July 24th 2011
A commodities trader in New York threatened to kill 40 securities and commodities traders at the Securities and Exchange Commission, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. He even put the list on his website. He decided to plead guilty.
Tags: Commodities Trader, Kill, Kill 40
July 24th 2011
Stocks were down sharply today after the release of some weak economic data which came out around 10:00am early this morning. You’ll notice lately that most of the economic reports that have been coming out have been bearish. In the above daily chart of the Russell2000 (IWM) you can see that stocks clearly broke the uptrend line and retested this line yesterday. I was actually short this market and sat through the rally that we had over the past 5 trading days. The small caps were actually the strongest of the the major indices which made me uncomfortable so I lightened up on the position. Sure enough the small caps stocks were weakest out of the 4 major indices today…. go figure. Based on momentum and the head and shoulders topping pattern, I am looking for further weakness for the overall stock market. The financials have been one of the weakest sectors which always is a sign that the market is not healthy.
July 24th 2011
Healthcare has been a hot sector in 2011. Select Medical Holdings Corporation (SEM – Snapshot Report) has seen its shares jump 19% in 2011. But even with the stock surge, this Zacks #1 Rank (strong buy) is trading at just 11.4x forward estimates.
Select Medical Holdings operates 110 long term acute care hospitals and 8 acute medical rehabilitation hospitals in 28 states and 945 outpatient rehabilitation clinics in 35 states and D.C.
The company also provides medical rehabilitation services under contracts at nursing homes, hospitals, assisted living and senior care centers.
Select Surprised By 22% in the First Quarter
On May 5, Select reported its first quarter results and beat the Zacks Consensus by 4 cents per share. It was the first beat in the last 4 quarters.
Earnings per share were 22 cents compared to the consensus of 18 cents. Select made just 15 cents in the same quarter a year ago.
Revenue rose 18.5% to $693.2 million from $584.8 million in the first quarter of 2010.
Tags: Holdings, Holdings Corporation, Medical Holdings, Medical Holdings Corporation
July 22nd 2011
The U.S. Energy Departments weekly inventory release showed an in-line build-up in natural gas supplies, as increased cooling demand on the back of extremely hot weather was offset by higher domestic production.
The Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report – brought out by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) every Thursday since 2002 – includes updates on natural gas market prices, the latest storage level estimates, recent weather data and other market activity or events.
The report provides an overview of the level of reserves and their movements, thereby helping investors understand the demand/supply dynamics of natural gas.
It is an indicator of current gas prices and volatility that affect businesses of natural gas-weighted companies and related support plays like Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC), Chesapeake Energy (CHK), EnCana Corp. (ECA), Devon Energy Corp. (DVN), Nabors Industries (NBR), Patterson-UTI Energy (PTEN), Helmerich & Payne (HP) and Halliburton Co.
Tags: Gas, Natural Gas
July 21st 2011
Above is a 60 minute chart of Apple Inc. (AAPL) and in the lower panel is a 60 minute chart of the S&P500. As you can see both the S&P and AAPL have been moving together making highs and lows at approximately the same time. What interests me about the above chart is that we are now seeing AAPL begin to diverge from what the S&P is doing. Over the past few days the S&P as well as the rest of the major indices have been selling off taking out last month’s lows but AAPL is making a higher low. This is called a bullish divergence and in my opinion AAPL is poised to rally sharply if we can get a bounce in the overall market. On Friday Apple Inc. (AAPL) closed at 343.31 down 2.66 from Thursday’s close.
Tags: Apple, Apple Incaapl