Ford (F) reported third quarter EPS of $0.40 vs an estimated $0.30; 33% beat. Revenue came in at $30.9 billion vs an estimated $31.07B.  This was the best third quarter ever for F…mostly fueled my North America. F battled above its 150 day moving average (DMA) on 10/26/12. The 50 DMA sits at $10 even. The USA automotive sector seems to be running on all cylinders, in related news famed and feared hedge fund manager, David Einhorn, recently talked up shares of GM at the Value Investing Congress.

Mr. Einhorn also talked down shares of CMG. Here Mr. Einhorn pointed out that competition from Taco Bell, YUM, should be taking incremental share away from the higher priced CMG.  While there is no doubt in the minds of value investors, especially given the record of Greenlight Capital (Mr. Einhorn’s Fund), he is correct…the technical picture is what some traders will be looking at however.  CMG is quickly approaching the earnings gap day open, more specifically 10/19/12’s open of $251.95. Perhaps a close above this figure could trigger short covering into said gap, just as a trade, for the market has been favoring the shorts for some time now…and when most are leaned to one side of the boat, maybe it is best to fade them…for a short while.

Another controversial stock has been HLF. Here Mr. Einhorn appropriately pointed out some items of interest during their conference call, and since then the stock has tumbled 28%. HLF released earnings while the market was closed. HLF guided FY13 EPS $4.40-$4.55 vs $4.52 estimated and guided Q4 EPS $0.97-$1.01 vs $0.98 estimated. For Q3 HLF reported $1.04 vs $1.01 and revenue of $1B vs $996M. Management pointed out double-digit volume growth in all their geographic locations, but it will be interesting to see what the stock actually does considering all this news and HLF’s short interest (14%).

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mark@keeneonthemarket.com