Morning Coffee with TradingMarkets

  • December 19, 2007
  • Ashton Dorkins

Good Morning!

ECB’s $500 Billion Bank Injection…FCC Moves Toward Media Cross-ownership…Goldman’s Record Quarter…Fed Wants New Mortgage Rules…Honda Expects Record Sales…PIMCO’s Gross: Recession in 08…Morgan Stanley: Oracle in ’08…Asian Stocks Slide Late…Europe Up/Down…The Dollar trending downward against the pound in the hour before the bell.

Was it the resumption of the rally or just another turnaround Tuesday? The last time the market moved down three days in a row was in the midst of the sharp correction in early November. More evidence of lowering expectations, as Japan lowers its economic forecast for next year, also blaming the housing bust. The market’s response to Morgan Stanley’s worst than estimated $3.5 billion loss will be worth watching.

Take the TradingMarkets Path to Professional Trading – Level 1 course and immediately improve your trading. It’s free! Start here.

TradingMarkets 5 Business Stories You Need to Know

European Central Bank Offers $501 Billion in Short-Term Loans – Marketwatch

Central bankers in Europe open up the spigots in an effort to make credit even more widely available to big banks. Market interest rates on short-terms loans plunged on the news.

The Fed Eases, But Will the Banks Relax? – Wall Street Journal

Fears that the Fed is “pushing on a string” grow as banks show some reluctance to take the money the Federal Reserve is increasingly leaving on the table.

Bear Stearns Fund Manager Leaves As Subprime Investigation Continues – Bloomberg

The departure of fund manager Ralph Cioffi, who handled subprime debt, draws more attention to the scrutiny of investigators trying to learn whether or not any wrongdoing occurred at Bear.

Real. Negative. Yields. – InVivoAnalytics.com

A picture of the CPI and 10-year Treasury note yield are worth a thousand words about the current price of capital.

Former Spies Find Home in Corporate Russia –New York Times

From national intelligence to market intelligence, former and current members of Russia’s domestic and international espionage agencies are increasingly making their way into the corporate world.

For more stories as they happen, go to our Breaking News section.

TradingMarkets 7 Stocks You Need to Know for Today

Here are 7 stocks for traders for today from TradingMarkets.com:

For a list of today s highest PowerRating stocks, click here.

TradingMarkets 5 Top PowerRatings Stocks for Today

Company
 Symbol PowerRatings
STEC STEC 10
Verigy VRGY 9
Uranium Resources URRE 8
Synaptics SYNA 8
Sigma Designs SIGM 8

View More Stocks

TradingMarkets Tracking the Wizards

PIMCO’s Gross: Standby for a Turbulent 2008…And 3% Fed Funds – PIMCO.com

Bond guru Bill Gross warns that the headwinds that appeared in late 2007 will bring volatility and a need for even greater accommodation by the Federal Reserve.

Bear Stearns Launches Hedge-Style Mutual Fund – Wall Street Journal

New fund will be in the 130/30 mutual fund category that allows smaller investors to bet on a fund that will be both long and short. 130/30 refers to ratio of long to short positions, as well as reinvestment strategy of any proceeds from short sells.

Was Hedge Fund Manager Murdered? –HedgeFund.net

Former aid to recently deceased hedge fund manager, Seth Tobias claims to have proof Tobias was murdered when he was found dead in his swimming pool in November. Testimony should detail claims by onetime assistant, Bill Ash.

View Portfolios of Prominent Investors

TradingMarkets Playbook

The first ingredient of the move higher we mentioned in yesterday’s Morning Coffee occurred as buyers stepped up, preventing a three-day slide in the market. It was good to see the market hold up, especially after the intraday sell-off. Nevertheless, follow-through will prove whether or not the buyers mean business. The markets are still in oversold territory, so continued higher prices should not be unexpected. It would be a very healthy development for the market to rally from current levels and end higher on the day. Such a session would go a long way to making the much talked about “holiday rally” a reality.

David Penn is Senior Editor at TradingMarkets.com.

Click here to sign up for the Morning Coffee with TradingMarkets newsletter.