Well my plan was to do a gap fade inthe pre-market this morning but I woke up about 5 minutes too late. I turned on the TV just after 8:30 and saw the futures ramping on the surprise rate cut. I thought that ruined my plans and I was gonna just sit & watch. Now that the futures have just about given back all those post-cut gains I’m thinking about a gap fade once again. But now I want to buy BELOW the pre-market lows. I think we need to flush the trapped longs out before we can go higher.

Things are getting real interesting now. It seems the the Fed and the rest of the PPT are pushing on a string in trying to get rates to a level that’s stimulative. I was IM’ing with Duru earlier and we were trying to figure out what new bubble the Fed is gonna create with these rate cuts. Tulips?

Potential swing trades:

See one of the recent ‘Chart Reading‘ posts for some potential swing candidates.

Potential day trades:

(From Briefing.com)

Gapping Down

A large number of stocks are trading lower this morning with equity futures trading down 3-4% in pre-market trading, after two-days of heavy selling in foreign markets… In reaction to weak earnings/guidance: NCC -9.3%, SAY -7.0%, UAUA -5.9%, BAC -5.5%, ABK -4.8%, VIVO -3.0%, FITB -2.7% (also downgraded at Morgan Keegan), WB -2.6%, UNH -2.6%, SU -2.2%, JNJ -1.9%, DD -1.6%, JEC -1.6%… Select foreign stocks showing notable weakness include: SEED -17.5%, PTR -16.9%, ACH -15.3%, LFC -14.0%, SAP -10.0%, CTDC -9.3%… Select solar stocks showing significant weakness: CSUN -16.7%, TSL -14.7%, LDK -14.2%, STP -12.2%, ESLR -11.2%, FSLR -10.7%, JASO -9.4%, SPWR -9.0%… Other news: RTP -12.4% (BHP isn’t likely to increase bid for RTP - WSJ), HGSI -9.3% (Teva to acquire CoGenesys, a division of HGSI, for $400 mln), BHP -8.8% (BHP isn’t likely to increase bid for RTP - WSJ), WCG -8.1% (announces in an 8-K that WC NY will continue to provide Medicare coordinated care plans in New York), EBAY -7.9% (chief plans to retire), TASR -7.8% (still checking), VMW -7.7% (MSFT is disclosing new details of its plans to take on VMW and others in virtualization), FBR -4.1% (announces First NLC Files for Chapter 11), YHOO -3.8% (expects cuts in staff to curb budget - WSJ)… Analyst downgrades: ALU -13.0% (hearing downgraded to Sell at tier 1 firm), LULU -12.7% (downgraded to Underperform at BMO Capital), CRME -8.4% (downgraded to Neutral at Merrill Lynch), ERIC -7.2% (hearing downgraded to Sell at tier 1 firm), DLB -6.6% (downgraded to Underweight at Morgan Stanley), FTWR -5.9% (downgraded to Neutral at Merriman), JCP -5.7% (downgraded to Neutral at Piper), MBT -5.4% (downgraded to Neutral at Credit Suisse), MHS -5.3% (downgraded to Neutral at UBS), MET -5.1% (hearing downgraded to Neutral at tier 1 firm), PRU -5.0% (hearing downgraded to Neutral at tier 1 firm), PFG -4.8% (hearing downgraded to Sell at tier 1 firm), AXP -4.6% (downgraded to Hold at Citigroup), OXM -4.2% (downgraded to Neutral at Piper), NCS -3.5% (downgraded to Neutral at UBS), DIS -3.5% (downgraded to Neutral at Merrill Lynch), SNE -3.4% (hearing downgraded to Neutral at tier 1 firm).

Gapping Up

In reaction to strong earnings/guidance: CSR +5.1%, FAST +3.4%, IRBT +1.8%… M&A news: VMSI +4.0% (Roche to acquire Ventana for $89.50 per share)… Other news: LINTA +8.9% (still checking), GYI +3.0% (exploring strategic alternatives), GILT +2.5% (chosen by Bharti Airtel for broadband satellite network), GGP +1.6% (says not in any danger of bankruptcy or defaulting on its debt obligations), CTXS +1.0% (MSFT and CTXS announce an expanded alliance to deliver a set of virtualization solutions)… Analyst upgrades: BBBB +2.4% (upgraded to Buy at Suntrust), QLTI +2.3% (upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at BMO Capital).

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