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'Fast Money' Recap: Tech Stocks Show Some Life

David Tong

The markets displayed some resiliency Tuesday with tech and commodity stocks leading the way.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 62.21, or 0.69%, to 9,015.10, while the S&P 500 rose 7.25, or 0.78%, to 934.70. The Nasdaq rose 24.35, or 1.50%, to 1,652.38.

Dylan Ratigan, the moderator of CNBC's "Fast Money" TV show, said the markets showed continued signs of diminished volatility and light volume.

Jeff Macke noted two stocks that did well for him in the face of "bad" news: Mosaic(MOS Quote), which provided a "disastrous" guidance, and Toyota Motor(TM Quote), which saw a big sales decline in December.

Ratigan asked Karen Finerman to comment on Bank of America (BAC Quote), which expects is final results for 2008 to fall below expectations.

Finerman said BofA as well as other financial institutions are going to have to tackle with big loan loss provisions, which haven't been fully reflected in their stocks.

Pete Najarian said he's been impressed with VISA(V Quote) for its "transparency." "We know what they are doing and what their risks are, which are pretty much transitional risks. They are getting more and more into the debt markets and that's going to be good for them going forward. They pretty cheap right now," he said.

Guy Adami said the leadership for market may not come from the financials, but instead from some other sector such as health care or commodities.

Ratigan shifted the attention to the technology stocks, which had a good day. Najarian liked HP (HPQ Quote), which has risen to close to $40, and Nvidia(NVDA Quote), which has been up $7 the last couple of days and has seen unusually strong options activity for February.

Najarian said Nvidia's new 3-D glasses could be a main driver for the company that will get people excited about it. ,

Macke said Apple (AAPL Quote) has disappointed investors because "they did offer anything exciting" at the Macworld trade show in San Francisco.

Ratigan noted that Alcoa(AA Quote) shares were down in after-hours trading after the company announced it is cutting 13% of its workforce and slashing its capital expenditures.

Adami said the stock, which has been cut more than a half in the last couple of months, is cheap enough to be a value play.

Ratigan noted commodity stocks continue to be red hot. Najarian said that's certainly been the case with stocks like Freeport McMoRan(FCX Quote) and Nucor(NUE Quote), which have enjoyed sizable gains in the past month.

He said that's understandable because both stocks are reflating after having been beaten down quite a bit.

Jon Najarian came on the show to talk about market volatility. He said he expects the blue chips and S&P to hover around 35, a level Finerman noted is still "high."

Najarian said factors such as consolidation, blowups and international conflicts like the one in the Gaza can spark higher volatility.

With the higher volatility in Nasdaq stocks because of some big conferences, Najarian said he would sell InVentive Health(VTIV Quote) into the JPMorgan Chase conference and buy Biogen Idec(BIIB Quote).

Ratigan asked Dennis Gartman to talk about the consequences of debasing currency. Gartman said the idea of devaluing currency with the hope of improving exports is a bad idea. "We're seeing Russia do it, and I don't you are going to see any increase in exports."

Gartman said the Europeans will eventually have to do it, but not without a struggle. He also said Japan would like to see its currency return to par.

Garman said this currency instability makes gold an attractive investment.

Ratigan asked Bert Ely, a monetary policy consultant, to expand on his op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, on banks and TARP money. Ely said it would be wrong for Congress to put any strings on TARP money to the banks. He said the TARP funds that the Treasury provided the banks represent dividend-paying investments in which the government expects to see a return.

He said the problem with attaching conditions is that it becomes a highly political process that "further distorts the economy." He especially didn't like the idea of Congress dictating the terms of the lending such as to a "certain class of borrowers." Offering money to homeowners who are underwater would make things worst, he said.

Ratigan asked Paul Kedrosky to discuss why he doesn't put much stock in some of the forecasts he's been seeing. He said there just enough historical evidence from prior recessions and bear markets to draw any meaningful conclusions.

He said investors would be better off just making decisions on a company based on fundamentals such as earnings, dividends, cost of capital and size of the market.

With the outlook for hedge funds cloudy, Adami said hedge funds will survive, and those that do "will get more money." Finerman said she expects more regulatory action in this area, perhaps in the direction of putting limits on leverage.

In the final trades, Macke was for Mosaic. Adami was up for Home Depot(HD Quote). Finerman liked Genentech (DNA Quote). And Najarian liked iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index(EEM Quote).

"Check out "'Fast Money' Portfolios of the Week" on Stockpickr every Thursday.