Wednesday was not what many were expecting. With signs of stabilization, the flow of money moving once again, it seemed like only good news would come from the retail sales numbers this morning. Boy was everyone wrong! With the abysmal stats today, it seems like the economy is not recovering as good as many thought. he government said retail sales fell 0.4% in April, while economists were expecting a flat reading. Excluding auto sales, retail sales declined 0.5%, compared to forecasts for a 0.2% increase.

Another kick in the stomach came in the high foreclosure filings that were announced for April. This really dragged down the banking sector in general. Although its widely assumed that the market is due for a pullback, surprise bad news does not help an already fragile situation.

Both my longs (C) and (PCX) suffered today. For a point during the weekend when I was happy for their potential gains of over $1300, to now being close to break even, I have opted to ride the downtrend and continue to hold for the rise on the upside. Coal is a great sector and I am fully confident that the stock will pay off in the long term. No reason to panic and sell. If you have a stop loss, or are thinking of put one in place, find one that is easy for you to digest. Some readers are holding a 5% stop loss which I’m sure kicked in while others are holding bigger ones.

Today I did play (SKF) to make some money off the banking woes. I got 125 shares at $46.65 and later sold for $48.30. This was not a major gain, but a profit is always better than a loss!

Total profit on (SKF) = $206.25

Here is the market summary for Wednesday:

Looking at Thursday:
Economic Indicator:
8:30AM Initial Unemployment Claims
8:30AM Producer Price Index for April
4:30PM Money Supply

Some notable earnings to watch are (WMT) and (BBI). I have Wal-Mart from the beginning of the year so will be watching this and what direction the company is planning to head and outlooks. Blockbuster has taken a beating and has pulled up from its lows. I did manage to play this earlier in the year on a short spike but a friend of mine has made a killing (5 figure profit) from the upside on this stock. Watch for any potential plays on this on Thursday!

Happy Investing!

Aman, MBA

Ps. Two days remain to win a 40″ Samsung LCD HDTV! Enter if you have Twitter!!

Related posts:

  1. Retail Numbers for September Keep US Markets Positive
  2. Markets Slip on Wednesday After the Fed
  3. Markets Tank Ahead of Jobs Report