Listen to the Companies, Not the Government Reports
June 30, 2008
Trader Mark submits:
I have no idea what the market will be doing today,
How Are the Dow Components Doing This Year?
June 30, 2008
Trader Mark submits:
The Dow Jones Industrial Index (DJIA)
is the most widely followed index,
30 Jun 2008 16:00:00 - Top 5 Stocks up on Unusual Volume
June 30, 2008
| Intraday Unusual Volume - Top 5 Up |
| Symbol | Volume % Change |
Price % Change |
News | |
| NNDS | 883% |  59.20% |
news | |
| DMRC | 240% | 14.16% |
news | |
| ENG | 166% | 14.24% |
news | |
| OSIS | 138% | 21.42% |
news | |
| GMXR | 134% | 74.10% |
news | |
|
||||
30 Jun 2008 16:00:00 - Top 5 Stocks up on Unusual Volume
Earnings: The Next 12 Months? Or the Last 12?
June 30, 2008
Kevin S. Price submits:
As Barry Ritholtz noted over the weekend, certain media outlets seem determined to find reasons for optimism in equities’ recent breakdown. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Who knows. Maybe these will turn out to be "attractive levels."
One of these efforts to find a glimmer of short-term hope–Greg Zuckerman’s weekend piece in the Wall Street Journal–revealed one of the stubborn realities of current market conditions.
Earnings: The Next 12 Months? Or the Last 12?
S&P 500 Stocks Furthest Above and Below Their 50-Day Moving Averages
June 30, 2008
Hickey and Walters (Bespoke) submit:
Below we highlight stocks in the S&P 500 that are currently trading the furthest above and below their 50-day moving averages. As shown, Massey Energy (MEE) is the furthest above its 50-day in the index at 39.47%. MEE is also the best performing stock in the S&P 500 year to date (164%).
MEE is trailed by JBL, BTU, NBR and CNX. Non-Energy related names on the list include BUD, NEM, KG, VAR, EDS, BIG and AMGN. And surprisingly, Spring (S) has made its way onto the list of winners. While it’s still down more than 28% year to date, it is currently 9.67% above its 50-day moving average.
S&P 500 Stocks Furthest Above and Below Their 50-Day Moving Averages
Bill Gross: Fiscal Advice for ‘President Obama’
June 30, 2008
From PIMCO Managing Director Bill Gross’s monthly market commentary for July 2008
KB Homes: Really Getting Better?
June 30, 2008
George Gutowski submits:
KB Homes (KBH) released Q2 results (see earnings call transcript) and announced that, while the housing market is still bad, they have generated cash. Cash is king especially when you are levered as a home builder. They have also taken the opportunity to redeem an expensive debt issue which will improve the balance sheet and reduce interest costs.
Managements comments are all based on rearview-mirror considerations. Yes, cash is up. Given that the markets stink so badly, you need to get a handle on the burn rate for cash. How much longer can the company go before it hits the wall? There is a scenario that can make any company blow up and go under. Management needs to show that it knows where the precipice is, before it goes over it.
KB Homes: Really Getting Better?
Investors Losing All Their Blue Chips
June 30, 2008
Hickey and Walters (Bespoke) submit:
So called blue-chip stocks have struggled mightily over the last year. The total loss in market cap from their 52-week highs for stocks in the S&P 100 (largest 100 S&P stocks by market cap) is now $2.5 trillion. Below we highlight stocks in the index that are the furthest from their 52-week highs, as well as the loss in market cap from their 52-week highs. As shown, General Motors (GM) is 75% from its 52-week high, Lehman (LEH) is 72.4%, and Wachovia (WB) is 71.7%.
Looking at market cap, GM has lost $18 billion (it is now worth a little more than $6 billion), which ranks it 42nd in terms of losses. General Electric (GE) has lost the most in market cap at -$168 billion. Citigroup (C) isn’t far behind GE at -$167 billion. BAC, AIG and MSFT round out the top 5 in terms of market cap losses.
Investors Losing All Their Blue Chips
Monday Options Update: C, MYGN, TSN, LLTC, F, GM, BEC, RNWK
June 30, 2008
Citigroup (C) –Traders continue to nettle Citi stock with another 3% decline to $16.72. Over the weekend it was announced that Citi is overhauling its bonus system for senior management, making executive payouts contingent upon bank results rather than the profits of their own division. While some observers have applauded the measure for incentivizing prudent risk management and cross-departmental cooperations, others have voiced fears that the measure could lead to high-level defections from Citi’s brain-trust - defections the company can ill afford even as it seeks to cut jobs overall. Implied volatility at 67.3% shows a more than 20 percentage-point elevation above the 46.5% historic reading on Citi stock. The 95,000-plus lots trading in the first market hour are slightly skewed to calls, but much of this was wrapped up in call selling at the July 17.50 and 20 strikes. Put-spreaders appear to favor the August 12.50 and 15 strikes.
Myriad Genetics (MYGN) – Investors were taken aback by this morning’s news that the development of Myriad’s much-anticipated Alzheimer’s drug, Flurizan, would be discontinued after it failed to show significant improvement of patients in a final-stage clinical test. Flurizan was the most advanced of the experimental, so-called amyloid-inhibitor drugs being developed to curb the formation of plaques on brain cells that actually cause Alzheimer’s (rather than simply treating symptoms of the disease), and after promising clinical results for similar drugs from Elan Corp (ELN) and Wyeth (WYE) earlier this month, the market was looking for validation of the anti-amyloid therapeutic concept with Myriad’s clinical results. This had led to an astonishingly high elevation in Myriad’s implied volatility, which topped out at 117% on June 20. Today, the company’s shares are down 6% to $44.92 and implied volatility has reined in some 58%, making it the top implied volatility loser on our platform, to 33.4% July puts at the 40 and 45 strikes are trading to buyers and sellers along with calls at strikes of 50 and above, as it looks like traders may be getting out of volatility positions they had entered before the data was release. Put-buying appears prevalent in the August contract at strikes 40 and 45.
Monday Options Update: C, MYGN, TSN, LLTC, F, GM, BEC, RNWK
Euro Rallies to Three-Week High Vs. Dollar
June 30, 2008
Grace Cheng submits:
In early Monday trading, the Euro continued to bob along the bullish wave that brought it to a three-week high of 1.5840 against the US dollar, before retreating back below 1.5780. Oil again rallied to another record high of $143.67 per barrel, so where else could the dollar go?
Today’s Chicago PMI manufacturing showed some improvement in the Chicago area, posting a reading of 49.6, still in contraction territory but at least not as bad as the previous month. This may stem the fall of the dollar as we enter the New York trading session. The US dollar’s fate this week will be determined by the US ISM manufacturing data to be released on Tuesday and the all-important non-farm payrolls reports for June on Thursday. A peek at the health of the labor market can be gleaned from Wednesday’s ADP private-sector report.
-
Recent Posts
- JNJ more for less (JNJ, rated BUY)
- The bottom has fallen out of commodity prices (CPO, rated BUY)
- Freddie Mac (FRE) is a BUY
- Cramer Should Be Suspended
- Largest Bond ETF Now Trading At a Massive Discount
- How Oversold Are We?
- G-7: Nothing New
- Blame Game Redux: 8 More Things to Blame for This Crisis
- Decades of Negative Returns: A Long-Term Look at the Dow
- How to Handle a Snap-Back Rally (If We Get One)
-
Latest S.E.C. Filings- 4 - SANTA FE FINANCIAL CORP (0000086759) (Reporting)
- 4 - PORTSMOUTH SQUARE INC (0000079661) (Issuer)
- 4 - INTERGROUP CORP (0000069422) (Reporting)
- 4 - RYAN J. STUART (0001425020) (Reporting)
- 4 - Elizabeth R. & William J. Patterson Foundation (0001391548) (Reporting)
- 4 - PHOEBE SNOW FOUNDATION (0001252480) (Reporting)
- 4 - MCDERMOTT EDWARD H (0001252464) (Reporting)
- 4 - OBERNDORF WILLIAM E (0001218663) (Reporting)
- 4 - SCULLY JOHN H (0001202553) (Reporting)
- 4 - PATTERSON WILLIAM J (0001202551) (Reporting)