April 26, 2009

It's just like Paris Hilton; it doesn't make the headlines anymore. On Friday, the 24th, four more banks were taken over by the FDIC, bringing the 2009 total to I believe 29 banks that have closed their doors. We have lost, through April, more banks than we did in 2008 (25 gone), and more than were closed from 200-2007 (27 gone). For the economy to bottom, we have been looking for housing and the banks to bottom. While TARP funds have kept the big ones alive for now, we would like to see the number of bank failures slow down rather than speed up, before we can call it all clear. Anyways, the markets were down for the week, but are stunningly off their March 9th lows. Earnings will again be the story this week.

Diamonds and Dogs
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

Diamonds
Yum Brands (YUM) rallied 7 ½% to $34.52 after their fast food sales were considered better than expected. YUM has actually held in over the last several months as investors have seen them as a defensive play on the market.

Dogs
Men's Wearhouse (MW) was a dog today and I can guarantee that. The stock fell $1.82 to finish the session at $17.72 after an analyst downgrade. MW is trading about 70% higher than its March low of about $10-11.

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009

Diamonds
Caterpillar (CAT) reported a loss for the most recent quarter but investors may think the bad news is already in the stock as CAT climbed higher, finishing up $1.06 at $32.45.

Dogs
Morgan Stanley (MS) is taking less risk and the wall flower showed it in an earnings report that was greeted much worse by the street than the other Wall Street firm peers. MS traded down $2.21 to close the day at $22.44, a drop of almost 9% as their first quarter loss was bigger than expected. With the large cap financials, who honestly knows what their loss or gain is these days.