(By Rich Bieglmeier) Investors and Wall Street were treated to a dose of bad news before Tuesday's opening bell. For the second time in a matter of weeks, shipping giant, FedEx Corporation (FDX) warned that its full-year profits would suffer from a global economy that's getting worse.
Stocks shrugged-off the unwelcome news and spent most of the day treading water. Maybe, builder confidence rising for the fifth consecutive month helped offset FDX's sour tone.
On the retail side, Goldman Sachs and Redbook offered up conflicting results. Goldman showed a 2.5% drop in same-store sales during the week of September 15. Meanwhile, Redbook's same-store year-on-year sales growth rate is up 2.4%, and a 1.9% increase for the month – they both can't be right.
None of the news moved the needle for stocks a bit as the NASDAQ, Dow, and S&P all closed within a few points of where they closed the previous night. iStock will say this, however, if that's the best bears have to offer, stocks could be ready to set sail shortly.
Today, Wall Street will be treated to more news on housing. Housing starts will be released before the market open, and existing home sales at 10 am ET. Both surveys have flattened out in the last few months, and iStock expects to see a continuation of that trend.
As for the technical state of the indexes, nothing changed on Tuesday. The uptrend remains intact.
To take advantage of the trend, should it continue, iStock has two suggested trading ideas for you this week.
VIVUS Inc. (VVUS): Suggested Target: $27.50 Suggested Stop: $22.66
Shutterfly, Inc. (SFLY) : Suggested Target: $38 Suggested Stop: $32.75
That's it for today.
Happy Trading