thx WNMI FONR $1.20 uppy
Thanks guys for comments. FONR had another PR of selling
Mil $ MRI machines - has only stand up kind - less
confining. Stock can run big. Thinnish. While back
did sharp dip & run 0.92 to 1.50+
Think bad part is just the financing books or such. Head
guy is the one who was bitching that he was slighted over
recent Nobel Prize for MRI research.
Not much in subs. Couple pigs a tad up ADVC & such.
No idea why IBII dead. Kinda sets the tome for this go nowhere market.
Market Comment - Housing key.
AMBIGUOUS GUIDANCE, AMBIGUOUS MARKET, AMBIGUOUS ECONOMY
By Charles Payne, CEO & Principal Analyst
7/20/2004 9:28:23 AM Eastern Time
Outside of a few speculators sifting through the ashes of tech, the market once again was uninspired. That feeling or lack there of, won't change much this morning. A couple of high-profile companies have posted mixed earnings results. Ford posted earnings per share results that blew away the consensus estimates, but then proceeded to issue ambiguous guidance for the rest of the year. If there is a discernable trend developing this earnings season it is ambiguous guidance. I'm not sure if this is a move back to the days of limited visibility or if corporate chieftains are so afraid of getting it wrong that they'd rather play it safe by taking a small hit to their share price rather than a huge blow if they come short of bolder guidance 90- days later. (This conundrum is another reason why quarterly earnings reports have become laughable. Unfortunately, the joke is on investors.) The type of guidance we've gotten thus far belies those inflation hawks that have circled the market like vultures in the sky. Interestingly, a couple of staffing couples issued weak guidance...hum...what do they know? Fact is that discounting and internal cuts are still driving too much of the bottom line.
Altria (nee Philip Morris) missed the Street's consensus number by a penny, but price discounts helped the company capture more market share during the quarter and that may drive the stock. Offering discounts is a great way to gain or protect market share, which explains why Apple says it will discount the price of its popular iPod. Yet, in what is supposedly an inflationary climate companies are expected to raise prices on products with high end-user demand.
This morning, the latest on housing finally reflects the 18- months of fear and doom predicted by bears. Ironically, the June housing starts number was expected to rise versus the May results. Instead, the actual figure was a pace of 1.802 million houses down from the pace of 1.97 in May. The building permits figure also came in well below the estimates and possibly serves as a harbinger of weak data in the months to come. We knew that housing data had to begin to come in at a slower pace but there is just enough fear in the air that the housing bubble theory could make the rounds again. This brings us to Alan Greenspan. The Fed Chairman has said over and over again that there is and hasn't been a housing bubble. Such bold statements led me to believe that the Fed would use kid gloves with respect to future rate hikes. After all of the data released over the last couple of weeks I'm even more certain that the Fed will not jeopardize the recovery, or prick the housing market - balloon or not.
Pennies not a zero sum game as much as some zero game.
