy
10-year US Treasury Yield 4.38% unch.
US Dollar 76.74 -.12%
CRB Index 344.19 -1.50%

Leading Sectors
Airlines +2.72%
Software +1.38%
REITs +.93%

Lagging Sectors
Steel -2.92%
Energy -3.05%
Oil Service -3.90%

Evening Review
Market Performance Summary
WSJ Data Center
Sector Performance
ETF Performance
Style Performance
Commodity Movers
Market Wrap CNBC Video(bottom right)
S&P 500 Gallery View
Timely Economic Charts
GuruFocus.com
PM Market Call
After-hours Commentary
After-hours Movers

After-hours Stock Quote
In Play


Afternoon Recommendations
- None of note

Afternoon/Evening Headlines
Bloomberg:
- The benchmark gauge of stock market volatility rose for a second day and traders increased bets that tomorrow’s interest rate decision by the Fed will spur greater stock-price swings in the next three weeks.
- Crude oil fell more than $3 from a record in NY after Goldman Sachs(GS) told clients it’s “time to take profits.”
- DreamWorks Animation(DWA), the studio run by Jeffrey Katzenberg, said third-quarter profit rose 400% on sales of “Shrek the Third,” this year’s second-highest grossing US film.
- President Bush said he would reject any attempt by Congress to force him to accept legislation with increased domestic spending by combining it will funding for military operations and veterans health care.

Washington Post:
- Attacks by Iraqi Insurgents Dropped Sharply in September.

BOTTOM LINE: The Portfolio finished higher today on gains in my Internet longs, Medical longs, Software longs, Retail longs, Computer longs and Commodity shorts. I did not trade in the final hour, thus leaving the Portfolio 100% net long. The tone of the market was mildly negative today as the advance/decline line finished lower, sector performance was mixed and volume was above average. Measures of investor anxiety were above average into the close. Today's overall market action was just mildly bearish. Most of today's meaningful losses were found in commodity-related stocks as oil fell $3.78 per barrel despite dollar weakness and expectations for another Fed cut tomorrow. Utility, Internet, software, computer hardware, semi, drug, hospital, HMO, homebuilder, REIT, restaurant and airline shares all gained for the day. Once again, today I have many stocks on my monitor pages posting significant gains despite losses in the averages. I continue to find many excellent “growth” stocks of all market caps at reasonable valuations that are doing very well this year.

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