Friday, May 2nd: Quick Hits
May Day Delight - Well it looks like we might be out of the eye of the storm as the stock market rushed higher yesterday. The NASDAQ was the most impressive with a 2.8% jump higher and the DOW and SP500 were not far behind. The driver today will be the unemployment report. A good number here should help us close the week out with a bang. The trend this week looks to be dropping commodity stocks and picking up financial and technology. This should continue as long as the dollar continues to get stronger.
Some of companies reporting earnings today are
Chevron(cvx),
EOG Resources(eog),
Duke Energy(duk) and
Viacom(via).
Thursday, May 1st: Quick Hits
Eye of the Storm - Well the FED has spoken and it was just about what everyone expected so where do we go from here? It feels like we are in the eye of the storm just waiting for the backside to hit us. Now that is not necessarily a bad thing because this kind of storm has two outcomes and one is an up market and the other is down. The SP500 has been teetering between 1380 and 1400 for 9 straight trading days now. Something big is coming shortly, so batten down the hatches this could be a bumpy ride.
Some of companies reporting earnings today are
Exxon(xom),
CVS Caremark(cvs),
Chesapeake Energy(chk),
Comcast(cmcsa) and
MetLife(met).
Wednesday, April 30th: Quick Hits
Will the FED Halt Commodities - There are many factors that have driven up commodity prices of late and one certainly is the weak dollar. The FED is expected to announce a quarter point easing today, but what will be the most intriguing will be what is in the release. Will they say that is it for a while and will this start the dollar in an upward path? The commodity plays have been waxed this week, so if the FED doesn’t tip their hand then this could reverse this down trend. We will know this afternoon and this will probably tell us if the SP500 will breakout of its most recent trading range. Stay tuned…
Tuesday, April 29th: Quick Hits
Buffett's Sweet Tooth - Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and Mars hooked up to acquire Wrigley for $23 billion yesterday. Mr. Buffett has consistently preached buy what you know and it has become apparent over the years that the man loves his sweets. He has been a part of Coke, See’s Candies, Dairy Queen and now Mars/Wrigley. It would be nice to score big financially off cravings.
Monday, April 28th: Quick Hits
More Light Please - There appears to be more light at the end of this tunnel. I read some positive articles about the stock market this weekend in Barron’s and The Wall Street Journal. This does not mean the markets are going up but it is nice to see some positive views in stocks when the news for the most part the last 4 months has been poor. The FED will have much to do with how the markets perform this week and another busy week of earning releases.
The Microsoft Yahoo showdown is a great one to watch. This reminds me of one of the best lines in movie history: “How can you trust a man who wears a belt and suspenders? Man can’t even trust his own pants.” It is from ‘Once Upon a Time in the West’ and is a classic. The way I see it Yahoo is the suspenders and Microsoft is the belt. I don’t trust anything these companies are saying publicly.