1:15pm (EST)
The bears have held the bulls in check for much of the session in what has been a typical Monday over the past 3 months. The bulls have been slow to get out of the gates to start the week but we are looking for today to be a different story by the close.
News has been somewhat light with the U.S. and China getting the World Trade Organization involved over the battle of export-promoting subsidies and car exports. Elsewhere, economic news was somewhat disappointing as the Empire Manufacturing report fell to -10.4 from -5.9 in August. The suit-and-ties were looking for a reading of -3 but they were way off as it was the lowest level in over three years.
As far as company news, Apple (AAPL) is at fresh 52-week highs and has traded to a peak of $699.52 after announcing that preorders for the iPhone5 set a new record by topping 2 million in sales in just the first 24 hours after the announcement. AT&T (T, $37.50, up $0.24) concurred, saying sales over the weekend were tremendous and that it is the fastest-selling iPhone to date.
FedEx (FDX, $89.20, down $0.95) will announce earnings in the morning and they have already warned Wall Street they will miss current expectations. Shares have fallen below $90 today and could move $5, either way, this week. The key will be what they say about the upcoming quarter which is their busiest time of the year.
We have a lot to cover inside our Members Area as we opened 3 new trades earlier this morning. We were able to get the options at our limit prices and we are expecting good things this week.
As we head to press, the Dow is down 35 points to 13,557 while the S&P 500 is down 3 to 1,462. The Nasdaq is off a dozen points to 3,175. We will be back in the morning with a full update.
