'Fast Money' Recap: Rate Rumor
The stock market experienced its most positive move of the year on Wednesday. The Dow closed up 331 points and the Nasdaq finished up 82 points. The team at CNBC's "Fast Money" discussed the change of mood in the market, as well as the banking, retail and tech sectors.
Even with the positive turn of events, Pete Najarian doesn't trust this market yet. Tim Seymour believed that the rally was all about
Federal Reserve
rate-cut rumors and liquidity. The buying was powered by tons of short-covering.
It's in the Bank
Banks saw a rebound on Wednesday as speculation of a rate cut helped lift the sector. Karen Finerman was impressed that bad news from
Wells Fargo
(WFC) - Get Report
and
Freddie Mac
(FRE)
didn't take the financials down. This suggests to her that we could be at a bottom for the financial sector.
(Looking for names that do well after a rate cut? Check out the
Fed Rate-Cut Portfolio Names You Didn't Think Of
portfolio at Stockpickr.com.)
Guy Adami advises investors to get into the best-of-breed financials like
U.S. Bancorp
(USB) - Get Report
and
Goldman Sachs
(GS) - Get Report
. Pete Najarian mentions that insiders have been buying Freddie Mac and he also likes
Fannie Mae
(FNM)
. Finerman remains bullish on
Barclay's
(BCS) - Get Report
and
Citigroup
(C) - Get Report
.
Shopping Cart
Online retailers were strong performers on Wednesday after Cyber Monday set a retail sales record. Adami continues to recommend playing the online sales trend by buying
MasterCard
(MA) - Get Report
instead as a play on the actual transactions. However, Najarian prefers
eBay
(EBAY) - Get Report
, which he thinks has the most upside potential.
Hot Tech
Technology stocks were on fire Wednesday with the Nasdaq finishing up 3%. Adami likes chip stock
Intel
(INTC) - Get Report
, which he thinks was unfairly sold off. Finerman suggests buying
EMC Corp
(EMC)
and shorting
VMware
(VMW) - Get Report
. Najarian would rather go long EMC and buy puts on EMC or VMW for protection.
Dell
(DELL) - Get Report
is set to report earnings after the market close Thursday. Adami mentioned that this is Dell's first conference call in 18 months and he doubts they will screw it up. He thinks Dell is underowned and will trade up to $30. Seymour likes that 25% of Dell's growth comes from international sales and there is more room to grow.
Russia Trade
One of the hottest markets in the world right now is Russia. Parliamentary elections are set to start this Sunday. Seymour mentioned that Russia has always been a natural resource play, but that is now changing due to the petro-dollars trickling down into the hands of the consumers. Seymour says the big-time growth is in the mobile phone operators like
Vimpel-Communications
(VIP)
and
Mobile TeleSystems
(MBT) - Get Report
. Two more ways to get exposure to Russia that Seymour likes are
iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index
(EEM) - Get Report
and
CTC Media
(CTCM)
.
(Check out Russia stock picks on Stockpickr.com:
Russian stocks you can invest in from the USA
.)
Petro Play
Crude oil fell 4% to $90.62. Adami thinks the trade might be to get long the dollar and short oil and gold. In Seymour's opinion, oil is in a bit of trouble here, but won't go down much further. However, Najarian thinks the solar names are still in play, and he likes
SunPower
(SPWR) - Get Report
,
Suntech
(STP)
and
Cypress
(CY) - Get Report
. He also likes the large shippers of crude oil like
Nordic Tankers
(NAT) - Get Report
.
Chartology With Carter Worth
Oppenheimer Chief Market Technician Carter Worth joined the "Fast Money" crew to discuss his take on the charts of a few stocks. Worth took a look at the charts of
Williams-Sonoma
(WNM)
and
Bed Bath & Beyond
(BBBY) - Get Report
. He feels that both charts are displaying a "head and shoulders" pattern, which historically suggests that these stocks will head lower.
Adami predicts that if either stock drops 2% from current levels they will then decline to 8% lower. That led to Najarian to suggest that
(GOOG) - Get Report
,
Research In Motion
(RIMM)
and
Apple
(AAPL) - Get Report
seem to lead the market down and up. He offers that you can follow the chart of Google to try getting ahead of market declines and rises.
Happy 52-Week High,
Berkshire Hathaway
(BRK.A) - Get Report
.
Pops & Drops
Pops --
AutoNation
(AN) - Get Report
traded up 7% after activist investor Eddie Lampert raised his stake in the firm to 30%. Finerman remarked that it was a big day for anything retail.
Analog Devices
(ADI) - Get Report
traded up 3%. Adami commented that on a valuation basis he would rather own
Texas Instruments
(TXN) - Get Report
.
Siemens
(SI) - Get Report
traded up 3%. The company announced it's shaking up the board of directors, which is good news, according to Najarian.
Lowe's
(LOW) - Get Report
traded up 6%. Finerman suggests this was just a dead-cat bounce.
Acuity
(AYI) - Get Report
traded up 7% as speculation of a takeover made the rounds on Wall Street. Adami noted that Jim Cramer likes Acuity and so does "Fast Money."
Children's Place
(PLCE) - Get Report
traded up 9%. Finerman is long PLCE and also thinks a takeover is possible.
Drops --
Ultrashort S&P 500
(SDS) - Get Report
fell 6%. The ETF, which goes up when the
S&P 500 index
goes down, fell as the markets exploded higher. Seymour points out that based on technical signals, this could trade lower.
Syntax-Brillian
(BRLC)
fell 8% after missing analysts' sales estimates for 2008. Najarian remarks that BRLC is having major problems.
Pep Boys
(PBY) - Get Report
fell 16% after the firm cut 550 jobs and closed 31 stores as part of a restructuring plan. In Seymour's opinion, this isn't a good story for Manny, Moe and Jack.
Final Trade
The best trade ideas are handed out by the team at the end of the show.
- Seymour would buy Stillwater Mining (SWC) as a play on platinum.
- Adami prefers U.S. Steel (X) - Get Report.
- Finerman sees value in Pzena (PZN) - Get Report.
- Najarian suggest playing Isis (ISIS) for a potential takeover target.
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