Action, What Action?

Some of you might be thinking that we are on a roll because we have had a few up days. Well we have, but there is no volume on any of the indexes. It would be nice to see some commitment behind the ever so slight upward trend. Quite a few leaders in various sectors like AAP Advanced Auto Parts, CXO Concho Resources, NUS Nu Skin, TDG TransDigm Group, SWI Solar Winds, and Apple are all sector leaders and have chart patterns that look tempting, but according to the CAN SLIM strategy we need some institutional horsepower to kick these stocks another notch before their formed bases crumble.

People we just sitting on ready waiting for the new earnings season to begin today as Alcoa reported after the bell. They were down. Mmmm I think I might have heard that somewhere last week and in the blog last night. Aluminum pricing is not headed in the right direction and as we menetioned, AA cut their production last quarter.

NUAN had a good day up almost three percent as they are a hit at the consumer electronics show for a lot of reasons. Apple is expanding its use of Siri in the iPod and iPad, Intel is partnering with NUAN on a speech enabled note book, they are also launching a speech enabled TV remote, nit to mention that success of the iPhone and their medical transcription business. We are sittin on ready to add to our NUAN position and for the accounts that have cash to do so. DO YOUR HOMEWORK.

Earlier today Like at 6:39 am, we added to our positions in MSFT and UNFI. CAUTION here as UNFI United Natural Foods, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the distribution and retail of natural, organic, and specialty foods, as well as non-food products in the United States and Canada. The company distributes approximately 60,000 products in 6 product categories, including grocery and general merchandise, produce, perishables and frozen foods, nutritional supplements and sports nutrition, bulk and food service products, and personal care items. It operates 12 natural products retail stores within the United States. The company also involves in importing, roasting, packaging, and distributing nuts, dried fruits, seeds, trail mixes, granola, natural and organic snack items, and confections, as well as offers the Blue Marble Brands products through bulk sale and private label packaging arrangements. Its customers include independently owned natural products retailers, supernatural chains, conventional supermarkets, and mass market chains, as well as foodservice and international customers outside Canada. The company was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island.

Now we got into UNFI using the MACD, Momentum, and RSI indicators in December. After doing our homework, we almost got out of the stock because of the poor rating IBD has given the stock. It had a 51 which is bad. The technicals made me hang on to the stock and I do have a tight stop order on the stock. We are currently looking at a 6.7% gain and do not intend to let it evaporate.

MSFT has broken out of a 23.75-26.75 trading range and gapped up on the 3rd of January. We like the fundamentals, we like the growth story, we like the cloud opportunities, and we like the technicals. The IBD rating is headed in the right direction, currently at 91. We got in at $26.74 and have our stops set at $23.95. DO YOUR HOMEWORK.

We got out of a position in TRP TransCanada Corporation operates as an energy infrastructure company in North America. The company operates in three segments: Natural Gas Pipelines, Oil Pipelines, and Energy. We broke even on the stock. We got in in Dec because of a tip from the Stanberry and Associates Newsletter and the fact there was a clear breakout on the MACD chart. After climbing about 8%, it collapsed on itself. Conditioning myself to follow the RULES of CAN SLIM, I realized I had chosen a faulty entry point at about $42.30. We are out and made enough to pay for the trades. IBD rates it an 86 and has much warmer feelings for APL, SXL, and BDCO, if you are interested.  

News To Know

After the close of the market we got the consumer credit numbers and people were flashing plastic over the holidays, a good indicator that people are spending. With some of the mixed retails numbers and the internet related employee hiring in the last employment report, we will most likely see a downward revision of this number and that segment of the employment number next month.

Watch the strangle hold the World is putting in Iran. Once the world bank and the central bank of Europe cuts off Iran's central bank, things will get very interesting and probably violent. People not in energy, precious metals, and volatility (VXX) should do some serious soul searching and homework. Watch this one close boys and girls. What is happening regarding Iran has happened before. The world closed down the Japanese Central Bank in 1941. There response involved a whole bunch of ships in a harbor called Pearl that December. This situation might have something to do with a little stretch of water between the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea.

So why do you care about Dailey leaving the White House. About 6 weeks ago we told you that William Dailey WH Chief of Staff had given up some of his traditional duties. That was a tell of his early departure. I mentioned it because he was about the ONLY staffer with ANY business background (Citing Hilary's time on the Board of Walmart.). Dailey was President and COO of Amalgamated Bank of Chicago for about 5 years making him the ONLY person on staff who had a payroll and budget to respect. I think we suggested Dailey would suffer through the election which the President would probably win and then be gone. Dailey, who worked with President Clinton was known as someone who could facilitate reaching across the aisles and get the job done. In recent attempts by the administration to play the class war fare agenda (Since a November 11th speech we covered here.) Dailey on occasion has voiced his concerns about that strategy making it difficult to negotiate with the republicans. Well Dailey made his position clear surprising even the President who really did not want to send a message of disharmony in his inner circle during the election cycle. Jacob Lew, Dailey's interim replacement has worked as advisor, special assistant, co-chair of an advisory board for the city of New York, member of the Council on Foreign relations, advisor to the Brooking Institute, a deputy of Secretary of State, is an Orthodox Jew and graduate of Harvard. So the circle is now complete with career politicians and ideologists. And I do not think the Republicans will beat President Obama in the fall.

With that we will remind you to keep a close eye on your stop orders and have a defensive game in mind for this year. Oh yeah hear is our guess for the Year end numbers. The Dow will close at 13,073 and the S & P 500 will close at 1,358.    

Salve Lucrum