– Stock Market Companion – Current Holdings –

Nr.	Co.	Ticker	Action	Entry Date	Current Gain (Loss)
1	Gentiva Health	GTIV	Holding	11/15/2011	+5%

 

– 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	1,257.08	Index	UP = +12.80 points
DOW-30	12,097.83	Index	UP = +78.41
NASDAQ	2,655.76	Index	UP = +28.83 points

 

 

– Market Trends –

 

Trend	SP-500	DJ-30	NASDAQ
Short Term	Flat/UP	Flat/UP	Flat/UP
Intermediate	Flat	Flat	Flat
Long Term	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) –

 

SMC SP-500 ETF Daily Chart

 

 

Please click on the chart to view it in a larger size.

 

 

 

– Today’s Highlights –

 

Today, the markets opened HIGHER on expectations that European political leaders may seize the opportunity presented by the U.S. Federal Reserve’s coordinated actions last week to deal with their sovereign debt trouble.

The markets closed LOWER than the open, BUT STILL HIGHER for the day when the bond rating agency Standard and Poor’s confirmed that it was putting ALL Eurozone sovereign nations on CreditWatch, with negative implications.  According to Reuters, this means that there is a possibility for a downgrade within 3 months.  Click here for more information (Reuters article).

From a broader perspective this is what we know –

• Market participants are hungry for an end of year rally, but don’t want to get run-over in the face of a serious negative event emerging from Europe.
• Market participants are willing to step up on extreme weakness, and the equities market has responded in kind with tremendous gaps higher as we experienced last week.  Follow-through has been very limited.
• The markets are in a lateral range consolidation that ranges back to July.  The S&P 500 sits at approx. the same value it opened with at the end of December 2010.  The fact of the matter is, the broader market is basically treading water in the face of all this debt turmoil.  Individual stocks like US Steel (X $28.51); Bank of America (BAC $5.79) and a broad host of others have been crushed over the course of this last year.
• Sovereign nation debt has seriously hampered market performance, while individual householder debt in the USA has improved a little.
• The world has changed.  The days of endless credit for householders ended in approx. 2008.  The days of endless credit for nations ended in approx. 2010.

 

– Story-Stock Investing –

 

Stocks that are at key resistance areas / near all-time highs, following steep climbs last week include –

• Panera Bread Co. (PNRA $143.35)
• Akorn, Inc. (AKRX $10.79) – SMC Watchlist Stock.
• Perrigo Co. (PRGO $90.64)
• Taser, Inc. (TASR $6.15)  – Very interesting looking chart.
• Sonosite, Inc. (SONO 42.82) – Very interesting looking chart.
• Nike, Inc. (NKE $96.60) – Often mentioned at SMC as a winning company, but the investment entry is illusive.
• Home Depot (HD $40.23) – Often mentioned at SMC as a winning company, but investing in the stock would not have led to predictable outcomes.

Stocks that are at near recent extreme lows, and moving higher with fervor and interesting patterns are –

• Bank of America (BAC $5.79)
• U.S. Steel, Corp. (X $28.51)
• Gentiva Health (GTIV $6.12) – SMC Holding.

 

– Benchmarks “At a Glance” –

 

---