Just like in a bad horror or science fiction movie, adventuring into the stock market will more than likely turn out to be another great start then horrible predictable ending. The kind where Freddy or Jason show up just when you think your investments are safe, then SLASH!!!! Blood and stocks everywhere.
The cover story on theStreet.com this weekend plays right into the plot: Coming Week: No Escape for Stocks
They say that after so much volatility in recent weeks, many investors are hoping the markets will calm down and recover going forward, but a number of experts believe there's a lot more churning to be done. Greg Collins, CEO of Fountain Hill Investments said: "We have risen 10% off the intraday low on the S&P in a relatively short time frame, primarily because the markets were extremely oversold at the low and further fueled by a great deal of short-covering," Collins says. "If the markets break the low of 1310, it likely means the credit markets have deteriorated further and that, coupled with a break of the bullish trend from 2003, could spell further trouble for the equity markets."
He also says "developments regarding the problems with the bond insurers ... are truly important at this time." Talk about a bailout of troubled bond insurer Ambac (ABK) by a group of major banks is one of those, and any rollout of a deal is likely to get a lot of attention from market watchers.
This coming week we hear earnings reports from the following:
Walt Disney (DIS)
PepsiCo (PEP)
Alcatel-Lucent (ALU).
CME Group (CME)
NYSE Euronext(NYX)
Fannie Mae (FNM
Equifax (EFX)
Bankrate (RATE)
Then you've got the Casino companies report in force, with Las Vegas Sands(LVS) taking its turn Monday, and Penn National Gaming(PENN), Trump Entertainment(TRMP) and Ameristar Casinos(ASCA)
Happy Trading next week, if the Masters were to bet long on any of the compaines trading next week, the pick would be NYSE Euronext(NYX).
On Jan 25th, Piper Jaffray upgraded NYSE Euronext (NYSE: NYX) from Neutral to Buy and maintains a $94 price target, citing valuation.
The firm said it expects NYSE Euronext to report Q4 EPS of $0.69, down from the firm's prior estimate of $0.72, mainly on matched market share losses in U.S. cash equities. Piper noted that while market share remains a concern for NYX, the firm sees the slide in market share as slowing. In Q4, the NYSE Euronext saw its matched share of NYSE listed volume fall to 54.3% from 59.5% in Q3, but Piper Jaffray points out that after hitting this level in October, NYX's matched market share rose in both November and December.
Piper Jaffray based NYX's Q4 operating revenues estimate on strong cash trading (making up $444.5 million) and derivatives (making up $214.1 million). The firm noted that average daily volumes in cash equities pulled back during Q4, but was still the second highest in the Company's history.
NYSE Euronext, the holding company for NYSE Group, Inc. and Euronext N.V., operates an exchange group and offers a diverse array of financial products and services.
