Minyanville.com

Editor's Note: The following was posted in real time on our premium Buzz & Banter (click for a free trial). Back on January 8 in Five Themes for 2010 I ran through a list of stocks that at the time were showing market separation on long-term charts. That is they didn't have qualified downside breaks of long-term DeMark TDST Down levels and their counts weren't moving in unison with the broad market or most economic sectors. Now that we have some worrisome alignment across multiple time frames for the broad market I wanted to update this list. As of ...

Asian stocks were mixed overnight. The Hang Seng closed down 0.09% and the Nikkei rose 0.81%. European stocks were in positive territory in early trading. And here in the US we're currently trading higher.Here's what I'm focused on during this beautiful (every Friday is beautiful) morning:Pacific Sunwear (PSUN):The California-based retailer was out with its fourth-quarter numbers last night. The chain turned in an adjusted loss of $0.26. Analysts had been expecting a loss of $0.29. Meanwhile sales came in at $292.6 million. That was interesting because the Street was at $274.5 million. Meanwhile in terms of outlook the company ...

It's not every day you can pick up shares in a top-drawer technology company at a reasonable price. But take a look at Network Appliance (NTAP). The data storage systems maker continues to deliver industry-beating growth yet trading on a PE multiple of just 14 and a PEG of 0.8 the stock looks like good value. The shares have yet to catch up with the company's growth prospects. Some might argue that the shares have run far enough. A year ago they were priced at just over $14. Today they are trading for just over $33. But I’d say ...

Palm (PALM) shares had been heading south long before the company announced that revenue wouldn’t even be in the same ballpark as street consensus. Since then there has been a steady stream of prognosticators professional and otherwise waxing on the company’s future. Most of these seem to believe that Palm’s failed attempts to succeed in the highly competitive smartphone market make it an attractive acquisition candidate. I too thought Palm should be acquired… two years ago. Now it’s simply a pile of what could have been accelerating toward the scrapheap of technology trivia. Motorola (MOT) has frequently been singled out ...

Bespoke yesterday noted an increase in VXX volume so figured we'd take a look at it in 3D here. First off the real spike was back in January and was well-timed. For the buyers at least. However it reached a crescendo in early February right at what looks like a pretty distinct high. Those bars coming out of the left compare net volume at varying price levels and as you can see the low 30s remains the most popular price level here over the past half year. You can also see that reflected in the On Balance Volume which ...

On March 6 2010 Chinese Central Bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan acknowledged that “sooner or later” the peg of the Chinese Renminbi Yuan (CNY) to the US Dollar must end. This statement together with various economic considerations has prompted widespread expectations that Chinese authorities may soon allow the CNY to revalue relative to the US Dollar.Some fear mongering pundits have been warning that this could trigger a US Dollar collapse and an inflationary spiral. More generally I think that the potential consequences of a revaluation of the CNY are ignored.In this article we shall explore what a revaluation of the ...

Editor's Note: This article was written by Richard Suttmeier chief market strategist at ValuEngine.com which is a fundamentally-based quant research firm in Princeton New Jersey that covers more than 5 000 stocks every day.When you can travel from midtown Manhattan to Santee South Carolina in 11 hours the economy is slow. Truck traffic doesn't match the rush to buy truckers in the stock market. Americans aren't on the road as motels seemed to be 50% full at best. Isn’t March the month for those Florida family vacations? Even heavy rain from Santee to Land O’ Lakes Florida on Thursday ...

Manufacturers Coming Home Caterpillar (CAT) is considering bringing back heavy-equipment production to the US. According to the Wall Street Journal it’s part of a growing trend among manufacturers to bring more operations back home.Last June General Electric (GE) said it will move production of some water heaters to its facilities in Kentucky beginning in 2011. And just last year US Block Windows which purchased a China-based molding operation decided to move production from Asia to its headquarters in Pensacola Florida. From the Bull Pen: As the dollar continues to weaken in the long term we will see this trend ...

Stocks finished strongly sending the Dow average up a third straight session while the S&P 500’s ninth increase in ten days left that index at its highest level since October 1st of ‘08. GameStop (GME) gapped up 5.85% good for the best gain in the S&P as the world’s largest video game retailer benefited both from takeover talk and evidence Ivy League educated doctors have too much time on their hands. Investors bought death and sold taxes. Stewart Enterprises (STEI) surged 5.39% after the funeral home operator reported first quarter earnings to die for. Jackson Hewitt (JTX) however imploded ...

Can anyone envision a more suitable American pitchman than a cowboy? The hardened demeanor. The thousand-yard stare. The life that hearkens back to rugged survival and unsettled frontiers. It's no wonder that millions of Americans were drawn to the Western genre in film and TV -- it is after all a romanticized account of a time in this country's history. And if the sight of John Wayne and Gary Cooper in 10-gallon hats can usher folks into a multiplex in droves surely a reasonable facsimile can hawk a pack of smokes with equal flair.That was the notion dreamt up ...

Indianapolis Indiana’s favorite son 32 year-old Jared Fogle used to be fat but is now thin -- thanks to a steady diet of Subway sandwiches and nothing but Subway sandwiches.That in itself isn't news to anyone who's been alive on the planet Earth and has ever watched TV.However most people don’t know how Jared Fogle became Jared the Subway Guy.As a student at Indiana University Bloomington Fogle ran a little business out of his dorm room renting porn videos to fellow students for the bargain price of $1. (When contacted by gossip site TMZ about this a Subway spokesperson ...

"Don't I know you from somewhere?""Hey! Aren't you Jason's friend?" "Excuse me. Sorry I just wanted to tell you that I love you in that singing fish commercial!" Such is life for Matthew McCarthy the 30-year-old affable redhead who has been starring in the Verizon FiOS (VZ) cable campaign for the past year and a half long enough to get noticed by strangers even if their memories are a little off.The son of a now-retired public school teacher and government lawyer McCarthy says he recognizes that success can be a double-edged sword. "I’m not interested in making money for ...

When Billy Mays the congenial impassioned infomercial spokesman died suddenly in his Florida home at age 50 his pallbearers including his son wore blue shirts and khaki pants to pay tribute to the quintessential television pitchman behind Oxi Clean among other products. Mays was rumored to have been buried in a shirt with an Oxi Clean logo. He wasn't trying to snow audiences into believing he loved the product it was his life's work.Born in 1958 in the small town of McKees Rocks Pennsylvania William Darrell Mays Jr. went to college at West Virginia State where he played football ...

The erudite puckish and amiable John Hodgman became a money-spinning pitchman almost by accident. In 2005 having just booked a gig as a "Resident Expert" on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Hodgman auditioned for an Apple (AAPL) commercial on a lark and booked the role of "PC." That was five years ago and he still does the spots in addition to major Hollywood films and television shows. He has also published his second satirical almanac More Information Than You Require (Dutton & Riverhead 2008) which is based entirely on false information or as Hodgman calls it fake facts.The ...

It's hard to imagine a time when a mustachioed grocer with finicky store policies and a tendency to fondle was actually beloved by millions. But for more than 20 years kindly old Mr. Whipple graced our television screens and magazine ads as the spokesperson for Charmin (PG) bathroom tissue.In the TV spots he would berate the female customers for irresistibly squeezing the Charmin packages -- pointing at a large sign and exclaiming "Ladies please! Don't squeeze the Charmin!" Surprisingly his repeat customers shrugged and walked away without so much as a scowl.But could you imagine being chewed out by ...

Considering Procter & Gamble (PG) hired a Waspy blonde to invoke an image of purity for its Ivory soap brand perhaps it was the company's comeuppance to discover in 1972 that its All-American cover girl had made a name for herself in the dirty business of adult entertainment. In fairness to Marilyn Chambers the soapbox she found herself plastered on wasn't her own and its tagline read only "99 and 44/100 percent pure." In interviews Chambers -- who died last April at age 56 reportedly of complications from heart disease -- would sometimes recount how her career began. She ...

As the creator the Showtime Rotisserie & BBQ Dial-O-Matic Inside-The-Shell Egg Scrambler and -- but wait there's more -- the Showtime Six Star Plus 25 Knife Set and the Solid Flavor Injector the much parodied Ron "Ronco" Popeil has redefined late-night TV commerce and made billions in retail sales.But his route to the top was not without detours. Although he came from a line of inventors and salesmen he also had to fend for himself and fight his way into a tough trade. Along the way he became more financially successful than any other gadget pitchman and inventor who ...

Offer "Vince" Shlomi aka “The ShamWow! Guy” aka Vince Offer was born April 25 1964 in Haifa Israel.Offer who had been supporting himself by selling kitchen utensils at swap meets got his start in “show business” in 1999 writing directing producing (and funding) The Underground Comedy Movie which was described by Rod Dreher of the New York Post as “the least amusing comedy ever made ” “a pathetic collection of sketches based on a public-access TV show the film's witless writer-director-star Vince Offer did years ago ” and asks “How can the War Crimes Tribunal indict Slobodan Milosevic but ...

Bull market be damned: US mutual fund investors continue to sidestep this stock market.According to a report released by New York-based Strategic Insight on Thursday morning investors put $30 billion into stock and bond mutual funds in February.For the first quarter of 2010 net inflows to stock and bond funds could top $100 billion a big reversal from the less than $10 billion garnered in the year-ago period.But where are investors putting money to work specifically?It’s all about fixed income products.Loren Fox Strategic Insight’s senior research analyst says that with money-market funds and deposit accounts continuing to offer near-zero ...

Editor's Note: The following was posted in real time on our premium Buzz & Banter (click for a free trial). Minyan Kirk writes: Professor Depew The monthly sell setup is in the weekly is in (assuming a correct close tomorrow) the daily is in assuming a close above 1138 today.My question is when was the last time this setup occurred where all three have aligned?And if you have the time maybe the last three to five times they have aligned? Just the dates. That way we can draw our own conclusion on the viability/reliability of the signal.This is a good ...