Stock Market Analysis – 01-24-2012
Although it’s been a while since my last post, the market has been chugging along without me. I’ve been sitting on a lot of positions for an extended period, but it looks like I may need to start making some adjustments to my current holdings — yeah, I’m looking at you MCD. Earnings have generally been good so far, but I’m really interested in AMZN later on this week. I’ll go through my watchlist to quantify some of my changes in the near future, but the market is overbought now anyway, so most plays are going to be waiting on pullbacks. As bad as the global economy still looks, I wouldn’t go against the current uptrend anytime soon.
Stock Market Analysis–02-24-2011
The market has been in a pretty long uptrend since September 2010. There was a patchy spot in November, and then a few places that looked like we might pull back, but overall the bulls have passed every test up to this point. We’re at another iffy spot, but to really claim a downtrend we’d have to fall through $1275. I stopped out on the last of my long term positions today, but will be ready to jump back in some new things should the market continue its march upwards. A lot of the stocks that I’ve posted recently are still valid ideas, and the typical long term favorites are also interesting (AAPL, GOOG, AMZN, etc), but I’ll be refreshing the watch list in the near future…
Stock Market Analysis–01-26-2011
Every time you think the market’s going to drop, it finds new strength. While not quite continuing the uptrend yet, it’s drifting away from the bottom of the price channel. The decreasing volume says this could just be an upwards correction, but it’s interesting nonetheless. Some of the leaders that I’ve been hoping for a new entry point on, like F or AAPL, haven’t come down out of the clouds at all. Fortunately, AMZN is experiencing some profit taking before their earnings call though. I’ll be watching that one closely…
Stock Market Analysis – 12-31-2008
What a historical year 2008 turned out to be. With nearly a 50% drop from the year’s high to the low, we experienced volatility not seen for over 20 years. With a new president coming in and a single party controlling the government, there will be a lot of changes in the near future. Whether it’s for better or worse will be determined though. Once the volume picks back up after the holidays, look to see if the volatility spikes back up or if the market stays in consolidation mode.
My top thing to watch for 2009 is probably oil right now. The bubble will finish deflating, and at some point OPEC will find the correct supply balance for the shrinking markets. Since oil is less correlated to the general market than other equities, even if the market fails to turn around in 2009 I think it still has some potential to be a good bullish play. If the market does turn around, then all the other usual suspects are in play – AAPL, AMZN, GS, MOS, and whatever else shows up under my bullish stocks.
Stock Market Analysis – 10-23-2008
The volatility continues to amaze as a late run turned a huge negative day into a positive. One stock that impressed me today was AMZN. After an after hours earnings call yesterday that gave great earnings but a weak outlook, AMZN plunged and opened down over 13%. Aided by the late surge, AMZN ended up closing slightly positive today. Is there that much support here at $50 for them? It will be interesting to see how the holiday sales go this year.
Stock Market Analysis – 07-23-2008
The market never ceases to amaze me. After a volatile morning, things were pretty uneventful later in the day. Oil continues to drop, but it’s still in the healthy correction stage and shouldn’t be cause for the oil bears to celebrate yet. To me, the most interesting news came after the market close, when AMZN reported a knockout quarter despite the conditions in the economy. I’m a bit surprised that their retail business is still so strong, with their web services only accounting for 3 percent of revenue. Along with a supposedly much better Kindle in the works and more people shopping online to save gas money, there’s still some room for growth. Not that I would go long on growth stocks right now, but it’s always good to keep these things in mind.