Blog Stuck On You

Once again, things are unpredictable. The stock market has headed into negative territory right now, making me and my fellow online stock trading and online options trading friends a bit more nervous. Heck, even the seasoned online brokers are uneasy!

Yesterday, things looked a little more upbeat in the online stock trading world, but you knew at close of market yesterday that some profits were going to be taken today.

I took some.

I went in on a few things. One was telecom stocks. I bought Sprint last Friday, when it was tanked, and made a calculated bet that its rate would go up. I was right. Yesterday, Sprint, along with other tele-coms rose quite a bit — relatively speaking, that is.

I sold yesterday afternoon. Yet, I might buy some calls, because telecom stocks are somewhat undervalued. Most are old technology, but are still the backbone of a lot of communications, so I’m not getting out entirely.

The earning reports this morning have not been good. Of the Dows 30 components, 24 have been lower already.
Citi is going lower. Goldman recommended to sell. Even energy is heading lower. And we are coming into the winter season. Things should look rosy here, because demand will not go away. So, even if it is a mild winter in most areas of the country, there still should be a great upside on energy.

The construction slowdown is showing with Caterpillar being down. This could be one worth watching. I may buy some calls on this one. Cat has global distribution and will be rebounding.

Of the financial companies, American Express was up and 3M is up. So there are some bright spots. Decliners have been many.

A few regional banks volunteered that they were in trouble. KeyCorp, National City and FifthThird all said they lost money on bad loans. In each of their cases, I’m not sure who is left to buy them out but Uncle Sam.

Commodities have taken a beating. Gold has gone down. It’s a difficult market to try to work.

There are very few sectors that aren’t being affected by the ups
and the downs of the market. Still the volatility in-dex is down from the seventies to the fifties, which is still high but at least going the right direction.

There are a number of bullish indicators out there, but I’m not convinced that we reached the bottom or even tested the lows.

Tomorrow is another day, and I think we might be in for another ride downhill.

Tags: Finance, Stocks, Investments & Retirement