Retail Numbers for September Keep US Markets Positive

filed in My Investments on Oct.08, 2009

chart Thank you retail sales numbers! Today this news, along with the surprise earnings from Alcoa (AA) kept the markets in the green. At one point, the markets were up almost twice at what they closed at. This was the first time since 2008 that the collective retail sales numbers were up across the board. Good news, for now. With the way some of these reports for jobless, and payroll have been surprisingly up and down, its still cautious to look at the next months set. Already there is anticipation that the holiday sales will be low like the previous year. Another item that was up today and reached yet another high was gold, the safe-haven has been on a strong rise and its rise is not some magic – its the notion that people are starting to head towards the sidelines. The dollar yet again dropped and like I said yesterday, the Canadian dollar was higher once again. If you have the means, watch for an parity position to make a profitable trade from USD to Canadian dollars and back to USD once the rates change again.

Today I had a great chance on a retail play that many others jumped on also. It was announced on CNBC that Liz Claiborne Inc (LIZ) was going to be sold in JC Penny across the United States. Being a more accessible store compared to Macy’s, I felt this was a great opportunity for sales. (LIZ) was already higher at the open and I manged to fill an order for 350 shares at $6.00. This I felt was a good price to get in but almost right after, the price did turn lower. I was a little panicky I admit and contemplating selling for a loss as maybe I was too jumpy on the stock, but my gamble did prevail towards the end of the day when the stock was up towards $6.80/share. I got out at $6.73/share and know I could have held further. This stock has the potential to touch $8/share by December.

Total profit on (LIZ) = $255.50

Here is the market summary for Thursday:

Thursday I did expect PepsiCo and Marriott to both touch higher, neither did pop but after write-downs look like great long term buys. Pepsi does expect 11-13% growth in the coming year which is great to look forward to and Marriott looks much better after writing down their time shares.

News:
Barnes & Noble Lines Up for Holiday Race With Plans for Its Own Brand of e-Reader

Tengzhong may finalize Hummer deal Friday: source

Happy Investing!

Aman, MBA

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3 comments

used tires said:
October 9th, 2009 on 3:51 am
So Aman I have a question for you, if the dollar continues to lower and decrease in value as it has been for a while now, what will it mean for the Overall Stock Market? Gold will continue to rise right? And how much more will the dollar continue to decrease in value, before we can see the dollar slowly start building it’s value back up to the levels we had in the past?

Thank you,

Jean

[Reply]
Aman@BullsBattleBears Reply:
October 14th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
the only stocks that are really going to suffer are the import based stocks as a weaker dollar gives a smaller purchase power. Its amazing how the dollar started to fall..a minor report came out where some of the countries (Russia, China – 2 that I can recall) were going to stop buying US dollars which would mean less global demand for this currency. Saudi and other middle east oil countries immediately dispelled this report as they were also mentioned (it all had to do with oil).

Gold is rising as its supplies are fairly static with no new mining discoveries which means demand is steadily on the rise since its used in various manufacturing, but importantly, its a safety play that is fool proof…esp when stocks continue their run-away momentum.

In terms of the dollar, its hard to see. The value is partly determined by the outside nation demand for that particular currency. Right now, the American dollar is suffering due to its internal economic woes, and better outlooks in other nations (Canada for instance). Canada and US currency will be equal by December i’d say and a turn around probably won’t come until the Spring.

[Reply]
used tires Reply:
October 17th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
Thanks for the awesome feedback Learned alot!

Till then,

Jean

[Reply]