'Fast Money' Portfolios of the Week

Here's what the 'Fast Money' crew's had to say lately.

By Stockpickr Staff , Mar 11, 2010 10:54 AM EST

WINDERMERE, Fla. (Stockpickr) -- According to CNBC's "Fast Money" traders, M&A activity is what will likely be the big driver going forward for the stock market. On Tuesday's "Fast Money" show, Pete Najarian said he's keeping an ear open for M&A rumors. He said options activity suggests M&A will continue to drive this market.

Joe Terranova said the

S&P 500

wants to go above 1150. He thinks it's just a matter of finding a catalyst, and that catalyst could easily be M&A. Terranova mentioned that there's speculation that British bank

Barclays

(BCS) - Get Report

is looking to make a big acquisition, and if it's true, it could power the markets much higher.

Guy Adami said that trading opportunities are still around despite low-volume days like Tuesday. He cited

Transocean

(RIG) - Get Report

as an example, after the stock recovered from its disastrous earnings and has moved up from $77 to $86. Adami advised viewers to take profits in RIG. He also said to take profits in

AIG

(AIG) - Get Report

, which has a huge short interest.

Perma-bear Pete Schiff, president of Euro Pacific Capital, joined the traders to discuss his take on the markets. He said the housing market is in terrible shape due to the government propping it up by using guaranteed loans and keeping interest rates too low. Schiff warned that housing prices could come down much more, and that would expose the bad debt at the major banks and trigger more government bailout action.

The "Fast Money" crew has recently highlighted trading ideas that play off five stocks to short, biopharma stocks and stock with unusual options activity. Here are some highlights from over the past week as aggregated from the show.

Fast Money's 5 Stocks About to Head South

: If you're looking for some short ideas, hedge fund manager Doug Kass has a few ideas worth putting on your radar. On last Friday's "Fast Money" show, Kass told viewers: "A number of factors appear likely to drag down asset managers. They include weak inflows, less matching by corporations and a tired market." The

Fast Money's 5 Stocks About to Head South

portfolio includes

Janus Capital

(JNS)

and

T. Rowe Price

(TROW) - Get Report

Fast Money's March 9 Stock Trades

: March 9 marked the anniversary of the 2009 stock market lows. There were a lot of rumors on Wall Street that we could see a lot of profit-taking on or near the bull market's anniversary. On last Thursday's "Fast Money" show, Gary Kaminsky told viewers: "The idea here is that investors will say to themselves, what are names I was smart enough to buy. And where should I trim." The

Fast Money's March 9 Stock Trades

portfolio includes

NASDAQ OMX Group

I:IXIC

and

Ford Motor

(F) - Get Report

Fast Money's Options Action

: The traders have noticed some unusual options activity in a number of stocks. On Wednesday's "Halftime Report" segment, JJ Kinahan of TD Ameritrade told viewers: "Big volume in the March 4 and June 4 calls in

Citigroup

suggests option investors expect more upside." The

Fast Money's Options Action

portfolio includes

DryShips

(DRYS) - Get Report

and

Southwestern Energy

(SWN) - Get Report

Fast Money's Biopharma Trades

: A handful of biotech stocks are due out with news on some key drugs in the near future. What's the trade? On Monday's "Fast Money" show, Pete Najarian told viewers: "If you want to play this space, I'd do it with

Cephalon

(CEPH)

Celgene

(CELG) - Get Report

." The

Fast Money's Biopharma Trades

portfolio includes

Dendreon

(DNDN)

and

Amylin Pharmaceuticals

(AMLN)

Fast Money's New Router Stock Trades

Cisco Systems

(CSCO) - Get Report

recently introduced a new router that it says can handle 12 times the Internet traffic of the nearest competing product. How should you play this news? On Tuesday's "Halftime Report" segment, Pete Najarian told viewers: "I'm watching

QLogic

(QLGC)

. Options action suggest they too may be a beneficiary." The

Fast Money's New Router Stock Trades

portfolio includes

Apple

(AAPL) - Get Report

and

Google

(GOOG) - Get Report

Fast Money's Consumer Comeback Trades

: New retail sales data suggests that consumers are making a big comeback. How should you play this trend? On last Thursday's "Fast Money" show, Pete Najarian told viewers: "One thing investors should remember is that there's a lot of short interest in some of these names. I like

The Buckle

(BKE) - Get Report

, but the short interest is something like 35%, and short interest in

Zale's

(ZLC)

is 50%." The

Fast Money's Consumer Comeback Trades

portfolio includes

ChinaMobile

(CHL) - Get Report

and

Pier 1