Happy Thursday to all. The market is looking interesting today. We have some solid drop in the unemployment claims that was below expectations. Yet, the market is not reacting heavily to it. That may be because of the rise yesterday, and also, we have pending home sales at 10 AM that may actually drop year-over-year. Additionally, retail sales came out looking pretty well in the month of August. Today, it may be a show me what you got sort of day with the market not moving in either direction too strongly. Yesterday, we did not enter any new positions and got out of an Overnight Trade in Donaldson Company (DCI) for no gain at 2.20. The big story, yesterday, was our August results were in for our portfolios. We had a 5% gain in the Buy Portfolio and a 10% gain in the Short Sale Portfolio. Both portfolios continue to improve with a 62% improvement for the year on the Buy and 21% improvement on the Short. You can read the full story and check out the statistics here.
Let’s get into some plays…
Buy of the Day: Limited Brands Inc. (LTD)
Analysis: August retail sales are actually the gem of the morning so far. Retailers across the country are reporting very solid gains for the final month of the summer and the back to school season. Most retailers positive gains were spurred by discounting, but it was of the best positive economic data points we have seen in quite some time. One company that may have been the golden goose among the flock was Limited Brands Inc. (LTD). The company reported same-store sales in August rose a solid 10%. Expectations were that sales would rise just over 7%. 
Limited has been one of the strong recoveries in the retail sector along with some of the top of the line names. The company saw significant growth in Q2 of 2010 with a solid quarter from its flagship Victoria’s Secret line. The story appears to be continuing into August. Recently, though, LTD has taken quite a hit to its share price. Since announcing their earnings on August 19th, the company has seen a 7% drop in share price and is sitting right at its lower bollinger band.
Today’s news of retail and unemployment claims appears to be giving the market a small gain. Futures were down before the unemployment claims and same-store sales reports. Now, futures…
