It's been a nice little run for the market the last couple of
weeks (albeit on mediocre volume).
Today ended up being a give-back day in the making. Stocks like
Aetna (
AET
) , Aflac (
AFL
) , and Norfolk Southern (
NSC
) all took a hit following their earnings results today. We saw
shares of Wyndham Worldwide (
WYN
) buck the trend, as Wall Street seemingly liked how the company
executed last quarter. During the recent rally of the past few
weeks, we have seen a pick-up in momentum plays, especially in the
commodity space. It's a tricky spot for long-term investors, as one
needs to understand where we are in the cycle. At this point, it
appears we are right in the middle, so we can go either way as far
as direction goes. I like to use names like U.S. Steel (
X
) , Freeport McMoran (
FCX
) and several others as bellwethers to give me a quick
snapshot.
On a separate note, I'm not sure if anyone caught who rang the
opening bell at the NYSE yesterday. It was none other than the cast
of "Jersey Shore", the big MTV reality hit focused on young adults
who worship at the altar of the gym, working out, partying, keeping
the hair just right. I get that Viacom (which owns the MTV brand)
trades on the NYSE and we certainly see various brands of companies
invited down to the NYSE for the honor of ringing the bell, but the
cast of the "Jersey Shore"? Talk about a "cheap pop" once again
coming into play in the financial media. I don't want to go
overboard here, but there are so many individuals more deserving of
the honor, that someone at the NYSE should have their head examined
with that joke we saw yesterday. I have ranted before about the
business media and their focus just being trader-driven almost
exclusively, but let's start to give investors a bit more respect
and not turn Wall Street into a carnival act. The markets have
certainly had enough problems to deal with the last couple of
years.
Back to what really matters, we'll continue to monitor the
markets and will keep subscribers updated as to any new
recommendations or changes we may make. Stay tuned.
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, as well as a detailed explanation of
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