– Stock Market Companion – Current Holdings –

Nr.	Co.	Ticker	Action	Entry Date	Current Gain (Loss)
1	Gentiva Health	GTIV	Holding	11/15/2011	+4%

 

– 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.)

(AS of 15:00 EST on Wednesday, December 7, 2011)

Market	Price (Today’s Close)	Unit of Measure	Today’s Direction
SP-500	1,236.5	Index	Down = -18.69 points
DOW-30	12,021.62	Index	Down = -162.64 points
NASDAQ	2,612.26	Index	Down = -34.59 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’s action in the equities market place simply validates this idea = Market participants are not willing to risk additional exposure to the markets when there is so much uncertainty in Europe.

We mentioned on Friday that what we didn’t like about the markets sudden reversal higher on the news of closer collaboration in Europe was the lack of volume behind the move.  Today in the markets, we get to see why = There is no confidence in what Europe is embarking on.  There is no clarity that this will resolve over-leveraged sovereign nation’s cost of accessing capital.

From an gross-domestic-product growth or recessionary argument for Europe, today’s market participants are seeing a lot of trouble ahead for 2012.  Share prices of publicly traded companies are taking it in the chin that next year’s earnings may be quite lean as recessionary pressures increase in Europe and then spread to other parts of the world – like the U.S.

Back in November, we were setting our bar high for re-engagement in an Apple, Inc. investment, partly due to the uncertainties surrounding the impact on production and near term quarterly earnings due to flooding in Thailand and the impact this flooding may have on hard-disk drive manufacturers.  Today the markets received very clear signals from Intel Corp. (INTC $23.86) that the shortage of disk-drives on the market would limit personal computer (PC) production and sales.  Intel reduced its gross revenue projections for the next quarter by $1 billion.  This is taking quite a bit of enthusiasm out of the tech market in general.

– Story-Stock Investing –

On Friday, we pointed out that both Boeing Co. (BA $70.42) and Nike (NKE $96.66) were developing excellent price patterns from their charts.  We also mentioned that both companies have brought forth excellent news over the last quarter –

Nike had delivered very strong earnings expectations based on a +16% increase in real orders.

Boeing had delivered very strong quarterly earnings, reported what may be their largest order ever received for civilian aircraft, and announced settlement with the National Labor Board the dispute involving the new Boeing production plant in South Carolina.

In summary – both the technical (stock price performance picture from the price chart) and the fundamental (earnings, financial considerations) aspects for both Boeing and Nike were adding up to what appears to be good investment ideas.

Today, we have the benefit of seeing how individual stocks respond to the overall market, even when both companies have truly excellent merits for investment.  The market is down strongly and both Boeing and Nike have reversed their positive technical picture and appear quite able to sink back down into their lateral (horizontal) price developments – until the background market improves sufficiently to allow these stocks to advance higher.

Today, Boeing announced an increase to their quarterly dividend of $0.02 to $0.44/share.  If we multiply $0.44×4 = $1.76.  $1.76 / today’s share price of $70.55 = +2.5% annual dividend yield.  This sweetens the idea behind an eventual investment in Boeing even more.  In Boeing we see a cyclical company possibly entering a strong earnings growth  cycle, which may bring strong share price appreciation, in addition to a nice underlying dividend.

 

– Benchmarks “At a Glance” –

 

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