Ode to Steve Jobs

All the world was abuzz today about the iPhone. This is one gorgeous, sexy, amazing-looking product. Although I've used a PC for years, I bought my first Macintosh early in 1984, and I worked at Apple for a few years. Steve Jobs has been my hero since I was about 14 years old, and the adventures he has had in his business life make Odysseus look like a bore.

Steve Jobs has more style in his pinkie than Bill Gates has in his whole body. And even though the Google founders could buy and sell Steve Jobs many times over, I doubt there's anyone in the country that would opt for lunch with the Google guys over Steve Jobs. He's amazing. As is the press coverage....the top story on CNN!


As well as Fox.....


So it's not surprise that Apple exploded higher today....on volume of over 100 million shares! It wasn't that many years ago that the entire stock market traded 100 million shares. Now just one stock can do it. Just look at this graph!


This is a very late posting, so I'm going to have to tear through it. Boeing (BA) still looks like it's changing trends.


COF, mentioned many times in this space, is moving achingly slowly, but at least it's moving down.


Express Scripts (ESRX), a favorite here, looks terrific. Lower lows and lower highs are clearly intact.


CSX still looks good on the short side.


And FTO is looking like it has a real chance at completing its head and shoulders pattern.


HES is moving nicely lower with all the oil stocks (yep, I got blown out of those OIH calls first thing this morning).


And Hilton (HLT) is obeying the "trendline changing from support to resistance" phenomenon.


Oh, and then there's RIMM. I set my stop too tight on this. It got killed today - obviously because of Apple. I mean, the Blackberry is the most boring piece of crap on the planet compared to the sexy iPhone. Who wants one of those ugly Blackberries now? That's so 2002.


RTI continues to behave as any bearish pick should.


...as does SIE...


...and TSO...


It's late, so I'd better publish this. I hopefully will have more time tomorrow for some general market analysis. Thanks for stopping by!

Even a Bomb Can't Stop the Bulls

Set aside all the dogma. All the points of view. All the rationale. It boils down to this simple fact:

The mentally-unstable leader of a country widely recognized as one of the most hazardous and threatening in the world successfully deployed a nuclear bomb.

And how did the market react? It went up to its highest point in human history (as measured by the Dow Jones Industrial Average).

Something is very wrong here. I can't explain it, and I certainly can't fight it. I'm sick of it, but that obviously matters not a whit. I haven't thrown in the bear towel yet, but it's definitely balled up in my right hand, and my right arm is extended behind my ear, ready to hurl it.

In the meantime, I've been scaling out of short/put positions (including indexes) and moving into long positions. I do this with some trepidation, especially considering how in relative terms the market seems so high these days. Take note of this Dow 30 chart (in spite of the Dow's pushing a bit above the upper resistance line):


One recent suggestion that did quite well was Express Scripts (ESRX) which has been falling nicely (I've circled the point where I suggested it as a short).


Google, mentioned last week as a long, is likewise prospering. I'd add to this "the market is insane!" notion the fact that they just spent $1.6 billion on a company which has never made a single penny of profit and is threatened on many sides with horrendous potential legal action.


US Steel, also mentioned as a long candidate (at the circled area) is also on the rise.


I don't have time for a long entry today, but I'll reiterate that BLUD looks sweet as a long. It had another good day today. This is a beautiful saucer pattern, folks.

Stop New High Mania!

They just couldn't let us have a triple digit down day, could they? The Dow was down about 115 points earlier, but we closed down 80. Oh, well. Not a bad day, particularly since the media is all ga-ga over the possibility that the Dow is within spitting distance of an all-time high. It would be nice for that not to happen.

My portfolios were up today, but not as much as they might have been if oil had cooperated. OIH was up about 2% as oil and related companies tried to recover from its recent bashing.


The aforementioned $INDU gave back yesterday's gains and is clearly showing some respect for that trendline that it is under.


The $RUT is hopefully stuck in a rut. That horizontal trendline is the "throw in the towel" zone, and we do not want it to cross on the upside. This is a nice bearish engulfing pattern at this point.


More short ideas. Here's DST......


ESRX, offered up a week or two ago, is doing nicely.


As is NVR, also suggested a while back.


One I discovered today was Panera Bread, PNRA.


That's it for now. As always, good luck in your trading.