Market update 8-2-12

Cramer said exactly what I said in his show yesterday.  He said that in times like these the best stocks to look at are those with high dividend yields.   So we had our first of three big market movers yesterday.  Ben Bernanke made his statements and the market fell off after he spoke.  I saw WMT take a dive to lower levels and then start to head back up so I took a position.  Hopefully there will be an early morning run and I will get out after I hit my profit target today.  I don’t want to be in this position tomorrow waiting for the jobs report.  Today’s announcements are happening right now with the ECB making statements. 

Market Update 7-26-12

Sorry I’ve been offline for a couple of days but I’m waiting for the market to stabilize before I jump back in.  The market wants to go up but it is fighting the negative news in the media about Europe.  Apple’s news about lower earnings caused a dip in the market and the lower earnings on some other key companies have caused the market to sputter as well.  Despite all of these factors the market is still trying to push upwards which shows that once we get some positive news there will be a rally.  

Walmart made an interesting move upward today as it broke through the $73 resistance that has been holding it back.  I’m going to look for a pullback tomorrow and then get in.  The break through shows that buyers are comfortable watching it going a little higher so when it pulls back I’m going to possibly build a position.  

GE has been showing a lot of strength through the recent dips in the market.  It always seems to come charging back looking to break through multiple resistance lines.  I may look to scalp some of these moves as well.

There’s just a lot of negativity floating around in the news that seems to have a big impact on the market.  Because of the many scandals (LIBOR, MF Global), the fund mismanagement (JP Morgan), and the highly visible Facebook gaffe, there is a considerable lack of confidence in the market from retail investors.  This affects the movement of stocks as well but it seems like from a general perspective most stocks want to move higher despite the bad vibes.

Market Update 7-25-12

So my recommendation for the current time period is to do small scalps.  If you see a stock that has relative strength over the past few days and it sells off because of the normal panic in the markets wait for the bottom and start building a position when you see some green candlesticks.  Then once it gets back to half the level that it sold off at, sell it.  Even if it’s a small profit, you’ll feel good about making money in the market and at least you are headed in a positive direction.

With Apple’s big tumble yesterday and the market in chaos over Europe, it’s hard to build positions and make any large amounts but you can still do the small plays.  Just be careful to not stay in any trades long term.  The market could nose dive at any time when things are this skiddish.

Market Update 7-24-12

So the market can go in any direction today because of the news on the Euro going to some really low levels and the continuing talk about Greece and Spain.  There’s also the possibility that the market could bounce because there was a lot of short selling going on in premarket trading and because people are moving their funds into the American markets away from overseas markets.  My thoughts are that the market is going to bump up for the first 5-10 minutes because many stocks are at their support levels.  I am going to wait and see what happens and then wait for the 9:50am reversal to maybe take a position.

Market Update #2 7-5-12

So here’s the setup…The ECB cut rates as expected and the ADP report was better than expected.  Also the jobless claims number was down and Central Bank of China has cut rates.  All the news is positive however the market can react in very strange ways even with positive news.  Since some investors were expecting QE3 (Quantitative Easing) because of the downward situation in Europe they may think that the Fed (Federal Reserve) will hold off on QE3 because of positive numbers in jobless claims and the other reports.

Bottom line…wait and see what the market does after the opening bell  

Stocks to watch:

SNE – Big release of Spider Man this week.  Target price 15.72 off of technical set up from the Daily chart

S (Sprint) – The technical setup looks good for Sprint.  I see a target price of $3.71 but if it breaks that level it could go higher

T – Dividend declaration at end of trading day

AAPL – British judge ruled against AAPL in its four patent infringement claims against HTC, they also are going to release a smaller ipad

Market Update 7-5-12

Hold on to your seats ladies and gentleman today is going to be a wild ride.  There is so much data coming out by 9am it’s anybody’s guess as to what the markets will do.  I suggest a wait and see approach before jumping in.  The ADP jobs report and the ECB rate decision will most likely be the main movers of the market but there is also the manufacturing data and consumer data coming out as well.

I’m going to be looking at WMT again to respond off the consumer data and knowing that some analysts have a $79 price target on WMT it may nudge closer to that goal.  However I’m going to wait for it to pull back first.  Usually it has a pull back after the 10:30am time frame.   

ATT (stock symbol “T”) is also declaring their dividend on Friday which will likely drive the price higher so I will look to pull out of my position before the close of the market today.