Stock Trading

The industrial manufacturing conglomerate Raven Industries (RAVN) will announce its first quarter fiscal 2014 financial results on the morning of Monday, May 20. Raven Industries president and chief executive officer Dan Rykhus will lead a conference call for investors to provide greater insights into operational highlights for the quarter that just ended on April 30 and discuss the company's financial performance during that period. Shares of RAVN closed at $34.43 per share during the May 17 trading session before the announcement of Raven Industries, Inc.'s first quarter fiscal 2014 earnings report, which corresponds to a remarkable 31 percent rise for the company's stock price so far in 2013. By contrast, the market's benchmark S&P 500 Index has gained a healthy 17.89 percent year-to-date in 2013. The strong performance by RAVN thus far in 2013 is representative of the unique business model and superb execution by the company's senior

Another week, another record high. Nothing new there, though at this point the market's gotten uncomfortably overbought.The rationale side of your brain says that's a reason to sell… or at least stop buying. Yet, the instinct to want to jump onto this rising rocket also makes sense - this may well be the beginning of a rarely-seen true melt-up. They always end badly, but what a ride they take you on while they're in motion.Which one are we seeing right now? We'll talk about that in a moment. First, let's slice and dice some recent economic data. Economic Calendar Whew! What a jam-packed week of economic data. There's too much to look at each individual piece of information, so let's just stick with the highlights.First and foremost, not only are consumers feeling less and less inflation, they're getting dangerously close to deflation. As of April, the annualized

It is the middle of the month, and once again it is time to look at auto sales as they relate to satellite radio provider Sirius XM (SIRI). I provide these updates at the middle and end of each month so that investors can track the progress, and perhaps even develop a trading strategy around the news flow. If an investor can anticipate the news prior to the press reporting it, and can find the right action point going into the mainstream media reporting news, a profitable trade can be had.For Sirius XM, the equity is running at 52 week high territory. This means good news can make a run continue, while bad news can let some air out of the tires.For the first half of May, the auto sector is remaining at a SAAR pace of about 14.8 million. The second half of April saw sales taper

It was another winning week for the markets. Stocks pushed higher once again! Last weekend, in my Market Forecast, I wrote: "For the new week, I think the markets need to consolidate a bit here. If not, it’ll need to go on a parabolic rise. Energy stocks were weak on Friday as the dollar pushed higher. We’ll have to watch the dollar in the coming week. It’ll likely be a stock/sector-picking environment. As long as the financials can keep their levels, I think the broader market will be able to hold above 1600. Techs seem to have caught buyers’ attention; we’ll see if the buying can continue." Financials led the rally, and techs kept the buyers’ attention as well. It was a slow start on Monday, but, by Wednesday, SPX was already testing 1660. Thursday afternoon saw some quick profit-taking. But, that didn’t last at all. Buyers came in on Friday morning and the markets closed at the high of the week! We didn’t trade much last week as things pushed higher at a fast pace: 09:28 | Ecstatic Plays SPY ($166.12) Sold to Close 0524P166 May 166 put, at $0.93 -15% 07:28 | HappyTrading LNKD ($181.80) Sold to Close 0524P180 May 180 put, at $2.81 -2% 11:22 | Ecstatic Plays LNKD ($187.00) Sold to Close 05C190 May 190 calls, at $1.80 -52% 08:12 | Ecstatic Plays CLF ($23.40) Sold to Close 05C22 May 22 calls, at $1.37 -12% 07:09 | Ecstatic Plays MPC ($76.00) Sold to Close 05P77.5 May 78 put, at $2.40 +17% For the week, the Dow was up +235.91 points; SPX added +33.77 points; Nasdaq gained +62.39 points. Gold had a big down week, sinking below $1360/ounce. Oil went up a bit to trade near $96/barrel. Asian markets were mostly higher at the time of this writing. Let’s see where the US markets closed on Friday: SPX SPX added +17 points to close at 1667.47. Its daily MAs and MACD glided up. Nasdaq Nasdaq gained +33.72 points to close at 3498.97. Its daily MAs and MACD also went higher. Well, both SPX and the Dow are in ever-higher uncharted territory. Nasdaq had a strong week, and has been particularly strong since breaking above 3300. For the new week… To read the rest of this article, please subscribe to HappyTrading "Premium Articles" by going to the Premium Services (click here) page. If you are already a subscriber, please click here: Market Forecast 5/19/13.

The U.S. dollar had a good week ending May 17th. The dollar index (UUP) closed the week above what I call the "QE2 reference price," the level of the index the day before Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke telegraphed the imminent arrival of a second round of quantitative easing in late August 2010. Since then, the dollar index has only crossed this level once, although it came extremely close to doing so last month. Trading relative to the QE2 reference price is an important symbol of the market's sentiment toward the U.S. dollar. When QE3 failed to drive the U.S. dollar lower, the QE2 reference price loomed larger and larger with time. (click to enlarge) The dollar index surges into its QE2 reference price Traders have gotten quite bullish on the U.S. dollar. Reuters reported that bullish bets on the U.S. dollar have reached an 11-month high: "Currency speculators

When examining Uni-Pixel's (UNXL) "manufacturing and supply" agreement with Eastman Kodak (EKDKQ.PK), it's important to note there are two sides to every transaction. On one side, it's clear that Uni-Pixel thinks the Kodak agreement is crucial to its success and allows it to ramp UniBoss faster, cheaper and in greater quantities. On the recent 1Q 2013 conference call, Uni-Pixel executives talked glowingly about the expertise Kodak brings in "large scale manufacturing and commercialization." CEO Reed Killion even went as far as to point out the explosive expansion opportunity with Kodak and laid out a target for 10 million units of monthly capacity by the end of 2014.It's also evident the agreement will provide significant economics to Kodak. On the conference call, Reed Killion said, "The revenue share will be on equitable terms." If that isn't explicit enough, the two underwriters of Uni-Pixel's recent primary offering, Cowen and Craig

Patience will be required this week before jumping on the bullish dollar bandwagon. The timing of this week's economic diary is very important and will have a clearly defined market impact. The dollar is vulnerable for a correction until the end of Wednesday on event risk before the potential for fresh gains late in the week as eurozone and global doubts increase again.Congressional testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke is due on Wednesday, which will be followed by the latest FOMC minutes later in the day. The dollar will be vulnerable to selling pressure on Bernanke and the minutes as the tone is not likely to meet the market's hawkish expectations. On Thursday, however, there is the latest PMI flash PMI data for China and the eurozone. This data poses important risks for China, the eurozone and the global economy with evidence of fresh weakness, which is likely to

Here’s your Cheat Sheet to this week’s top mergers and acquisition news: Markets are at 5-year highs! Discover the best stocks to own. Click here for our fresh Feature Stock Pick now! Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE:HPQ): Current price $21.26 SAP (NYSE:SAP) Co-Chief Executive Bill McDermott has told The Times that HP tried to offload the United Kingdom software house Autonomy onto SAP sometime prior to April. The latter had been approached by HP following its being advised that the business was “available,” but SAP was not excited by the notion. McDermott commented, “We were aware that it was on the market at one time but were never seriously interested in Autonomy.” Industry players were made “aware” that Autonomy was up for sale sometime before April when Chief Executive Meg Whitman announced during a visit to London that the firm was not for sale, and that HP would go on with its $11 billion purchase, in the face of having to write down its value by $8.8 billion. Are these stocks a buy or sell? Let us help you decide. Check out our Stock Picker Newsletter now. First Merchants Corporation (NASDAQ:FRME): Current price $16.52 On Monday, First Merchants and CFS Bancorp (NASDAQ:CITZ) reached a definitive agreement through which CFS will merge with and into First Merchants, and its wholly-owned bank subsidiary, Citizens Financial Bank, will merge with and into First Merchants Bank. Through the terms, shareholders of CFS will have the right to receive 0.65 shares of First Merchants common stock for each share of CFS common stock owned. Calculated on the close of First Merchants’ common stock on May 10 of $16.14, the transaction value is roughly $114.7 million, with an implied price per share of CFS common stock of $10.49. The transaction should close in the fourth quarter. Are these stocks a buy or sell? Let us help you decide. Check out our Stock Picker Newsletter now. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT): Current price $34.87 Shares of Barnes & Noble (NYSE:BKS) spiked last week on chatter that Microsoft, which owned a 17 percent interest in NOOK Media, the Barnes & Noble subsidiary that develops the NOOK e-reader tablets and related content, was making a $1 billion offer to acquire the entity outright and take it over, so as to incorporate (possibly) the Windows operating system over the current Android OS that runs on the tablets. Although Microsoft apparently did not intend to do anything, there was much talk of the proposed deal, which by one calculation would have come to approximately $27 per share of Barnes & Noble stock, explaining why when the idea reached the street, shares spiked to almost $22 a share in the trading day, according to Insider Monkey. Are these stocks a buy or sell? Let us help you decide. Check out our Stock Picker Newsletter now. Don’t Miss: The Fed: Don’t Worry, We’ll Keep An Eye On Things. Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE:WFC): Current price $39.88 In the prospectus regarding its capital increase published on Tuesday, Commerzbank said that is in intensive negotiations to divest the majority of its $7.4 billion in British property loans. The bank wants to sell the portfolio to the private equity investor Lone Star and Wells Fargo, according to a knowledgeable source. Commerzbank is selling off the United Kingdom property loans division of its mortgage unit Hypothekenbank Frankfurt International, formerly known as Eurohypo, so as to reduce the size of its balance sheet. Are these stocks a buy or sell? Let us help you decide. Check out our Stock Picker Newsletter now. Kansas City Southern (NYSE:KSU): Current price $117.20 Analyst Benoit Poirier at Desjardins Securities believes that both Canadian National Railway Co. (NYSE:CNI) and Canadian Pacific Railway (NYSE:CP) should think about acquiring Kansas City Southern, the biggest railroad in Mexico, as he thinks that a potential purchase could be on the Canadian railroads’ agendas. He outlined the rationa

New research shows that investment savings and financial security, rather than age, now determine when near-retirees feel ready to retire. Despite improving economic conditions, Maritz Research‘s recent Retirement Study marks $500,000 as the tipping point at which people feel comfortable to retire, and many American workers are worried they won’t be able to afford retirement.. Maritz Research collected responses from 1,000 participants in December 2012, 500 recent retirees, and 500 near-retirees, all with at least $100,000 in savings. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! Not only did the study yield interesting results about the financial point at which workers feel prepared to retire, but its report also demonstrates the difference near-retirees have in attitude compared to that of recent retirees. The near-retirees indicated more anxiety over their immediate future — whether they’d have enough money to last them through retirement and cover their increased healthcare expenses — compared to the 79 percent of recent retirees who claimed to feel optimistic about their future financial security. The results of the 2013 Retirement Confidence Survey, the nation’s longest-running annual retirement survey put on by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, illustrated different numbers, but similar trends in attitudes when it released its report in March. The RCS is a random, nationally representative survey of 1,000 individuals age 25 and over, and it, too, reported “a sharp decline in Americans’ confidence about their ability to secure a financially comfortable retirement.”  Thirteen percent of workers reported feeling confident in their ability to have enough money to live comfortably through their retirement years, compared to that of the 18 percent of retirees that share that confidence. Thus, similar to Maritz Research’s study, retirees tended to foster more confidence in their prospective futures than workers did. The RCS also illuminated the different determining factors that now go into one’s retirement age, a number that has risen for many, according to the 22 percent of workers in the 2013 RCS who claimed that their expected ages of retirement had increased in the past year. Workers most frequently cited the poor economy and their distrust in Social Security as the main reasons for postponing retirement. Maritz Research and the RCS therefore both demonstrated that financial security, rather than age, is now commonly the establishing factor for one’s retirement timeline. Once that timeline is created, the Maritz Research study yielded interesting results about its planning stages. While the research illuminated that 40 percent of retirees wait until within 10 years of retirement to begin planning, it also indicated that 61 percent of recent retirees establish a relationship with a financial advisor before retiring, up from 52 percent in 2005. One can only speculate why workers tend to wait as long as they do before planning. A close analysis of the reported decrease in economic confidence and workers’ ability to comfortably retire may highlight the main reasons workers are reluctant to plan. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! Perhaps most significant part of both studies’ results is the fact that most of those surveyed claimed to believe that “retirement is an outdated concept,” an assumption shared by the 69 percent of workers in the RCS who say they plan to work after they retire, and the 37 percent of the near-retirees in the Maritz Research study who share the same belief. Workers are clearly adusting their expectations about retirement, and they illustrate the reality that, for many Americans, the idea of a true, old-fashioned retirement seems like an impossibility. Don’t Miss: Mom’s Top Gift? Money-Smart Kids. Read the original article f

Once you become an Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) user, you stay an Apple user. That seems to be the main conclusion drawn from a recent survey done by market research company Forrester Research. Is Apple now a once-in-a-decade buying opportunity? Click here to get your 24-page Ultimate Cheat Sheet to Apple’s Stock now! Forrester Research surveyed 9,766 “global information workers” to figure out which mobile ecosystem attracts the most faithful users. Interestingly, the overwhelming majority of computer users have little to no brand loyalty at all. In fact, 85 percent of worldwide computer users were labeled by Forrester Research as “Free Radicals.” This group of users is not loyal to any particular mobile ecosystem and consists of users who either own a single device or own multiple devices from various ecosystems. The remaining 15 percent of the world’s mobile computer users fall into two different categories of ecosystem dedication — “Loyalists” or “Devotees.” The “Loyalists” consist of users who own multiple devices that are primarily from one ecosystem. However, users in this group also own mobile devices from competing ecosystems. According to Forrester’s survey, 58 percent of Apple’s worldwide users fall into this category. According to IDC statistics, Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android dominates the worldwide smartphone operating system market with a 75 percent share. However, the Mountain View-based company apparently only inspires 17 percent of global computer users to be “Loyalists.” Finally, the “Devotees” are users who exhibit the greatest bond to a particular ecosystem to the exclusion of any other. These users have many kinds of mobile devices but every device is meshed to their favorite mobile ecosystem. Apple dominated in this category as well, with 56 percent of its worldwide users falling into this extremely faithful category. Surprisingly, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) inspired similarly high levels of dedication in its users. The Redmond-based software company grabbed 44 percent of the “Devotee” worldwide user population in this survey. Philip Elmer-DeWitt notes that this is likely due to the widespread use of the Windows operating system in the workplace. However, there was little middle ground in Microsoft users’ ecosystem loyalty. Only 17 percent of worldwide users were categorized as “Loyalists.” NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! Here’s how Apple has traded over the past week. Follow Nathanael on Twitter (@ArnoldEtan_WSCS) Don’t Miss: Hey, Hedge Fund Managers Still Love Apple! Read the original article from Wall St. Cheat Sheet