Winning on Wall Street Podcast

The Daily WOWS 9/26/13 The S&P 500 and Dow snapped five-day losing streaks on Thursday on positive job market data but gains were limited as investors worried if Washington lawmakers would pass bills to avoid a government shutdown and possible U.S. debt default on time.Other data on housing and consumer prices were less positive signs of the recovery. But the encouraging jobless claims data comes shortly before September's unemployment report, which will be important input for the Federal Reserve as it decides when to change monetary policy.

The Daily WOWS 9/25/13 Down for a fifth session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA -0.40% lost 61.33 points, or 0.4%, at 15,273.26. The S&P 500 SPX -0.27%   also fell for a fifth session, closing down 4.65 points, or 0.3%, to 1,692.77, with health care losing the most and financials the best performing among its 10 major industry groups. The loss streak is the longest since Dec. 28, a time that had Wall Street fretting as politicians argued over combined spending cuts and tax hikes dubbed the “fiscal cliff.”  

The Daily WOWS 9/24/13 U.S. stocks ended mostly lower, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 extending their losing streaks to four days, as a drop in consumer confidence and worries over a Washington debt-ceiling fight outweighed a rise in home prices and easing concerns over the Middle East.Facebook FB +0.48%  climbed almost 3%, to $48.45, a new closing high. Citigroup analyst Mark May raised his rating on the social-networking company to buy from neutral, and also upped his price target on Facebook’s stock to $55 a share from $32. May based much of his upgrade on feedback from advertising and that Facebook’s future advertising opportunities.

The Daily WOWS 9/23/13 Apple settled higher by 5.0% and component suppliers like Cirrus Logic (CRUS 23.20, +1.19) and Skyworks Solutions (SWKS 25.86, +0.27) also displayed strength. The outperformance of Apple masked the losses among many other top tech components. Google (GOOG 886.50, -16.61) lost 1.8% and the newest Dow member Visa (V 196.24, -2.59) fell 1.3%. Just like Visa, the other two new Dow additions-Goldman Sachs (GS 165.25, -4.50) and Nike (NKE 68.98, -0.39)-ended in the red.

The Daily WOWS 9/20/13   Interview with Dave Landry: What’s the biggest misconception that novices have when it comes to the markets?What advice would you give to someone just starting out?                                  

The Daily WOWS 9/19/13   Tesla TSLA +0.16%  shares jumped 7%, at one point hitting a record high of $180.47. Groupon GRPN +0.44%  surged 9%. The stock was raised to buy from hold at Stifel Nicolaus on Thursday.

The Daily WOWS 9/18/13 The S&P 500 jumped 1.2%, closing at a record high of 1,725.52 after the Federal  failed to announce plans to reduce the pace of its asset purchases, as many had expected. Mr. Bernanke said economic data received since June has not been strong enough to justify scaling back asset purchases just yet. Meanwhile, gold spiked 4.4% and silver surged 6.1% to their respective $1366.30 and $23.13 per troy ounce. Miners also received an afternoon boost, and the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX 28.25, +2.32) settled higher by 9.0%.

The Daily WOWS 9/17/13 Volume at the NYSE totaled a piddly 577 mln shares versus an average of 661 mln shares. The light volume reflected a wait-and-see mindset ahead of Wednesday's highly-anticipated announcement from the FOMC on whether it has decided to begin curtailing its asset purchase program. S&P 500 sits on the cusp of a new all-time high just as the Fed is presumably on the cusp of cutting back on its asset purchases.  Some believe the market is only where it is because of the Fed's asset purchase program.  Accordingly, a decision on Wednesday to cut back on its asset purchases will provide a good signpost in the future for determining just how well the stock market and the economy were able to handle a Fed tapering. Today, it was pretty much steady as she goes.  Bolstered by the news that Microsoft (MSFT 32.93, +0.13) is raising its quarterly dividend by 22% to $0.28 per share and is replacing a prior $40 bln share repurchase program that was set to expire at the end of the month with a new one, the S&P 500 recorded its tenth gain in the last eleven sessions. Big moves today were limited to individual stocks like Apple (AAPL 455.32, +5.20), which jumped 1.2% on a bargain hunting bid and assumptions that it may soon follow Microsoft's lead in announcing an increased return of capital to shareholders. Facebook (FB 45.07, +2.56) also outperformed on little news but strong volume. Commodities were pretty much weak across the board.  Per usual, the performance of oil ($105.49, -$1.10) and gold ($1310.00, -$7.80) caught most of the market's attention.  Their weakness was considered by some to be a harbinger of a Fed tapering announcement since it is presumed that a tapering will help keep inflation pressures at bay.

The Daily WOWS 9/16/13 With Larry Summers becoming an afterthought in the Fed chair discussion, bonds and equities rallied while the dollar slipped.  The 10-yr yield ended lower by two basis points at 2.87%. In addition, news that Russia and the United States have signed an agreement to decommission Syria's chemical weapons within a year also contributed to the early bid. The intraday reversal in Treasuries may have reflected the market's expectation for a $10-$15 billion tapering announcement coming at Wednesday's FOMC press conference.

The Daily WOWS 9/13/13   ]powerpress] University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index dropped to its lowest reading since April (76.8) in the preliminary September reading. That was down from 82.1 in August and well below the consensus expectation of a drop to only 82.0. Typically, consumer sentiment follows trends in employment, equity prices, oil prices, and media reports.    

The Daily WOWS 9/12/13 Gold and silver got smoked today. We’ll get fresh readings on how consumers are doing with a sentiment report and a retail sales update tomorrow. Plus look for new data on producer prices and business inventories.Most economists think the economy has recovered enough for the Fed to announce the start of tapering at the Sept. 17-18 meeting, according to a Wall Street Journal survey.  

The Daily WOWS 9/11/13 The averages ended in mixed fashion as the Nasdaq shed 0.1% while the S&P 500 added 0.3% to register its seventh consecutive advance. For its part, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.9%. Apple (AAPL 467.71, -26.93) sank 5.4% after the company's overnight product refresh event in China did not reveal a deal withChina Mobile (CHL 55.87, -1.53) as many investors had expected. The underperformance of Apple kept the Nasdaq and the technology sector (-0.5%) in the red throughout the day while the S&P was able to shake off the opening weakness. The price-weighted Dow was unaffected by Apple as the largest member of the blue chip index, IBM (IBM 190.70, +4.10), gained 2.2% after saying last night it will be selling its lower margin customer care business process outsourcing services business to Synnex for $505 million. Including IBM, 26 of 30 Dow components ended in the green.  

The Daily WOWS 9/10/13 The S&P 500 climbed 0.7% as all ten sectors settled in positive territory. Stocks registered the bulk of their gains during the opening hour after upbeat economic data from China combined with Syria's agreement to put its chemical weapons under international control lured participants into equities.  Crude oil and gold futures sold off in the morning before spending the remainder of the session near their lows. Gold fell 1.6% to $1364.90 per troy ounce while oil slumped 2.0% to $107.29 per barrel. Treasuries also faced some selling, which sent the benchmark 10-yr yield higher by four basis  

The Daily WOWS 9/09/13 S&P 500  managed to regain its 50-day moving average (1666/1667) for the first time in two weeks. Equities climbed from the open, bolstered by reassuring economic reports out of China and Japan, headlines suggesting a strike against Syria could possibly be avoided, and the notion that the relatively disappointing employment report on Friday has lowered the probability of a big tapering announcement at the September 17-18 FOMC meeting. Overnight, China reported a larger-than-expected trade surplus of $28.61 billion as imports grew 7.0% (11.3% expected) and exports increased 7.2% (6.0% forecast). Elsewhere, Japan saw its second quarter GDP revised up to 0.9% quarter-over-quarter from 0.6% and Tokyo received the nod to host the 2020 Olympics. Fertilizer names also registered solid gains after Russian President Vladimir Putin said the ongoing potash dispute with Belarus needs to be resolved. Mosaic (MOS 44.31, +2.15) ended higher by 5.1%.

The Daily WOWS 9/6/13 Interest rates are moving lower as the 10 Year Treasury is yielding 2.89% down 9 basis points.Gold, Silver and Oil all rally today.