Come on Santa

Yesterday Nike’s earnings beat Wall Street’s expectations. This morning the third quarter revised GDP number is due out at 8:30am. Also this morning the Conference Board will release its report on leading indicators at 10:30. If these numbers come in at good levels, we can see a continuation of the Santa Claus rally that was underway for December. The Dow was well into record territory early yesterday before the record run was cut short yesterday. Good numbers can change all that and spur on further records well into the New Year.

Another Reason to Rally

CNN Money.com’s headline this morning is “A Merry Merger Monday.” It looks like Express Scripts, Harrods, and Realogy will all be merged or sold. Even overseas markets are getting into it as Citigroup won regulatory approval for it’s majority purchase of China’s Guangdong Development bank. Norway’s Norsk Hydro and Statoil have agreed to merge their oil and gas operations. Orthopedics maker Biomet appears to be the target of a couple of firms. And Finally Canada’s BCE has announced that it will sell Telesat. All this merger activity has led to a jump in the futures and a likelihood of a continuation of this rally further into record territory.

I’m hoping all the merger talk and activity gives boost to my stocks, especially WIRE which seems down and out at the moment. CLRK signed another licensing deal. This one with Chinese manufacturer Neo-Neon that should help fuel another rise. We need something that will take the stock above the $25.00 range.

Good News Friday

Well the stock market looks poised to take off into record territory as this mornings CPI report came in showing inflation unchanged. Nasdaq futures are currently up over 17 points, suggesting a large gap at the open should things remain unchanged. Economists had forecast a 0.2% rise in the inflation rate so this is truly good news. This news should offset the oil production cuts announced by OPEC yesterday and hopefully give a much needed boost to WIRE.

'Tis the Season

OPEC is at it again. They’re meeting in Nigeria to discuss more production cuts. It doesn’t seem to me that long ago when OPEC was talking about the ideal price of oil range as being between $28 and $35 per barrel. What happened you ask? When the price of oil rose above $60 and the global economy didn’t fall apart, OPEC realized that it could make a lot more money by keeping oil above $60. So now we are facing the possibility of production cuts and higher oil prices, which the market most certainly won’t like.

On the plus side, Wall Street is having a great year. The pick up in market activity along with all the mergers and acquisitions, has resulted in record profits on Wall Street. Bear Sterns for example, blew past their forecast $3.36 per share and hit an actual number of $4.00 per share. Well record profits lead to bonuses as Goldman Sachs announced it was setting aside $16.5 billion to cover salaries and bonuses for its employees with top bonuses exceeding $20-million. Not bad for shuffling some paper and greasing some palms. Where do I sign?

Looks Like We May Have A Merry Christmas

I don’t post for two days and the markets turn around? Maybe I should be a little more quiet?

Yesterday, as expected the Fed left rates alone yesterday and the market took that as a positive. Although, I would have liked to see a nice Christmas gift of a cut, I’ll take the unchanged. Better than an increase.

Also, this morning word of merger talks between Continental Airlines and United Airlines to create the worlds largest airline has markets in a positive mood. GE also announced it was increasing it’s dividend by 12%.

Adding fuel to the Christmas rally this morning was a much stronger than expected November retail sales report. Economists consensus forecast was for a 0.2 percent gain. So it looks like we have all the makings for a nice Christmas rally. Here’s hoping that WIRE takes off so I can sell it as I’ve got my eyes on another stock, but more about that later.

Fianlly a Good Friday

This morning the Labor Department released the jobs report. They said that the US economy created 132,000 jobs in November beating the consensus forecast 105,000 jobs. This was despite the rise in the unemployment rate to 4.5%. As expected the futures jumped on the news and it looks like we may be back on track for a Christmas rally despite the price of oil rising above $63.00.

On the plus side it looks like a lot of retailers are deeply discounting ahead of Christmas so maybe it looks like it’s a good idea to wait until the last minute this year.

Both my stocks were down with the general market yesterday.

Go Christmas rally.

Waiting for Friday

Today looks like the day when the markets could be lower as the futures are all slightly down this morning. Yahoo and Chrysler both announced restructuring plans and Novell came out with disappointing numbers. Usually in this scenario, when I say the markets will be lower something happens to drive the markets higher. Right now there are no major economic reports or numbers being released until Friday’s unemployment report. Right now the only good news out there for the markets are lower oil and lower gold prices.

Looking at the stock that I’m holding, some good news on the CLRK front. CLRK announced that is has settled its suit with Super Vision. Under the agreement, Super Vision will pay CLRK a fee to settle past claims and in return get a royalty license so it can continue to sell LED products. Good news on the CLRK front . Now all we need to do is get WIRE moving. Something I did look up was the number of shares short. There is 30% of the float that is shorted. So by my logic, if WIRE can put a rally together for a few days then there will be some short covering which will drive the price up and more short covering and so on and so on. Come on WIRE we need some upward movement.