Tuesday Morning Coffee with TradingMarkets

  • March 11, 2008
  • David Penn

Good Morning!

Stocks Higher in Asia, Europe… Report Links NY Gov Spitzer to Prostitution Ring… Yen Rallies Toward Multi-Year High Against Dollar… ECB Remains Wary of Inflation… Crude Oil Likely to Reach Another Record… Wellpoint Cuts 2008 Forecast, Shares Crash 20% in Pre-Market… Fed Funds Futures Suggest Cut to 2.25%… Vodafone Shares Up in European Trading.

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

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TradingMarkets 5 Business Stories You Need to Know

MCD’s Strong Sales – Forbes

February same stores sales growth of more than 11% had investors bidding shares of McDonalds higher on Monday. 7-rated McDonalds is the top stock in the high PowerRating Restaurants industry group.

BSC Pays Dearly for Debt Protection – Reuters

Fears of illiquidity sent the cost of insurance for Bear Stearns debt–namely, credit default swaps–soaring nearly 40% intraday. When it comes to investment brokerages, Bear Stearns is near the bottom of the bunch in terms of its average Long Term PowerRating. But there are three stocks in the industry group that investors should truly steer clear of. Learn those names at PowerRatings.net.

Dollar Nears 8-Year Low Against Yen – Bloomberg

Credit concerns in the U.S. lead to further unwinding of the so-called carry trade as the yen moves toward an eight-year high against the American dollar.

TXN Warns of Slower Mobile Demand – New York Times

Citing slower demand for mobile phones and other electronics, Texas Instruments narrowed its revenues and earnings forecast for the first quarter. The company has an average Long Term PowerRating, but belongs to a group–Broad Line Semiconductors–with at least three stocks that could really give investor’s headaches over the coming year.

Do Low P/Es = Buy? – Wall Street Journal

Does valuation matter in a world of uncertain earnings and rising inflation expectations? One analysis of stocks early in 2008 suggests that equities might not be as cheap as they seem.

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
Stillwater Mining SWC 10
Photon Dynamics PHTN 9
DRD Gold DROOY 9
Watson Wyatt Worldwide WW 8
XTO Energy XTO 8

» View More Stocks

TradingMarkets Tracking the Wizards

Getting the Media Off Your Mind – TradingMarkets

Author and trader Michael Covel reminds traders that when the going gets tough, the tough know to tune out the talking heads in the financial press and to tune in on the principles of sound trading.

Wall Street Absorbs Spitzer Scandal – TradingMarkets

Schadenfraude is a fancy word for delighting in the suffering of others. And when it comes to the early Wall Street consensus with regard to the shocking news of former New York attorney general and current New York governor Eliot Spitzer’s alleged involvement in a prostitution ring, “delight” might not be expressive enough.

Up or Down Forex – TradingMarkets

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TradingMarkets Playbook

Futures are pointing to a positive open in spite of crude oil topping $109 a barrel in the hours before the stock market opens. As I have mentioned in recent days, we are seeing an increase in the number of high PowerRatings stocks compared to low PowerRatings stocks. This suggests that recent market weakness has created the sorts of pullbacks that make stocks attractive. Should the market shoot out of the gate, traders would be wise to avoid breakouts in favor of the sort of strong stocks that, while still trading above their 200-day moving averages, have pulled back to support.

David Penn is Senior Editor at TradingMarkets.com.

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