Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Bull Radar

Style Outperformer:

Large-cap Value (+1.91%)

Sector Outperformers:

Steel (+3.16%), Insurance (+2.87%) and Banks (+2.94%)

Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume:

VRX, WWE, CMP, TNS, SDA, HGR, AIG, CW, CNA, SBP, FWRD, ASEI, VECO, ELOS, NUAN, TWTC, IPGP, BMRN, CBEY, MELI, MDTH, OZRK, WOOF, CRZO, JRCC, LCAPA, CRVL, BRLI, CHNR, TKC, ITU, RTP, HBC, GL, HOFT and UTIW

Economic Releases

- None of note

Links of Interest

Market Snapshot Commentary
Market Performance Summary
Style Performance
Sector Performance
WSJ Data Center
Top 20 Biz Stories

IBD Breaking News

Movers & Shakers

Upgrades/Downgrades

In Play

NYSE Unusual Volume

NASDAQ Unusual Volume

Hot Spots

Option Dragon

NASDAQ 100 Heatmap

DJIA Quick Charts

Chart Toppers

Intraday Chart/Quote

Dow Jones Hedge Fund Indexes

Monday, February 11, 2008

Tuesday Watch

Late-Night Headlines
Bloomberg:
- Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President William Poole said that the US will probably avoid a recession and that the Fed’s interest-rate policy is appropriate for the slowing economy.

Wall Street Journal:
- Indian automobile maker Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.’s light pickup trucks will be assembled in Ohio starting in 2009, and its hybrid vehicles will be sold in the US by 2010.

CNBC.com:
- Venezuela Moves Bank Accounts After Exxon(XOM) Freeze.

- S&P 500 Earnings Leaderboard: Biggest Surprises Season to Date.
- Blackberry Outage Strikes Across North America.

NY Times:
- Hedge Funds Raise Stake in Times Co. To Near 10%.
- AT&T(T) Joins Starbucks(SBUX) to Provide Store Wi-fi.

BusinessWeek.com:
- GTx(GTXI): A Compelling Biotech. S&P says the company’s lead drug candidate, Acapodene, represents a “significant opportunity” in the treatment of prostate cancer.

CNNMoney.com:
- Earnings: Nowhere to go but up. Banks dragged down profit growth for the S&P 500 in the fourth quarter and will likely do so again in the first quarter. But earnings may improve by year’s end.
- Deferred earnings: Apple’s(AAPL) hidden revenue bonus.

IBD:
- IBD Reinvents Market Section To Help You Focus On Winners.

Morningstar.com:
- A private sector committee created under the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets expects to have its recommendations for sound hedge-fund practices available for public comment sometime this quarter.

USA Today.com:
- Support grows for Sony’s(SNE) Blu-ray high-def DVDs.
- Lawyer gets two years in prison for class-action schemes.

Reuters:
- Six mortgage lenders will announce a plan tomorrow to help delinquent homeowners avoid foreclosure.
- Cisco CEO: Don’t freak out about weak market.
- Short interest in shares of Intel Corp.(INTC) rose 48% from mid-January to late January, the largest increase of any Nasdaq stock.
- Non-Hispanic whites will become a minority in the US by 2050, with immigrants and their children driving 82% of US population growth in coming years, a new study said.


Financial Times:
- Fed is right to intervene to ward off recession. As the US economy and markets weaken, perennial pessimists have moved to center stage, arguing for the inevitability of a serious recession.

TimesOnline:
- Microsoft(MSFT) Vows it will Continue Yahoo!(YHOO) Fight.

Late Buy/Sell Recommendations
Citigroup:

- Maintained Buy on (PBI), target $51.
- Reiterated Buy on (A), target $44.

Night Trading
Asian Indices are +.25% to +1.50% on average.
S&P 500 futures +.03%.
NASDAQ 100 futures unch.

Morning Preview
US AM Market Call
NASDAQ 100 Pre-Market Indicator/Heat Map
Pre-market Commentary
Pre-market Stock Quote/Chart
Before the Bell CNBC Video(bottom right)
Global Commentary
WSJ Intl Markets Performance
Commodity Movers
Top 25 Stories

Top 20 Business Stories
Today in IBD
In Play
Bond Ticker
Economic Preview/Calendar
Daily Stock Events
Macro Calls
Upgrades/Downgrades
Rasmussen Business/Economy Polling
CNBC Guest Schedule

Earnings of Note
Company/EPS Estimate
- (IMB)/-1.57
- (MAS)/.28
- (SGP)/.25
- (WYN)/.45
- (MMC)/.31
- (OMC)/.95
- (GM)/-.64
- (Q)/.14
- (CCE)/.27
- (TAP)/.65
- (WYNN)/.68
- (CEPH)/.80
- (PNRA)/.55
- (NILE)/.44
- (XTO)/.92
- (SNDA)/.45
- (XMSR)/-.63
- (AMAT)/.20
- (BWLD)/.32

Upcoming Splits
- (WGOV) 2-for-1

Economic Releases
10:00 am EST

- The Monthly Budget Surplus for January is estimated at $19.0 billion versus $38.2 billion in December.

Other Potential Market Movers
- The IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index, (LVS) investor conference, (DRI) analyst meeting, (ERTS) analyst meeting, UBS Global Healthcare Services Conference, Lehman Brothers Industrial Select Conference, BIO CEO & Investor Conference, Goldman Sachs Ag Conference, Citigroup Retail Conference and Merrill Insurance Investors Conference could also impact trading today.

BOTTOM LINE: Asian indices are higher, boosted by technology and commodity stocks in the region. I expect US equities to open mixed and to rally into the afternoon, finishing modestly higher. The Portfolio is 100% net long heading into the day.

Stocks Finish Near Session Highs, Led by Technology, Energy, Retail and Homebuilding Shares

Evening Review
Market Summary
Today’s Movers
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

Stocks at Session Highs into Final Hour on Bargain-Hunting, Short-Covering

BOTTOM LINE: The Portfolio is higher into the final hour on gains in my Gaming longs, Computer longs, Semi longs, Medical longs and Retail longs. I covered all of my (IWM)/(QQQQ) hedges, some of my (EEM) short and added to my (AMSC) long this morning, thus leaving the Portfolio 100% net long. The overall tone of the market is mildly positive as the advance/decline line is slightly higher, most sectors are rising and volume is about average. Investor anxiety is above average. Today’s overall market action is bullish. The VIX is falling .6% today, but remains high at 28.0. The ISE Sentiment Index is a below average 115.0 and the total put/call is an above-average .96. Growth stocks are substantially outperforming value stocks for the second day in a row, with many positing meaningful gains. As I said last week, after underperforming in January, I suspect a significant rotation back into “growth” stocks and away from “value” stocks is underway again. I still expect growth to outperform value for several more years. Today’s upside market reversal came despite more weakness in the (XLF) and Asian indices, which is a big positive. Moreover, despite financial sector weakness, the TED spread fell to .78 basis points today, the lowest since August of last year. While I am not currently long (MSFT), I suspect that the stock is near an important low, which could help boost the Nasdaq as its substantial drag on the index subsides. Nikkei futures indicate a flat open in Japan and DAX futures indicate a +77 open in Germany. I expect US stocks to trade modestly higher into the close from current levels on bargain-hunting and short-covering.