Thursday, June 17, 2010

Same ol' same ol'

6 am on a fine morning in Honolulu. The breeze, the sun, the flow of freeway traffic. It's paradise.

I wake up to find the market petering along at stone-age technological levels. Volume is scant. Again. Politics airing live on TV rarely makes for a fun ride on the Wall Street roller coaster.

>> Banks are sucking wind more than ever as 91 of them fail to make TARP payments, an increase for the third quarter in a row. FAZ, however, is up only 1%.


>> AAPL hits 272, up from 242 just two or three weeks eight days ago. Careful, my fellow Appleholics ... what goes up on thin ice can easily crack through and go way down.


>> BP's stock has gotten a reprieve, having to make payments on that $20 billion fund rather than dole it all out at once. BP is down almost 1% today, which isn't much compared to the 5% or 10% moves down and up in the past week. 

>> Nat Gas is almost entirely in the red, though today marks the two-week anniversary of Obama's clean energy speech. The sector is up big; the 40 natty gassers I follow are up more than 12%, led by WPRT (+29.82%). I missed the run up, but I'm not anxious about entering right here, either. It's not like earnings are going to explode in the immediate future. 

Obama was a catalyst for Nat Gas stock prices. Now we need to see some real action in the fundamentals, in development and growth. Otherwise, oversupply will put a lid on the sector, and it seems that's already happening.

100% cash and getting a full night's rest. I can live with that. 

Photo: Webshots

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