Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Quick Morning Market Comment

Stocks futures are on the rise. One of the factors is excitement and mirth in the leisure and gaming spaces thanks to Kirk Kerkorian's moves on MGM: Tracinda to explore options for MGM Mirage stake. MGM is up more than 20%.

Energy will continue to be a focus. WTI is down a tad this morning at just under $66 a barrel. If articles like this have a modicum of likelihood: Guardian: Iran's secret plan for summer offensive to force US out of Iraq - then the respite from the recent surge in gasoline that many are predicting after Memorial Day is likely not to happen. Oh, and don't forget: At 11 this morning, NOAA will be releasing its summertime hurricane forecast. Private forecasters including AccuWeather are already predicting an active season. Key in today's forecast is whether a bias is mentioned toward it being an East Coast season, or a Gulf season.

Notable analyst calls...


  • The negative New England Journal of Medicine report on Glaxo's (GSK) Avandia drug has prompted ABN and Deutsche Bank to downgrade GSK to hold.
  • Goldman downgraded the Steel sector Neutral from Attractive
  • Merrill downgraded a variety of mem chip makers to Neutral. including Sandisk, Samsung, Hynix, and ProMos.
  • Goldman notes the former CEO and founder of Monster (MNST) sold a million shares last week. While this former officer is no longer employed and not privvy to inside information, the firm thinks the sale inidcates a sale of MNTR is not imminent.
Marketwatch.com asks the question: What's after Blackstone? A brief article on where China may next put its vast reserves to work. Speaking of China, trade talks start at 9:15 between the U.S. and China: How China Experts See the Trade Talks. Also ahead of the talks: Yuan at post-reval high ahead of US-China talks.

"Robert Kyosaki - What a Joke" is the title of a thoughtful piece on the guywho was one of the chief advocates of house flipping. Worth the read.

On the Bloomberg for President watch - interesting that Google ads for Mikebloomberg.com are starting to pop up:



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