FirstAlert: 7:30-8:45 A.M. Investrend / Bestcalls
Conference calls are often impacted by market trends, geopolitical conditions, news coming from conferences and economic releases.
Reasons For Rally: It's Complicated (By Dr. Joe Duarte (www.joe-duarte.com)) -- The mainstream take is that the oversold stock market rallied because key members of Congress made some noise about the uptick rule and mark to market accounting, and Citigroup's (NYSE: C) sent out a memo talking about how the company is making money this quarter. And we agree that these things did happen, and that they had an effect on the market. Yet, in our opinion it's way more complicated than that. It's more important to understand why Citigroup's CEO felt compelled to write the memo, and why members of Congress decided to speak up about the uptick rule and mark to market accounting changes that may be forthcoming. If you look at the Rasmussen Report's presidential approval polls for March 9 and 10, you see that President Obama's numbers fell off a cliff, with ratings of +6 for two days running, falling from just three days ago. Those were the lowest two ratings for the new president since he took office, and suggest that a significant shift in public opinion was starting to take place. Other Rasmussen polls showed that a majority of people believed that they would have to pay higher taxes, and that government was mostly ignoring the will of the people, two significant subsets of opinion that at some point could lead to further slippage for the president's popularity. Even more important, Warren Buffet, who bills himself as an "informal advisor" to Obama, in a CNBC interview made his displeasure with Washington quite clear. Other Obama supporters, like Maureen Dowd and Paul Krugman, both Obama supporters, also checked in with scalding critiques of the new president in the last few days. So what made the stock market rally? In our opinion, it's just as likely that Washington blinked, as it became clear that public opinion on the rapid rate of change in policy might have started to slip away, as Mom and Pop saw their 401-k move closer to zero on a daily basis. So, from an investment standpoint what do we need to see? For one thing, a couple of more good days of buying, followed by an orderly consolidation and a more sedate but steady move up would be nice. What would bring that about? More than likely, a bit more moderation and policy maturity from Washington, and a bit of luck on some of the current economic indicators would be helpful. Clearly something of substance on how the government will stop bailing banks, constituencies, and businesses out until eternity would be useful as well. And for those who doubt that the world is upside down and that this rally could move higher for at least a few more days, consider this, which we noted in our Market IQ column on 3-10-09 before the market opened: "When Jim Cramer is the voice of reason and the Drudge Report is essentially the paper of record, then it's time to go underground, buy ammunition and provisions, and pull a Rip van Winkle. By the same token, you've got to wonder if this isn't really the point of total, insane capitulation, and a potential long term bottom in stocks."
The Investrend Earnings Calendar features American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE: AEO), expected at $0.19; Bon-Ton Stores (NASDAQ: BONT), expected at $2.12; Diamond Foods (NASDAQ: DMND), expected at $0.31; Hot Topic (NASDAQ: HOTT), expected at $0.31.
The Investrend Economics Calendar lists EIA Petroleum Status Report (10:30 a.m.), Treasury Budget Statement for February (2 p.m.), Treasury auctions 10-year notes (1 p.m.).
The Investrend Events Calendar showcases A Shareholders Meeting; ACM, URS at UBS Engineering & Construction One-on-One Conference; AMED, LOW, SY, LTM at Raymond James Institutional Investors Conference; AMGN, HUM, MCK, BMRN at Barclays Capital Healthcare Conference; EAT, DPZ, PNRA at Merrill Lynch Consumer Conference; GE, FSLR, CREE at Merrill Lynch Cleantech Leaders Conference; JACK, KR, JWN, BKC at Bank of America Securities Consumer Conference; JBHT, CSX, BNI, NSC at JPMorgan Aviation & Transportation Conference; KNXA, RVBD, MSCC at Wedbush Morgan Securities Conference.
The Investrend Money Index is an indicator of the depth of market direction or indirection. While not always including the same stocks, the NYSE/NASDAQ 50 Most Actives indicate the direction in which the mass of money is flowing. Last session's trading showed 49 advancers versus one decliners. Advancers were led by Financial Bull 3x (NYSE: FAS) up 38.15%, Citigroup Inc (NYSE: C) up 38.10%, Bk Of America Cp (NYSE: BAC) up 27.73%, Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) up 26.46%, Ultra Financials Pro (NYSE: UYG) up 25.17%, Huntington Bancshares Incorpora (NASDAQ: HBAN) up 24.07%, Jp Morgan Chase Co (NYSE: JPM) up 22.64%, Gen Electric Co (NYSE: GE) up 19.70%, Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) up 18.71%, Wells Fargo & Co New (NYSE: WFC) up 18.46%, Las Vegas Sands Corp (NYSE: LVS) up 16.90%, Goldman Sachs Grp (NYSE: GS) up 15.32%, Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) up 14.95%, Sprint Nxtel Cp (NYSE: S) up 13.46%, Time Warner Inc (NYSE: TWX) up 12.82%, Dryships Inc. (NASDAQ: DRYS) up 12.56%, Proshares Ultra Qqq (NYSE: QLD) up 12.18%, Ultra S&P500 Proshrs (NYSE: SSO) up 12.17%, The Charles Schwab Corporation (NASDAQ: SCHW) up 12.05%, Us Bancorp (NYSE: USB) up 11.87%, Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) up 10.92%, Research In Motion Limited (NASDAQ: RIMM) up 10.53%, News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWSA) up 10.42%, Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) up 9.04%, Companhia Vale Ads (NYSE: RIO) up 9.03%, Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) up 8.96%, Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) up 8.95%, Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) up 8.82%, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) up 8.78%, Broadcom Corporation (NASDAQ: BRCM) up 8.71%, Dow Chemical (NYSE: DOW) up 8.53%, Juniper Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: JNPR) up 8.52%, Marvell Technology Group, Ltd. (NASDAQ: MRVL) up 8.21%, Ishares Tr Ftse Indx (NYSE: FXI) up 8.15%, Ebay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) up 8.08%, Petroleo Brasileiro (NYSE: PBR) up 8.05%, Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) up 7.46%, Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) up 7.45%, Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) up 7.15%, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) up 6.64%, Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ: SYMC) up 6.42%, Powershares Exchange-Traded Fun (NASDAQ: QQQQ) up 6.18%. Decliners followed Pt Ultrshrt Sp500 Ps (NYSE: SDS) down 12.24%.
Vote in the Investrend Poll Question of the Day at Investrend Information (http://www.investrendinformation.com).
Investrend Website of the Day: "I asked a ref if he could give me a technical foul for thinking bad things about him. He said, of course not. I said, well, I think you stink. And he gave me a technical. You can't trust 'em." Jim Valvano
Quote of the Day: "I asked a ref if he could give me a technical foul for thinking bad things about him. He said, of course not. I said, well, I think you stink. And he gave me a technical. You can't trust 'em." Jim Valvano
Today is: Organize Your Home Office Day.
Happy Birthday: Malcolm Campbell, Dorothy Gish, Lawrence Welk, Rupert Murdoch, Sam Donaldson, Antonin Scalia, Bobby McFerrin, Christopher Rice, Thora Birch.
Today in History: The first regular English-language newspaper, The Daily Courant, was published in London in 1702. Army Corps of Engineers for the United States was authorized by the Congress in 1779. The United States War Department created the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1824. British citizen Henry Jones invented self-raising flour in 1845. The Great Blizzard of 1888 began along the eastern seaboard of the United States, shutting down commerce and killing more than 400. In New York City, Samuel Roxy Rothafel opened the Roxy Theatre in 1927. Former Beatle Paul McCartney was knighted in 1997. Infosys became in 1999 the first Indian company listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
[FirstAlert" was created by Gayle Essary, founder of Investrend Communications, Inc., parent of Investrend Information (http://www.investrendinformation.com). The opinions expressed in FirstAlert" do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Investrend.]
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