The price of copper is under assault. The iPath DJ-UBS Copper TR Sub-Idx ETN (NYSE: JJC) is down more than 13% this year, with half that drop coming in the past week. JJC now trades well below its short-term 50-day moving average, as well as its long-term 200-day moving average. #-ad_banner-#Yet despite the drop in copper prices, I think traders can look at the sector’s slide as a buying opportunity. Copper is the industrial metal that’s said to have a Ph.D. in economics. In fact, it is sometimes referred to as “Dr. Copper.” This is because the price… Read More

The price of copper is under assault. The iPath DJ-UBS Copper TR Sub-Idx ETN (NYSE: JJC) is down more than 13% this year, with half that drop coming in the past week. JJC now trades well below its short-term 50-day moving average, as well as its long-term 200-day moving average. #-ad_banner-#Yet despite the drop in copper prices, I think traders can look at the sector’s slide as a buying opportunity. Copper is the industrial metal that’s said to have a Ph.D. in economics. In fact, it is sometimes referred to as “Dr. Copper.” This is because the price of copper usually reflects the overall trend in the global economy. While this “copper indicator” has proven to have a lot of merit over the years, like most economists, copper also gets it wrong — frequently. Recently, the price of copper is thought to have dropped due to weak economic data out of China. China is the biggest consumer of copper, with the nation accounting for about 40% of global demand. Certainly, China’s infrastructure buildout has been the biggest driver for the industrial metal during the past decade. And recent data from the Asian giant does show a slump in… Read More

There’s no doubt about it, so far in 2014, the market has been more than a little turbulent. Stocks in most of the major S&P industry groups faltered mightily in January, only to come roaring back in February. Now that we’ve entered March, many traders are positioning themselves for more volatility on the both the upside and the downside. During near-schizophrenic conditions such as we’ve seen so far this year, I try to look at industry groups, as well as individual stocks and commodities, that are positioned to do well but haven’t quite kept pace with some of their peers.#-ad_banner-#… Read More

There’s no doubt about it, so far in 2014, the market has been more than a little turbulent. Stocks in most of the major S&P industry groups faltered mightily in January, only to come roaring back in February. Now that we’ve entered March, many traders are positioning themselves for more volatility on the both the upside and the downside. During near-schizophrenic conditions such as we’ve seen so far this year, I try to look at industry groups, as well as individual stocks and commodities, that are positioned to do well but haven’t quite kept pace with some of their peers.#-ad_banner-# In the current market, the Industrial Select Sector SPDR (NYSE: XLI) fits that bill. The fund’s holdings include stalwart firms from industries such as aerospace and defense, industrial conglomerates, machinery, railroad, and construction and engineering, to name just a few. Its top five holdings are General Electric (NYSE: GE), United Technologies (NYSE: UTX), Boeing (NYSE: BA), Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP) and 3M (NYSE: MMM). As a group, the industrials have not kept pace so far in 2014, and XLI is up only about 1.7%. That makes sense when you consider that the market has been led higher by the mid… Read More

One of the biggest success stories in the market over the past several years is the amazing performance of electric car pioneer Tesla Motors (Nasdaq: TSLA). That company’s shares have delivered a mighty 625%-plus gain over the past 12 months, and the stock has shown no real signs of slowing down. #-ad_banner-#Yet many traders and investors I know have already made big money in Tesla, and they’re now looking for peripheral electric car plays with the potential for Tesla-like returns. Enter Kandi Technologies (Nasdaq: KNDI). This China-based company is a maker of vehicles such as ATVs, motorcycles and other small… Read More

One of the biggest success stories in the market over the past several years is the amazing performance of electric car pioneer Tesla Motors (Nasdaq: TSLA). That company’s shares have delivered a mighty 625%-plus gain over the past 12 months, and the stock has shown no real signs of slowing down. #-ad_banner-#Yet many traders and investors I know have already made big money in Tesla, and they’re now looking for peripheral electric car plays with the potential for Tesla-like returns. Enter Kandi Technologies (Nasdaq: KNDI). This China-based company is a maker of vehicles such as ATVs, motorcycles and other small utility vehicles, including electric cars. And while its vehicles don’t approach the high-tech, luxury level of a Tesla Model S, they are in demand in China, and that demand is expected to continue in the years to come. According to a recent SEC filing, which was actually a Q-and-A session from the company’s December shareholder meeting, Kandi, which is a joint venture with China manufacturer Geely, said it expected to deliver some 2,800 electric vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2013. That’s huge when compared with the 3,915 vehicle deliveries the company had in all of 2012. Kandi CEO Hu… Read More

If you’ve been in the market this year, you are likely pretty happy with your results. Indeed, the bias this year has been all about the bulls, and until we see the price action reflect otherwise, the big winners are likely to keep on giving in 2014. #-ad_banner-# For traders like me who love to ride strong momentum stocks during bull markets, I think the best place to put new capital to work is in those big winners trading at or near new highs. One tech stock that fits this description perfectly is Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU). The company is… Read More

If you’ve been in the market this year, you are likely pretty happy with your results. Indeed, the bias this year has been all about the bulls, and until we see the price action reflect otherwise, the big winners are likely to keep on giving in 2014. #-ad_banner-# For traders like me who love to ride strong momentum stocks during bull markets, I think the best place to put new capital to work is in those big winners trading at or near new highs. One tech stock that fits this description perfectly is Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU). The company is one of the largest makers of computing memory chips in the world, but you don’t have to have a very long memory to know that the stock has been a trader’s dream of late. Year to date, MU has delivered a gain of nearly 245%, an incredible run for a large-cap tech stock that’s been around for some time. And though shares are more than 50% above their long-term, 200-day moving average, there have been scant episodes this year where traders got scared and sold the stock off because it was perceived as being overbought. From a fundamental… Read More

Last week, we got news that Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) finally inked its much-anticipated deal with China Mobile (NYSE: CHL) to start offering iPhones on China Mobile’s massive network.#-ad_banner-#​ Although many Apple watchers had figured out that this was basically a done deal thanks to information discovered on a website owned by a China Mobile subsidiary, which had recently started taking preorders on the iPhone 5S and 5C, confirmation of the news was a welcome development. From a sheer size perspective, the China Mobile deal is fantastic for Apple, as it gives the stalwart personal… Read More

Last week, we got news that Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) finally inked its much-anticipated deal with China Mobile (NYSE: CHL) to start offering iPhones on China Mobile’s massive network.#-ad_banner-#​ Although many Apple watchers had figured out that this was basically a done deal thanks to information discovered on a website owned by a China Mobile subsidiary, which had recently started taking preorders on the iPhone 5S and 5C, confirmation of the news was a welcome development. From a sheer size perspective, the China Mobile deal is fantastic for Apple, as it gives the stalwart personal technology company the opportunity to sell iPhones to China Mobile’s 740 million subscribers. To put that in context, consider that the number of China Mobile subscribers is more than double the entire U.S. population. If Apple can capture even a modest percentage of China Mobile users, we are talking about hundreds of millions of iPhones sold. AAPL shares rose only modestly in response to the news, but that shouldn’t be read as the market not liking this deal. As mentioned, the market had already expected the deal was going down, and that’s a big reason why AAPL… Read More

Gold is getting hammered, and the pain in the sector is putting gold bulls in a panic. The yellow metal is down more than 27% year to date, and in just the past month, gold prices have tumbled more than 7%.#-ad_banner-#​ The latest decline in gold came on Tuesday, when it traded lower by as much as 2.7%, breaking down below very weak support levels around $1,225. About the only hope for gold longs here is to pray for a bad jobs number Friday, as that may keep the Federal Reserve from tapering sooner rather than later. Yet… Read More

Gold is getting hammered, and the pain in the sector is putting gold bulls in a panic. The yellow metal is down more than 27% year to date, and in just the past month, gold prices have tumbled more than 7%.#-ad_banner-#​ The latest decline in gold came on Tuesday, when it traded lower by as much as 2.7%, breaking down below very weak support levels around $1,225. About the only hope for gold longs here is to pray for a bad jobs number Friday, as that may keep the Federal Reserve from tapering sooner rather than later. Yet aside from prayer, what can a precious metal investor do if he wants to stay in metals but get out of the sinking ship that is gold? One answer would be to seek shelter in another precious metal, one that’s also benefiting from strong industrial demand tailwinds, and that metal is palladium. Rather than trading palladium on the commodities futures market, a prospect I find fraught with difficulty, I prefer to use exchange-traded funds (ETFs) such as the ETFS Physical Palladium Shares (NYSE: PALL). PALL has held up very well this year when compared with other precious metals. The ETF… Read More

The major indices keep hitting new all-time highs, and as a trader, that makes life pretty easy. Basically, you have a bullish tailwind at your back that can forgive your loser picks, while at the same time helping your winners move up nicely.#-ad_banner-# Indeed, in this era of quantitative easing, which is likely to continue based on the Senate testimony last week of Federal Reserve chair nominee Janet Yellen, I think it makes more sense than ever to buy the “air pockets” in this market. Yet there are some stocks that are just a bit too… Read More

The major indices keep hitting new all-time highs, and as a trader, that makes life pretty easy. Basically, you have a bullish tailwind at your back that can forgive your loser picks, while at the same time helping your winners move up nicely.#-ad_banner-# Indeed, in this era of quantitative easing, which is likely to continue based on the Senate testimony last week of Federal Reserve chair nominee Janet Yellen, I think it makes more sense than ever to buy the “air pockets” in this market. Yet there are some stocks that are just a bit too risky here and probably should be sent packing from your portfolio. I alerted readers to one such stock earlier this month when I said tech giant Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) was likely on the downslope. On Thursday, the stock vindicated my call, as it plunged as much as 13.5% after a dreadful earnings report that missed expectations and a warning that next quarter’s revenue would drop 8% to 10% from the same period last year. In addition to Cisco, there are some other stocks that have performed very well of late that I suspect could be… Read More

In this market, finding a stock with strong upside that also happens to have come down well off of its 52-week high isn’t as easy as it may seem.#-ad_banner-# But thanks to what I call the performance protection trade, there are high-fliers that have pulled back. Stocks such as Tesla Motors (Nasdaq: TSLA) and Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) fit this description well, as does auto and equipment rental giant Hertz Global Holdings (NYSE: HTZ). HTZ has rewarded shareholders with a 40% gain in 2013, easily besting the benchmark S&P 500 Index’s 24% year-to-date showing. However, at the time… Read More

In this market, finding a stock with strong upside that also happens to have come down well off of its 52-week high isn’t as easy as it may seem.#-ad_banner-# But thanks to what I call the performance protection trade, there are high-fliers that have pulled back. Stocks such as Tesla Motors (Nasdaq: TSLA) and Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) fit this description well, as does auto and equipment rental giant Hertz Global Holdings (NYSE: HTZ). HTZ has rewarded shareholders with a 40% gain in 2013, easily besting the benchmark S&P 500 Index’s 24% year-to-date showing. However, at the time of its 52-week high of $27.75 in mid-July, HTZ was up more than 70%. Shares sold off through the rest of the summer before retesting that high in September. Then, in late September, HTZ suffered a huge one-day sell-off that drove it below both the 50-day and 200-day moving averages. HTZ currently trades near $22.80, about 17% off its recent highs and right about where it traded in mid-April.   The massive sell-off in HTZ came swiftly following the company’s downward revision of guidance for 2013. The company said it now expects full-year revenue will be between $10.8 billion and… Read More

During bull markets, often the best way to trade is to go with the momentum. That’s usually the route I like to take, but there’s another way to trade that can also net you big results. That is to identify sectors that have come under fire that have the potential to move much higher — that is, value trades. The multi-national industrial mining sector fits this bill. One great way to invest in this sector is with iShares MSCI Global Metals & Mining Producers (NYSE: PICK). This exchange-traded fund (ETF) holds the biggest industrial mining companies, including BHP Billiton (NYSE:… Read More

During bull markets, often the best way to trade is to go with the momentum. That’s usually the route I like to take, but there’s another way to trade that can also net you big results. That is to identify sectors that have come under fire that have the potential to move much higher — that is, value trades. The multi-national industrial mining sector fits this bill. One great way to invest in this sector is with iShares MSCI Global Metals & Mining Producers (NYSE: PICK). This exchange-traded fund (ETF) holds the biggest industrial mining companies, including BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP), Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (NYSE: FCX) and Rio Tinto (NYSE: RIO). Although PICK is down 12% year to date, the fund has seen some strong buying during the past four months, rising 27% since its July 5 low. The reason for the buying in the industrial metals sector of late is partly due to the general rebound in global stocks, but it is also partly due to the global economic recovery thesis centered around China. Solid GDP data and good manufacturing numbers out of that country, one of the biggest consumers of industrial metals such as iron… Read More

I like buying stocks, not selling stocks — unless, of course, I am selling them for a big profit. And while I suspect that this market is headed higher over the next couple of months, and that you should be buying the “air pockets,” I also think there are certain stocks that need to be jettisoned from your holdings due to a lack of upside catalysts in the short and/or intermediate term.#-ad_banner-# One of the stocks I think is headed lower is tech giant Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO). The network equipment maker has long been a… Read More

I like buying stocks, not selling stocks — unless, of course, I am selling them for a big profit. And while I suspect that this market is headed higher over the next couple of months, and that you should be buying the “air pockets,” I also think there are certain stocks that need to be jettisoned from your holdings due to a lack of upside catalysts in the short and/or intermediate term.#-ad_banner-# One of the stocks I think is headed lower is tech giant Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO). The network equipment maker has long been a stalwart in the tech space, and I’ve been buying and selling CSCO shares with very good results since the late 1990s. So far this year, Cisco shares are up 20.5%. Unfortunately, over the past three months, the stock has tumbled more than 11%. The trouble with CSCO shares started midway through August, which not coincidentally was when the company reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings. Although it managed to beat earnings expectations, Cisco’s sales were less than impressive. Perhaps more importantly, Cisco announced plans to slash about 5% of its workforce, presumably in an effort to maintain profit margins in the wake… Read More