MORNING UPDATE: PriceWatch Alerts for AAPL and More... for 2005-01-13 |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------- - MORNING UPDATE: PriceWatch Alerts for AAPL, HCA, KG, HON and GMST. Jan 13 - 8:30 AM EDT - Before the open... PriceWatch Alerts for AAPL, HCA, KG, HON and GMST, Market Overview, Put/Call Alert, FuturesWatch, Today's Economic Calendar, Expected Earnings Reports, and the Quote Of The Day. QUOTE OF THE DAY ----------------------------------------------- "It's our objective to grow at 15 percent or better." -- Peter Oppenheimer, chief financial officer, Apple Computer Inc. PRICEWATCH ALERTS - HIGH RETURN COVERED CALL OPTIONS ----------- -- Apple Computer Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) Last Price 65.46 - FEB 65.00 CALL OPTION@ $4.60 -> 6.8 % Return assigned* -- HCA Inc. (NYSE: HCA) Last Price 43.70 - MAY 45.00 CALL OPTION@ $1.40 -> 6.4 % Return assigned* -- King Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NYSE: KG) Last Price 11.17 - APR 10.00 CALL OPTION@ $1.80 -> 6.7 % Return assigned* -- Honeywell Inc. (NYSE: HON) Last Price 34.98 - JUN 35.00 CALL OPTION@ $2.00 -> 6.1 % Return assigned* -- Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc. (Nasdaq: GMST) Last Price 5.30 - MAY 5.00 CALL OPTION@ $0.80 -> 11.1 % Return assigned* *For more details on covered calls and how you can use them to enhance your portfolio performance go to http://www.poweropt.com/cchelp.asp NEWS LEADERS AND LAGGARDS------------------------------------- So far today, Apple Computer Inc., The Sports Authority, and Radioshack Corp. lead the list of companies with the most news stories while Xenova Group PLC and Corixa Corp. are showing a spike in news. Apple Computer Inc., Taser International Inc., and Koninklijke Ahold NV have the highest srtIndex scores to top the list of companies with positive news while The Sports Authority and Tanox Inc. lead the list of companies with negative news reports. Radioshack Corp. has popped up with a high positive news sraIndex score. MARKET OVERVIEW------------------------------------------------ The U.S. Dollar Index fell 0.88 points during U.S. trading yesterday. The Commerce Department reported that the U.S. trade deficit widened to a new record in the month of November, eclipsing $60 billion. A consensus of economists' estimates was for a November gap of $53.3 billion. Wider trade gaps drag on the dollar because the difference between U.S. imports and exports must be financed by foreign investment. In effect, that means we are raising the supply of government assets that must be purchased by foreign investors. A rise in supply equates to a drop in prices, and lowers the relative valuation of the greenback. The ever-widening trade deficits are also causing foreign investors to become less willing to hold the U.S. assets that must finance the deficit, and the lower demand exacerbates the effect of the falling dollar. The February contract on sweet crude oil rose 69 cents yesterday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. This was caused by a reported decline in U.S. crude supplies. Adding to the tighter supply is talk that OPEC could soon be cutting its output quota, which would also put upward pressure on prices. DYNAMIC MARKET OPPORTUNITIES------------------------------------ - Undoubtedly, the US trade numbers shocked observers, with the deficit swelling almost 8% to a record US$60.3 billion in November after the US$56 billion gap in October. Projections had called for a drop to US$54 billion. In November, exports experienced the first decline since June - down US$2.2 billion from October - while imports rose US$2 billion as the US bought a record amount of oil (US$13.4 billion worth). With that, the gap for the first eleven months of 2004 exceeded the full-year deficit of 2003. The one piece of brighter news was that the trade gap with China decreased from a record US$16.8 billion to US$16.6 billion. Nevertheless, a new Economic Policy Institute report shows that as US-Chinese trade relations have soared, the US lost 1.6 million jobs to China between 1989 and 2003. Unsurprising, given China?s ability to mass-produce goods more cheaply than the US, and that a Chinese manufacturing worker is paid about one-twentieth the salary of an American doing an equivalent job. Just 199,000 new US jobs were created as a result of increased exports to China ? a poor return over a 14- year period. The report blames the trade gap and loss of US jobs on China?s ?refusal to revalue its exchange rate? ? a situation that makes Chinese goods cheaper. President Hu Jintao says the country won?t revalue the yuan until the economy is strong enough to absorb the impact. But China just posted its sixth straight monthly trade surplus in December - and the largest one since 1995. It came as exports jumped 32.7% over December 2003 and as monthly exports reached a record US$63.8 billion. That resulted in the total 2004 surplus rolling in at US$31.9 billion, up from US$25 billion in 2003. GDP grew around 9.2%. PUT/CALL ALERT ------------------------------------------------- Equity option activity on the CBOE yesterday had 401,114 put contracts trade compared to 601,109 call contracts. The resultant 0.667 single-session put/call ratio has allowed the 21-day moving average to move up to 0.593. The CBOE Market Volatility Index, SPX implied (VIX - 12.56) fell 4.78 percent (OEX implied, VXO -12.79, down 1.84 percent). The Nasdaq-100 Trust Volatility Index (QQV -17.56) dropped 4.25 percent and the CBOE Nasdaq Market Volatility Index (VXN - 19.28) slid 1.98 percent. FUTURES WATCH -------------------------------------------------- The NASDAQ futures are higher this morning in reaction to the incredible earnings report from Apple computer that has that stock soaring in the pre-market session. The S&P futures are lagging a bit as are trading just a bit lower in the early going. The markets continued to work their way lower yesterday as traders continued to take profits but that changed late in the session when some of that early profit taking took on a speculative base that forced a late short covering rally into the close. Traders continue to look at earnings reports in order to lend credence to the after-election rally. If the earnings reports can continue to substantiate the current run up in the equity markets, it should be able to fuel the next leg of the rally. The S&P futures need to maintain the 118530 level while the NASDAQ futures need to maintain the 156600 level in order to keep the markets in an uptrend today. The S&P futures still need to close above the 120350 level in order to turn the markets back in an upward direction. TODAY'S ECONOMIC CALENDAR -------------------------------------- - 8:30 a.m.: December Import Prices (last plus 0.2%) 8:30 a.m.: December Retail & Food Sales (last plus 0.1%) 8:30 a.m.: December Retail & Food Sales, Ex-Autos (last plus 0.5%) 8:30 a.m.: Initial Jobless Claims (last plus 43K ) 10:00 a.m.: DJ-BTM Business Barometer for last week (plus 1.7%) 1:00 p.m.: ECB Chief Economist Issing speaks on monetary policy and financial markets at futures conference in Vallendar, Germany 4:30 p.m.: Money Supply 7:00 p.m.: St Louis Fed Pres Poole addresses the risks of GSEs in Clayton, Mo. EARNINGS EXPECTED TODAY (w/current estimates) ------------------ Clarcor Inc. (CLC) 4Q 0.71 Commerce Bancshares (CBSH) 4Q 0.79 Cree Inc. (CREE) 2Q 0.32 Digi Intl (DGII) 1Q 0.12 Independent Bank (INDB) 4Q 0.55 MGIC Invest (MTG) 4Q 1.34 Marshall & Ilsley (MI) 4Q 0.7 Republic Bancorp (RBNC) 4Q 0.24 Stride Rite (SRR) 4Q ... Sun Microsystems (SUNW) 2Q 0.01 TCF Financial (TCB) 4Q 0.47 Tetra Technologies (TTI) 4Q 0.33 URS Corp. (URS) 4Q 0.58 This Morning Update was prepared with data and information provided by: Motley Fool Investing Alert for 2005 ? ?The Case Against Mutual Funds? ? New FREE report details a more successful way for you to invest your money. http://www.investorsobserver.com/phillips PowerOptionsPlus.com - The Best Way To Find, Compare, Analyze, and Make Money On Option Investments - Forbes Best of the Web Winner. InvestorsObserver.com -- Better Strategies for Making Money -> For Investors With a Sense of Humor. Only $1 for your first month plus seven free bonuses worth over $800, see: http://www.poweropt.com/io WallStreetSecretsPlus.com ? 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Go to: http://www.poweropt.com/247 Schaeffer's Investment Research - Market information that combines unique data with insightful commentary, enabling you to navigate in any market conditions and invest wisely http://www.poweropt.com/sirmmo All stocks and options shown are examples only. These are not recommendations to buy or sell any security. PriceWatch Alerts do not take into account your trade size, brokerage commissions or taxes which will effect actual investment returns. Stocks and options involve risk and are not suitable for all investors and |
