As expected, the market was volatile and saw some buying after yesterday’s sharp selloff. Also as expected, the Fed kept interest rates unchanged, at historic lows. We locked in some more profits today and also cut the loss on POT ahead of its earnings tomorrow morning:
April 28, 2010
11:23 | HappyTrading POT ($109.20) Sold to Close 05P105 May 105 puts, at $2.54 -52%
07:55 | HappyTrading FAS ($102.20) Sold to Close 05P90 May 90 puts, at $4.00 +16%
07:40 | HappyTrading NFLX ($98.25) Sold to Close 05P105 May 105 puts, at $9.00 +100%
On Monday, I mentioned that NFLX should come down at least to test $100. NFLX closed at $99.39 today, giving us a nice +100% profit on the rest of our May 105 puts.
After the market, there were lots of earnings. CLF beat, while WLT missed. CLF was up +2.55%, while WLT slid 1.96% in after-hours trading. FSLR easily beat its earnings estimates with a +36% rise on revenue, sending its shares up +6.62%. BIDU delivered yet another blowout quarter and announced a 10-to-1 split on the ADS. BIDU shares soared over +14%, trading above $710 per share, up around $90!! On the other hand, GMCR also announced a stock split, 3 to 1, but, saw its shares slump 13.5% on 3Q outlook. AKAM delivered a strong quarter reporting a net income of 35 cents per share vs. a concensus of 31 cents. Its shares traded up +9% in after-hours. V 2Q profit jumped, but shares traded lower, down 1.26%. MA also traded lower. Finally, HPQ agreed to buy PALM at $5.7 per share in an all-cash deal.
The Dow was up +53.28 points; SPX added +7.65 points; Nasdaq gained +0.26 points:
XLF (financials) and HGX (housing) both bounced, up +1.45% and +1.1%, respectively. GDX (gold miners) jumped +2.94% while XME (metals and mining) added +1.22%. USO (oil) traded +1.52% higher. MOO (agriculture) was up +0.71%. FXI (Chinese ADRs) rose +1.09%.
SPX
SPX added +7.65 points to close at 1191.36. It bounced off of its 30-day MA. The MACD went lower.
Nasdaq
Nasdaq gained +0.26 points to close at 2471.73, staying just above its 20-day MA. Its MACD also went down.
Financials bounced today and we saw some buyers coming back in the commodity sectors. Gold miners were especially strong as ABX 1Q profit more than doubled. However, intraday, the market was a bit shaken by the widening debt crisis in Europe as Spain’s credit rating was downgraded. This evening, Senate Republicans abandoned their blockade against the financial reform bill, clearing the road to work out the details in the bill. We’ll have to see how the market responds to further financial reform discussions. The market is trying to hang on, but, it is starting to see some stutters in its steps. So far, the support levels seem to be holding. But, if SPX breaks below its 30-day MA, be careful of a bigger pullback.
Good night and HappyTrading! ™ 
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