Macy's

by Larry Levin

Although the S&P500 and Dow lost ground again today, they closed well off their respective bottoms while the Nasdaq managed to close higher. In fact, the S&P attempted to rally right from the open. Will February claw back some of January's losses like a politician clawing back ill-gotten gains/bonuses from Wall Street?

Part of today's news was:

1. Mattel announced a massive 46% 4th-quarter profit slide.

2. Macy's slammed the S&P late morning as it declared a dividend cut of 62%.

3. Macy's will fire 7,000 employees.

4. Morgan Stanley will fire 1,800 employees this month!

5. SanDisk declared a 4th-quarter loss of $8.25/share, or $1.86 billion. Analysts expected a 60-cent loss.

Although this morning's ISM data was terrible with a reading of 35.6%, it was better than last month's all-time low. Hmm, maybe that shouldn't have been too surprising, but the bulls will take the "good" news any way they can get it. It was this ISM data that drove the market higher from the open. Later, the Macy's news drove it right back down again.

In the end, the Dow closed below 8,000 which may lead to more selling. However, there is a lot of news this week which could lead to more surprises like this morning's ISM data. Friday is the biggest of the week - the monthly jobs data.

Previous Day's Trading Room Results:

Trade Date: 2/2/09

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

1) OTF buy @ 9:50am at 816.00 = -1.00 (1 lot)

2) 80% buy @ 12:10pm at 822.75 = -2.00 (1 lot)

3) OTF sell @ 2:00pm at 816.00 = -.50 (1 lot)

4) Algorithm positions (6)...combined SofT and Algo total...+2.50


Electronic (YM) Mini-Dow:


1) No trades today



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