Day Trading Thoughts For Wed. Feb. 4

erikrkolodny

ET Sponsor
A number of people did not understand why I had a bullish tone on both the blog entry (i.e. predicting an upside bias) much less why I kept noting that except for selected financials, I was not going to get short yesterday. Let’s look a little closer for educational purposes. First, one of the things that I always track is the performance of futures in overnight trading along with the action in foreign stocks. When I went to bed around 12:30AM on Monday night (well, technically, Tuesday morning), the S&P’s were up 7 and the Dow futures were up 70. When I awoke just after 5AM, futures were down a bit yet European markets were marginally higher. By paying attention, I had a framework as to how stocks performed when nobody was around. Next, volume has been dwindling nearly every day that the market has been 'down.' In fact, the NASDAQ was up nicely on Monday with the broader S&P 500 flat. Furthermore, on an intra-day basis, the broader market did not sell off yesterday when the financials were crushed earlier. I mean, we were looking at stocks like STI below 10 and WFC around 17. Thus, speaking for me, if I was short with big money (like nine figures), I'd have begun taking off some shorts if I had some positions. And that principle drove up the markets in a vacuum. Why the market did not go down with the financials crumbling is something I do not understand yet it was not falling…I don’t question…I go with it. There was nobody around to sell and everybody is afraid of missing the train whenever the market does rally so the smallest buying pressure provided the market lift yesterday. As volumes continue to remain sharply below last year’s levels, there will be increasing amount of 2% moves in both directions on the market so just know to look for the clues- and don’t fight the trend.

Markets in Asia were up about 2% to 3% across the board; gains extended to Europe as well with prices up just over 1% on average. Oil and currencies are quiet with bonds down slightly. In the U.S., futures are indicating a slightly lower open. Look for quiet trade overall today with trading on both sides of unchanged. There is a general ‘wait and see’ malaise overall and there seems to be nothing to break that trend today.



Reiterating-
Please understand that if the ideas do not get to the hoped for set-ups cited below, more often than not, one should not blindly trade the symbol next to said idea.
If the whole story is not there -
If something is good, assume either a short thru unchanged or an A-B-A2 based on direction of the market unless specifiedIf something is bad, assume either a buy thru unchanged or an A-B-A2 (preferably to the downside in a downside market and the upside in an upside market) based on direction of the market unless specified-


Good- The following stocks have good news and/or a strong technical pattern

ERTS- wretched earnings, but stock traded higher after-hours yesterday

ILMN- good earnings

LLY- got approval from an FDA panel for Prasugrel

MET- beat earnings slightly

SOLR- good earnings

ADS- good earnings

NETL- great earnings

ITMN- closed near a high

MYGN- closed near a high

ALTH- announced positive phase II results on its Propel drug

FCX, CL- mentioned positively on “Mad Money”

COL- closed near a high

BHS- closed at a high

FNF- beat earnings estimates slightly

TNB- good guidance

WWW- beat earnings estimates

NOV- good earnings

Bad-The following stocks have bad news and/or a weak technical pattern

DIS- missed earnings estimates

YUM – missed earnings

UNM- warned for next quarter

LEG- warned on its earnings

ANH- bad earnings

CPX- closed near a low

ACE- beat earnings slightly, but worries are abundant about its longer-term outlook

TXT- mentioned negatively on “Mad Money”

VLY- closed near a low

CUZ- closed near a low

WL- closed near a trend low

COF- closed near a trend low

SHE- closed near a low

GR- cut outlook

KFT- cut outlook

SNA- poor earnings

TUP- cut outlook

COST- cut outlook

R- horrible earnings warning





Earnings:

WED FEB 4 BEFORE

AGN BCO BHP

CLX DBD DVN

FNF FOR GR

ITT KFT LAZ

NI NOV PM

PPL R RL

SLAB SLE SNA

SUN TMO TNB

TUP TWC TWX

WIN WWW



WED FEB 4 AFTER

ADS AHL AIZ

AKAM ATW AVB

BMC CBL CNQR

CSCO DLB EFX

ESS FMC HAIN

HAR HMN HRS

MET NVLS PHM

PRU REG THQI

TMK V XRAY


Good luck today.

Erik R. Kolodny
 
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