'Fast Money' Recap: FedEx Sends a Warning
The U.S. stock market ended Friday's trading to the downside. The Dow sank 0.9%, the S&P 500 lost 0.7%, and the Nasdaq slipped 0.2%. After hours, FedEx (FDX) - Get Report warned about its earnings, sending shares lower.
On
CNBC's
"Fast Money" TV show, Guy Adami apologized for recommending FedEx and said the news doesn't bode well for
UPS
(UPS) - Get Report
, but it does bode well for the rails.
Jeff Macke said that FedEx committed the cardinal sin by warning on a Friday afternoon, hoping no one would notice. He said the news indicates that retailers are going to complain about high oil prices next week.
Pete Najarian pointed out that FedEx dropped its earnings per share guidance by 20 cents, with oil up $20. He said that if investors see a pullback in oil, they might be able to gauge an improvement in FedEx's earnings, because FedEx blamed its warning on oil.
Macke said it might be time to pare some oil positions. He said it might be time to take an opportunity here and buy
UPS
(UPS) - Get Report
.
Big Citi
Citigroup
(C) - Get Report
shares fell today. CEO Vikram Pandit announced plans for the company to unload $400 billion in assets. Finerman said she thought the news wasn't earth-shattering. She said it's difficult to turn a company the size of Citi around quickly. She also said that if viewers believe management, it's possible to come up with a model where the bank earns $3.50 to $4 per share the next year. The stock, therefore, could go to $38, she said. She said she plans to buy more shares for her fund.
Macke said that Citi has pulled back substantially. Because the bank is facing a credit crisis, it doesn't really know what its earnings are going to be, he said.
Najarain recommended
American Express
(AXP) - Get Report
off the Citi news. He said it's also a great week to look at
Visa
(V) - Get Report
and
MasterCard
(MA) - Get Report
. American Express is a Warren Buffett name, he said, and its credit exposure might actually be a boon as the crisis eases.
Circuit Breaker
On news that billionaire investor Carl Icahn may buy
Circuit City
(CC) - Get Report
if
Blockbuster
( BBI) can't. Macke said the Blockbuster merger didn't make sense. He said Circuit City might be better off without merging with Blockbuster. He said Icahn is the winner here, because there are no other bidders for Circuit City, meaning Icahn will either "steal" the company or walk away from a deal.
Adami pointed out that Icahn also raised his stake in
Motorola
( MOT) to 7.6%. He said that news isn't that good.
Najarian said he doesn't understand Icahn's thinking here.
Yahoo!
(YHOO)
traded lower this week. Najarian said he doesn't think the Yahoo! story is over. He said he owns Yahoo! calls. The stock should be lower if no one is interested in buying the company.
Oil's Demand Story
The traders talked to
CNBC
contributor Addison Armstrong about oil. Armstrong said he's starting to see energy headwinds. He said the FedEx news isn't good for oil on the demand side. He said that investors should stay with the upward trend in oil until it breaks down, but it may be time to diversify into other areas.
Macke said that in the short term he isn't sure demand is dropping off. Armstrong said that demand erosion will occur over a longer time frame. He said U.S. demand is slackening and predicted a downturn in Chinese demand after the Olympics.
Quicker Than the Ticker
Najarian recommended
Energy Conversion Devices
( ENER), which went up 51%. Macke recommended
Molson-Coors
(TAP) - Get Report
, shares of which rocketed up 7% the day after his recommendation. Finerman chose
NYSE Euronext
(NYX)
, which climbed 7% on earnings. Adami selected
BorgWarner
(BWA) - Get Report
, which added 16% since his call in early April.
Wal-Mart
(WMT) - Get Report
and
Hewlett-Packard
(HPQ) - Get Report
report earnings next week.
Adami predicted strong earnings from H-P. He said the company is an industry leader and has bought back a lot of stock. The stock is a long-term buy, he said. Najarian pointed out that the company that makes H-P's laptop hinges has said orders are up 26%. He said H-P's price-to-earnings ratio makes it cheap. He's looking forward to an impressive number, he said.
Macke said H-P has been on a tear, and that competition from
Dell
(DELL) - Get Report
and
Apple
(AAPL) - Get Report
hasn't been that formidable.
On Wal-Mart, Finerman said she expects profit margins to narrow. Macke said guidance will be key. He said investors will be looking for accelerated spending from consumers on the back of the stimulus package. Najarian said he likes Wal-Mart's direction and its strategy of cashing government rebate checks.
The traders then talked with
CNBC
senior economics reporter Steve Liesman about the state of the credit crisis. He said he thinks the economy is about halfway between chaos and normal. He said equities are holding up well in the face of bad news from AIG,
Fannie Mae
( FNM) and Citi. He predicted that
Freddie Mac
( FRE) could raise capital next week.
Liesman said for things to become more comfortable in the credit markets, private capital would have to replace assistance from the
Federal Reserve
.
Go Global
Zach Karabell, president of River Twice Research, joined the crew to talk about the markets. He said that earnings, bar the financials, are a lot better this quarter, up 10%. He said, factoring out the bad consumer, the economy looks stronger. He said the trade to make is on a weak dollar and strong global growth. He recommended U.S.-listed companies with a lot of global exposure on dips. He included such names as
Caterpillar
(CAT) - Get Report
and
Manitowoc
(MTW) - Get Report
.
Adami recommended
IBM
(IBM) - Get Report
as a trade off that theme. The company gets 75% of its revenue from overseas, he said.
Trader Radar
Priceline.com
(PCLN)
traded on extraordinary volume this week.
Najarian pointed out heavy call activity in
AES Corp.
(AES) - Get Report
. He said the options trading was unusual in that it occurred after the company announced earnings.
Fast Fire
Finerman had recommended
Kaiser Aluminum
(KALU) - Get Report
, a trade that didn't work out. She said the company's quarter was OK, but management did a poor job of expressing that on the conference call. She said she bought more shares on the dip.
Macke suggested
WWE
(WWE) - Get Report
, which went down 12% this week. He said he thinks the decline is a buying opportunity.
Adami and Najarian both recommended Citigroup, which didn't do so hot. They both said they'd buy it at this level.
To honor the upcoming Mother's Day, the traders spoke with
1-800-Flowers
(FLWS) - Get Report
CEO James McCann. He said fuel prices were hurting the company but it's using new efficiencies to weather the storm.
Final Trade
Macke recommended UPS on a dip resulting from earnings. Adami picked
Tesoro
(TSO)
. Finerman chose
Valero
(VLO) - Get Report
June $45 calls. Najarian selected H-P.