New Split Drops
| AEOS - American Eagle Outfitters $54.50 -2.38 (-4.19) |
On Wednesday, in the face of a nasty bout of selling on Wall Street, AEOS hit our stop loss at $57.00. We had hoped to grab a little more profit before the stock splits 3:2 on Friday, but with our stop, we still were able to walk away with some green. We will continue to watch AEOS after the split for other trading opportunities.
| AGC - American General Corporation $75.30 +0.20 (-3.59) |
Yesterday's bloodletting in the Dow sent AGC shares to our stop level of $74.50. The sell-off, which was accompanied by heavy selling (1,263,400 shares), leads us to believe that the stock might encounter more short-term selling. So, given the magnitude of this decline and the potential for more weakness, we feel that our stop was well positioned.
| KREM - Krispy Kreme Doughnuts $72.56 +2.06 (-1.13) |
Krispy Kreme Doughnuts sold off on Wednesday after the company announced that it had acquired Digital Java, Inc., a small Chicago-based coffee company. Shares of KREM fell to an intra-day low of $70, hitting our stops late in the session. Therefore, we are taking our profits and dropping KREM.
New Candidate Drops
| BJS - BJ Services Company $78.10 -1.91 (-1.50) |
BJ Services, one of the leading oil service companies, could not hold important support at $79.00. Apparently, investors are once again trying to accumulate cash by selling stocks in their portfolios that have a profit. Today's decline broke a rising trendline that BJS has been enjoying since early December. The stock will most likely have to go through the process of finding support and then consolidating. We will consider trying to add this play again after the share price stabilizes and establishes a renewed up trend.
| JEC - Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. $54.00 +0.80 (-0.13) |
Jacobs Engineering Group resumed its downward trend on strong volume during Wednesday's session. The stock traded to an intra-day low of $53.14, violating support at the 10-dma. We were stopped out at $53.50, so we are removing JEC from our Current Plays list.
| LAB - LaBranche & Company Incorporated $46.35 +0.85 (-4.68) |
LAB shares have since encountered an onslaught of sellers. Consequently, more selling created an early pullback in the stock that pushed LAB to our stop of $44.50. Although a rebound could take place at any time, we feel that the stock's volatility at the recent top may be an indication of an impending trend reversal.
| NATI - National Instruments Corporation $49.69 +0.31 (-3.31) |
Aided by a Wednesday's swift decline in the NASDAQ Composite Index, NATI shares sold off to hit our stop at $50.50. Although a rebound in technology stocks is sure to come eventually, it's necessary to maintain firm stops as a cautionary step to further declines.
New Momentum Drops
| BDK - Black & Decker Corporation $41.32 -2.67 (-3.73) |
Early Thursday, the market again took to selling and our stop loss on BDK was triggered at $43.00. We will keep an eye on BDK for better opportunities in the future.
| CVS - CVS Corporation $58.37 -1.21 (-3.22) |
CVS Corporation gapped down on Wednesday following a strong CPI number. The stock hit an intra-day low of $59.40 before making a small comeback to close at $59.58 on volume of 3.35 million shares. Our stops were triggered at $60, so had to drop CVS on Wednesday.
| UTEK - Ultratech Stepper $38.88 +0.97 (+0.88) |
Ultratech's winning streak ended during today's early going. UTEK succumbed to the overwhelming sell pressure that is plaguing the technology stocks. We will be sorry to see this play go because UTEK has been a brilliant diamond in the rough. UTEK's RSI is still signaling an extremely overbought condition. If this indicator pulls back and the stock can consolidate its recent gains, do not be surprised if the stock of this semiconductor equipment company makes it back onto our Current Play list.
Drops Index
