Thursday cinema & library (updated 1000 pm HST)

Orpheum Theater, Memphis, Tennessee

Blogs
Golden Truth: Legalized fraud (Oct 13)

Dan Norcini: Gold still being held by $1680 (Oct 13)

Le Fly: Flirting with disaster (Oct 13)

SGS: Trade on, trade off (Oct 13)

Zero Hedge: Foreigners dump $74 billion in Treasurys in 6 consecutive weeks (Oct 13)
Le Fly: Coming soon: Horrific destruction (Oct 13)

Zero Hedge: 'Book-cooking' index soards to all-time highs (Oct 13)

Zero Hedge: So much for EURUSD breaking 1.38: S&P cuts Spain to AA- from AA (Oct 13)
Rajun Cajun: Winner winner chicken dinner (Oct 13)

Zero Hedge: Fitch downgrades UBS, puts MS, BAC, GS on watch negative (Oct 13)
Zero Hedge: Google surges afterhours on big top and bottom line beat (Oct 13)

Le Fly: Tired bull (Oct 13)

Turd Ferguson: Deflating inflation (Oct 13)

Zero Hedge: David Rosenberg: Action is always at margin... and margin is not pretty (Oct 13)

Zero Hedge: Work in banking? Find out if you will be laid off (Oct 13)

Zero Hedge: Van Rompuy, Barroso announce 440-billion Euro EFSF fully functional (Oct 13)

James Altucher: 7 things happen to you when you are completely honest (Oct 12)

Golden Truth: So far 'Operation Twist' is colossal failure (Oct 12)

Doug Kass: 10 questions for the bears (Oct 10)
Doug Kass: 10 questions for the bulls (Oct 10)
James Altucher: I lost $5 million this morning (Sept 24)

Vlogs
(new) Young Turks: CNN's Burnett: Root for the banks! (Oct 13)

Keiser Report: Dog & Pony Show (Oct 13)

StormCloudsGathering: The chain of obedience (Oct 13)

Standard Rebellion: How many more occupations? (Oct 13)

Luke Rudkowski: Michael Moore, Take 2 (Oct 13)

theeastwatch: N. Korea too?!? WTF (Oct 13)

Realist News: Why NOT to play the paper silver SLV or gold GLD game (Oct 13)

GuildF40: Slovakia agrees to expand European bailout fund (Oct 13)

Realist News: JPMorgan's fraud accounting practices produces great 3rd quarter (Oct 13)

Realist News: Is Mexico's 92 tons of gold gone? (Oct 13)

SilverGuild: Gold as money across the US (Oct 13)

ScrapGoldBusiness: Silver shortage - Perth Mint out of silver? (Oct 13)

Alexiscom1: No gold in Fort Knox, CFTC limits, Alessio Rastani on GS (Oct 13)

Chris Duane (Silver Shield): The ultimate exit strategy (Oct 12)

Jim Comiskey: Daily market insights - metals futures (Oct 12)

NewAmericaNow: I am not moving (Oct 10)

Audio

Peter Schiff: Guest Andrew Napolitano (Oct 13)

Chris Martenson: Guest Rob Hopkins (Oct 13)

ScrapGoldBusiness: This was someone's home (Oct 13)

Mike Broomhead: Guest Gerald Celente (Oct 10)

Mainstream

CNBC: European stocks to open flat, Spain rating cut (Oct 14)

Financial Times: ECB did all it could to stem crisis: Trichet (Oct 14)

Bloomberg: Hairy crab as sign of China food inflation (Oct 14)

(video) (new) Sky News: Nigel Farage and Sharon Bowles (Oct 13)

(video) (new) RT: Nigel Farage on European bailouts (Oct 13)

(video) (new) Euronews: Greek general strike to be extended (Oct 13)

(new) Bloomberg: Spain credit rating cut by S&P on weak outlook (Oct 13)
(new) Bloomberg: Greek investors brace for bigger loss to stop rot (Oct 13)
(new) Bloomberg: Buffett's son defends Occupy Wall St protests (Oct 13)

Keith Olbermann: Americans support of Occupy Wall St movement growing (Oct 13)

Reuters: Gold flat, Spain downgrade may weigh (Oct 13)

CNBC: Euro zone crisis set to dominate G20 meeting in Paris (Oct 13)

CNBC: JPMorgan investment bank avoids crisis, for now (Oct 13)

Reuters: JPMorgan quarterly profit falls, will cut 1,000 jobs (Oct 13)

Reuters: 'Lehman moment' could be trigger for US economic renewal (Oct 13)

Bloomberg: Google results, business outlook, Apple, Zynga (Oct 13)

CNBC: How Finland could bring Euro's demise (Oct 13)

(video) (new) UKIP Media: Nigel Farage: Slovak vote no to bailout (Oct 12)

BNN: Apple co-founder buys gold (Oct 12)

Live
(new) Bloomberg TV

Need rain to get rainbows

7:43 am (Hawaii) It's a cloudy morning in Honolulu. No. I'm not sure. I haven't looked yet. It's just a little dark for this time of day and I'm guessing it's cloudy. No fricking unicorns or rainbows though, unless you're Keynesian to the core and can't see how Europe and the US could ever falter in this monopoly-money printing scheme.

Doesn't matter to me. I'm staying in, watching the market. Waking up at this time of day, seeing the market slightly up (0.1% to 0.4%), seeing gold up from its low of 1760 or so ... and seeing financials down - that's an eye opener.

FAZ dipped to 52+ but is now hovering at the 55 level. Is there one more dip coming to 50? The current dip is on fairly strong volume, and finnies are down modestly. SCGLY is actually up 1% while everything from AIG to BAC is down 1-3%.

AAPL is up 1.5% to 398, near its high today. BIDU flopping around, barely green. Same with GOOG. Not a believer in this equities rally. Near term, they could all rise and I might play a quick trade here and there. But gold's rally tells the obvious: paper money is not worthy of our trust in the longer term.

Like nothing ever changed

7:57 am (Hawaii) Just closed your eyes, breathe deeply and this could be a month ago, a season ago. LULU up 10%. GMCR up 9.4%. BIDU up 6%. NFLX, oh, Netflix, up 5.5%. AAPL up 2.5%. Just beautiful, mindless moves higher. YOKU up 5.1%. GOOG 3.5% higher. The effect of free monopoly money, printed to no end by Helicopter Ben.

Problem is, the market is up today without provocation. It was due for a bounce in the midst of this 2 or 3 week slow-motion crash. Gold is down into the 1860 area after flirting with 1915 or so overnight. Silver has backed up to 42.50 after visiting 44.00 again. All natural, as they say. I don't suspect CME mafia involvement this time. It feels like normal profit-taking. Come on. AAPL shouldn't be below 350 anyway. It's up more than $10 to 366+.

When Helicopter Ben alludes to any form of QE3 on Friday, the indices will race higher than today's gains (DJ +1.8%, Nas +2.5%, S&P +1.8%). It could be good for 1,000 points on the S&P 500 (currently 1,142). But there probably won't be another run like QE2. The general public is past the point of fantastical whims and lies. More people know the fractional reserve banking system is the real bubble. Video of riots in major cities across the globe do not lie. So I expect plenty of turbulence and roller coaster action.

I'm trying to leave my modest position in DGP alone, whether it hovers near its high (72.25) or today's low (69.15). I got up around 7 am Hawaii time, so it was much too late to ride today's momentum on the bullish route. Keeping my eyes on AAPL, FAS, DZZ, ZSL. Also QQQ, BIDU. More than likely I do nothing. With DJ up 180 points, maybe it catches fire into the close, or maybe it fizzles a little.

Update 8:08 am CNBC reporting that an earthquake hit Virginia and was felt as far as headquarters up near New York City and far west as Detroit. Market remains near its highs for today. It was a 6.0 quake.

AAPL getting rotten to the core?

3:34 am (Hawaii) Of course not. If you held from 95 (I didn't) or 214 (I didn't), then this reshuffling of the Nasdaq 100 won't worry you a bit. After all, even with shares down 1% to 337.66, AAPL is well within its trading range (326 to 365). It's the doldrums, for sure, with earnings reports weeks away and no catalyst to the upside in sight. I'm not about to dive into a huge position blindly here, but perspective is always handy.

The market has opened and 70% of my watch list is red. That's almost as extreme as it ever gets. EWJ was at the very bottom, so something's not going so well in Japan. Then GOOG took its place, down 1.9%, which is odd since the reshuffling of the Nasdaq 100 should benefit GOOG (and INTC and MSFT).

Silver's massive move up continued yesterday, as Turd Ferguson had prognosticated. But he also noted that 39 or 40 would be a ceiling. He said so in his latest video. PAAS, PHYS, SLW, all down in this early morning.

So what's working? CSTR is up 3%. WNR, the magic potion winner of Le Fly, is up again, now 18.62 (+0.9%). LULU and NFLX are up, too, which tells me that the bubble lives, at least for a few more minutes. Never a great sign when LULU and NFLX are among the winners. Toppy top top!

APC, F, VXX are up, which is interesting. So is EXK, so not all silver plays are tanking. This is a good morning to stay tuned in, relax in the upper deck, pick up the binoculars and wonder how such a great environment turned into the worst Final Four final in a generation. (And a mosh pit of a trading session.)

Monday bull party

(11:30 am, Hawaii) Talk about complete melt-up. At one point, when I wasn't sleeping through the session, my watch list was 83% green. That's basically bullish to the extreme since the other 17% are mostly bear plays.

DJIA +1.5%, Nasdaq +1.8%, S&P 500 +1.5%.

Volume wasn't great in AAPL (14.7M), but the 2.7% run from 330.67 (Friday) to 339.73 (afterhours today) is incredible. The 100-day moving average was tested three days in a row (Wed/Thur/Fri) before bouncing today. Will the 50-day MA (346+) prove to be a ceiling?

Everything with a pulse move up, from BIDU (+3%) and GOOG (+2.6%) to Japan (EWJ (+2.2%). The yen softened; FXY slightly down (-0.4%).

LVS gained 6.4%, while other recent gainers like OPEN (+2.4%) and HAIN (+2.5%) rose.

Precious metals roared. SLW gained 5.9% to 42.25 (afterhours). EXK +5.1% to 9.62, PAAS +3.6%, PHY +2.4%, SLV +3.2%. NGD +3.4% and GLD +0.7%. Great day for the metal bugs. SLW and EXK ranked second and third on my list of gainers.

WNR, Le Fly's favorite oil refiner play, gained 4.4% to 21.59. UCO gained 1.1% (53.33).

Big losers were TVIX (-15.4%, 44.85), VXX (-7.5%, 32.70), TZA (-7.1%), EDZ (-5.1%) and QID (-3.6%). PSUN also sold off again, down 1.9% to 3.62. C also fell 1.6% to 4.43. Interestingly, X dropped 0.6%.

I'm content to stay in cash here until the puzzle is solved. Which is probably never going to happen. AAPL is my vehicle of preference, and if the runway clears for a flight to new highs, I'll get a ticket. Until then, this is a range-bound titan, from 326 to 360, and there is money to be made in that space. Hat's off to those who bought at 330 on Friday.

Bloomberg: Tokyo Electric says Fukushima fuel rods damaged, leak to sea (Mar 21 2011)
Reuters: Oil lifted by Mideast unrest, Libya conflict (Mar 21 2011)
Bloomberg: Japan futures, nuclear stocks advance as reactor crisis eases (Mar 21 2011)
Business Times: AT&T's big deal lifts Wall St (Mar 21 2011)
AP: Developments in Japan's disasters, nuclear crisis (Mar 21 2011)
Business Insider: What about the Plutonium MOX? (Mar 21 2011)
The Guardian: Google accuses China of interfering with Gmail system (Mar 21 2011)

In the Year 2000 . . .

Once upon a time, there was a fantastic site named Google. Sooner or later, almost all web surfers adopted this nifty search engine as a tool to the finding answers to the questions of the Universe. Its stock, once unleashed upon said Universe, dipped and meandered for a few months, but eventually picked up steam and dashed up the steep mountain like a rocket. From 85 to 125 in such a short time, I recall, during my one brief stay on board Rocket Google. I should've held, but whatever. It later split 3-for-1 and is currently at 626. That would've been a 20-bagger, if my math is right.

So, with Facebook showing signs of a similar path — maybe an IPO in 2012? — can we say that its stock will follow a similar trajectory to GOOG? It's a tough call. I still don't understand how web ads translate to revenues based only on clicks and views, but if merchants buy it (literally) and money sweeps into the hallways of Facebook, what more do I need to know?

A Facebook IPO and the years of trading the stock to come will be interesting. I don't know how bullish or bearish I'd be on it, but it'll be polarizing, maybe. Is it GOOG? Is it YHOO? In between? Is Facebook really worth $53,000,000,000?

Facebook could follow this ziggety zag. Or not.

As I stalk my shares of AAPL ...

The rest of the market is soaring much higher. Not to be greedy, of course, with a $3+ move since yesterday AH. But I look at my growing watch list and DIS is at the top with a 4.2% gain. Mickey Mouse hasn't been atop a space mountain this high since May, 2000. That's some ride down and back up!

Imagine a Disney longtimer who saw his stock options sag monumentously TWICE in the past 11 years. Getting back to even never felt so good.

Other big gainers today: HAIN (Cramer with a big pump yesterday), AMZN +3.7%, SLV +3.1%, NGD +2.9%, EXK +2.7%, LULU +2.7%, RLOC +1.9%, VCLK +1.8%, TBT +1.8% (go figure), FAS +1.3%), OPEN +1.2%, IBM +1.1%, GLD +1.1%.

AAPL trading afterhours at 354.92 after brief spurt to 355.69. BIDU, F, VZ, GOOG, MOS fractionally higher.

In the red: NFLX -0.1%, POT -1.5%.

As for AAPL, I'm 30% tempted to sell for a nice little profit. I'm 20% cautious about another pre-catalyst bad-news lightning bolt (re: MLK Day/Steve Jobs health issue). If Apple has an overnight bad-news announcement, I won't be shocked. Fortunately, the 50% in me that says, "Let the winner run" is prevailing.

2-day

 2-month

10-year: extreme slope up tempts shorts, but 76% growth is monstrous

Mild Monday

So far, so mild. Good sleeping weather here, 65 degrees and blue skies. Even with an early (for me) bedtime, I missed the first three hours of the market. Egpyt? Bah. No biggie, says the market. Global selloff to start the week? The Dow, S&P and Nasdaq didn't blink. All three are fractionally up.

AAPL has made a run in the past hour or so from 334 to 339, a pleasant surprise. I got out last week, so I'm just waiting for a re-entry point. It appears 334-335 is new support.

As for VXX, I got out with a tiny loss in the mid-31 area. It's so typical of me to have such a modest position and yet all I could think of for most of the weekend was Egypt and VXX. The market often thinks one or two steps ahead. Unless that situation erupts into a shutdown of the Suez Canal, the street gatherings and protests are built into the US market already.

I was expecting a red day, but AAPL, BIDU, FAS, GLD, IBM, TBT are green. NFLX is finally selling off, down 1.8% (214). F is down 1.2% (16.06). GOOG and AMZN down slightly. LULU also. TVIX, which was up more than 20% on Friday, is down 2.4%, so net-net, it's still up big the past two days. I'm staying out of that, VXX and most everything else. The only issues I'll touch are AAPL and maybe GLD and VXX.

Thumpdown Thursday

It was just a couple of years ago, maybe 18 months, when an old friend bought some GOOG at 432. He was satisfied until the market sold off in a major correction and his shares sank 100 bucks or so. He held on. He was rewarded. GOOG is trading at 644 afterhours thanks to a robust earnings report, up 2.75% from the close (626). Quite a run, but will it top out like AAPL? Apple lost its CEO (temporarily?), Steve Jobs, due to medical issues. GOOG just announced that CEO Eric Schmidt is changing positions. He tweeted that "adult supervision is no longer needed."

If I were a GOOG shareholder, I'd tweet, "WTF???"

I slept marvelously through today's market, catching only the first 30 minutes or so. AAPL declined to 330 before bouncing to 332. Those round numbers, 350, 340, 330 ... they play with trader psychology, no question. StockGuy22 has always noted that. He's right.

My hunch that VXX would benefit from an AAPL pullback (1.8%) was wrong. VXX is down (-1%) in a market absent chaos and complete unpredictability. VXX clearly does well when there are riots on the streets of Greece or when North Korea sends missiles into the air. But here, VXX is hemmed in by a quiet global environment, so I'm exploring other issues.

ETFs on an upswing in a down market today: TBT (+2.6%), DPK (+2.3%), EDZ (+3.1%), EEV (+2.2%), FXP (+3.1%), LHB (+3.8%), SMN (+2.7%), TZA (+3.1%).

Others up today: FSLR (+2.6%), STP (2%), SOLR (+4.3%), V (+2.3%), MMR (+5.9%)

The hardest hit today were also some of the hottest risers: NFLX (-3.1%), AMZN (-2.6%), POT (-3%), VMW (-3.8%), NILE (3.2%), NTDOY (-5.3%), BIDU (1.5%), CRM (-6.4%), FWLT (3.5%), SNDK (-3%), YUM (-1.3%), JOYG (-3.7%), QCOM (-1.5%), ANSS (-5.1%), AKAM (-2.3%), GIGM (-3.5), TQNT (-4.3%), RHT (-5%), UA (-2%), RAX (-10.9%), SLV (-4.4%), GLD (-1.9%)

Most of these stocks were due for a pullback, just like AAPL.

The threat of rising interest rates could simultaneously dent both the stock and bond markets. Taking a very close look at TBT tomorrow.

Some of the steady risers didn't sell off much, if at all today: F (-0.7%), IMAX (+0.6%), C (+0.8%).

Good to be in cash. Better to be flexible and stay one step ahead, or in my case, off the field and on the sidelines.

Waddling Wednesday

Dow Jones 9,774.02 -96.28 -0.98%
NASDAQ 2,109.24 -25.94 -1.21%
S&P 500 1,030.71 -10.53 -1.01%

It's becoming a habit, this getting up with an hour left in the market. I was up by 9:15 am Hawaii time, early enough to see AAPL trade at 253.33, down a few bucks from yesterday's lower close. I rubbed the makapiapia out of my eyes and AAPL was at 252. A few minutes later, shares dropped below 251 and set to plunge below 250.

That's where it held ground, at 250.01, and closed at 251.46, down 1.84%. Never mind the repeated rumor about Apple and Verizon coming to terms on a deal for iPhone 4; the stock has tanked since hitting 279 little more than a week ago. From a short-term low of 242 to 279 in one week was drastic, and now AAPL fades despite good news. It had to sell off on the release of the new iPhone, but market forces are always too strong, even for Apple.

There just aren't enough buyers out there. There just aren't enough reasons to go long here. The recovery has slowed, China is continuing to hit the brakes and people are on vacation. That makes it a playground for the high-frequency traders and their robots.

TECH KINGS
GOOG dropped 2.05% to 444.95 and is looking more attractive than ever. But I continue to wait. The Apple-Verizon partnership could hamper Google's Droid X campaign. Two winners are definitely possible in the future world of mobile communications and advertising.

Apparently, Google hasn't given up on China yet. Until there's something firm between the Googsters and the People's Republic, though, it's superficial.

ALL THINGS CHINA
Baidu finished up 0.75% to 68.08, a nice surprise despite falling off an intraday high of 70.35.

FXI lost 0.46% to 39.13 while Freeport-McMoran (FCX) dropped 3.18% to 59.13. US Steel (X) fell 1.43% to 38.55 and Posco (PKX) lowered to 94.32 (-0.55%).

PetroChina (109.73 -0.71%) dipped again, but CNOOC was up (170.17 +0.81%).

Solars Yingli Green Energy (10.18 +3.04%) and Trina Solar (17.28 +0.12%) also bucked the general trend.

ENERGY
US Oil Fund ETF (USO) slid 0.61% to 33.96 and natural gas plays petered out in response. My list of 40 natty gassers dropped 0.83%. Interestingly, Westport Innovations (WPRT), my favorite, gained 1.88% to 15.69. UNG picked up 1.04% to 7.75 and REXX climbed 2.75% to 10.10.

In accordance with crude oil, FSLR dipped 0.52% to 113.83.

In a related clean energy play, Tesla ran wild on its second day of trading only to falter at the finish. TSLA closed at 23.89 on Tuesday, opened at 25.96 today and reached 30.42 before selling off. Shares closed at 23.83 (-0.25%) on volume of 17.1 million shares.

EURO ZONE
FXE gained moderately (0.26%) to 121.87 despite unrest in Greece and more troubles for Spain. Merkel's candidate's victory was good, apparently, for the Euro.

Banco Santander handled the negative news from Moody's well, gaining 2.04% to 10.50. IRE lost 2.37% to 3.29 as austerity measures in Ireland continue to wreak havoc. NBG dropped 2.69% to 2.17, nearing a one-year low.

SAFE PLAYS
GLD (121.68 +0.34%) and SLV (18.21 +0.44%) were nice trades today, as was TLT (101.75 +0.67%).

PROTECTION
ETNs continued to provide shelter to beleaguered longs. FAZ gained big again, adding 3.57% to 17.42. TYP rose 5.48% as tech stocks dipped. BGZ (18.25 +3.22%) and TZA (8.18 +3.41%) were also big winners.

VXX gained 1.33% to 31.20, but didn't exactly trade up while AAPL declined — an unusual lack of coupling that I've seen only twice in the spring and summer. It probably says more about the level of familiarity the general market has with this level of volatility. It's enough to shake out weak longs and conservative traders, but not enough to be truly defined as a panic. Plus, volume is so light. For AAPL to make a higher percentage move than VXX says it all. VXX may have topped near term.

QID (UltraShort QQQ ProShares) did much better, gaining 3.13% to 20.04.

STRANGE BUT TRUE
Shares of CBOE gained 2.49% to 32.55.

DNDN continued its crash, falling 3.75% to 32.33, then losing another 15.47% to 27.33 in afterhours trading. It may be another bear raid on Dendreon shares.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services posted this online and is seeking public input on the effects of Dendreon's prostate cancer treatment. It seems to be a routine CMS procedure, but shares are tanking nonetheless.

If it's another bear raid without substantial facts and news, this could be another buying opportunity. But I'm staying out and I remain 100% cash in this circus of a market. The elephants are on the loose and I'm staying way up in the bleacher seats.

Terrible Tuesday

Dow Jones 9,870.30 -268.30 -2.65%
NASDAQ 2,135.18 -85.47 -3.85%
S&P 500 1,041.24 -33.33 -3.1%

Did you get bitten today? Did you stay long in this flaky market without protection? Do you walk the streets and let thugs take your hard-earned money? I've been 100% cash for nearly three weeks, but if I were ever to go long, I'd definitely hedge my bets — be honest, everything in the market is a calculated guess — with VXX or FAZ and maybe have some safer plays like GLD and TLT.

TECH KINGS
Apple has its share of complaints over iPhone 4, but they continue to sell, sell, sell what may be the most addictive piece of technology on the planet. Shares, though, bit the dust today, down 4.52% to 256.17. This is an entry price I could love, but even here I want to wait for 250. I'd rather catch this ride on the way up than possibly on the way further down.

So, all the Android devotees who happen to be iPhone haters should be loving Google, but shares dropped 3.77% to 454.26. I like this price, too, but I'm watching from afar.

BIDU fell 9.23% to 67.57 as China did a swan dive. Still the search king of China with the backing of Big Brother. Sub 60 would be compelling.

NFLX closed down 4.28% to 112.58. The swings here are wild and I don't like it long term against the competition that is pounding down the door, like Apple. On that note, IMAX dipped as low as 14.28 before ending the day at 14.88 (-4.43%). Like Netflix, Imax has serious competition coming sooner rather than later.

EURO ZONE
FCX was down only 0.63% (121.56), but craziness across the region (Greek riots, German leadership issue, Spanish unemployment, yadayada) did nothing good for global markets. NBG was flat at 2.23. No banks were burned down. However, IRE dropped 6.91% (3.37).

SAFE PLAYS
GLD closed barely up (121.27 +0.15%) while TLT (20-year Treasury Bond) was up 1.09% to 101.07. TLT has a chance to stay above 100 for awhile. There's no real catalyst coming to the market for the bulls in the visible future.

ENERGY
USO (US Oil Fund ETF) dropped 2.95% to 34.17. BP went the other way, gaining 2.29% to 27.75. Not touching that POS.

Natural gas wilted. UNG caved 3.88% to 7.67. My list of 40 natty gassers got smoked again, dropping 5.27% today. They dipped into the red as a group for the first time since Obama's clean energy speech nearly four weeks ago. That's bad news on bad news. WPRT, which was once the leader with a 30% gain, is now up just 4.83%. PETD still has a sizable gain of 25.83%, but almost everything else is in the red or has a modest single-digit gain. No catalyst, no luck.

First Solar (FLSR) also fell, losing 4.03% to 114.42. One of last week's hotties, Trina Solar (TSL), dripped 5.06% to 17.26.

Chinese energy ate dust today. PetroChina (110.51 -3.45%) and CNOOC (168.80 -4.44%) sank. Whimsical solar play Yingli Green Energy (YGE) lowered to 9.88 (5.64%).

CHINA & HEAVY METAL
FXI tumbled 4.03% to 39.31. Freeport-McMoran (FCX) crumbled 5.55% to 61.07. US Steel (X) gave back 5.87% tp 39.11 and Posco (PKX) gave up 6.22% to 94.84.

PROTECTION
VXX finished with a 9.26% gain to 30.79 after hitting a high of 31.34 in the final hour. Shares were below 25 last week.

FAZ moved big, 10.48% to 16.82. I've had good trades in FAZ before, but haven't touched it in months. Finnies are now just a wee bit too fucking crazy for me to decipher most times.

Staying in 100% cash while insanity prevails on Wall Street. Have fun!

Turnover Thursday

Dow Jones 10,152.80 -145.64 -1.41%
NASDAQ 2,217.42 -36.81 -1.63%
S&P 500 1,073.69 -18.35 -1.68%

Regulations, schmegulations. There's no doubt that without turmoil from Capitol Hill, the Eurozone, the Gulf and iPhone 4 buyers planetwide, the market would be just fine and dandy. (RIMM is collapsing after hours due to a so-so earnings report.)

The pullback was expected from a technical perspective. Is a further drop coming? With Q2 coming to a lose in less than a week, I'm not so sure fund managers will stay completely out. If they get scared and refuse to dip their toes back into the oil-infested waters, that'll be a surprise to some extent.

I'll still wait for selling pressure in AAPL to wane before I walk into that territory. To the brave who grabbed VXX shares below 25 and 26 recently, bravo. When AAPL draws down, VXX pops 99% of the time.

Overall, though, the market was simply red.

TECH KINGS
AAPL wavered between 269 and 272 on the day of its iPhone 4 release. Shares closed at 269.69, down 0.73%, or 10 bucks less than its all-time high last week. Signal issues with the new phone could sit on AAPL for a few days, which makes it a buying opportunity, maybe. I'd rather just wait.

GOOG petered out and lost 1.44% to 475.10. Entry point is looking better all the time now. I might just wait for the first report of mobile ad sales before I test Google waters.

BIDU lost 3.14% to 73.80 after beating down bears for several days.

FINANCIALS
GS (134.98 -0.07%) and C (3.78 -2.83%) facing issues thanks to legislators. I haven't liked finnies for months precisely because of this kind of uphill battle. Fuck it. Too much work, too much pain involved. Unless GS hits 100 and C swoons to 3.00. Then I won't resist.

EURO ZONE
FXE up 0.14% (122.86), which normally is good for the US market. UUP (US dollar) was flat at 28.35.

Euro banks fell in spectacular fashion. Banco Santander (STD) dropped 3.81% to 10.87, IRE got squashed (3.63 -8.1%) and NBG (2.28 -3.8%) took a blow to the scrotum. I like STD below 9. Could happen. STD was below 9 less than two weeks ago.

SAFE PLAYS
Predictably, GLD (121.30 +0.29%) was up in a down market. So was SLV (18.26 +0.44). TLT, surprisingly, fell 0.59% to 98.65. But TLT had been hot lately, so it's not a shock.

ENERGY
US Oil (USO) gained 0.44% to 34.39 despite BP's plummet. BP gave back 3.14% to a new low of 28.74.

Nat Gas continued to fart incessantly. Only two of the 40 on my list closed positive today, though FTK had a nice 5.26% gain. As crude oil prices gain with greater demand, natural gas needs a definitive catalyst from the White House, something more than oral salutations from President Obama. Otherwise, nat gas is looking dead.

WPRT, once the beacon of the post-Obama clean-energy speech explosion, lost big again. Shares tumbled 3.81% to 16.40, and now WPRT is up only 11.64% since Obama's speech. WPRT had been up more than 30% at one point.

There are arguments to every sector of alternative energy. Wind has opponents because turbines kill thousands of birds. Solar has issues because of cost and the way certain endangered bugs (I'm not kidding) are instinctively attracted to panels and essentially fly until dead. The reasons are innumerable, surely "discovered" by pro-oil interests as well as well-meaning environmentalists.

Come on, people. We've got to do more than bitch and moan. Solutions?

HEDGES
VXX rocketed 6.14% to 28.35 and FAZ leaped 6.11% to 15.97. They're both explosive and both good ways to protect against losses if you're long the market, whether it's AAPL or financials.

Or you could just sit out and watch the circus from the bleachers like I have. Still 100% cash.

AAPL up, BIDU upper, GOOG not so up

So, Apple unveils* its iPhone 4G in mere hours and Planet Earth will (mostly) rejoice. Don't lie. If if you hate Apple, you'd probably keep an iPhone 4 if someone gave it to you as a gift. So would I.

It's interesting that Google's move into smartphones (Android) and mobile advertising (via AdMob) hasn't particularly helped the stock as much as it should have. Or maybe there just aren't as many believers, being that the mobile ad business is still in its infancy. But more pertinent was Google's decision to depart from China. The charts below show how potent BIDU shares have been and continue to be. With the FXI bolstered lately, rising ahead of the US market and showing its force as a premier leader, BIDU simply rises higher and higher.

AAPL vs. BIDU vs. GOOG (1-year chart, daily)

AAPL vs. BIDU vs. GOOG (6-month chart, daily)

AAPL vs. BIDU vs. GOOG (2-month chart, daily)

AAPL vs. BIDU vs. GOOG (10-day chart, 15-minute bars)

AAPL 6-month chart
Candlestick analysis: Sell Confirmed (American Bulls)

GOOG 6-month chart
Candlestick analysis: Hold (American Bulls)

BIDU 6-month chart
Candlestick analysis: Buy If (American Bulls)

Room for big, fat smartphones?

So really, do people want a 4.3-inch screen? I am not in the smartphone universe, so I really have no feel for this, but if people are turned off by Apple's closed system and already like what Google/Droid/Verizon/Motorola have to offer ...

What traction does the Droid X have?

The anticipated phone, which has an 8-megapixel camera and HD videorecording, will sell at Verizon Wireless stores and online beginning July 15. It will cost $199.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate, provided the buyer agrees to a 2-year service agreement. (Buyers will have to pay $299.99 up front, then wait to be mailed the debit card containing their $100 rebate.)

What's hot, what's not

A candlestick update from American Bulls.

AAPL (270.97): "Sell Confirmed"
BIDU (76.19): "Buy If"
C (3.89): "Sell Confirmed"
CLNE (16.17): "Wait"
FAZ (15.05): "Hold"
FCX (65.06): "Hold"
FXE (122.69): "Buy If"
FXI (41.26): "Hold"
GLD (120.95): "Hold"
GLDD (6.14): "Wait"
GOOG (482.05): "Hold"
GS (135.07): "Wait"
LVS (27.04): "Hold"
PKX (105.14): "Sell If"
SBUX (27.32): "Buy If"
SCO (15.06): "Hold"
SD (6.25): "Wait"
SLV (18.18): "Buy If"
STD (11.30): "Buy If"
TLT (99.24): "Hold"
UUP (24.97): "Sell If"
VXX (26.71): "Sell If"
WPRT (17.05): "Wait"
X (44.06): "Buy If"

Tepid Tuesday

Dow Jones 10,293.52 -148.89 -1.43%
NASDAQ 2,261.80 -27.29 -1.19%
S&P 500 1,095.31 -17.89 -1.61%

I'll say it again: this is a market that can have traders sprinting on those mouse wheels like a treadmill all morning and afternoon. It can also be an opportunity to shut the computer down, take a ride and enjoy some sunshine and pristine waters at the local beach. In my case, there are many choices. An hour just chilling in the water under a hot Hawaiian sun and some cool trade winds was the perfect tonic for my day.

I missed AAPL's rebound today as the news of 3 million iPads sold carried over. But I didn't miss another early gain and later decline. Volume is so light at this time of year and my time off is so limited, there are simple choices for those of us in the middle of the Pacific during the hours of 2 am to 2 pm.

1. Sleep, hit the beach, relax.
2. Sleep, wake up every few hours, check the market, back to sleep.
3. Watch every tick for 12 hours straight.

I prefer 1 and 2 for the rest of this month. I'll be on the lookout for AAPL shares below 260, maybe 250. The last two lows were 231 and 242. Expecting another low below 250 would be expecting a bit too much, I believe. But AAPL has proven that it will consolidate for months before exploding again, and we're in the midst of that now, possibly.

Fund managers don't want to be out of AAPL as Q2 closes at the end of this month. But they'll be more than happy to shake out weak hands and grab all they can below 260 or 250. So I wait.

TECH KINGS
AAPL gained 1.36% to 273.85. It's a dangerous scenario, potentially. There are traders who want their small gains on a daily basis. There are longs who wisely have held since 78 last year (March 2009). If the global economy tanks, everyone gets washed out to sea without mercy. Caution advised.

GOOG fell just a bit (-0.47%) to 486.96. Is this the opportunity to jump in before the Google train leaves the station? Or is a ledge below the cliff, and there's nowhere to go but down? I don't know. I'm asking you.

CHINA & HEAVY METAL
BIDU couldn't buck the trend for a second day in a row and lost 0.89% to 75.68. The FXI lost 1.56% to 40.95, giving back a small portion of recent gains. FCX lost 4.25% to 65.19 and US Steel (X) dropped 3.07% to 43.59.

It's a short-term trader's paradise.

EURO
The FXE lost just 0.33% (122.38) while the US dollar (UUP) was up 0.16% to 25.07.

FINANCIALS
Stateside, Goldman Sachs lost 2.14% to 134.79 and C dropped 1.99% to 3.94. Abroad, Santander (STD) lost 1.83% to 11.25, IRE got smacked (3.88 -7.18%) and NBG slipped 2.03% to 2.41.

FAZ fed off the selloff and gained 4.92% to 14.92.

ENERGY
If all of this felt vaguely bearish or even bullish in your optimistic view, try this: All 40 of the stocks on my Nat Gas list finished in the red today, a first since Obama's clean energy speech 19 days ago. Red, red, red. There's just sorta exception in VNR, which broke even for the day.

If the Nat Gas sector, which has an edge over most, can't get positive, it might be a setback for the broader market. Sure, Gulf drillers may have gotten a reprieve today, but for how long? Does the State of Louisiana really think it can win against the President? Do we really need for all drillers to go back to work in the Gulf? There has to be a reasonable compromise that can keep workers employed without risking one or two more preposterous catastrophes.

USO (United States Oil Fund ETF) finished down 0.93% even with the Louisiana challenge. Meanwhile, the ultra-short oil ETF, SCO, gained 1.7% to 14.35, oddly enough.

SAFETY
VXX gained again, this time 1.01% to 26.49 and making those who entered below 25 geniuses.

FAZ was far from the only inverse ETN to gain nicely today. DRV (Direxion Daily Real Estate Bear 3x) gained 9.74% to 6.87.

TZA (Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3x) ran up 6.29% to 6.97.

GLD reversed recent downward momentum and gained 0.88% to close at 121.45. TLT gained 1.19% to 98.57.

All in all, some interesting viewing from the bleachers. It might not be the worst time to pair AAPL and VXX, since there's no guarantee whatsoever of direction for either. But I'm not interested in that kind of excitement for now.

Manic Monday

Dow Jones 10,442.41 -8.23 -0.08% chart
NASDAQ 2,289.09 -20.71 -0.90% chart
S&P 500 1,113.20 -4.31 -0.39% chart

Another good night's sleep. Away from the home office, just enjoying family time over the weekend and through the early part of this week. Seems that the market had quite the day, rolling higher on China/yuan news, then completely selling the bulls out. As David Byrne once bellowed, "This is not my beautiful house! This is not my beautiful wife!"

Whether the Chinese are being facetious or factual is beside the point. The market was quite overbought and all the ripe fruit had to be plucked at some point. I slept right through most of it and slept well. Seeing CNBC (on mute) post charts at about 6 am Hawaii time showing the market 's steep decline from the early gains was no surprise. I went right back to sleep in a quiet neighborhood (not mine, which is noisy most of the day and night) and relished the trade winds coming down the slope.

There are just too many uncertainties and too many certain negatives around the globe for me to trust any whiff of irrational exuberance. That's right, in the right circumstance, I'd go long a frothy, bullish and silly trend. But this ain't it.

I'd rather be picky and catch a chunk of the up side (or down side) than try and guess a bottom or top. There's no reason to allow the market to have an edge on me. It gives us a direction, then maybe I re-enter. Aside from that, there's a lot of fun under the sun to be had. Summer is here.

TECH KINGS
Did AAPL just hit the wall? Shares were up nicely in premarket, hitting 278-plus, and later hit 279.01 before traders banked their nice profits. AAPL was at 242 less than two weeks ago. Closed today at 270.17, not too bad considering it fell to an intraday low of 268.73.

There's still more than a week left before Q2 ends, so more selling by fund managers will allow for another cheap entry at some point. I missed this run, but I didn't really "miss" it. I'm not feeling hurt. I'll just wait.

GOOG lost 2.29% and closed at 488.56. I like sub-490 as a possible entry point. I still like what they have in growth with Android and AdMob. You and I may not like Google as much as Apple, but they still draw billions of eyeballs and are about to corner the burgeoning mobile ad industry. With Apple, of course.

BIDU lost some gains, but still finished up 3.06% to 76.83 on the bullish China news. I've always believed that Baidu is simply Big Brother's baby. Even Mao would be cheering for these home boys to win — extreme filters provided, naturally.

CHINA & HEAVY METAL
It's time for a new band called China to invigorate the stagnant music industry. They could name all their songs after metals and chirp about the beauty of destroying perfectly fine agricultural regions by building dams.

FXI up 2.31% to 41.60. This ETF has held up well despite global poo-poo and will probably find its way to 50 before summer's done. The Chinese hold all the cards and they know it. The real estate bubble is a serious thorn in China's side, but they're managing it better, it seems, than the US handled its subprime mortgage issue.

FCX gained 3.31% to 68.08 as copper regained momentum on China's news. US Steel (X), which had floundered mightily lately, picked up 3.59% to 44.97.

South Korean steel manufacturer Posco (PKX) was a huge gainer, running up 6.69% to 103.76.

FINANCIALS & EURO
GS was flat (-0.32%) at 137.74 after losing early gains. C flat, too, gaining 0.25% to 4.02.

FXE (Euro) dropped a bit (-0.47%) to 122.78 while the US dollar (UUP) gained 0.36% to 25.03. Euro banks closed weakly: STD (11.46 -0.61%), IRE (4.18 -2.79%), through NBG gained 2.07% to 2.46 after a huge gap up.

Not touching these finnies for a long, long time.

ENTERTAINMENT
IMAX gained 1.94% to 16.46 after a huge opening weekend for Toy Story 3. Shares were up to 16.79 before losing ground.
CSTR plummeted 3.25% to 47.36.

ENERGY
BP sold off 4.5% to 30.33 as CEO Hayward did his jolly best to fuck his company again. It's not just that millionaires and billionaires should step away from the spotlight after causing an environmental disaster. It's just that they might think about heeding PR's advice about not cavorting around on a yacht. That fact that he didn't give a fucking damn about his own company's advice, plus the fact that it seems he doesn't care about the oil 'volcano', tells us that maybe there really is nothing BP can do to halt this catastrophe in the Gulf ... what else are shareholders supposed to think? Of course, they're going to bail and bail and bail.

Despite Hayward's idiocy, USO lost only 0.23% today. Inverse oil ETN SCO gained just 0.50%. Oil prices keep going up, which is good news for the industry and even BP.

Meanwhile, only six of the 40 on my Nat Gas list were positive today, and most of the positives were up fractionally. Only BRNC had a substantial gain (+2.36% to 4.34), resuming its hot run. As a group, my Nat Gas 40 lost 1.36% today, but is still up 10.66% since Obama's clean energy speech 2 1/2 weeks ago.

Top gainers on the list:
1. PQ 8.34 (+34.08%)
2. PETD 26.77 (+28.52%)
3. BRNC 4.34 (+24.71%)
4. WPRT 18.22 (+24.03%)
5. MMR 65.29 (+22.35%)

Conspiracy or not, as long as oil goes up, the need for alternatives rides along with that. The clamor for nat gas (subsidy bill pending) and solar will climb. Maybe owning nat gas and/or solar and/or USO are simply ways to hedge against your growing gasoline bill.

I just like WPRT for its great balance sheet and unique position in the industry.

SAFE PLAYS
GLD lost 1.99% to 120.39 today and SLV dropped 2.24% to 18.32. TLT was flat (97.41 -0.29%).

PROTECTION
And, finally, FAZ was up a bit (14.22 +0.57) while VXX soared (25.48 +1.64%). VXX was low as 24.03. The last time it was this low, it made a run to the mid-30s. Is the world a calmer place now than it was last month or six months ago? Again, I won't touch the VXXen unless I'm using it to hedge a long position. The times I've attempted to trade VXX as a stand-alone, she was way too smart and whirling dervish for me. I admit that.

A whole lotta shakin' for whole lotta nothin'

Dow Jones 10,409.46 +4.69 +0.05%
NASDAQ 2,305.93 +0.05 +0.00%
S&P 500 1,114.61 -0.62 -0.06%

I never did get to bed. Napped at the desk and stayed out of this kooky market. Hard to see how or why AAPL has moved so much the past few sessions, but maybe ... well, more on that later.

Not a whole lot to say about today. Most stocks swayed and swirled, but not in a way that got anyone nauseous. Maybe everybody was watching Congress grill BP's Tony Hayward. Or smart traders are enjoying summer vacation.

EURO
FXE was up for much of the session before closing at 122.64 (-0.35%) while UUP (25.10, +0.32%) is slightly up. The Spaniards upped the ante on the Germans, but it was Spain that buckled. EWP (Spain ETF) fell 1.12% to 35.33 and STD dropped 1.79% to 10.99.

FINANCIALS
GS barely finished higher (137.13 +0.17%) while C dropped 0.13% to 3.98. IRE (4.18 -3.02%) and NBG (2.47 -1.59%) pulled back from recent gains. I'm apathetic about this sector. Up, down, up, down ... sometimes because of news. Sometimes because of nothing. It's stupid so I steer clear.

TECH KINGS
AAPL zoomed 2.92% to 267.28, a gain of more than 7 bucks on decent volume. Is there really a difference in Apple since two or three weeks one week ago, when AAPL hovered at 242? Not really. Sure, iPhone G4 demand is huge, but is that really a surprise? Could be that hedge funds and mutuals are piling back in before Q2 ends at the end of this month. That's two weeks away! I'm staying out and waiting for yet another pullback.

GOOG closed up just a hair to 501.34. Much as I like the future for Google, 500 is definitely a psychological barrier. I still prefer GOOG below 490, but I'll buy AAPL before GOOG.

NFLX rose again, nearly 1% to 124.67. CSTR gave up practically all its early gain and closed at 52.51, just .02% higher. The news about the new-release deal with Paramount pushed CSTR shares up to 54.76, but this week's rally turned buyers into sellers by this afternoon. I like CSTR for the time being as a short-term trade. Might get in below 50. Or not.

SAFE PLAYS
GLD closed down a skosh at 120.33, TLT was up a hair to 97.06 ... I hesitate to call copper king FCX a safe play given China's cautious approach to growth. FCX was down just a tiny bit to 67.03 and US Steel (X) dropped 1.31% to 45.33.

ENERGY
BP gained after its chairman and CEO met with Obama. BP closed at 31.85 (+1.43%) on the news that it will suspend its dividend payout and set up a $20 billion fund for Gulf businesses destroyed by the oil "volcano."

The oil sector was up slightly, but it has traded quite well in spite of BP. The inverse ETN for oil, SCO, dropped nearly 2%.

Natural gas started horribly, rallied, and folded by the close. Only 12 of my Nat Gas 40 finished positive today, not too bad considering the rampage the sector had been running since Obama's clean energy speech nearly two weeks ago. MMR finished up 3.75% to 12.44 after leading the group most of the day. KOG, REXX and FTK were also top gainers. Two of my favorites, CLNE and WPRT, finished in the red. CLNE dropped 3.49% to 17.54 and WPRT fell 1.13% to 19.19.

I like WPRT below 19 and had my chance in the morning, but the market was underwater at the time and I decided to play it safe. I like WPRT's balance sheet a lot. Don't really like CLNE's numbers, but as a clean energy play, CLNE is almost as intriguing as WPRT. I'm sure value investors might agree partway on WPRT, probably more so when it was trading at 3 bucks in March of last year. At these levels, it's still reasonably attractive, but I'll be choosy about my price. Haggling is good.

Nat Gas is one of the best sectors to trade and/or follow now that it has an edge of sorts (Obama's verbal backing and nothing more yet) and the world is sick and tired of crude oil's consequences. Whether Nat Gas as a sector is more of a market indicator now than it was last month, well, I wouldn't assume that. I do feel that it truly does give a fingerprint on the market's tone. Natty Gas is a fairly safe play even in the midst of speculation, oversupply and the emotional content of the broad market, i.e. Mother Earth bleeding into the Gulf 24/7.

Even with today's pullback in Nat Gas, five of my 40 are up at least 20% in two weeks, including WPRT (+30.7%). UNG, which was up to 8.83 two days ago, fulfilled my expectations since and closed today at 8.49 (-3.85%). Again, UNG is a buy below 8 and a sell above 8.50, or maybe it's more like a sell at 8.75 now. Higher highs, higher lows and the sector shows no signs of cooling off. I'd guess that Nat Gas will remain hot as long as we can all see that Gulf oil live video.

After that, who knows? I just want to be in the sector's top play rather than bet big on a skittish natty gasser penny when the ice starts to melt.

Horrid opening for Nat Gas

No surprise here that Nat Gas is selling off as a sector after HUGE gains in the past 12 sessions since Obama's clean energy speech. My list of 40 has only one natty gasser in the green: HGT (21.77 +0.83%). The rest are in the red as traders take their profits rather than hang on in a negative market so far.

Here's my little theory: Goldman Sachs propped up the market to get its CBOE IPO off the ground yesterday, launching it way, way up. Now that CBOE's launch is done, GS is getting out of a number of stocks, including those in the Nat Gas industry. Right on cue, with so little conviction (volume) in the market on Monday and Tuesday, it's not taking very much selling to see stocks tumble. (This isn't any claim to a perfect theory; GS has a total of four IPOs this week, so a big, long dump of stocks isn't to its advantage.)

WPRT is down 1.96% to 19.08 after hitting a low of 18.61. CLNE is down 2.72% to 17.67. UNG down 2.27% to 8.63. Overbought conditions all around are hitting this sector as hard as expected.

AAPL, though, is bucking the trend, up 1.15% to 262.67. GOOG is barely positive and NFLX is up 1.24% to 125.10 after yesterday's down action. Netflix is probably benefiting from Coinstar's news. CSTR's Redbox has a new deal with Paramount to issue new releases. With Blockbuster on the verge of bankruptcy, its new-release deal with the industry is pointless and Coinstar picks up the deals now. CSTR is up 3.14% to 54.15, off its high of 54.76. Recent high was 57-plus.

CSTR would make an intriguing catalyst trade on a neutral or bullish day. Not so sure about trying it in this climate.

Just about everything else I'm watching is flat or negative except for a couple of pennies: the aforementioned BBI (0.27 +11.44%) and HAUP (2.51 +3.72%).

Financials are wobbly, as expected. STD is down 2.77% (10.87) and the euro is down 0.36% to 122.62 as Spain issued a challenge to Germany yesterday, asking for stress tests on Euro banks.

Stampede Tuesday

Dow Jones 10,404.77 +213.88 (+2.1%)
NASDAQ 2,305.88 +61.92 (+2.76%)
S&P 500 1,115.23 +25.60 (+2.35%)

Huge move today, and though volume is still tepid, it was bigger than yesterday. I'm not a believer in this rally, but there's no point to fighting momentum. Didn't the spring rally continue for months despite lame volume? There's money to be made in both directions.

ENERGY
Nat Gas extremely impressive today, even as BP rallied in the afternoon. Of the 40 natty gassers on my list, 39 finished positive. They averaged a 3.59% gain today, absolutely, undeniably hot. As a group, they have moved up 13.97% since Obama's clean energy speech 12 days ago.

WPRT (19.42), one of my five favorites, moved up 2.29% today — a bit soft compared to the sector — but is now up 32.2% since Obama's talk. Insanely bullish.

GDP (15.29) is up 27.1% during this span, including 4.01% today. KWK (13.81) is up 23.3% since Obama and HERO (3.19) is up 23.17%, including 13.12% today alone. Small floats and daytrading frenzy are factors here, which is why I'll try WPRT rather than HERO.

CLNE (18.17) is up 6.97% today and 22.39% since Obama. WPRT and CLNE are solid fundamentally and both are pure clean energy plays. Another reason to like.

UNG feels safe, but the move from 8 flat to 8.83 in the past week is amazing. UNG now up 17.89% since Obama, including 3.27% today.

BP gained 2.38% to 31.40 and USO is up 2.62% to 35.23. USO down to 34.66 in afterhours trading. SCO, the inverse oil ETN, dropped 4.62% as crude prices rose to $76/barrel.

IPO
CBOE is trading at 32.56 in afterhours, looking like the hottest initial public offering of the year. If Goldman Sachs is propping up the market to support the four IPOs it is unveiling this week, be careful once the propping is done. CBOE's 14% gain is great for the big boys, and they'll cash in while the rest of us think we're walking into a winner.

FINNIES
Speaking of GS, it gained 2.59% to 136.90. That made yesterday's buyers at 133-134 quite happy. C gained 2.84% to 3.99, and Euro banks also gained. STD (11.19 7.08%) has made a great move up since dropping below 10. IRE is up 6.42% to 4.31 and NBG is up 3.29% to 2.51.

FAS tore up 6.88% to 24.04. I still don't trust financials, but the volatility and high-percentage moves are making some fast money for fast traders. I wouldn't short finnies here, either. FAZ lost 6.74% to 14.27. There are numerous stories of an ominous future for finnies. They're not all fiction, no doubt, but as irrational exuberance returns to the market, traders don't care about tomorrow. They're banking on finnies and wild momo swings led by the high-frequency robots.

EURO
FXE (123.07) up almost 1% today while the dollar (UUP) dropped. FXI gained 2.29% to 41.03. Everything's headline-driven. Not my cup of tea, but watching these as indicators.

HEAVY METAL
FCX gained 2.74% to 67.05 and US Steel (X) rose 3.03% to 45.91. Wow. As China goes, so go copper and steel. SLV gained 1.85% to 18.19 for good measure.

NEW TECH
My favorite company, Apple, continues to rebound from last week's plunge to 242. AAPL closed near its high at 259.69, a gain of 2.13%. GOOG rose 3.06% to 497.99. I liked GOOG below 490, but didn't touch it.

NFLX, a wild gainer recently, pared back 2.61% to 123.50.

SAFE PLAYS
GLD climbed 1.16% to 120.99 and TLT dropped 0.41% to 96.51. A massive bull rally and TLT dropped fractionally. That's weird. Probably says something about the cautious nature of retail traders. Nobody wants to get burned by another Flash Crash or any kind of crash.

Can this rally run for two, three months like the previous run? Probably not. A lot of short leashes out there. Fear reigns, even in the bulls. But the shorts are clearly getting hammered lately.