Liquid Metal to Liquid Assets

 

Before we get into the week goneth and the week cometh, let talk about a couple of wins. We were bragging about our quick turn of our Apple Calls we sold for a nice gain. On Friday we sold out of our positions in LQMT, Liquid Metal. We got a natural double for the main account and quite a few others. We mentioned it here several times suggesting you use the Vegas Money as it was extremely speculative and a penny stock.

 

We took the double and so did about eight of the accounts we manage. I like creating tax problems like that. We had a sizable position so it was a good day. We will watch this stock and see of the value subsides to its 20 cent level again. If so we will be back in and hope for the iPhone 5 rumor to come again.

 

The week that was.

 

The Dow was up 1.4% on the week and the S&P 500 was up .6%. I was suggesting a really bad week. Uh, I was talking about AAPL, yeah that's the ticket, I was talking about AAPL down 4% on the week. Ok I got the week wrong.

 

Our main portfolio was call out of GWW because of a silly set of call options I sold about 9 days ago. I got to keep the premium for selling the call options, but my strike price was 13 dollar below where the stock ended up on Friday. It worked out, I gains the trades by .003%, plus the dividend I received earlier this year. Not the brightest call option I ever sold, but we are now out of Grainger. Good stock.

 

The week ahead.

 

I got a l busy week this week personally and professionally, so I do not know how much time I will have to writing this, so let me get most of the key points to keep an eye out laid out tonight.

 

Monday

 

Australia reports Producer Price Index number was expect inflation to be in check, perhaps a small bump but nothing too scary.

 

Tuesday

 

Our Fed has its monetary policy meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday with most of any news breaking Tuesday. I am sure we will see yet another confirmation that there will be no QE III and Mr. Market won't like despite the fact he has heard it twice already. The meeting will be wrapped up with comments by Uncle Ben Bernanke. Watch this close to see if he surprises us. Australia follows its Producer's Price Index with the consumer price index, again we are assuming a small bump. We also have some retail reports due out which should be positive due to frugal fatigue and decent weather. The Case Schiller home price report is out and prices are expected to recover an eeny teeny bit. If not, an unhappy market. New Home sale numbers are expected to be up a teeny eeny bit. A disappointment would be disappointing. Consumer confidence comes out and the brains think it will be down a little. We can't argue that, but suggest maybe a little lower than some are thinking. The Richmand Fed report comes out and should follow the NY and Philly numbers down.

 

Wednesday

 

The UK releases its Q1 GDP and most expect a contraction. If the contraction is worse than expected, that will chase the market around the globe to the downside. We have the weekly mortgage application numbers and the consensus is up with refi's doing most of the lifting. We will also have a disappointing durable good order number but most are expecting a lower number.

 

Thursday

 

New Zealand announce its monetary policy. ZZZZZZzz. We will also get consumer and business sentiment figures out of the Eurozone. It will be lower. We will have initial jobless claims as usual and as we mentioned last week, with business starting to hire, people are coming out of the shadows to look for work and many get back on the unemployment roles so we could see this number increase for a good reason. We will also have pending home sales reporting. They are expected to rise a little, we think not. A disappointment for Mr. Market.

 

Friday

 

Look for the empirical evidence of a slowing economy as the GDP is expected to drop to 2.5% from 3.0. This will be followed by consumer sentiment which is expected to be unchanged. Look for a disappointment. Japan will state its monetary policy and look for no changes. It also has a string economic data to release Consumer Price Index (March) Household Spending (March) Unemployment (March) Industrial Output (March) Retail Sales (March). France will report consumption and price information and we expect disappointments. France will report consumption and price information and we expect disappointments.

 

And that is the week ahead. I did have some time to run the 36 stocks I screened using the Auer Fund Screen we talked about last week through the Buffet Screener and have found a few nice looking candidates. Would you like a teaser? LXU, GA, and ESIC. A little more homework before we look for entry points when the market recovers.

 

Salve Lucrum