-Executive Summary-

• The markets held onto their gains in the face of an early afternoon sell-off today.  There is important news brewing.  See below.
• Nvidia Corp. (Ticker: NVDA) stock has made a parabolic move over the past two weeks.  Please see our review of this below, in response to a subscriber-friend’s request at end of last week (Our thanks to Gary B.).
• LVLT is on the move!  A subscriber-friend from the “heartland” (Manhattan, KS) brought this one to our attention the other day and we did not move on it quickly enough.  It looks good. (Our thanks to Dr. Andrew).When you see something, let us know.  We will respond as quickly as we possibly can. Email : Support@stockmarketcompanion.com

This Stock Market Companion 15MinuteStocks Market Update is a powerful tool designed to help you make money in the stock market.  It’s web-based, therefore available wherever and whenever you are.  It is your essential link to the markets, delivers a broad to narrow summary of important market and company specific conditions and events, and prepares you to be ready for actionable ideas.  We show you when/where we put our own money to work… and when/where we take our profits/losses.  Please see our short (2 minute) website videos for more information.

– Markets “At a Glance” –

(Please scroll down to the end of the report to see your favorite benchmarks – Dollar, Oil, Gold … closing prices and daily direction.)

– Market Trends –

*Summary of terms from Trader Vic II-Principles of Professional Speculation (pg. 140-141)
*_________* Represents a change in trend rating.

– Market Perspectives –

For your added perspective, we’ve included these two different views of the broader market –

1. SMC SP-500 ETF Daily Chart (Click to open helpful chart in a separate browser window).

2. SMC SP-500 Weekly Chart (Spanning back through 2007)

– Today’s Highlights –

In our humble opinion, the most important things influencing the market were –

1. News out of Portugal. The Portuguese political leadership is adamantly stating that they don’t need a bail-out.  Tomorrow they are going to attempt an important bond sale.  If they are successful, they may be able to BREAK THE BACK of the endless speculation of sovereign default overseas.   There are of course many different opinions about this.  Consider this – Portugal GDP is 2% of the EU total.

Portugal’s STAND and Japan’s announcement that they would buy bonds of the European bailout fund helped put place a bottom under the market.

2. Alcoa announced earnings last night that were modestly favorable. The stock was down a bit today.

3. Oil prices closed above $91/barrel.

4. Smart phone related stocks are getting a push UPWARDS, following last week’s consumer electronics show.

5. This afternoon – rather abruptly – the market sold-off.  It recovered into the close.

– Story-Stock Investing –

Last Friday, an SMC subscriber asked us to share our take on Nvidia Corp. (Ticker: NVDA).

NVDA has made a parabolic run over the last week, surging from $15/share to now $20.28/share.  Many Stock Market Companion subscribers will remember that we made our purchase of NVDA at approx. $10.18/share in early September and exited in the $11 area, securing our +10% profit as the stock came pulling back sharply.  The stock was down from its $18.70 level last January, due to concerns that Intel Corporation was eating its lunch.

The advance this fall has been on the anticipation of NVDA’s success with their processor chips for smart phones – which we anticipated – but did not get back in on after the stock’s sudden move from $12 back back down close to our original entry. Yesterday was a crowning moment for NVDA when Intel Corp. announced that they had reached a $1.5 billion licensing agreement with NVDA! It appears that NVDA is gaining strong ground in the smart phone and tablet PC markets.

Here are our summary thoughts on NVDA –

1. PHOOEY! We wish that we had gotten back on the horse when the stock recovered from its decent into the mid $10’s and stabilized at the end of October.  When we are profitable on a stock, we do not like to give back all our profits, so our original exit was ok.  The stock retraced almost entirely back to our buy point.  We simply needed to be more open to the idea of getting back on board – much like we did recently with Ford.

Unlike Ford, with chip companies you never know for sure if their product is still relevant or being designed around and eliminated.  That is why NVDA went from $18.77/share in January 2010 to $8.30/share in August.

We will never forget how AMD Corp. was the stock to own from mid-2005 into early 2006, moving from $13/share to $42/share.  It then sank like a rock until it hit $2.41/share in early 2009.  It made a round trip back down to $13/share by early 2007 – so it wasn’t just the financial meltdown that caused the casualties.  AMD is a leading micro-processor manufacturer – second only to Intel.  So if AMD can disintegrate from $42 to $13 in a year – during which the overall stock market was favorable – you can understand why we are cautious with chip stocks.  This doesn’t mean however that we aren’t interested in owning them and running them hard.  It just means that we are careful.

2. Right now NVDA is basically back where it started +10% last year in terms of stock price.  We need now to keep an eye on it and see if it builds a lateral consolidation from here.  As prudent and successful stock investors, we cannot simply buy a stock that has gone vertical over the past months and hope that it goes higher from here.  That would be foolishness.

Speaking about chip stocks, we do like how RF MicroDevices (Ticker: RFMD) moved up higher above $8/share on nice volume and consummated its extension above multi-year resistance in the $7.50/share range.

Please remember – at the Stock Market Companion we do not and cannot give individual investment advice. According to the State of Washington RCW 21.20.005 the Stock Market Companion is not a Registered Financial Advisor and we do not render any advice on the basis of the specific investment situation of a particular individual. This information is for a wide readership and is not intended for any particular individual,  and under no circumstances should our Market Update or Watchlist be considered an investment recommendation or plan for any specific individual.  By accessing this material, you agree that the Stock Market Companion will not be held liable for any actions taken by a subscriber or other parties.  Please seek the counsel of a broker or other licensed investment professional for accurate pricing and concerning the suitability of all investments that you may be considering. Disclosure : You understand that the Stock Market Companion holds positions in the above mentioned securities.  Based on market related or personal events these positions may change without notice.

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Please remember – at the Stock Market Companion we do not and cannot give individual investment advice. According to the State of Washington RCW 21.20.005 the Stock Market Companion is not a Registered Financial Advisor and we do not render any advice on the basis of the specific investment situation of a particular individual. This information is for a wide readership and is not intended for any particular individual,  and under no circumstances should our SMC Intraday Update, SMC 15MinuteStocks Market Update or Watchlist be considered an investment recommendation or plan for any specific individual.  By accessing this material, you agree that the Stock Market Companion will not be held liable for any actions taken by a subscriber or other parties.  Please seek the counsel of a broker or other licensed investment professional for accurate pricing and concerning the suitability of all investments that you may be considering. Disclosure : Please understand that the Stock Market Companion may hold positions in the above mentioned securities.  Based on market related or personal events these positions may change without notice.

– Stock Market Companion – Current Holdings –

– Stock Market Companion – Performance –

Please click on this chart to see the Stock Market Companion 15MinuteStocks stock performance versus the SP-500.  It will open in a separate browser window.
* Gains (losses) do not include brokerage fees.   Our returns are very strong … BUT …  WE have to remind everyone just like all other financial sites in America – Past Performance is No Guarantee of Future Returns.  Unlike others however, our objective is to teach you to be able to make these types of strong returns On Your Own.

All of the investments – stocks, entries, and exits are listed on our Stock Market Companion Watchlist at the bottom of the spreadsheet, in the section labelled Former Holdings.

– Benchmarks “At a Glance” –

Data Source : Financial Visualizations Inc.

Signing-Off for Today,

Your -Stock Market Companion

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The Stock Market Companion (SMC) Market Update and Watchlist are published documents to subscribers that show how we (SMC) are viewing the markets and what we are watching, investing in or selling today.  This information is for a wide readership and is not intended for any particular individual,  and under no circumstances should this Market Update or Watchlist be considered an investment recommendation or plan for any specific individual.  By accessing this material, you agree that the Stock Market Companion will not be held liable for any actions taken by a subscriber or other parties.  You understand that the Stock Market Companion holds positions in the above mentioned securities.  Based on market related or personal events these positions may change without notice.

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