Wall Street experienced some wild volatility on Thursday, with the Dow swinging 450 points intraday. The Dow was able to finish in the green, up 207 points, and the Nasdaq finished up 40 points.
On
CNBC's "Fast Money" Thursday, Karen Finerman said she is skeptical about this rally and that the action reeks of window-dressing. She disclosed she shorted
Capital One(COF Quote - Cramer on COF - Stock Picks) at the close today.
Jeff Macke said the action felt like panic buying on Thursday. He advised investors to respect a market that doesn't sell off when it has every reason to. Guy Adami mentioned that the financial stocks are leading and that is bullish.
Google(GOOG Quote - Cramer on GOOG - Stock Picks) reported fourth-quarter earnings that missed Wall Street estimates, and the stock fell 7% after hours. Najarian says Google's revenue and profit were "unbelievable," but the stock fell because the company doesn't give guidance on earnings. He says Google will rebound and be in positive territory Friday. Adami says valuations are reasonable for Google, and he would look to buy the stock.
Motorola(MOT Quote - Cramer on MOT - Stock Picks) announced that it may spin off its mobile phone division. The stock traded up 12% after hours on the news. Finerman says Carl Icahn will be happy about this. Macke wonders why Motorola would sell its best division.
Financial stocks put in a strong performance Thursday after bond insurer
MBIA(MBI Quote - Cramer on MBI - Stock Picks) said it will be able to maintain its Triple-A rating. Adami says if you want to play financials, look at
Wachovia(WB Quote - Cramer on WB - Stock Picks). Najarian says investors should raise their exposure in the ETF
Financial Select Sector SPDR(XLF Quote - Cramer on XLF - Stock Picks), and
Wells Fargo(WFC Quote - Cramer on WFC - Stock Picks) and
U.S. Bancorp(USB Quote - Cramer on USB - Stock Picks).
Retail stocks like
Target(TGT Quote - Cramer on TGT - Stock Picks),
Home Depot(HD Quote - Cramer on HD - Stock Picks) and
Wal-Mart(WMT Quote - Cramer on WMT - Stock Picks) helped lead the
Retail HOLDRs Trust(RTH Quote - Cramer on RTH - Stock Picks) up 4%.
Macke explained that retail stocks received help from a Deutsche Bank upgrade of the sector. Finerman disclosed she sold a portion of her stakes in retail stocks like Wal-Mart and
J.C. Penney(JCP Quote - Cramer on JCP - Stock Picks) but she didn't sell any of her position in
Crocs(CROX Quote - Cramer on CROX - Stock Picks). Adami agreed it's time to take profits in the retail sector, but he still thinks Home Depot will outperform.
Transport stocks put in a strong performance Thursday. Adami recommended that investors look at early-recovery play
Frontline(FRO Quote - Cramer on FRO - Stock Picks). Finerman would like to see lower prices in the railroad sector before she gets interested.
MasterCard(MA Quote - Cramer on MA - Stock Picks) exploded up 14% after reporting strong quarterly earnings. Adami says don't chase MA now, but look to buy it on dips.
Seven Wall Street firms upgraded
Alliance Data(ADS Quote - Cramer on ADS - Stock Picks). Finerman says it will be hard for ADS to win its lawsuit against
The Blackstone Group(BX Quote - Cramer on BX - Stock Picks). According to Najarian, ADS looks awfully cheap.
Najarian noted unusual options activity in
Commercial Metals(CMC Quote - Cramer on CMC - Stock Picks). He explained that the June $30 call options traded over 10,000 contracts before noon all from the buy side.
New Way To Play Commodities
Ashmead Pringle, the founder and president of GreenHaven Commodity Services, joined the "Fast Money" crew to discus a new way to play commodities. Pringle explained that on Friday a new fund will open under the ticker symbol GCC on the Amex that will track a basket of 17 commodities.
The fund will be named the Greenhaven Continuous Commodity Index Fund and the basket will include equally weighted positions in corn, wheat, soybeans, live cattle, lean hogs, gold, platinum, silver, copper, cocoa, coffee, sugar, cotton, orange juice, crude oil, heating oil and natural gas.
Proxy Fight Trade
Finerman said she received a phone call on Thursday and was told that this year could be a very busy proxy season. She spoke to one of the leading proxy advisory firms and was told that it has already signed up 24 proxy fights. Finerman says that is twice what the firm normally does.
She would look to play the proxy season with
Broadridge Financial Services(BR Quote - Cramer on BR - Stock Picks),
Lazard(LAZ Quote - Cramer on LAZ - Stock Picks),
Greenhill(GHL Quote - Cramer on GHL - Stock Picks) and
Goldman Sachs Group(GS Quote - Cramer on GS - Stock Picks). Adami also likes Lazard. Macke says he is getting interested in
Wendy's International(WEN Quote - Cramer on WEN - Stock Picks).
Simmons & Co. Chairman Speaks
Mattew Simmons, chairman of Simmons & Co. International, joined the "Fast Money" crew to discuss his take on the energy markets. According to Simmons,
Exxon Mobil(XOM Quote - Cramer on XOM - Stock Picks) and
Chevron(CVX Quote - Cramer on CVX - Stock Picks) will report first-rate profits with oil prices so high. He says the bigger story for the oil space is the lack of growth for the top five firms and the rise in spending.
Stockpickr Staff
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