Referencing the weekly stock radar, I am highlighting a few of the charts below for potential trades. Bonds finally started to sell-off today and combined with the Santa Claus rally that historically has positive seasonality which ends after the second trading day of the year (tomorrow), we have a boost in equities to start 2012. The problem was the gap-up started the day with a pullback from the highs for the rest of the day. This is a continuous problem as of late that stocks gap-up or gap-down then drift the rest of the day. It is seemingly an ideal strategy to short after a gap-up for a day trade, but that is not my preferred style of making money.
I added to select positions, per my StockTalks, as I’m growing more aggressive, but I expect some weakness on Thursday as market players re-position before the big Friday jobs data outlined in our Weekly Homework. This means I’ll be ready to take some profits on select strength come Wednesday with the anticipation we can add back later in the week.
Another note, as I pointed out in our Weekly Homework, the International CES event is on the 10th. That being said, look for some tech stocks to have additional support and optimism surrounding them going into that event.
I’m still eying charts that are showing strength with established trendline support levels for favorable risk-reward buys. In a good market, I am more than willing to buy on breakouts expecting momentum traders to follow. In this market, I am finding that many breakouts are fizzling fast due to overall fearful sentiment and fast profit-takers. With that being said, I am more inclined to make moves near trendline support rather than breakouts.
Yahoo Finance Profile:
Rudolph Technologies, Inc. designs, develops, manufactures, and sells process control defect inspection, metrology, and process control software systems to microelectronics device manufacturers. The company provides yield management solutions for use in wafer processing and final manufacturing through a range of standalone systems for macro-defect inspection, test systems, and transparent and opaque thin film measurements. It also offers a range of process control software solutions for semiconductor, solar, and LED manufacturing. It provides products for various applications in the areas of macro-defect detection and classification, diffusion, etch, lithography, CVD, PVD, and CMP. The company sells its products and solutions to logic, memory, data storage, and application-specific integrated circuit device manufacturers. It sells its products in the United States, Taiwan, China, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, and Europe. The company was founded in 1940 and is based in Flanders, New Jersey.
International Game Technology (IGT)
Yahoo Finance Profile:
International Game Technology engages in the design, development, manufacture, and marketing of electronic gaming equipment and systems worldwide. The company offers casino-style slot machines that determine the game play outcome at the machine; wide area progressive jackpot systems with linked machines across various casinos; and central determination system machines connected to a central server, which determines the game outcome, encompassing video lottery terminals used primarily in government-sponsored applications and electronic or video bingo machines. Its systems products include infrastructure and applications for casino management, customer relationship management (CRM), server-based games, and player management. The company’s casino and CRM solutions comprise integrated modules for machine accounting, patron management, cage and table accounting, ticket-in/ticket-out, bonusing (jackpots and promotions), table game automation, payment processing, reporting, and regulatory compliance. The company’s player management solutions feature custom player messaging, tournament management, and integrated marketing and business intelligence modules that provide analytical, predictive, and management tools for maximizing casino operational effectiveness; and server-based solutions to enable electronic game delivery and configuration for slot machines, and casino operators. Its gaming markets include Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Mexico and South/Central America, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific. The company was founded in 1980 and is headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Northern Oil and Gas (NOG) *Short Squeeze Candidate*
Yahoo Finance Profile:
Northern Oil and Gas, Inc., an independent energy company, engages in the acquisition, exploration, exploitation, development, and production of crude oil and natural gas properties in the Williston Basin Bakken play, the United States. As of June 30, 2011, the company’s principal assets included approximately 158,046 net acres located in the northern region of the United States; and 439 gross wells. Northern Oil and Gas, Inc. is based in Wayzata, Minnesota.
Yahoo Finance Profile:
Caribou Coffee Company, Inc. owns and operates coffeehouses. The company offers premium coffee and espresso-based beverages, as well as specialty teas, handcrafted beverages, foods, coffee lifestyle items, branded merchandise, and related products. It also sells whole bean and ground coffee to grocery stores, mass merchandisers, office coffee providers, airlines, hotels, sports and entertainment venues, college campuses, and online customers. In addition, the company sells blended coffees and licenses its Caribou Coffee brand to Keurig, Inc. for sale and use in its K-Cup single serve line of business. Further, Caribou Coffee Company franchises its brand to partners to operate Caribou Coffee branded kiosks and coffeehouses, as well as sells Caribou Coffee branded products to partners for resale in these franchised locations. As of July 3, 2011, it operated 407 company-owned coffeehouses located in 16 states and the District of Columbia; and 147 franchised coffeehouses in the United States and international markets. The company was founded in 1992 and is based in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota.
As always, do your own homework to see if you agree. Good luck out there.
Mike
At the time of publication, Kudrna was long NOG and CBOU but positions may change at any time
