Wednesday, April 17, 2013

7 Gut checks pre open


System takeover 728x91

MarketWatch
 
Need to Know
APRIL 17, 2013

7 gut checks before the stock market's opening bell

By Shawn Langlois
 
Need to Know
powered by
ad choices
 


Getty Images
Good morning.

Yesterday's rebound provided more evidence that the market, despite the occasional belch, is still going strong. Unless you're knee deep in gold, like still-a-billionaire John Paulson . But this isn't the kind of rally we've seen in recent years. There's something missing, and that's tech leadership. Apple , which is bouncing around its annual low, being the most obvious.

When investors are feeling frisky, they look to tech for their speculative fix. They're just not in the mood, apparently, as techs have diverged from the S&P in a big way over the past six months. Instead, it's consumer staples pacing the bull rush here. That could change soon, however, with some "pruning and planting"  potentially on tap this earnings season that could pave the way to the next leg up. But the weak premarket action from Yahoo and Intel isn't exactly screaming out for a rotation into the sector.

Key market gauges: Asia  finally booked gains for the first time in three days, led by a 1.2% charge on the Nikkei .  Europe is losing its grip on early advances while futures on the Dow  and the S&P  are also pushing lower.

Gold  is back to its losing ways, resuming a decline that saw the front-month contract shed 8% already this week. It's likely that "financial markets will continue to take its cues from any further abrupt movements in the price of the precious metal over the short term," CMC Markets senior trader Tim Waterer said. Read more about how gold prices are backing off gains  and check out five mutual funds that were hammered by the slide .

The economy: We'll get an update on the state of the economy with the Federal Reserve's Beige Book survey at 2 p.m. Eastern. The most compelling speech is slated to start at 9:30 a.m. That's when St. Louis Fed President James Bullard talks about "some unpleasant implications" of the new Fed policy to target the unemployment rate. Read: The Beige Book may be blue .

Earnings: Bank of America shares are retreating early after the company missed estimates with its first-quarter report . Later in the day, analysts will be looking for good things from EBay , whose stock has managed to rally more than 60% in the past year. American Express  and Mattel are also handing in their results. Read: Stocks to watch .

The buzz: Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff still top Google's business page after a landmark paper the two penned back in 2010 was debunked by the Roosevelt Institute yesterday. This is how you can avoid making the same Excel mistake they made , courtesy of Quartz. Read more from The Tell  and why Paul Krugman says Reinhart and Rogoff's response is "really, really bad."

Yahoo  and Intel  remain in the spotlight after they reported results in yesterday's extended session . Yahoo, which scores high in terms of bullish intensity on Twitter, is getting hit hard before the open. Intel, not as bad, but still down. Read: Is Mayer's honeymoon over with these results?

Grainger , BlackRock  and Coke  are also high on Market IQ's trending list. Over on StockTwits , Microsoft  and Cirrus Logic , which The Fly tags as one of the worst stocks in the market , are attracting attention. Read about Microsoft's recent upgrade .

The chart of the day: Coke grabbed most of the soft drink headlines yesterday, gaining 5.7% following its quarterly earnings report . Now, another bubbly drink maker is poised for a "monster of a run" of its own, according to Dragonfly Capital's Greg Harmon. And that's Monster . No, not the movie that forever ruined the Charlize Theron fantasy for me , but the company that makes Hansen's sodas and Monster Energy drinks. Harmon is focused on the technical case here, pointing that a move over the $57.50 consolidation area signals a break out higher.
Dragonfly Capital
The call of the day: A bit of nostalgia for me, thanks to Seeking Alpha's Myles McCabe, who posted a bullish call on Apache Corp.  this morning. My gramps was a great investor, a long-termer who always seemed to end up on the right side of the trade. But he wasn't much for touting individual stocks. Apache was one exception back in the 90s, and I made a relative killing following his advice as the stock rallied 10-fold from 1998 to 2007.  Grandpa George is gone and so is Apache's relentless rally. But not for long, according to McCabe.

"Investors seeking to add exposure to the international energy market, play the unrest in Egypt, or hedge their personal finances against rising gasoline costs would be well-served by considering an investment in Apache below $75 per share," he wrote in his "Buy Apache -- market fears unfounded" post. His price target: $100.

Random reads: Busted! The FBI raided the Nahmad Gallery in Manhattan, taking aim at a Russian gambling and money-laundering ring that "stretched from Kiev and Moscow to Los Angeles and New York."

Here's some of our streaming coverage from the Maggie Thatcher funeral going down right outside our window here in the City of London. Speaking of notable passings, we lost a good one in Pat Summerall .

Silicon Valley's geeky streets are paved with gold ... for prostitutes, one of whom says she's made more than a million bucks .

"Hangover" star Bradley Cooper probably doesn't need to enlist the services of a professional, but he DOES live with his mom .

Need to Know starts early and is updated as needed until the opening bell, but sign up here  to get it delivered once to your e-mail box. Be sure to check the Need to Know item. The e-mailed version will be sent out at approximately 8:45 a.m. Eastern. Follow @slangwise  on Twitter.
Get the latest news on our mobile site: http://www.marketwatch.com/m


MarketWatch has sent you this newsletter because you signed up to receive it.
To ensure you receive this newsletter in the future, please add marketwatchmail.com to your list of approved senders.
Sent to: alanrussell@princetoncap.com

Unsubscribe | Subscribe
Copyright 2013 MarketWatch, Inc. All rights reserved.
MarketWatch, the MarketWatch logo, and BigCharts are registered trademarks of MarketWatch, Inc.
By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy (updated 6/26/07).

MarketWatch - Attn: Customer Service, 201 California St., San Francisco, CA 94111

No comments:

Post a Comment