Updated throughout the week
Thursday’s Close for July 23rd, 2009
Written by: Mike Coval

I guess you could say that was unexpected… Although there is always someone that claims to have predicted today’s break of resistance causing a short squeeze. I’ll just be content to accept the trend is bullish. That being said nothing goes up forever and the Nasdaq has now broken a 17 year record for the most amount of updays in a row. I’m thinking a pullback has to be next.

To watch a video of Thursday’s market action, along with my thoughts, Click here. The DOW closed up 188 points at 9,069 while the NASDAQ closed up 47 to finish the day at 1,974.

Energy: Making a move back up were oil prices. In a simplified analysis, oil prices generally move up as the price of equities fall so perhaps energy buyers and jumping back in as they expect the equity market to pullback. Late in the day, the price of crude futures was trading up $151 at $66.91 a barrel. Track the price of crude with the Oil ETF, USO.


Ford announced some positive earnings today. Will GM roll out its new line next?

Consumer Cyclicals: Ford,F, gained $0.60, closing near its high for the day after announcing a smaller-than-expected loss from continuing operations. The company lost $638 million, or 21 cents a share, excluding one-time items. Including gains from debt restructuring, Ford posted a quarterly profit of $2.3 billion, compared to a loss of $2.7 billion a year ago.

EBAY gapped open and closed near its high for the day gaining $2.07 on news it earned $327.3 million, or 25 cents a share, down from $460.3 million, or 35 cents a share, in the year-ago period, the company said. Excluding one-time items and stock option expenses, eBay earned $478.6 million, or 37 cents a share. Analysts had expected the online auctioneer to earn 36 cents a share.

Amazon AMZN, was up $5.08 after signing a deal to buy Zappos.com for $807 million, the company said Wednesday. Primarily known as an online shoe retailer, Zappos also sells handbags, clothing and jewelry.

Economic News: A surprising June rise in the annual rate of existing home sales helped drive the rally. The annual rate grew last month to 4.89 million units sold a year, up from an annual rate of 4.72 million in May and a bit above economists' expectations. Each of the four geographical sectors -- the Northeast, the Midwest, the South and the West -- reported a month-over-month rise in its annual sales rate, suggesting the housing recovery had begun to catch on throughout the country.

Conglomerates: 3M, MMM, added $4.76 on some heavy buying to close up near $70.00. The 52 week high is at $75.00 so there is still some room for further gains after the stocks next pullback. How about selling a put spread on MMM? If the markets do see some profit taking in the next few days, you might be able to sell the August $65.00 puts and buy the August $60.00 puts for a $0.50 credit or a potential 11% 4 week ROI.

Communications: AT&T, T,, closed up above its $25.00 resistance on some strong buying volume after　beating Wall Street estimates,