The futures are pointing towards a lower openening this morning as the market is struggling with a number of issues. There are several stocks in the news that I have been covering lately so let’s get to it.
American Express (AXP, $23.98) started the week of lower but got some good news this morning after the company received regulatory approval to change its structure to a bank holding company. Wheather this leads to a higher open this morning remains to be seen but it paves the way for the company to accept deposits and permanently access financing from the Federal Reserve.
Las Vegas Sands (LVS, $8.00) is taking a hit this morning in premarket trading after the market caught wind that the company has halted construction of two projects planned in Macao (China) to focus on other projects in Singapore and Pennsylvania. I told you the company would be in the news again but I didn’t think it would be this quick. Las Vegas Sands did say construction would resume in Macao “at an appropriate time in the future” basically when it has enough money. No need to sugar-coat it. Keep an eye on the November 7.50 puts (LJJWU, $1.90). They could do well this week if LVS heads to $5.
Wynn Resorts (WYNN, $46.82) could add to Monday’s gains after it was announced that the stock would be added to the S&P 500. I mentioned yesterday that Wynn was my favorite stock out of the group and this is normally a bullish sign. At least for a few days. The reason being that when a stock is added to the S&P 500, fund managers have to come in and buy the stock for their mutual funds and pension plans. We had set an “alert” on the January 2010 40 calls (YPWAH, $16.80) at $10 after getting into them for the same price and riding them all the way up to $20-$23. Don’t chase them.
The key to getting back into some of our trades will be to buy calls when the market is going down and to buy puts on any rallies. When the casino stocks were getting hammered, we went long by buying the November and January call options. They peaked, we sold, and now we are waiting again.
General Motors (GM, $3.36) and Ford Motor ($1.93) are doomed for death by a thousand cuts and housing, retail, autos, and banks…you name an industry and it seems they are all ready to buckle. There is still a ton of opportunities in this market but you have to be careful and you have to know what is going on. The short-term outlook remains bearish as the market doesn’t really have any catalysts to build any momentum on.
Rick Rouse
Rick@OptionsMentoring.com
