CNBC celebrated the one year anniversary of "Fast Money" on Tuesday, but the stock market wasn't very accommodating. The market plunged after Citigroup ( C) announced a huge $18.1 billion write-down and slashed its dividend. The Dow finished down 277 points and the NASDAQ closed down 60 points. The team covered the Citigroup story, plus they were able to have Carl Icahn visit the show to share his view of the market.
Citigroup shares fell 7% after the banking giant reported a record loss on $18 billion in write-downs for bad mortgage assets. Najarian thinks Wall Street wanted to see a bigger write-down from Citigroup. He now predicts the problems at Citigroup will drag on for at least another quarter. Adami highlighted
U.S. Bancorp (
USB) which traded up all day Tuesday as the stock market plunged. He expects USB to go higher. Finerman would have been happier to see a bigger dividend cut from Citigroup.
Activism is Alive
Activist investor Carl Icahn joined the "Fast Money" crew to discuss his take on the markets. Icahn still thinks that someone will buy
Biogen Idec (
BIIB). He also expressed that he doesn't like the way the stock market looks right now. Icahn thinks that commercial real estate could get hit hard and retail stocks could be down too much at current levels. He also thinks that American management teams aren't up to the job of running many of the top tier firms.
Healthcare stocks continue to show strength as the stock market plunges. Najarian reminded investors that healthcare stocks aren't bullet proof. However, the one stock in the healthcare sector he does like right now is Biogen Idec.
(Take a look at Icahn's portfolio on Stockpickr.com
Carl Icahn.)
Dennis Gartman Talks
Dennis Gartman, author of The Gartman Letter joined the "Fast Money" traders to discuss his take on the commodities market. Gartman disclosed that he is long natural gas and short crude oil. He thinks natural gas is cheap relative to crude oil and he pointed out that oil couldn't go up last week on bad news. Gartman mentioned his two favorite natural gas plays right now are
San Juan Basin Royalty Trust (
SJT) and
United States Natural Gas Fund (
UNG). He went on to explain that investors were moving out of gold Tuesday due to margin calls. He feels that gold will be much higher 6 months as long as the dollar, inflation and the Federal Reserve don't change.
Rate Cut Trade
Many traders think the Federal Reserve will cut rates on or before the next meeting scheduled for January 30th. Macke thinks there's a 75% chance the Fed will cut before the meeting and he would be a seller of stocks if they do. Adami mentioned that if the Fed cuts before January 30th, it will happen Friday before the open. He would buy
Public Service Enterprise Group (
PEG) ahead of a rate cut. Najarian also thinks the Fed will cut Friday before the open just to burn all the shorts on options expiration day. His trade ahead of a rate cut is
Freddie Mac (
FRE). Finerman thinks the Fed will do something else to bring in liquidity to the markets. She would be a buyer of stocks on a rate cut.
(For a list of other names, check out this Stockpickr.com portfolio
Fed Rate Cut Portfolio Names You Didn't Think of.)
Tech Talk
Intel (
INTC) reported a 51% jump in fourth-quarter profits, but falls short of expectations. The stock traded down 15% after hours. Adami explained that gross margins were better for Intel, but he had the trade dead wrong. Najarian thought INTC would crush their earnings numbers.
Apple (
AAPL) shares took a beating on Tuesday falling 5% after Steve Jobs fails to impress investors. Najarian explained that Jobs failed to deliver anything fresh and iPhone sales disappointed investors. He wouldn't look to buy the dip on Apple. Adami thinks capitulation might be close for Apple and investors should look for 100 million shares to trade before buying.
