Wang’s Happy Trading

Submitted By Optiondragon

Led Zeppelin- Over The Hills And Far Away Music Video

From briefing.com

Periodicals Wrap-Up for Tuesday, June 24th
WALL STREET JOURNAL: The Wall Street Journal’s “The Game” column speculates that one of the results of the Bear Stearns crash could be the push of investment banks and commercial ones closer together, which could result in better handling of volatility with more stability. Some observers think Merrill Lynch (MER), Morgan Stanley (MS) or Goldman Sachs Group (GS) could go that route by buying a commercial bank. Any move would force them to adhere to better reserve ratios, affect short term bank funding, and shrink balance sheets…The Wall Street Journal reported that Google (GOOG) will soon make available a new service that measure hits on the Internet with the intent of helping advertisers decide where to buy ads online and would directly compete with comScore (SCOR) and Nielsen Online. Ad executives say Google’s method could make targeting markets more efficient…FINANCIAL TIMES: A Manhattan judge dismissed four claims made by American International Group (AIG) in its fight to regain control of a block of its shares held by Starr International, a company that once founded a lucrative compensation plan for AIG executives. AIG believes the shares held by Starr should continue to be used to fund employee compensation, the Financial Times reported…BLOOMBERG: According to Scorpio Partnership, Bloomberg reported that UBS AG (UBS) and Merrill Lynch had slower growth in assets under management last year due to losses connected to the U.S. subprime crisis…

As coal demand grows delivery is stymied-WSJ
A slow permit process, not enough investment, and a lack of skilled workers means coal supplies will remain tight and prices up, reports the Wall Street Journal. Floods in the Midwest only add to the problem. “Despite the strong margins that coal companies are seeing, the supply response has so far been limited,” says Paul Forward at Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. “I think it’s probably a couple years worth of time where these markets stay tight.”

Citigroup to raise funds by selling Indian properties-Financial Chronicle
Citigroup (C) will reportedly raise about $500M by selling some of its properties in India. The investment bank is even reportedly looking to sell its Indian headquarters in the city of Mumbai.

RS raises Q2 EPS guidance by 30%
Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. announced that it is updating its guidance regarding the Company’s earnings estimates for the second quarter ended June 30, 2008. At this time, Reliance expects earnings to be in the range of $2.00 to $2.10 per diluted share, up approximately 30% from the Company’s prior guidance.
Very nice raise and this would be considered “Factual Actionable Data”, which is my favorite type of data.

Amazon.com moves into new product offering-Seattlepi.com
Amazon.com (AMZN) announced that it opened a new office supply division. Demand for their products have grown so fast that the company will also open a fulfillment center in Arizona which will open in 3Q and employ 600 full time employees.

Pre-Market Movers: Ahead of the Bell
The pre-market session is extremely quiet with ETFs and futures dominating volume and price. As we suggested yesterday this may well be the case until Thursday after the FOMC meeting on rates has passed. We will be in a heavily back-end loaded week as well with the Russell Reconstitution on Friday, typically the heaviest volume day of the year. Royale Energy Inc (ROYL) is the volume leader so far this morning, trading up +8.8% on heavy pre-market volume. There appears to be no fresh news this morning to explain the movement. One factor may well be that the name is being added to the Russell Microcap Index as of Friday. SuccessFactors (SFSF) is trading up +2.7% after pricing an 8M share secondary at $11.80. The shares are trading above this price in the pre-market. United Parcel Service (UPS) is trading down (-5.3%) after it warned that Q2 EPS would be well below consensus estimates. Yahoo (YHOO) is trading down (-1%) after Thomas Weisel downgraded the shares to Underweight. CenturyTel (CTL) is trading up +4% on very light volume. This follows an increase in the dividend payment announced this morning and an expectation that the company will meet or exceed its Q2 earnings guidance. There is a company-sponsored business news update conference call today at 10AM (see note under CTL for link). :

SNDK initiated with an Underperform@COWN
Cowen believes shares of SNDK are overvalued and its products are commoditized.

DGX & LH: Weakness overdone, see limited downside risk@LEHM
Shares of both DGX and LH are Overweight rated.

Several economic reports due today
U.S. equity futures are still lower but off of their lows of the morning. Investors will be looking to some economic reports today as well as the beginning of the Fed’s FOMC meeting. At 10 am investors will receive the Richmond Fed Manufacturing survey as well as a consumer confidence reading, and a report on the House Price Index for the month of April.

V: Potential Bullish Triangle: Russell 1000 Addition
Visa (V) is one of the new additions to the Russell 1000 as of Friday, June 27th. There is a potential bullish, symmetrical, triangle that would become active on a breakout above the $85 area. Upside potential for the pattern is to the $100 area. The $81 level is support for the pattern. A sustained breakdown below this level would void it.

VMW: See few near-term catalysts, but positive long-term@PACS
Pacific Crest’s checks indicate demand is robust, but they believe upside in Q2 could be muted by tepid enterprise spending and resellers talking of macro worries. The firm would add to positions in VMW on pullbacks and maintain an Outperform rating.

ComScore-SCOR: Vulnerable on Google Competition
On news that Google (GOOG) is launching a metrics service that may compete with ComScore (SCOR), the shares are trading down (-4.33%) in the pre-market. At current price the shares have edged below the lower limit of the uptrend channel at $26.59.
Gapping down and negative for SCOR.

SCOR: Expect minor or no effect from Google launch@WBLR
William Blair believes Google’s (GOOG) launch of AdPlanner will have minimal or no effect on SCOR and they maintain an Outperform rating on the stock.

V downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform@AVON
Avondale downgraded Visa based on valuation and concerns regarding the near-term outlook for consumer spending.

POT target to $285 from $250 on higher fertilizer prices@UBSW
Shares are Buy rated.

Owens Illinois-OI removed from Conviction Buy List; maintain Buy@GSCO

Iran seeking Supertanker to store more oil, brokers say-Bloomberg
Iran is seeking VLCC for 30-60 days from July 7th, brokers say.

S&P 500-SPX: Pivot Points
The following are the pivot points for the S&P 500 (SPX). Pivot High: 1320.885, Pivot Low: 1312.365. These were calculated using the DeMark method. It is generally believed to be bullish when price breaks out above the pivot high or bearish when price breaks down below the pivot low.

Dow Jones Industrials Index-DJX: Pivot Points
The following are the pivot points for the Dow Jones Industrials Index (DJX). Pivot High: 11864.305, Pivot Low: 11792.655. These were calculated using the DeMark method. It is generally believed to be bullish when price breaks out above the pivot high or bearish when price breaks down below the pivot low.

Russell 2000 Index-RUT: Pivot Points
The following are the pivot points for the Russell 2000 Index (RUT). Pivot High: 724.260, Pivot Low: 714.890. These were calculated using the DeMark method. It is generally believed to be bullish when price breaks out above the pivot high or bearish when price breaks down below the pivot low.

Nasdaq 100 Index-NDX: Pivot Points
The following are the pivot points for the Nasdaq 100 Index (NDX). Pivot High: 1926.995, Pivot Low: 1897.195. These were calculated using the DeMark method. It is generally believed to be bullish when price breaks out above the pivot high or bearish when price breaks down below the pivot low.

Fast money Position recap- Macke Owns (HAS), (WMT), (MSFT), (INTC); Najarian Owns (AAPL), (TSO), (XLF), (CHK); Najarian Owns (LLL) Calls, (SLB) Calls, (SD) Calls; Najarian Owns (MER) Puts; Adami Owns (NUE), (BTU), (C), (AGU), (GS), (INTC), (MSFT); Finerman Owns (GS); Finerman’s Firm Owns (CYBX), (MO), (MSFT), (NYX), (PM), (SBUX), (TSO), (VLO); Finerman’s Firm Owns SPX Index Puts; Finerman’s Firm And Finerman Own (C) And (C) Leaps; Finerman’s Firm Is Short (BIG), (IYR), (IJR), (MDY), (IWM), (SPY).