Well I jinxed the market according to a friend. It seems like revised jobless numbers and a poor earnings forecast has put another cloud over the markets and today was an awful day to trade. Personally, I felt that many had already expected weak numbers and poor earnings, but I guess I was wrong.

I had a few plays I wanted to get into but my stock activity was very minimal today. My only play today was a pre-market trade for Family Dollar (FDO) which I got wind from watching Bloomberg before markets opened. Basically the company stated they will be doing better than analyst expectations. The pre-market trades are a whole other game for me with their volatile spikes, but opted to get in before the bell and am thankful I made that choice. I managed to get in with 275 shares @ 25.83/share which I only held for a short time. By the mid-morning session, my limit sell order of $28.01 had gone through on its own which was much sooner than I personally expected. But hey, it was a winner.

Profit on (FDO) today: $599.50

I wanted to get in some oil plays today, especially today was the single largest drop in oil prices since 2001, this buy opportunity right now according to some experts is a good chance to get in before oil moves back towards $80 which some think is fair price. All my oil picks did come down but none of my limit buy orders went through today. It was pretty close with (XOM) which was only 6 cents off the price I was willing to get into. Its fine, Thursday is another day to play.

A summary for Wednesdays headlines is available here:

For Thursday, I am looking at (BAC), many people are saying that many brokers are looking to get out thanks to the merger with BAC but I like a few others dont feel this. With the current market situations and the fact that many of MER’s clients cannot get poached by exiting brokers, this seems like a losing thought.

Another is (APC) Anadarko Petro is currently at half of its 52wk high, and many feel that is poised to rise soon. Currently its hitting resistance but once that breakout occurs, this stock should fly up. Since Nov of ’08, this stock has peaked at roughly the low $40′s before falling again. Lets see this one break that and rise to the next level.

My baby money maker (CPY) shot up like a rocket into space today, up 22% and I missed the whole party. Will it go higher? I don’t really know but have my eyes on the short side and will ride the fall to the ground once this stock begins to drop.

Last here is a video for 10 top searched stocks, (FCX) is one that I like and am looking at along with another stock in the banking sector (WFC) which should also rise.

At the time of writing this, the Asian markets were down to the point that all profits from 2009 have been erased. Some major companies that are currently hitting the wires are Lenovo which is slashing jobs after heading into its first ever loss. Sony is another stock that is down in Asia. (SAY) was in the news yesterday for the wrong reasons and has made people lose confidence in the Indian stock market. I am watching this play and will see how the SENSEX (Bombay Stock Exchange) moves.

Happy Investing!

Aman, MBA

Related posts:

  1. Wednesday Plays
  2. Positive Wednesday & Thursday Earings Watch
  3. Flat Thursday.