Trader Talk
- HMOs Up Despite Looming House Vote
- What The Street Thinks of The Jobless Report
- Friday It's All About Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
- October Retail Sales—The Good, Bad and Ugly?
- When Good News = Good News
- Retail And Jobs Lift Mood
- October Retail Sales—Early Buzz is Strong
- Traders Digest Election Results
- Whitney's Vision For The New Normal
- Railroads And Buffett
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- U.S. Markets Gain 3% for the Week Despite 10.2% Unemployment
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- Stimulus II? Jobs Tax Credit=Cash For Clunkers
- Rockwell Automation Earnings: What Options Are Saying
- Gold Will Touch Higher Lows and Higher Highs: Analyst
- Is Misery Alive And Well in Your Office?
- Consumers Haven't Changed, They Are Just Pickier
- Watch Foreclosures, Seriously
- For the Jobless, 10% is Harder Than Before
- Week Ahead: Stocks Search for Catalyst in Quiet Week
- Outlook: Dollar Likely to Ride Higher on Bleak Jobs Report
- Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Says Net Income Tripled
- Cramer: Earnings, IPOs Dominate Next Week
- Buying Fear: How to Own Volatility
- Administration Rejects Plan to Buy Fannie Mae Credits
- Consumers Haven't Changed —They Just Got Pickier
- Want the Homebuyer's Tax Credit? Here Are Some Tips
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Reporter
Stocks have been quietly moving to the upside all morning...the general take is that despite vigorous questioning Mr. Bernanke is holding up well in his principal claim: that he did not threaten action against Bank of America [BAC
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] CEO Ken Lewis or the bank's board if they abandoned the Merrill takeover, and more importantly insisted that his actions helped avert a global economic meltdown.
However, there are likely additional factors in the move up midday We are approaching the end of the quarter, as well as Russell reconstitution which will happen tomorrow. This reconstitution is a once-a-year event, and due to large price changes the reconstitution will involve unusually large numbers of shares trading, particularly in small caps. More than $4 trillion is indexed to the Russell indices.
One sector outperforming today is retailers. There are several reasons:
1) lots of consolidation talk, as Tween Brands [TWB
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], which runs the Justice and Limited Too stores, and a Dress Barn [DBRN
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] subsidiary announced an all-stock merger. These companies have little in common, and seems to have been done for cost-savings reasons, which is spurring speculation that other deals may be coming in the retail space.
For example, there has been considerable speculation about a combination of Office Max [OMX
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] and Office Depot [ODP
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] to compete against Staples [SPLS
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], their stronger rival. Both are up 7 percent today.
3) Bed Bath and Beyond [BBBY
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] had earnings better than expected and is up 10 percent.
4) JP Morgan upgraded JC Penney [JCP
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], which is up 6 percent, noting they are likely going to beat estimates, while American Eagle [AEO
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] was upgraded to a strong buy at Buckingham.
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Questions? Comments?
- HMOs Up Despite Looming House Vote
- What The Street Thinks of The Jobless Report
- Friday It's All About Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
- October Retail Sales—The Good, Bad and Ugly?
- When Good News = Good News
- Retail And Jobs Lift Mood
- October Retail Sales—Early Buzz is Strong
- Traders Digest Election Results
- Whitney's Vision For The New Normal
- Railroads And Buffett
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes