– Stock Market Companion – Current Holdings –

Nr.	Co.	Ticker	Action	Entry Date	Current Gain (Loss)
1	Boeing, Co.	BA	Holding	12/22/2011	+0%
3	Alcoa, Inc.	AA	Holding	1/3/2012	+7%
4	Dendreon, Inc.	DNDN	Holding	1/11/2012	+1%
5	Mitek, Inc.	MITK	Holding	1/12/2012	+3%
6	Cirrus Logic	CRUS	Holding	1/17/2012	-1%
7	Cree, Inc.	CREE	Holding	1/18/2012	+10%

– 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	1,316.33	Index	Flat = -2.10 points
DOW-30	12,660.46	Index	DOWN = -74.17 points
NASDAQ	2,816.55	Index	UP = +11.27 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 see a bigger, easy to read chart on a separate browser tab window).

 

– Today’s Highlights –

Today the market was influenced NEGATIVELY primarily by data from the U.S. Commerce Department concerning the 4th quarter Gross Domestic Product numbers that did NOT meet expectations of approx. +3% annualized growth.  The number released today by the U.S. Commerce Department was +2.8%.

However – this +2.8% GDP growth rate for the last quarter is still a far cry better than the +1.8% growth from the 3rd quarter 2011.   Here’s what we are thinking at SMC –

• A significant portion of this +2.8% GDP annualized growth is attributable to inventory build that may not be repeated (see Commerce Department report + Briefing.com) = This may mean lower GDP growth numbers ahead.
• Low but stable GDP growth and an equities market that has not gone anywhere in 10 years, gives plenty of room for growth companies topossibly emerge and there to be very interesting investments.

If GDP was stronger, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee would not be considering low lending rates until 2014.

The equities market has simply been very strong since mid-December and there is some natural profit taking occurring at the moment.

Here’s our perspective at Stock Market Companion –

Those investors like the Stock Market Companion who enjoyed excellent returns in 2009 and 2010 had every opportunity to take their profits in 2011.  We are now in 2012, which is an election year.  As long as the markets are not derailed by an extreme geo-political event like a major offensive in Iran or North Korea, we expect that this low – but steady – growth environment to provide very interesting opportunities ahead.

Yesterday represented a classic downside reversal day for the broader market.  The market experienced a trend-down day.  But we are not particularly concerned with such developments with our current holdings.  We want to give them room to breathe at this time as much as prudently possible.

 

– S.I.M.P.L.E.  Stock Investingtm –
– (Where each investment begins with a Story and ends with Earnings) –

S.I.M.P.L.E. Stock Investing is built upon these core concepts –

S = Story (What is / are the key catalyst(s) behind the company of interest?)

I = Investor Interest (Is the stock chart showing investor interest = buying or share accumulation?)

M = Market (Is the background market favorable for investing at this time?  Don’t Fight the Market! We know the vast majority of stocks move in the direction of the overall market).

P = Person or Product (Is there a particular person or product that makes the story work for this investment?)

L = Leader (Is the company a leader in its industry group or is its product a leader in its market?)

E = Earnings (Are current quarterly earnings and annual earnings growing?)

 

After the President’s State of the Union Address, we brought your attention to Transocean Ltd. (RIG).   Yesterday, a U.S. judge ruled favorably concerning RIG’s liability for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill last year.  Please click here for a useful article on the subject.  The shares have moved higher.  There are many complexities associated with RIG, involving the Gulf of Mexico trouble AND lower ocean rig leasing rates, which has an impact on earnings.

Here are two SMC Successful Investing Videos to give you an understanding of how we are viewing 3 stocks at the moment =

• Dendreon (DNDN $14.64)
• Ford Motor Co. (F $12.21)
• Dex-One Corporation (DEXO $1.91)

SMC Successful Investing Video #1

SMC Successful Investing Video #2

Excellent earnings were reported this week by both Caterpillar, Inc. (CAT $110.32) and J.C. Penney (JCP $40.26) as well as others … like Apple, Inc. (AAPL  $445.76).

– Benchmarks “At a Glance” –

 

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