It Could Have Been Worse

by Larry Levin


Friday was the week of the, "You know Joe, it could have been worse" earnings period. Most financial companies reported "better than expected" results, but let's face it, the bar was so low and ant could have hurdled it. Last week's market action/reaction was similar to a child who is performing poorly in school and is given an easy objective for the next report card in order to make him feel good. Mom and dad say, "Son, if you just bring home a D grade instead of an F, we'll give you a reward." The son then brings in the next report card and shows the parents his D+. Mom and dad are so happy they say, "Well done son! After all, it could have been worse. Here's a Ferrari for the effort."

But this week, Wall Street faces an even bigger flood of first-quarter results, and as General Electric Co.'s black eye a few weeks ago showed, bad earnings can even hurt a stock market with low expectations.

Some of the big Dow companies reporting this week are; Bank of America , American Express, Merck, McDonald's, AT&T, DuPont, Boeing, 3M Co. and Microsoft Corp. Other big technology players besides Microsoft, notably Yahoo and Apple, are also scheduled to release earnings. And a few other notables would be toy makers Hasbro Inc. and Mattel Inc., homebuilder Pulte Homes Inc., and shipper UPS Inc.

In addition to the earnings reports, the market will need to digest more economic data...or ignore it I suppose. Most economists believe Tuesday's & Thursday's housing reports will be bearish, as well as Friday's consumer sentiment data.

Real Time Trading Signals*for

Trade Date: 4/18/08

E-Mini S&P Trades*
(before fees and commissions):

1) FT buy @ 10:15am at 1388.75 = +2.00 (1 lot)

2) OTF buy @ 10:40am at 1390.00 = +4.50 (1 lot)

3) Engf buy @ 12:25pm at 1397.25 = -1.75 & -1.75

4) OTF buy @ 12:50pm at 1395.00 = b/e (1 lot)

5) Engf sell @ 1:25pm at 1393.50 = +1.25 & b/e

6) Algorithm trades (2)…combined total...+8.25

E-Mini Russell Trades*
(before fees and commissions):

1) Sell @ 8:42am at 720.9 = +1.4 (1 lot)

2) Buy @ 9:53am at 720.6 = b/e (1 lot)

3) Buy @ 10:06am at 721.2 = b/e (1 lot)

4) Buy @ 10:34am at 721.2 = +.8 (1 lot)

5) Buy @ 11:13am at 722.6 = +1.3 (1 lot)

6) Sell @ 12:12pm at 723.2 = b/e & b/e

7) Sell @ 1:20pm at 721.8 = +.3 (1 lot) ...+$380


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