9:00am (EST)
Futures were slightly higher before the Retail and PPI numbers came out at 8:30am. Before the reports the Dow futures had been up 4 while the S&P 500 futures were higher by 1 but jumped after the reports were released. August Retail Sales were up 2.7% compared to expectations for an increase of 1.9%. August PPI was 1.7% compared to a forecast of 0.8%.
Best Buy (BBY, $40.10, down $0.31) is trading lower after missing its quarterly number. The company reported earnings of $0.37 a share which was $0.05 lower than what Wall Street was predicting. However, the company did beat its revenue number which came in at $11 billion versus expectations of $10.79 billion.
From the Are You Serious department…Yesterday I mentioned Zoom Technologies (ZOOM, $13.20, up $0.51) at lunchtime when the stock was at $7.44, up 84% for the day. The stock closed at $12.69 and is up another 4% in pre-market trading.
Other stocks we are watching this morning: Freeport McMoRan (FCX, $71.01, up $0.39) is up while Dendreon (DNDN, $26.55, down $0.55) has actually slipped. Dendreon had been positive for much of the early trading after tacking on another 50 cents in last night’s after-hours. We still haven’t “officially” opened but subscribers should check the Members Area for the latest updates on both of these trades.
Looks like we are headed higher at the open. As a reminder, I have been fielding a lot of emails asking where the market is headed. Well, to be honest, no one really knows but here were my thoughts on August 23rd, which, after three weeks has been spot on:
“The market has had an incredible run and the key levels we are watching are as follows.
For the Dow (currently 9,505), watch for 9,625 which was the November high. A run above this level clears the way for…dare I say it….Dow 10,000. There is support at 9,000 but a break below 8,900 would send up a warning signal.
As for the Nasdaq (2020), it looks like 2,100 is smooth sailing as long as the bulls continue to run this week. Above that, we get choppy but we could get a run to 2,275. Support is at 1,930 and further down at 1,800 or so. A break below that could lead to 1,600.
The S&P 500 (1,026) could easily make a stab at 1,100 now that it has surged past 1,000 but 979 will be key support near-term. There is really nothing stopping the index from hitting 1,150-1,175 which is where headwinds will pick up.” (END)
The Dow is at 9,626, the Nasdaq at 2,091 while the S&P starts the day at 1,049. That was the road map we drew up in August. Let’s see if it holds up…
Subscribers, don’t forget to check the Membes Area.
