'Fast Money' Recap: Whale Watching

The trading panel mulled over some of the new filings of hedge fund managers.

Author:
Publish date:: Aug 16, 2010 7:49 PM EDT

NEW YORK (

TheStreet

) -- The markets were flat Monday as tech stocks showed signs of life.

The

Dow Jones Industrial Average

lost 1.14, or 0.01%, to 10,302.01. The

S&P 500

added 0.13, or 0.01%, to 1,079.38, while the

Nasdaq

rose 8.39, or 0.39%, to 2,181.07.

Joe Terranova said on

CNBC

's "Fast Money" show that said the laggard tech stocks over the past five days have been unfair for a sector that has shown good fundamentals, enterprise spending and signs of M&A spending such as

Dell

(DELL) - Get Report

agreement to buy

3Par

(PAR) - Get Report

for $1.15 billion.

For a breakout of some stocks from a recent "Fast Money" TV show,check out Dan Fitzpatrick's "3 Stocks I Saw on TV."


3 Stocks I Saw onTV
varconfig = new Array(); config<BRACKET>"videoId"</BRACKET> = 585812429001;config<BRACKET>"playerTag"</BRACKET> = "TSCM Embedded Video Player";config<BRACKET>"autoStart"</BRACKET> = false;config<BRACKET>"preloadBackColor"</BRACKET> = "#FFFFFF";config<BRACKET>"useOverlayMenu"</BRACKET> = "false";config<BRACKET>"width"</BRACKET> = 265;config<BRACKET>"height"</BRACKET> = 255;config<BRACKET>"playerId"</BRACKET> = 1243645856;createExperience(config, 8);

Steve Grasso, though, said traders are still wary after the gloomy outlook provided by

Cisco

(CSCO) - Get Report

CEO John Chambers.

Karen Finerman said she could not get on the Dell bandwagon despite its move to acquire 3Par and Dell's low valuation.

Jon Najarian said his opinion of tech spending hasn't changed since Chambers' comments. Najarian said tech spending remains weak despite today's "nice" rebound in Cisco.

Commenting on the 5% decline today in

Research In Motion

(RIMM)

, Finerman acknowledged the underwhelming debut of the Torch smartphone. "I continue to be a nervous" holder of the stock, she said.

Steve Grasso said the 1,087 becomes the new resistance level for the S&P, with 1,065 and 1,056 the near-term support levels. Terranova added that the risk is in fixed income as money shifts to equities.

Brian Kelly said the market looks confusing, with new 52-week highs mixed in with new 52-week lows.

Anthony Scaramucci said it's been a long time since stock yields have looked this attractive relative to bond yields. He noted

Pfizer

(PFE) - Get Report

has a 4.4% dividend yield compared with a 1.9% yield for its 5-year corporate bond. Likewise,

Altria

(MO) - Get Report

is offering a 6.2% dividend yield compared to a 3% yield on its corporate bond.

Finerman agreed, adding

Kraft

(KFT)

to Scaramucci's list.

Melissa Lee, the moderator of the show, noted a report today that China is about to overtake Japan as the second largest economy in the world. Terranova said the best way to play that news is to get into

Freeport McMoRan

(FCX) - Get Report

and

Joy Global

(JOYG)

Grasso added that steel names are strong now that iron ore prices have bottomed. Terranova said he's hanging on with other ag names like

Potash

(POT)

and

Mosaic

(MOS) - Get Report

In a segment on whale watching, Lee noted that David Einhorn, who runs the Greenlight Capital hedge fund, had doubled his stake in

Microsoft

(MSFT) - Get Report

Finerman said it's interesting to see investors like Einhorn go long on a stock like Microsoft for its long-term story.

Lee noted that hedge fund manager Bill Ackman had taken a new position in

Automatic Data Processing

(ADP) - Get Report

Meanwhile, John Griffin, of Blue Ridge Capital, was establishing new positions in

Goldman Sachs

(GS) - Get Report

and Pfizer.

In addition, John Paulson, was picking up

Bank of America

(BAC) - Get Report

warrants, while adding to his positions in

Hartford Financial

(HIG) - Get Report

Mylan Labs

(MYL) - Get Report

and

Pfizer

(PFE) - Get Report

Lee noted that gold hit a six-week week high. Terranova said it will soon be hitting $1,265 an ounce.

Shifting to a segment that looks at tomorrow's headlines, Dennis Gartman said he was not going to be shorting Treasury securities when the

Fed

steps in to buy them Tuesday. He said he was reducing his long position but not selling. He also said he was "agnostic" when it comes to gold, preferring to own just a little.

Commenting on Wal-Mart's earnings Tuesday, Neil Currie, an analyst with UBS, said he was not expecting any surprises. He expects the retail giant to post negative 1% comps that would be in line with consensus estimates. He said Wal-Mart's customers are in the depths of the recession and are trying to cut back on spending.

Finerman said she expected other retail stocks like

Target

(TGT) - Get Report

to move in line with Wal-Mart. Grasso said his clients have grown tired of WMT's attempts to break out of its trading range.

Lee brought in Bob Wetenhall, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, to comment on the drubbing in education stocks today. He said

Strayer Education

(STRA) - Get Report

, which was down 18% today, took a big hit when it reported student loan repayment loans of 25% instead of the 35% that had been expected.

As a result, Strayer is in jeopardy of failing to qualify for federal student loan programs, he said.

In the final trades, Terranova liked

Parexel International

(PRXL)