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Cramer on BloggingStocks: Oil and the equity nirvana

The Street.com's Jim Cramer says that OPEC may take oil out of the equity-market equation and make stock-picking matter again.

If OPEC says it likes an oil price in the $75-78 range, as it said today, we could be looking at a nirvana moment for stocks. We know that any time oil bounces, the S&P 500 futures go up. Any time it goes down, the S&P futures go down. But if OPEC wants to keep it right here, we take oil out of the equation and make stock-picking matter again.

Right now, the Saudis are telling the big oil-shipping companies that they want to bring 1 million barrels a day into the market straight away to keep oil below $80. That can be used to overwhelm the speculators who are tying up as much as 20% of the oil fleet in the world to keep oil off the market and buoy its price. But they will not bring the oil to the market below $75.

Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: Oil and the equity nirvana

Cramer on BloggingStocks: China's industrial focus helps lots of U.S. names

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says at least one country is getting it right when it comes to economic stimulus.

How in the heck can you get 16% industrial growth and lower-than-expected consumer price inflation? How is that possible? Yet that's what we saw from China last night, and that's a tonic to pretty much everyone who is waiting for our own stimulus to kick in.

And we need it.

On Monday, Fluor (FLR) (Cramer's Take), the giant construction company, when asked if it could quantify the value of stimulus dollars currently in backlog, said "Really, the only stimulus funding we have seen directly has been the award that we got at Savannah River for some nuclear soil remediation. And, it was, I would say, we're less than $0.5 billion."

Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: China's industrial focus helps lots of U.S. names

Freeport McMoRan is in the catbird seat

High growth/modest risk plays don't appear too often, but Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold (NYSE: FCX) is one, which is why I'm Reiterating my Buy rating for the company's shares, first recommended on March 23, 2009 at a price of $41.87.

If you bought Freeport in March, you're up an impressive 97%, and there's much more ahead.

Continue reading Freeport McMoRan is in the catbird seat

Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: FCX, MOT, CHK, MON ...

Analyst upgrades:
  • Deutsche Bank upgraded Freeport McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) to Buy from Hold to reflect the company's better than expected Q3 results and improved volume outlook. Deutsche raised its target on shares to $100 from $72.
  • Thomas Weisel upgraded Motorola (NYSE: MOT) to Overweight from Market Weight and raised its target to $11 from $7 and said they expect Motorola to benefit from several upcoming catalysts that include new Android-based smartphone products and they believe the handset division could break even by year end of 2010.
  • Janney Montgomery upgraded Regal Entertainment (NYSE: RGC) and Cinemark (NYSE: CNK) to Buy from Neutral on expectations both companies will benefit from a strong box office in Q4. The firm has a $14 price target on Regal shares and a $13.50 target on Cinemark shares.
  • Marshall & llsley (NYSE: MI) was upgraded to Neutral from Underweight at JPMorgan.
  • F5 Networks (NASDAQ: FFIV) was upgraded to Neutral from Sell at UBS.
  • William Blair upgraded Lindsay Corporation (NYSE: LNN) to Outperform from Market Perform.

Continue reading Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: FCX, MOT, CHK, MON ...

Options Update: Diamonds Fund volatility low at 15 as ETF near one year high

Diamonds Fund (NYSE: DIA) closed at $100.86.39 DIA is an ETF whose objective is to correspond to the price and yield performance of the Dow Jones Industrial Average-DJIA. DIA November call option implied volatility is at 15, puts are at 20, December call volatility is at 16, puts at 22; below its 26-week average of 23, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Freeport McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) closed at $78.63. FCX is expected to report Q3 EPS on October 21. FCX November call option implied volatility is at 42, puts at 45, December calls are at 42, puts are at 46; below its 26-week of average of 60, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Cramer on BloggingStocks: It's a mistake to fade 'em now

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says you take your life into your own hands if you fade the opening in today's market.

A year ago with the futures up, all you could think of is how much you wanted to "fade" that opening, how great it would be just to lay out any shorts into strength. You could choose pretty much anything going into earnings season.

The techs? Last good quarter. The banks? A travesty. You didn't even know if the banks you are short would survive. The oils? Free fall. The metals? Amazing downward pressure coming from hedge fund redemptions. The insurers? Will they make it? Retail? The balance sheets looked terrible going into what would be a terrible holiday selling season. The autos and auto-related? Disaster.

Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: It's a mistake to fade 'em now

Reiterating favorable stocks: Freeport, Potash, Ford

Three stocks that deserve special call-out, in my view, for those investors who can tolerate moderate risk, due to their favorable risk/return.

Freeport McMoRan (NYSE: FCX). The global recovery appears to be underway, and with it demand for key commodities, such as copper, will increase. And Freeport, the world's second largest producer of copper, is poised to capitalize. Sell/Stop Loss if you were to buy shares in FCX: $32.

Continue reading Reiterating favorable stocks: Freeport, Potash, Ford

Options Update: Freeport McMoRan Sept volatility low at 4

Freeport McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) closed at $65.48. Copper is recently up 3.85% to 296.250 according to Bloomberg. FCX call option volume of 44,375 contracts compares to put volume of 19,700 contracts. FCX September option implied volatility is at 48, November is at 55; below its 26-week of average of 65, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

streetTracks (NYSE: GLD) is recently down 18 cents to $93.69 in pre-open trading. Gold is recently down 0.34% to $955.55 according to Bloomberg. GLD September call option implied volatility is at 15, puts are at 16, October calls are at 17, puts are at 19; below its 26-week average of 26, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

Cramer on BloggingStocks: China-led drop offers a time to buy

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says even stocks without exposure to that country will probably be on sale today.

If China has pulled back 20%, do we have to pull back 20%, even though they were up 80% and we are up 9%? Are we so in lock step now that when China catches a cold, we are the ones with pneumonia?

I don't think so. It's such an easy story to stretch out, though you can see that our Freeports (NYSE: FCX) (Cramer's Take) and our Exxons (NYSE: XOM) (Cramer's Take) can get hammered.

Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: China-led drop offers a time to buy

Cramer on BloggingStocks: Freeport-McMoRan must come to the market

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says in the wake of an upgrade, FCX has to do a big equity offering.

What will Richard Adkerson do? I can tell you what the CEO of Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) (Cramer's Take) ought to do in the wake of the Bank of America-Merrill Lynch upgrade to buy from sell. He ought to do the biggest darned equity offering in history.

I like Richard. He's candid, he's a great copper man, but he spent too much at the high on Phelps Dodge and wasn't prepared when copper prices plummeted as his balance sheet's simply not so hot. So he had to cut his dividend at the bottom, literally at the exact bottom.

Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: Freeport-McMoRan must come to the market

Cramer on BloggingStocks: Copper inventory build threatens the cyclicals

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says the plunge in China overnight is being blamed on the industrial metal, so expect some carry-over.

It turns out copper was the metric. Drats, I thought it was the dollar or oil. I thought we were supposed to buy the cyclicals on earnings being better than expected. I thought we might be buying the minerals and the steels and the oils off the morning proxy of the Baltic Freight Index, known as the Baltic Fright Index in the days when it kept going down, and kept us out of the Freeports (NYSE: FCX) (Cramer's Take) and Vales (NASDAQ: VALE) (Cramer's Take) and Union Pacifics (NYSE: UNP) (Cramer's Take) and U.S. Steels (NYSE: X) (Cramer's Take).

Silly me.

Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: Copper inventory build threatens the cyclicals

Freeport: Back up the truck for a superior copper play

Freeport has taken a hit, and is not only still standing, it's ready to take on new challenges. I'm Reiterating my Buy rating for Freeport McMoRan (NYSE: FCX), first recommended on March 23, 2009 at a price of $41.87.

The global recovery appears to be underway, and with it demand for key commodities, such as copper, will increase. And Freeport, the world's second largest producer of copper, is poised to capitalize.

Continue reading Freeport: Back up the truck for a superior copper play

Cramer on BloggingStocks: This market knows something we don't

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says the rally here seems too strong for the news and data we're getting.

Just as when Doug Kass says, "Tell me something I don't know," I think this market knows something we don't know, either about a turn in commercial real estate to rival that of residential -- the real estate investment trusts are holding in well -- or a second stimulus plan, a real one that will put more people to work.

The employment numbers aren't good enough to merit this kind of rally, and we know the layoffs for June were preposterously high. We know that the auto build will be slightly better than expected a few months ago, but it's still pathetic and the auto idlings are about to start.

Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: This market knows something we don't

Cramer on BloggingStocks: The new normal for commodities pricing

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says China and the fund managers have a huge influence on price action.

We got Japanese steel price increases last night to stay in line with the recent American price increases. We have copper at a multiple-month high and looking like it will go higher.

Do you know what the common denominator of those two prices increases is?

Little to no demand outside of China. That's right, steel capacity is running about 40% worldwide. There's been no increase in copper capacity because there is no real demand. Both steel and copper companies are citing raw costs -- iron for steel and energy for copper -- as reasons they "have to" raise prices, even though Richard Adkerson, the CEO of Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) (Cramer's Take) admitted yesterday in an interview with Bloomberg that there isn't any "real" demand outside of China.

Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: The new normal for commodities pricing

Cramer on BloggingStocks: Believe it, there's money to be made

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says you may hear reasons why the rally shouldn't have occurred, but you can't deny it did happen.

On Tuesday I wanted to shoot myself, as always when I woke up and went online to see what was going on. Here's a partial list of the beautiful data points that were in my purview in the first hour of looking over the market:

1. A trenchant note from a major strategist at a bank I trust who is talking about why the market must be avoided because private-equity valuations are collapsing, so what's the point of owning equities.

Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: Believe it, there's money to be made

Next Page »

Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA-14.2810,318.16
NASDAQ-10.782,146.04
S&P 500-3.521,091.38

Last updated: November 20, 2009: 07:35 PM

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