Chris on the Close 5.9.2012

Sugar glimpsed the light today up .25% after hitting a 20 month low of 20.13 midday. Coffee also finished with a slight increase to 1.7505, Brazilian coffee faces a small risk of frost this year, last year freezes led to a 34 year high in prices. Among big gainers today were CFBK up 42% to 3.39 and SODA kept strong finishing up over 27% at 37.21.
Heading the losing side were MEMS and CQB down close to 40% and 30% respectively. Agrium inc, North America’s biggest farm-products retailer, reported a higher than expected quarterly result today with retail sales up 35%, however shares dropped more than 2%. Shares are up over 20% this year despite a poor showing in this sector this week.

Halftime Report for 5.9.2012

Crude inventories jumped up to 3.7m barrels, currently operating at their highest rate of the year while gasoline inventories fell to a -2.6m barrels. While crude is still down, this report helped prop the number up slightly.

SODA is one of today’s hot stocks, which makes home carbonation kits, up as much as 23% currently at 34.21. It beat first quarter earnings and announced it expects revenue to rise 33% and earnings 50% for the year. NKBP, a Chinese pharmaceutical, is among the hottest of the day up about 22% to 4.51. Among the lows are MEMS down 35% to 2.45 after yesterday’s financial results.  Chiquita brand(CQB) is another slacker today down 29% to 5.65 after its downgrade to hold from buy.

Contributer Chris Rygh is currently pursuing his MBA in Wisconsin and has a passion for the Market. Comments can be directed to ryghcw19@uww.edu

Morning Rage 5.9.2012

In Asian Markets both the Nikkei and the Hang Seng Index fell closing at 9045.06 and 20,330.64 respectively. For the Nikkei this is a brand new 3 month low and for the Hang Seng this is the 5th downer in a row and its worst loss in 6 weeks.

Futures remain bleak with gold, silver and crude all lower this morning while natural gas is up over 1.5%, this has been the trending pattern for future so far this week. In the currencies realm the Euro and the pound both fell against the USD about .50% and the Brazilian Real again took a hit down 1.02% for a year-to-date slide of 4.76% against the dollar. Disney started this morning with a strong bid in premarket trade after posting a strong quarterly report yesterday evening. Disney ended up yesterday .40 to 44.70. Goldman Sachs raised AIG to Buy from neutral this morning and raised its price target to $40 from $31, according to Reuters, pointing to a positive look on its global property insurance unit.

Contributer Chris Rygh is currently pursuing his MBA in Wisconsin and has a passion for the Market. Comments can be directed to ryghcw19@uww.edu<;mailto:ryghcw19@uww.edu>

Chris on the Close 5.8.2012

Office Max proved its strategy to be working when today’s first quarter results shot its shares up 11% to 4.88, this is stronger than expected; industry leader staples reports next week.

Another hot stock is FreightCar America with railcar deliveries jumping to a the highest they’ve been since 2008, with a spike to 16% they finished unexpectedly up only 3% at 21.25. Fossil(FOSL), who continues to disappoint again this quarter missing target sales, were pummeled down to 47.83 a 40% crash, their day’s high was 93.60. Canadian Stocks also took a hit and the Toronto stock exchange finished it lowest of the year down 155.81 points to 11,704.85, the European elections really prove to be having a global ripple effect.

Trade of the Day (AAPL) 5.8.2012

Break-even:  I break-even on this trade if AAPL closes at $550.20 by January 28, 2013.

Unprofitable:  I lose money on this trade if AAPL closes under $550.20 by January 28, 2013.  The most I can lose on this trade is the amount I paid for the Spread, $50.20

Reason I Like This Trade:  I always want to get LONG AAPL in one way and I think this sell-off is a great way to get LONG.  I want to make a bet that AAPL will close by the end of the higher than where it is trading now.  I have the odds in my favor, because even if AAPL sells off, I can make money on this trade.  I think this is a great even money bet/position.  

UPDATE 5.9.2012  With AAPL rallying to $569, this Spread is currently worth $52.20, but since I put this trade on until 2013, I will leave it on for more potential profits.

UPDATE 5.9.2012  With AAPL rallying to $573, this Spread is now worth over $54, but since it is a position not a trade, I will leave it on for more upside potential.  

UPDATE 5.11.2012  With AAPL rallying to $573, this Spread is now worth over $54, but since it is a position not a trade, I will leave it on for more upside potential.

UPDATE 5.21.2012  With AAPL selling off and now rallying, this Spread is worth right around $47, but since it is a position not a trade I will leave it on.

UPDATE 5.22.2012  With AAPL rallying another $10 and I remain short term bearish, I took the trade off at $52 and hoping for another sell-off in AAPL to put on a similar position.

Read more about reason by www.keeneonthemarket.com

Halftime Report for 5.8.2012

Big movers in the positive this morning were that of Generac(GNRC) up over 25% to 28.99 and Vitamin Shoppe(VSI) up close to 12% to 49.84 compared to the opposite of Furmanite Corp(FRM) down 18% to 4.90 and Callon Petroleum down over 15% to 4.94. US Treasuries extended their gain today with 30 year bonds up a point forcing 10 year yields down to a three month low of under 1.82%. Discovery reported lower than expected quarterly profit and its shares took a tumble of 6.5% hit by competition from the Oprah Winfrey Network, its first quarter earnings were down nearly 30%.