9:00am (EST)

The bulls managed to stage a late comeback yesterday as they pulled the market from its lows and managed to take two-out-of-three “rounds” from the bears. 

The S&P 500 managed a 3.5 gain to settle at 1,136 while the Nasdaq posted a half-point to close at 2,308.  The Dow opened with the slight gain but spent 99% of Tuesday’s session in the red.  The index lost 12 points and finished at 10,572. 

We got a mixed bag of economic news yesterday.  The Commerce Department reported factory orders rose 1.1% easily beating the 0.5% forecast Wall Street was expecting.

Meanwhile, the National Association of Realtors said its index of pending home sales fell a whopping 16% which caught the market by surprise.  It was the first drop after nine months of gains.  Some decline had been expected as buyers rushed in to grab homes ahead of the tax credit deadline, but that was later extended so the number was a little bit disappointing.

As far as specific stocks, Apple (AAPL, $214.38, up $0.37) looks like it will hit $250 sometime soon.  There are higher price targets out there on the stock but we wouldn’t be surprised if our target is hit by the end of the month.  The company continues to plow over the competition and we are hearing Apple has a major product announcement set for January 27.


It is no secret Apple will announce a tablet product of some kind and whatever it is and does…it will better than anything currently out there.  We would love to play some options on Apple but the premiums are rich and we can get more bang for our buck buying options on stocks under $100.

The ADP National Employment Report came out this morning and is often used as a forecast for the unemployment report.  The ADP report was expected to show a loss of 73,000 jobs in December and we got a number north of 80,000.  That’s far better than the 169,000 jobs lost in November and futures did improve a little.

As we head to press though, it looks like the market is going to open slightly lower this morning.  However, Dow futures are only down 6 so the bulls could come in after the bell.

We have some important updates as far as our option trades this morning.  We also profile another NEW trade.  Current Subscribers, check the Members Area for the updates.
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