-Executive Summary-

• The equities markets and the U.S. dollar were thrown under the bus today.  Ugly.
• The catalyst for today’s negative market performance was the U.S. Bureau of Labor’s Nonfarm Payroll report.  Jobs aren’t being created anywhere near what is needed to improve the economy, or at a rate that would be expected at this point in a supposed “recovery”.  See below.
• Can we not simply say that the U.S. government’s approach of simply throwing money at the economy for the past two years has been a failed policy?  Up until QEII, we feel that the Federal Reserve has done a good job at providing meaningful stimulus, but not the U.S. congress and executive office.  Now things are simply a mess. The U.S. government (executive office and congress) has not passed suitable policy to lower business taxes, encourage employment, and stimulate job creation within our borders, while taking the courageous actions needed to cut entitlement spending and liabilities.  The first-time home buyer’s tax credit was a success.  Unfortunately, with Obamacare, the U.S. government has gone dramatically in the opposite direction = another unfunded liability that causes employers to think again about hiring.  Both parties are at fault.  Without real leadership and hard decisions we are not going to see a meaningful turnaround.  It is possible.  Consider – Since last summer, the U.K. prime minister Mr. Cameron is steering his country to cut government spending by 40%.  That’s leadership.
• Fortunately, there are more growth stock stories to come.
• WalMart announced at $15 Billion stock repurchase program.  We “think out loud” below to a conclusion about this.  Have your pencil and calculator ready and follow along with our calculations.
• The SPY (S&P 500 ETF) is getting close to near term support and has been down 5 weeks running.
• Here’s what has our attention – ZAGG is holding up quite nicely in the face of the market weakness.  So too is – MMI (Motorola Mobility); AMRN = Simply quiet today.; Soda quiet as well; APKT = holding on well.  FCEL too.  If HPQ doesn’t punch down below $36, we may get interested again – for a bounce.

• Here is a video interview of a father and son using the Stock Market Companion successfully together – as a teaching and investing tool.
  

– Stock Market Companion – Current Holdings –

Nr.	Co.	Ticker	Action	Entry Date	Current Gain (Loss)

If the above “Current Holdings” table is empty it means that we are not holding ANY stocks at this time and that we are therefore 100% in cash.

– 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	Price (Today’s Close)	Unit of Measure	Today’s Direction
SP-500	1,300.16	Index	Down = -12.78 points
DOW-30	12,151.26	Index	Down = -97.29 points
NASDAQ	2,732.78	Index	Down =-40.53 points
NASDAQ 100	2,292.31	Index	Down = -34.99 points

– Market Trends –

Trend	SP-500	DJ-30	NASDAQ	NASDAQ 100
Short Term	Down	Down	Down	Down
Intermediate	Flat	Flat	Flat	Flat
Long Term	Lateral	Lateral	Lateral	Lateral

*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 this chart of the broader market (Successful stock investors develop and start with a minds-eye view of the broader market and keep it clear) –

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

– Today’s Highlights –

The market was thrown under the bus this morning before the open with the release of the US Government Nonfarm Payroll Report for May.  It’s not that jobs weren’t created, it’s just that there aren’t near enough jobs being created.  We’ve talked about this already this week.  Click here for the detail straight from the U.S. Bureau of Labor.

After the initial selling, again buyers showed up – but by the middle of the day the majority of them gave up and the market rolled-back over to close in the lower third of today’s move.  This spells out one consolation – the market did not close at the LOW of the day.

We’ll see what next week brings.

– Story-Stock Investing –

Here’s what we think.  On one hand, we are primarily growth stock investors and typically don’t like leaving ourselves at risk to the overall market in anything that doesn’t look like a real opportunity for strong share price appreciation. If the stock market continues to weaken considerably, so too will WalMart.  In 2008 to 2009, the stock dropped -21% in value (Peak to Trough).  This share repurchase plan and the current dividend yield will help to insulate the stock from serious disruption.  Additionally, WalMart does have new management in place.  On the other hand, if the Walmart stock begins pushing above $54/share it may be interesting for a +5% – 7% run – which would take it to the high end of its 11 year lateral consolidation.  Add the 2.5% dividend to the let’s say 5-7% run and we start looking at a +7.5 to +9.5% return.  Not too shabby. It might be worth a modest investment, particularly if WalMart was able to close the gap at the same time with the value of the overall market.  But maybe the overall market value is going to come DOWN more towards WalMart’s P/E!

Intel too has announced a share repurchase plan of similar proportions, and the stock hasn’t gone anywhere since the announcement.  Last year, Texas Instruments announced an approx. +24% repurchase plan and the shares shot UP +50%.

What would be perhaps interesting is if WalMart shares sank with a weak market and then a purchase was made.

At this point, let’s fall back on an underlying SMC idea… we like the odds to be STACKED in our favor.  The above listed factors does SLANT WalMart in our favor.  Slant however does not equal Stacked.

We aren’t going to run out and buy WalMart shares right now.  We are going to keep it in the back of our cap.

Please click on this chart to see the Stock Market Companion 15Minute Market Update 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” –

US Dollar	1.4631 USD = 1 Euro	USD / EUR	Dollar = Down
Gold	$1,542.40	Ounce	Gold = UP
Oil	$100.57	Barrel (West Texas Crude)	Oil = Flat (but shaken around today)
30 Yr. Fixed Mortgage	4.69%	Percent	Flat
10 Yr. Bond Yield	2.997	Percent	Down at lows.
1 Yr. CD	1.16	Percent	Flat

Data Source : Financial Visualizations Inc.

Please help us by sending your valuable feedback to – Support@stockmarketcompanion.com

Signing-Off for Today,

Your -Stock Market Companion

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