Thursday Morning Coffee with TradingMarkets

  • February 21, 2008
  • David Penn

Good Morning!

Research in Motion Subscriber Base Soars… Apple, NVIDIA Up in Premarket… Newmont Mining, JC Penney Report Earnings… Price Hikes Buoy Nestle Earnings… Navy Missile Downs Spy Satellite… Citi Upgrades Cisco, Downgrades BP… Gold Rising Toward Record in London Trading… Jobless Claims Announced Today.

Asian stocks up… European stocks up… Greenbacks moving lower against the Euro, British pound… And the futures are trending higher in the hour before the bell.

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TradingMarkets 5 Business Stories You Need to Know

Fed Minutes Reveal Stagflation Fears – Wall Street Journal

The pernicious combination of slow growth and rising inflation, also known as stagflation, appears to be among the chief threats to the Federal Reserve Board’s policy of monetary accommodation to combat the credit crunch and housing mortgage lending crisis.

Gold Companies Report Earnings – The Street

Look for action among the gold stocks this morning as three of the more popular mining companies, Barrick Gold, Goldcorp and Newmont Mining, all report earnings today. Based on their PowerRatings, all three gold stocks represent average opportunities for investors right now. There are, however, a number of low PowerRating gold stocks that could actually be hazardous to your portfolio. Find out which stocks they are at PowerRatings.net.

Yen Remain Under Pressure – Bloomberg

Moves higher in Asian and European stock markets are credited for sending the yen to a five-week low against the Euro. The Japanese yen was also lower against the British pound in the face of rising commodity prices and a resumption of the “short yen/long high yielding assets” carry trade.

Subscribers Flock to Research in Motion – CNN Money

Research in Motion says that the number of subscribers to its BlackBerry service has grown more than forecast for the fourth quarter. New subscriptions are believed to be 15-20% higher than previously announced. Based on its PowerRating, however, Research in Motion may be a stock that investors should be avoiding if they are looking for stocks that are more likely than the average stock to be higher in a year’s time.

Supreme Court Backs 401(K) Lawsuits – USA Today

In a unanimous ruling the Supreme Court has paved the way for workers to sue their employers if they believe their 401(k) plans have been run negligently. The decision came in the case of a Texas man who claimed his employer never followed his instruction to move his retirement money to less risky investments.

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
Yahoo! YHOO 9
XenoPort XNPT 8
Pericom Semiconductor PSEM 8
TurboChef Technologies OVEN 8
Nasdaq NDAQ 8

» View More Stocks

TradingMarkets Tracking the Wizards

Five Indicted on Hedge Fund Fraud Charges – Financial Times

Five men have been indicted on charges of conspiracy and fraud, having been accused of defrauding hedge fund investors of more than $200 million. The five could face as many as 25 years in prison each if found guilty. The fraud at the Lancer hedge fund was believed to have taken place between 1999 and 2003.

Hillary and the Hedge Funds – FINalernatives

In a bid to increase the populist appeal of her primary election campaign, Senator Hillary Clinton lashed out at “investment managers” and “hedge fund executives” who she accused of not paying their share of income taxes compared to the average worker. Clinton, whose daughter Chelsea works for Avenue Capital Partners, a hedge fund, has been a persistent critic of perceived tax advantages for hedge funds and private equity firms.

Market Testing Wizards to the Rescue! – TradingMarkets

Got a trading plan? If so, are you serious enough about your success to have your trading strategy backtested by a team of market professionals? Click here for your free report on the “10 Steps to Successful Backtesting,” from Market Testing Wizards. Whether or not you are new to backtesting or an old hand at analyzing parameters and optimizing performance, Market Testing Wizards will let you know if your trading plan is truly a winning one.

View Portfolios of Prominent Investors

TradingMarkets Playbook

Yesterday’s modest rally in the markets leaves us in the same position we have been in for the past few days: the number of stocks that are extended to the upside continues to increase compared to the number of stocks extended to the downside. This means that there are still opportunities for traders looking to bet against weak stocks experiencing temporary strength.

Although not wildly overbought, the markets are moving toward a level at which they are going to either continue to consoldate or correct and move lower. It goes without saying that if the markets can move sideways, allowing the overbought conditions to work themselves off, it will provide a base from which stock prices can begin to move higher without further correction. The challenge for stocks right now is maintain the higher low set in first few days of February and, eventually, to take out the highs from the beginning of the month.

David Penn is Senior Editor at TradingMarkets.com.

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