Today's Trading Ideas

Markets

Since mid January the major stock indexes have topped out in the short term and a pullback has been underway. The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a high at 10,729 on January 19th, 2010 and made a short term low on February 5th, 2010 at 9,835. During that time many commodity and financial stocks...
Shares of Digital River (NASDAQ: DRIV) are moving higher today after an analyst reported that McAfee (NYSE: MFE) is testing Digital River's (DRIV) outsourced e-commerce solution. This is significant because DRIV is losing a major contract with Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC) later this year. JMP Securities...
Orange County prosecutors announced on Friday that they had filed a lawsuit against Toyota Motor Corporation (NYSE: TM) regarding the safety problems of the auto manufacturers vehicles. Toyota Motor Corporation is accused of selling hundreds of thousands of vehicles, knowing full well that the...
The Wall Street Journal reports that Chinese government has made its toughest statement yet on Google, Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) future in the country. Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Li Yizhong, China’s Minister of Industry and Information Technology, said, “I hope Google can respect...
Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (NYSE: LGF) rejected billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn's attempt to become the largest shareholder in the company. Icahn wanted to buy 13.2 million shares at $6 per share. The move would have increased Icahn's stake from a current 18.9% share of the company to...
The market has shown mixed reactions so far. While the Dow Jones Industrial Average has added 3.10 points to trade at 10,614.94, Nasdaq lost 1.52 to 2,366.94. Some narrow based indexes, however, are posting gains. These include the Home Furnishing Retailer Stocks, which have gained 3.7%,...
At 1:35 p.m., Dow gained 11.19, or 0.11%, to 10,623.03, while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 0.22, or 0.02%, to 1,150.46. The Nasdaq composite index moved down 0.80, or 0.03%, to 2,367.66. The industries that are driving the market today are: Nonmetallic Mineral Mining: The top...
Central European Distribution Corp (NASDAQ: CEDC) shares reached $37.25 to create a new 52-week high, before slipping to $37.19, reflecting a 1.03% gain. CEDC’s quarterly revenue growth stands at 16.80% y/y. Read more about this company here. China Integrated Energy Inc (NASDAQ: CBEH) shares...

Topics

Overnight rally called by Benzinga. During the late afternoon session yesterday, benzinga.com encouraged readers to be bullish the March S&P Emini contract overnight if there was activity above the 1148.00 level. As of 8:15am CST the contract is trading at 1154.50 with an overnight high...
A speech that listed 11 common sense things you won’t learn in high school, which was supposedly penned and given by Bill Gates and given at a high school graduation, has been revealed to have been written by Charles J. Sykes and originally titled “50 rules kids won’t learn in high school.” The...
As I listened to the talking heads on Squawk Box this morning drooling all over themselves as they stated that almost all of the major hedge funds were at or above pre-recession levels, I had a flash back to my teenaged years. My friend and I, sitting on his living room couch listening to his...
Today European aircraft manufacturer EADS announced that it was withdrawing from the Air Force tanker competition, a decision that occurs one day after partner Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) withdrew - effectively swinging the victory to Seattle-based aircraft manufacturer Boeing (NYSE: BA). The...
It looks like the battle for best picture at Sunday's Academy Awards will come down to James Cameron's "Avatar" and "Hurt Locker," which was directed by Cameron's ex-wife, Kathryn Bigelow. Intrade.com shows those were the two most active contracts during Friday trading, with 8,837 "Avatar"...
In a sign that the part of the stimulus dedicated to broadband is starting to flow, Louisiana is receiving an $80 million federal grant for 900 miles of fiber optic cable, the AP reported today. It will expand the reach of broadband Internet to rural and poor areas of the state. U.S. Commerce...
The New York Times reported today, that the FPL Group, the parent of Florida Power and Light (NYSE: FPL) is building a solar plant that will be adjacent to a natural gas power plant. The advantages are the solar plant will piggyback onto the existing infrastructure and power grid. When it is...
John Lekas, senior portfolio manager for the $320 million Leader Short Term Bond Fund, says that the real unemployment number could go to 25% by mid-year. This number includes everyone – even the underemployed now working multiple part-time jobs (if they are lucky enough to find them) to pay bills...

Forex

Canada's unemployment rate edged down 0.1 percent to 8.2 percent in February as 21,000 people started new jobs, Statistics Canada reported on Friday. The agency said there were 60,000 new full-time jobs filled in February, but 39,000 part-time jobs were lost. Analyst had expected an increase of...
Canada reported a larger than expected trade surplus earlier today. At C$0.8 bln, it was four times larger than expected and the December figures were revised to show a C$0.1 bln surplus instead of a C$0.2 bln deficit. Canada also reported a strong rise in Q4 capacity utilization rate to 70.9%...
An increase in the price of oil Wednesday helped propel the Canadian dollar to a slight gain on the U.S. dollar, although it did experience an intraday dip that may be an indicator for future performance. As of 3:56 pm EST, the USD was valued at C$1.0261. Previously, the rate was 1:1.0269 this...
At a time when the market is clearly buying into the weaker sterling (NYSE: FXB) story, this morning’s January industrial production figures give fresh ammunition. UK January industrial production contracted by 0.4%, much worse than the +0.3% expected outcome and after a 0.5% reading previously....
Ongoing speculation that profits earned overseas by Japanese companies is finding its way home before the fiscal year-end is lifting the yen on Tuesday. At the same time Asian stocks are commemorating the one-year anniversary of the lowest closing point of the bear market for stocks with a down day...
The economic data in the UK today does not paint a pretty picture. The RICS February house prices (with the main index falling to a much weaker than expected 17% from 31%) was released overnight in the UK and was negative news to digest this morning. The January trade balance data was highly...
In Japan, the January preliminary leading economic index firmed to a stronger than expected 97.1 following a 94.7 monthly outcome previously. The coincident index was also on the rise, firming to 99.9 in January following a 97.4 outcome in December. After 2 strong sessions pushing the USD/JPY...
The Russian Ruble doesn't get the same type of press as the U.S. Dollar, the Euro or the Japanese Yen and unbeknownst to many investors, there is an ETF to play the Ruble with: The CurrencyShares Russian Ruble Trust (NYSE: XRU). XRU is a thinly traded ETF that isn't optionable. Fortunately, it is...

Media

The Wall Street Journal reports that Chinese government has made its toughest statement yet on Google, Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) future in the country. Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Li Yizhong, China’s Minister of Industry and Information Technology, said, “I hope Google can respect...
The Motley Fool's Dave Mock wrote an article today on 3 Reasons to Sell Rite Aid Today. The first reason given by Mock for investors to consider selling Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE: RAD) was that the drugstore chain consistently loses money. The second reason provided was that same-store sales have...
According to Barron’s, the luxury real estate market is springing back to life. Realty brokers in Greenwich, Connecticut, say that the last months of 2009 were record-setters in terms of sales volume. The days of megadeals are also back. Jeffrey Katzenberg, a film producer, just bought a 8,700...
The Wall Street Journal reports that stock futures rose on Friday after a surprise gain in U.S. retail sales in February. The gain came amid fierce snowstorms, and continued trouble at auto maker Toyota Motor Corp. (ADR) (NYSE: TM). S&P 500 futures rose 0.4% to 1,150.8 at 8.52 a.m. on Friday...
CNBC's "Mad Money" TV show had Jim Cramer telling his viewers to change their skeptical stance on money-making trends in the market. In the show, he pointed to the stark differences between the tech rally happening today and the one that happened a year ago. He said that today's tech rally is all...
CNBCs "Mad Money" TV show had Jim Cramer telling his viewers to change their skeptical stance on money-making trends of the market. In the show, he pointed to the stark differences between the tech rally happening today and the one that happened a year ago. He said that today's tech rally is all...
In his "Mad Money Lightning Round," Jim Cramer told investors that they can invest in the common and preferred shares of Ford Motor (NYSE: F) as sales of the company are soaring. F’s shares rose 0.70% to close at $12.91 yesterday. Jim commented on Ezcorp (NASDAQ: EZPW), saying that this pawn shop...
Gerard Cassidy of RBC Capital Markets said on CNBC's Fast Money that he believes that SunTrust Banks, Inc. (NYSE: STI) would be a good takeover candidate. There are rumors on the street that an acquisition of a regional bank might happen and Gerard Cassidy believes that SunTrust Banks (STI) could...

Tech

China's minister of Industry and Information Technology, Li Yizhong, warned Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) that it would be seen as "unfriendly and irresponsible" if the internet search giant didn't obey China's internet search censorship laws. Chinese law dictates that internet search engines like...
As of 9 am CST, Globecomm Systems Inc (GCOM) is trading at $7.83 per share in the middle of this week's whipsaw pattern between Tuesday's 6-month high at $8.29 and yesterday's low at $7.56. The stock is still affordable for most investors as GCOM is poised to make a run at the $8.00 mark. A...
CNBC's "Mad Money" TV show had Jim Cramer telling his viewers to change their skeptical stance on money-making trends in the market. In the show, he pointed to the stark differences between the tech rally happening today and the one that happened a year ago. He said that today's tech rally is all...
CNBCs "Mad Money" TV show had Jim Cramer telling his viewers to change their skeptical stance on money-making trends of the market. In the show, he pointed to the stark differences between the tech rally happening today and the one that happened a year ago. He said that today's tech rally is all...
According to a report released by Signal Hill, the introduction of CSR-3 router by Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) is likely to benefit the entire semiconductor sector. The new router will help in increasing demand for NetLogic (NASDAQ: NETL), Cavium (NASDAQ: CAVM), and PMC-Sierra (NASDAQ:PMCS), as...
Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS) has announced that it plans to launch a new iPad App. The new app has been named “B&N eReader”, and would be available on Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPad. Barnes & Noble, Inc. is the largest bookseller in the U.S. in terms of revenue. According to a post...
Motorola (NYSE: MOT) has signed a deal with Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT). The deal will allow Motorola’s new smart phones to come equipped with Microsoft’s search, and map capabilities. The new phones will be launched in China in this quarter. The functions will also be available on Motorola’s...
Every May around 30,000 investors flock to Omaha. Meanwhile, there are millions who rummage through the annual reports from Berkshire Hathaway. Both these sets of people have one common aim - to glean knowledge from traders who have proven their worth and find stocks that can make them rich....