ONE-TWENTY TWO: Trading Financial Markets
Exploring the poetry in financial markets for students of money and economy since the year 2000.
Now we know the source of some of this week’s selling pressure in First Solar’s stock. Michael Ahearn, former CEO and current Executive Chairman, dumped $142.1M in company stock between the 22nd and 24th. He sold another $20.7M on the 25th and 26th. However, the good news is that on Friday two First Solar (FSLR) … Read more
The drama with Toyota (TM) has intensified this week with sharp and skeptical Congressional scrutiny. I have been impressed at how (relatively) well Toyota’s stock has held up through the negative news flow. As Toyota’s president Akio Toyoda pleaded for mercy on Wednesday – “My name is on every car…You have my personal commitment that … Read more
In the past two years or so, I have often marveled at how differently the U.S. markets react from Asian and European markets when it comes to “bad” news released overnight (Eastern time). I do not yet have formal data or analysis, but I wanted to share some informal, personal observations. During the market recovery … Read more
First Solar (FSLR) reports earnings tonight, and short interest is at a record high. Data from nasdaq.com. Latest update January 29, 2010 This short interest represents about 36% of FSLR’s float. Toss in negative news flow and for the first time in a long time, negativity is running extremely high going into FSLR’s earnings. As … Read more
The S&P 500 is now over 4% off the lows from oversold conditions. 40% of this entire move came on today’s surge as the dollar plunged over 1% versus the euro. The thrills occurred DESPITE poor news flow from the Greek sovereign debt drama: for example, imminent strikes to protest austerity measures and German hesitancy … Read more
Research In Motion (RIMM) is riding a bit of upward momentum into this week’s Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona. The chart below shows that RIMM has broken above the 200-day moving average (DMA) on above average volume. If RIMM finally breaks the $72 resistance line, it could run up relatively quickly to fill September’s … Read more
On January 28, QUALCOMM (QCOM) disappointed the market by guiding earnings and revenue expectations down for its fiscal second quarter (pro forma EPS of $0.49-0.53 vs. $0.57 consensus and $2.4-2.6B in revenue vs. $2.75B consensus). The stock closed down 14% on the day on over 6x the 3-month average volume. This surge of selling represented … Read more
Nowhere is a destination for the average solar stock these days. For example, TAN, the Claymore/MAC Global Solar Energy ETF, has been stuck in a trading range since May of last year. 16 months ago, TAN was selling at the current price of $8.33/share. This dramatic under-performance (for example, relative to the S&P 500) will … Read more
Financial stocks as a group topped in October. The recent surge in selling volume on XLF, the Financial Select Sector SPDR, has dragged prices to a critical support level. The chart below shows the XLF is teetering on the edge of a 6-month trading range. XLF is also testing its 200-day moving average (DMA) (this … Read more
Last week, I suggested that T2108 was at such low levels that the next spike in the VIX would represent a major buying opportunity. Sure enough, the VIX printed only its second higher high of the entire rally off the March lows and buyers rushed immediately into the market (put sellers probably also rushed in … Read more