9:00am (EST)
Things could get interesting…
Wednesday was whacky and the battle between the bulls and bears is starting to heat up a bit. The market was facing a lot of headwinds yesterday and we figured trading would be tepid heading into the 10-year note auction. That was well-received but after battling back to near even, the bulls got a curveball from one of the Fed members who said interest rates needed to go to 1% sooner rather than later.
The best email that came across our desk yesterday from an obvious bull…
“Hoenig is an a%$hole.”
There were renewed concerns about Greece’s debt and the market got a nasty slider when consumer borrowing came in lower than expected.
Greece’s borrowing costs hit a new high which spooked overseas markets on concerns the country could default on its debt. Meanwhile, consumer borrowing declined by $11.5 billion in February as Wall Street had expected a modest gain of $500 million.
It was just too much for the bulls to overcome as all three major indexes ended the day in the red. The Dow lost 73 points, or 0.7%, to settle at 10,897 after trading to a low of 10,845. The index broke below its 10-day moving average for the first time in two months so we will have to watch this carefully.
The S&P 500 fell 7 points and closed at 1,182 and traded to a low of 1,177. We needed the index to hold 1,175 which was a good sign. The Nasdaq slipped 6 points, or 0.2%, to finish at 2,423 and easily held the 2,400 level.
Palm (PALM, $4.62, up $0.77) rebounded in a big way yesterday, gaining 20%, on renewed speculation that it will be rescued by someone. The latest marriage is to the Chinese company, Lenovo. “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” could be an appropriate theme song for this hookup.
PALM Hourly Chart
There is a trade for Palm but we aren’t so sure the company deserves a premium. Yes, Palm has a nice OS platform but any company buying them will only be playing catch-up to Apple (APPL, $240.60, up $1.06) and to a lesser degree, Research In Motion (RIMM, $69.83, down $0.26).
To us, it just doesn’t make sense for someone to buy Palm when it’s clear they could be headed for bankruptcy court, maybe, but more than likely a deal will get done sometime this year.
As far our agenda for today, we will be watching the retail reports on same-store sales for March. February sales were strong for some companies and there are a couple of names that are reporting earnings as we go to press. We will go over them in our afternoon update.
There won’t be much market-moving economic data besides what we getting this morning and the bulls will have another uphill battle today. Dow futures are currently down 42 points to 10,807 while the S&P 500 futures are lower by 5 to 1,173. The Nasdaq 100 futures are off by 7 points to 1,967.
Tags: AAPL, option picks, option signals, options alerts, Palm, Research in Motion, RIMM, stock options trading
This entry was posted
on Thursday, April 8th, 2010 at 8:06 AM and is filed under Apple, Earnings, Market Commentary.
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Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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Market Looks Nervous
9:00am (EST)
Things could get interesting…
Wednesday was whacky and the battle between the bulls and bears is starting to heat up a bit. The market was facing a lot of headwinds yesterday and we figured trading would be tepid heading into the 10-year note auction. That was well-received but after battling back to near even, the bulls got a curveball from one of the Fed members who said interest rates needed to go to 1% sooner rather than later.
The best email that came across our desk yesterday from an obvious bull…
“Hoenig is an a%$hole.”
There were renewed concerns about Greece’s debt and the market got a nasty slider when consumer borrowing came in lower than expected.
Greece’s borrowing costs hit a new high which spooked overseas markets on concerns the country could default on its debt. Meanwhile, consumer borrowing declined by $11.5 billion in February as Wall Street had expected a modest gain of $500 million.
It was just too much for the bulls to overcome as all three major indexes ended the day in the red. The Dow lost 73 points, or 0.7%, to settle at 10,897 after trading to a low of 10,845. The index broke below its 10-day moving average for the first time in two months so we will have to watch this carefully.
The S&P 500 fell 7 points and closed at 1,182 and traded to a low of 1,177. We needed the index to hold 1,175 which was a good sign. The Nasdaq slipped 6 points, or 0.2%, to finish at 2,423 and easily held the 2,400 level.
Palm (PALM, $4.62, up $0.77) rebounded in a big way yesterday, gaining 20%, on renewed speculation that it will be rescued by someone. The latest marriage is to the Chinese company, Lenovo. “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” could be an appropriate theme song for this hookup.
PALM Hourly Chart
There is a trade for Palm but we aren’t so sure the company deserves a premium. Yes, Palm has a nice OS platform but any company buying them will only be playing catch-up to Apple (APPL, $240.60, up $1.06) and to a lesser degree, Research In Motion (RIMM, $69.83, down $0.26).
To us, it just doesn’t make sense for someone to buy Palm when it’s clear they could be headed for bankruptcy court, maybe, but more than likely a deal will get done sometime this year.
As far our agenda for today, we will be watching the retail reports on same-store sales for March. February sales were strong for some companies and there are a couple of names that are reporting earnings as we go to press. We will go over them in our afternoon update.
There won’t be much market-moving economic data besides what we getting this morning and the bulls will have another uphill battle today. Dow futures are currently down 42 points to 10,807 while the S&P 500 futures are lower by 5 to 1,173. The Nasdaq 100 futures are off by 7 points to 1,967.
Tags: AAPL, option picks, option signals, options alerts, Palm, Research in Motion, RIMM, stock options trading
This entry was posted on Thursday, April 8th, 2010 at 8:06 AM and is filed under Apple, Earnings, Market Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.