Updated late Tuesday and Friday nights
Tuesday’s Close for Feb 17th, 2008
Written by: Mike Coval

Under 800 on the S&P 500, a pretty good support and now it looks like we are ready to break down through the 7,500 Dow support. If this happens we will see some extremely heavy selling. Personally I would like to see us bounce from here, but the markets are still getting weaker.

To watch a video of Tuesday’s market action, along with my thoughts, Click Here. The DOW closed down 297 points at 7,552 while the NASDAQ closed lower by 63 to finish the day at 1,470.

Energy: It was not a pretty site as the price of oil once again slipped right through any hopeful support areas. Late in the day, the price of crude futures were trading down $2.59 at $34.93 a barrel. Track the price of crude with the Oil ETF, USO.



Financials: Banks were at the front of the selling, Bank of America, BAC down12%, Citigroup, C, down 12% and JPMorgan Chase, JPM also down 12% each carried heavy losses as uncertainty over the health of the financial sector weighed on Wall Street.

Consumer Non Cyclicals: Can you believe it? Wal-Mart, WMT closed up $1.71 on increasing buying volume after topping fourth-quarter estimates. The nation's top retailer earned $3.79 billion, or 96 cents a share, down from $4.096 billion, or $1.02 share, in the year-ago period. Excluding one-time items, the firm earned $1.03 a share, four cents above Street estimates. A nice double bottom here for WMT.

General Motors, GM, fell 12.80% to close at a new low. The company will receive its second installment of federal bailout money -- an additional $4 billion -- regardless of whether the automaker solidifies the Tuesday deadline to submit its restructuring plan. GM, which already has received $9.4 billion in government aid, is reportedly making headway with its debtors and the United Auto Workers.

Economic News: The manufacturing sector is still looking negative after the Empire State Manufacturing index hit a record low.

White House officials are not as pumped up about the watered down stimulus plan. "There will be signs of activity very quickly," White House senior advisor David Axelrod said on "Fox News Sunday." "But it's going to take time for that to show up in the statistics. The president has said it's likely to get worse before it gets better."

Services: Trump Entertainment Resorts, TRMP closed at $0.18, down $0.05 and has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The firm had accumulated debts of more than $1.7 billion as of the end of last year, as casino revenues were curbed by the recession.

Healthcare: Medtronic, MDT, shares added 5.3%, after gaining as much as 8%. Third-quarter earnings were $723 million, or 65 cents a share, compared with $77 million, or 7 cents, in the year-earlier period. Revenue rose 3% to $3.49 billion. On an adjusted basis, Medtronic earned 71 cents versus 63 cents a year ago. Analysts polled by FactSet Research expected the medical technology company to earn 70 cents a share in profit and $3.51 billion in sales.

Technology: Nokia Corp., NOK, lost 7.7%. The world's largest maker of mobile phones, on Monday unveiled a series of high-end phones aimed at the business user and launched its own media and software store. The selloff on the news indicates the markets did not like it and will likely see the stock lower. How about a March put?



Good and or bad stocks to watch: CPLA, DGIT, AVAV ALL, HD, HR, RAIL



Homework Training: Feel free to leave any stocks you would like to have looked at in the comments section (below) and I’ll try and choose one of the stocks and add it to my analysis for all to read. Please tell your investing friends about this blog as well. It is here for you and the more comments I can get from you the better it will be.

Homework: What is the most important technical indicator to use? To find out in our part 2 homework, go to www.incometrader.com/homework.htm

Cheers,
Mike