chartFrom yesterday’s close, markets were on a surge after-hours, pre-market and then all day today. Why? Earnings. From all the big names so far, there have been some great blowout earnings which started with Intel (INTC) to JP Morgan Chase today. Both lead the markets to new highs, one that included the DOW Jones reaching 10,000 for the first time in over a year! Another factor was the surprise retail sales numbers which were higher than expected. Remember what I said last week? I was correct in saying that retail will be a see-saw, one moment positive, and another negative – no consistency will lead to a volatile factor. The case now is either for continued support at DOW 10,000 as the new floor OR breaking through this floor back down.

My profit today was a great one thanks to the media. A stock that I was fairly unfamiliar with was given some light on CNBC yesterday at the market close. Conseco (CNO) was given a positive boost when a company came in and bought a big chunk of the company at market price. Amazing. So I was already logged in watching Intel for a play but gave that up and jumped into (CNO) for 1000 shares at $5.66/share. This was a tad pricey but logic would prevail when all the panic buyers would hear about the old news and pump the stock higher. Today, I was right. The stock was lifting off from the open and I put my limit sell price and let the stock touch it and yield a profit. I managed to get out at $6.39/share. Will the stock go higher? Certainly has potential.

Total profit on (CNO) = $730. Simple.

Now earlier I did talk about my trade on Pier 1 and yes, the stock did open higher and for a while I could have sold for a larger profit, but what happened? The retraction came into play and the price came back to my original selling price. I have no regrets looking back.

Here is the closing summary for Wednesday:

In terms of Thursday, its simple again. Watch the news, what the earnings and if a company can beat, try playing it for a small gain. If not, look at competing companies. I talked to my dad today and he did this very thing. With Intel beating earnings, the sector was ripe and he got into AMD (another chip maker) and made a quick profit on this strategy. Its small, but an increase in portfolio is better than nothing.

Thursday:
Citigroup is estimated to report a loss of $0.23, anything better and we are golden.
Nokia is projected to report a profit of $0.18/share.
Google is estimated to report a profit of $4.68/share.
IBM is estimated to report a profit of $2.38.

Economic Indicators – reporting Thursday
Initial Claims (forecast) 540K (prior) 521K
Continuing Claims (forecast) 6000K (prior) 6040K
Core CPI (forecast) 0.1%
CPI (Sept forecast) 0.2%
Crude Inventories (-0.98M)

News:
JPMorgan Credit-Card Results Suggest More Pain Ahead

Intel sees corporate spending wave on horizon
Chip giant says companies need to replace aging PCs, upgrade data centers

FTC Clears Pfizer’s Deal for Wyeth

Host Hotels Appeases Wall St. With Earnings Beat

Happy Investing!

Aman, MBA

No related posts.