'Fast Money' Recap: Texas Instruments Out of Tune

It was a mediocre Monday for the U.S. stock market. Tech companies had good news to offer, while the financials made investors squeamish. The Dow and the S&P 500 each lost about 0.2%, while the Nasdaq climbed 0.2%.On CNBC's "Fast Money" TV show, the traders discussed an in-line quarter and a lowered second-quarter forecast from Texas Instruments (TXN) - Get Report.

Pete Najarian said Texas Instruments looks terrible. He said the chip sector has had too much competition. He said that as

Nokia

(NOK) - Get Report

and

Ericsson

(ERIC) - Get Report

say they're looking for other suppliers for their phones, and Texas Instruments might have to go back to calculators.

Macke said that Texas Instruments is not very exciting, either from the long or short side. This earnings report is specific to Texas Instruments and doesn't say much about the rest of the market, he said.

Macke said that Texas Instruments has learned to lose in every business that it undertakes. There are better plays in almost any space Texas Instruments is in, he said.

In the financial services sector,

Bank of America

(BAC) - Get Report

reported a 70% drop in profit and produced writedowns on its assets.

Karen Finerman said it was nice that the company was holding on to its dividend. At 6.8%, the stock's yield isn't bad, she said.

Adami said he would be looking at

Ameriprise Financial

(AMP) - Get Report

after Bank of America's earnings. Ameriprise had a pretty good fourth quarter, he said. He said he thought the company might surprise when it reports earnings tomorrow.

Macke said the financial stocks were due for a break from bullish activity. He recommended buying the dips in the space.

Najarian recommended

MasterCard

(MA) - Get Report

. He said the company's transaction fees are working great. He also said to keep an eye on

Visa

(V) - Get Report

. There won't be a pullback in Visa, he said -- the stock is on fire.

National City

(NCC)

announced today that it was raising capital. Adami said that of the regional banks, he recommends

USBancorp

(USB) - Get Report

, which he said is very conservative. When the banks rally, USBancorp should rise too, he said. Macke said he wouldn't recommend the regionals.

Pharma's Ups and Downs

In the pharmaceutical space,

Eli Lilly

(LLY) - Get Report

offered disappointing profit and outlooks for the first quarter, while

Merck

(MRK) - Get Report

beat analyst expectations.

Bristol-Myers Squibb

(BMY) - Get Report

reports later this week.

Najarian said Novartis

(NVS) - Get Report

has a good pipeline. Adami compared

GlaxoSmithKline

(GSK) - Get Report

with

Merck

(MRK) - Get Report

in September of 2004. Other than

Gilead

(GILD) - Get Report

, he said, GlaxoSmithKline is the play.

Boston Scientific

(BSX) - Get Report

shares jumped higher in after-hours action on earnings. Adami said he'd like to hear what the company says on its conference call on the stent business. That news would be relevant to

Johnson & Johnson

(JNJ) - Get Report

, he said.

Oil Surges

Crude oil closed at a record high today. Addison Armstrong, director of market research at Tradition Energy, joined the show to talk about commodities. He said it's hard to fight the tape, and he believes oil will continue to rise. He pointed to supply information, including supply disruptions in Nigeria and a strike at a refinery in Scotland.

Armstrong said the trade is to remain long. He said every pullback is a buying opportunity. Najarian pointed out that the

Oil Services HOLDRS

(OIH) - Get Report

hit $210 today. He said that the price-to-earnings ratios in names like

Schlumberger

(SLB) - Get Report

,

Baker Hughes

(BHI)

and

Diamond Offshore

(DO) - Get Report

made the sector look bullish.

Armstrong said the oil services names look poised to go higher. He said, though, that a potential slowdown isn't quite priced in to the stocks. He recommended looking at demand from Asia after the Olympics.

For the Chart of the Day, the traders looked at the continued rise in oil prices, which appeared directly related to the decline in airline shares. Najarian said that the rails were a better transport play, noting bullish action in

Burlington Northern Santa Fe

(BNI)

and

CSX

(CSX) - Get Report

.

Arch Coal

(ACI) - Get Report

hit a 52-week high today. Najarian recommended looking at

International Coal

(ICO)

, which reports earnings Wednesday. He said the company is one of the largest producers of metallurgic coal, an ingredient in steel. He also noted bullish call activity in the stock.

Adami said that the Arch Coal story is great. He also pointed viewers toward

Joy Global

(JOYG)

and

Bucyrus

(BUCY)

. Investors should embrace the coal story, he said.

A Media Matchup

On news that

Viacom

(VIA) - Get Report

would be teaming up with MGM and

Lions Gate

(LGF)

to offer a pay cable channel, Macke said he'd rather be in

Disney

(DIS) - Get Report

. He said the entertainment sector is a very competitive field.

Yahoo!

(YHOO)

reports earnings tomorrow. The traders observed that a beat from the Internet company could embolden its board to look for a sweeter deal than a current takeout bid from

Microsoft

(MSFT) - Get Report

.

Finerman said her fund is long Yahoo!. She said the company has to come out with an unbelievable quarter. She predicted the company would put everything it could into revenue and bottom-line numbers.

Adami said that the Yahoo! buyout has always been about Microsoft, whose last two quarters have been "historic," he said. Macke said he's long both names, and agreed with Finerman's prediction that Yahoo! would try to make its earnings look strong. He said that Microsoft may raise its bid "a little to be polite," but it won't be fooled by Yahoo!'s earnings. Najarian said the deal between the two companies will get done, and said he owns both names.

The traders took time to discuss several rumors on the Street, including a potential buyout of the

New York Times

(NYT) - Get Report

by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Macke was dismissive of that idea.

Further Speculation

In other speculative news, Najarian pointed out bullish call activity in

RadioShack

(RSH)

. He said people may be speculating that the company can partner with somebody. He said

Under Armour

(UA) - Get Report

shares were also up today on no news, and noted that

Lululemon

(LULU) - Get Report

has a 52% short interest and a high valuation, making it look like Under Armour and

Crox

(CROX) - Get Report

at the end of last year.

Macke cautioned investors against chasing Radio Shack or other names on rumors.

Hasbro

(HAS) - Get Report

reported very positive earnings today. The traders welcomed CEO Al Verrecchia to the show to discuss his business. Verrecchia said that the same brands that drove business in 2007 continue strong in 2008. The recession doesn't appear to affect the business to a great degree, he said.

Macke said Hasbro is the best player in an adequate industry. Sometimes, he said, adequate is good enough and he's still long the name. Adami urged investors to avoid rushing into the stock and advised waiting for dips. Najarian agreed.

Trader Radar

Hanesbrands

(HBI) - Get Report

traded on extraordinary volume today.

Commander Planet

In honor of an upcoming Earth Day, Najarian donned his Commander Planet superhero persona to discuss natural gas. The energy source is cheaper than fuel and oil, and thanks to surging demand, its price is up 400% in the past decade, he said. He said the trade on the trend is

Chesapeake Energy

(CHK) - Get Report

. The company's CEO, Aubrey K. McClendon, continues to buy shares of his own company, he said.

Najarian also said he likes

Apache

(APA) - Get Report

and

Devon

(DVN) - Get Report

. He also said that drilling companies

BJ Services

(BJS)

and

Nabors

(NBR) - Get Report

are worth a look.1

Chartology

Quint Tatro of Tatro Capital offered a technical look at the market. He said that a trend line that had offered support for the S&P 500 is now a resistance line. He said that the current environment is a stock picker's market.

For individual stocks, he recommended

DryShips

(DRYS) - Get Report

, which has been in a downtrend since late 2007 and only recently broke out of its trendline. He also recommended

Corning

(GLW) - Get Report

, which has traded sideways for two years and could double if it breaks out, he said.

Adami said he loves Corning. He pointed out that the company controls 57% of the LCD market and makes a lot of the glass that goes into cell phones. He called DryShips a risk-reward trades. He said he'd be interested if the company showed a turnaround in its business.

Macke said DryShips is a laggard, and he'd rather play the rails.

Final Trade

Macke chose Hasbro. Adami picked Intel. Finerman said she's short the

CurrencyShares British Pound Sterling

(FXB) - Get Report

. Najarian said to get long Baker Hughes.