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Weekend Winners and Losers - Alert HQ BUY and SELL signals for July 4, 2009

Sal Mangano — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 07:42:00 -0400

The latest list of free stock alerts is up and available at Alert HQ.

Each week we scan about 7300 stocks and ETFs, checking fundamentals, performing technical analysis and looking for fresh BUY and SELL signals. Out of this process we generate the following lists:

A reflex more than anything else

Tim Iacono — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:47:00 -0400

To be honest, I didn't even read this story in the Wall Street Journal before deciding to make it the subject of a post. With glasses like the ones worn by Mr. Langerman and the well worn phrase "Easy Money" in the title, how could I go wrong?

Managers Bemoan Loss of Easy Money
Mutual-fund managers, especially those with a value-stock approach, said tighter credit has had such an effect on the market that it has changed the way they look at stocks.
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Base Metals Mostly Lower

ContrarianProfits — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:00:00 -0400

The base metals were mostly lower on Thursday. Copper sank from the pre-dawn hours to mid-morning, bottoming at $2.24, but rallied back from there to finish at $2.2754/lb., down more than 3½ cents.

Nickel had a pair of jagged ups and downs to mid-morning, but blazed higher from there, closing just off its intraday highs at $7.4382/lb., up 13 cents. Zinc was also choppy, ending little changed at $0.6994/lb., down a half-cent. Aluminum was weak, dropping more than a penny, to $0.7267/lb., while lead also sagged, shedding more than a penny and three-quarters, to $0.7626/lb.

Copper led all the industrial metals but nickel downward yesterday, as traders heeded the strengthening dollar and were spooked by bad economic data from both the U.S.…

Stay Out of the Water

ContrarianProfits — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:30:00 -0400

NEW Unemployment figures Show We’re Still Lingering in Depression.

This week began with shrieks of joy. First, a federal court came down on Bernie Madoff like a brick on a bald head. Madoff, convicted of lying to investors, drew a sentence that only a sea turtle or a swamp oak could complete. Then, like children playing in the sea, investors were teased by one wave of good news… and tickled by the next.

Bloomberg reported that “Wall Street’s largest bond-trading firms say the worst may be over for investors… ” Then, General Electric’s CEO, Jeffrey Immelt and famous investor George Soros both said that the crisis is “behind us” and that growth will begin again next year. Finally, analyst John Dorfman opined…

Dollar Rises

ContrarianProfits — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:00:00 -0400

In the currency market, the dollar climbed higher against the euro. Late Thursday, the euro was trading at $1.4027 vs. $1.4156 on Wednesday.
The day’s data was about as bad as it could be. Primary was the Labor Department’s report on nonfarm payrolls, which showed the loss of 467,000 jobs in June. That was in line with ADP figures from Wednesday, and far above the 325,000 contraction predicted by economists.

The unemployment rate edged up to 9.5% from 9.4% in May, not quite as bad as the 9.6% expected. All told, the data “strongly suggest that consensus forecast for a second half recovery is overly optimistic,” said Steve Ricchiuto, chief economist at Mizuho Securities in New York.

Some analysts tried to pretty…

Galapagos Vacations? Politician’s Overseas Travel Is Up Almost Tenfold Since 1995

ContrarianProfits — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:00:00 -0400

“A review of travel and financial records showed that Gov. Mark Sanford did not spend public money improperly when he visited his mistress”, the chief of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, Reginald Lloyd, said this afternoon.

Thank goodness Governor Sanford’s fornicating was fiscally lawful!

But it shows you that there are hardly any limits to the perks, fringe benefits, and global sex romps that can be had on the taxpayer’s dime by our elected officials…

From the Wall Street Journal:

Spending by lawmakers on taxpayer-financed trips abroad has risen sharply in recent years, a Wall Street Journal analysis of travel records shows, involving everything from war-zone visits to trips to exotic spots such as the Galápagos Islands.

The spending on overseas travel is up…

Do You Know the Real Culprit in the Great Mortgage Meltdown?

ContrarianProfits — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:00:00 -0400

While politicians, talking heads, and bloggers blab about the causes of the mortgage crisis, Stan Liebowitz of the University of Texas lays out why they’re all dead wrong in today’s Wall Street Journal.

Rather than subprime or lair loans being the culprits, Mr. Liebowitz illustrates that zero equity lead to the mortgage meltdown.

The evidence from a huge national database containing millions of individual loans strongly suggests that the single most important factor is whether the homeowner has negative equity in a house — that is, the balance of the mortgage is greater than the value of the house. This means that most government policies being discussed to remedy woes in the housing market are misdirected.

Many policy makers and ordinary people…

Precious Metals Pounded Again

ContrarianProfits — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:00:00 -0400

Gold was flat until just before the London open on Thursday, then commenced a long, slow slide that continued until the noon hour in New York, with a bottom at $926 before some uninspired late day buying pushed it to a finish at $928.80/oz., down $11.50. For the week, gold lost 1%.
Platinum tightly rangebound all day, bouncing between $1180 and $1190, finally coming to rest at $1183/oz., down $16. For the week, platinum dropped 1.2%.

Silver was virtually unchanged two hours into London trading, but fell off into the first hour in New York, briefly dipping below $13.30 before inching back over it and going flat as a pancake the rest of the day to close at $13.35/oz., down 35…

Stocks Dip, Investors Cautious on Recovery

ContrarianProfits — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:00:00 -0400

World stocks fell today, Friday, after a disappointing U.S. jobs report and a sluggish euro zone services sector survey reinforced expectations that the process of recovery in the global economy would be long and slow.

U.S. employers cut far more jobs than expected last month and the unemployment rate hit 9.5 percent, the highest in nearly 26 years.

While analysts caution that jobs data is a lagging indicator and unemployment can still rise when the economy is turning around, it was enough to prompt investors to reduce their risk assets especially before a long weekend in the United States.

Furthermore, signs of a recovery in the euro zone’s dominant service sector took a backwards step in June with the final services purchasing manager…

Cash-strapped states start a new fiscal year

Tim Iacono — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:59:00 -0400

California leads a gaggle of states that entered a new fiscal year on Wednesday with no viable plan to fund their spending. The AP reports that Florida, Oregon, North Carolina and other states have similar problems, though none quite as severe as in the "Golden State".

Several states are facing the prospect of government shutdowns and program cuts as they enter the first weekend of the fiscal year and July Fourth holiday without a budget in place.
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