Business

ATP’s (ATPG) Telemark project is on the verge of commencing production and is about to transform the company. It has been three years in the making, and it hasn’t been easy for the company to finance a $1.5 billion dollar project through the worst financial market crisis of a generation, the worst oil price collapse top to bottom ever, and a downstream pipeline shut in of 50% of production for 4 months due to the 2008 hurricanes.

But ATP has done it. The ATP Titan is complete but for a few finishing touches and the first well, which is a big one (7,000 barrels of oil per day, accounting for a 50% increase in ATP production) is drilled, completed and has had the production tubing run. And after riding through this journey as a shareholder of the company I am extremely excited about the very near term for both the company and the stock price.

By Chris McKhann

Shares of CVS Caremark (CVS) are active after a positive earnings release this morning, but puts are dominating the option trading despite the stock's jump.

By Bryan McCormick

Ahead of Coca-Cola's (KO) earnings results tomorrow, some important technical features have already become active on its chart.

When Google announced that it would no longer play nicely with China, some suggested that this was a just a ploy to pull out of a country that it was struggling to dominate.

Of course, Google’s official stance was that it was just too much of a compromise to operate any business in China:

On February 8, Morningstar greeted its ETF readers with a spotlight on a “valuation attractive” segment, consumer staples. The virtues of consistent dividend returns from the likes of Procter & Gamble (PG), Coca-Cola (KO) and Wal-Mart (WMT) were discussed as well.

CNBC viewers who watch the rantings and ravings of J. Cramer have also been receiving admonishments. His concern? White House plans for the banking establishment signify a need to stick with the “never-go-away” companies like Altria (MO) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ).

4:07 PM, Feb 8, 2010 --

• NYSE down 68.8 (1%) to 6,713.99.
• DJIA down 103 (1%) to 9,908.
• S&P 500 down 9 (0.9%) to 1,057.
• Nasdaq down 15 (0.7%) to 2,126.

UPSIDE MOVERS

It turns out job losses in the United States were far worse than initially reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). On Friday, the government agency disclosed that its count of job losses from April, 2008 through to December, 2009 was being revised upward by 38%, from 6.0 million to 8.3 million.

In our younger years we were quite accomplished at the “Match Game” on Sesame Street – to some we have just hopelessly dated ourselves, to others we hope to have given you a nostalgic boost. Whichever group you find yourself, please indulge us as we revert to times past and play the game once again…

German PMI – Manufacturing & Services, both rising….

Looking back on 2009, most investors will agree that the start of the year was a nightmare if you were on the long side.

With that in mind, it's hard to believe that we're now down more in 2010 than we were at this point in 2009. Back in 2009, the S&P 500 was down 4.0% 25 trading days into the year. Barring a late afternoon rally today, the S&P 500 will finish its 25th day of 2010 with a 4.5% YTD decline.

What's interesting about this stock market correction is that technology earnings have been rising while the stock prices of large technology companies have decreased. This is an opportunity.

Technology spending is starting to bounce back, and there is evidence that capital-spending budgets are loosening up a bit. Given that 2010 is off to a good earnings start for technology companies, I think there's a high probability that companies continue to increase tech spending.

Crude oil was higher for the first time in 4 sessions but we only gained 70 cents after the $7 rout; that is not much. It appears that buyers are emerging but we would suggest waiting for the inventory number this week before establishing fresh positions. For now, $70 should support and $73 should act as resistance in the March contract. Natural gas reversed to close down almost 2% on the day. Clients are flat; though we think lower pricing is likely, we wish to have no exposure. Clients are starting to buy June RBOB call spreads anticipating prices to get back above $2.20 in the coming months; we like this trade and clients currently own $2.16/2.28 spreads.

We will be looking to sell rallies in the ES and SP for clients; we see resistance at 1069, 1084, 1100. Continue to scale into short exposure in the Euro-dollar! Clients were advised to go long the Aussie today via June 90 cent calls; today at just under $1400/per. Additionally currency traders are still long the Euro and short the Yen. This trade got a little better today but clients are still under water.

By Brad Zigler

Last week really tested the mettle of metal-owners. An early-week bullish head fake was followed by some nasty selling that left COMEX spot gold nearly $31 an ounce lower for the week. Long liquidation was the name of the game on Wednesday and Thursday, but Friday the shorts rushed in. Well, maybe not rushed, but they weren't walking to get to the trading rings, that's for sure. Open interest rose nearly a percentage point for the week as shorts and longs passed each other at the doorway.

Copper prices have hit their lowest point since Oct. 19, and are 20% below this year’s high price. Enter the bargain hunters, out buying everything from copper exchange traded notes to the physical metal.

Why is copper on such a tear?

Sentiment

Stocks traded mixed throughout most of the morning session, but sellers resurfaced Monday afternoon and the major averages are under water again late in the day. With no real economic data scheduled until next Thursday and a light earning calendar, there was little news to guide the action. The financials -- BofA (BAC), Traveler's (TRV), and American Express (AXP) -- are the biggest losers in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which is down 50 points heading into the final hour. The NASDAQ lost 4.6.

In the options market, volume and volatility are easing a bit. The CBOE Volatility Index (.VIX) is down .12 to 25.99. Approximately 4.3 million puts and 4.7 million calls traded (a ratio of .92, compared to a 22-day average of .82.)

Intel (INTC) today highlighted another Moore’s Law update in computing power, unveiling the Intanium 9300 processor - which had been codenamed “Tukwila” - touting its increased performance, scalability and reliability for enterprise-level computing.

The announcement, which was delivered with partner HP (HPQ) standing on stage with Intel, comes as the server wars heat up today. This morning, IBM kicked things off with a rollout of its latest Power 7 systems, which are designed to power everything from smart grids to analytics. In a Webcast presentation today, Intel touted the performance bullet points:

While I knew Japan's public finances were a mess, I did not realize India was neck in neck with the U.S. [Feb 5, 2010: Sovereign Risk Chart - Where Would the US Fit in, on Europe's Scale?] Also, I imagine after the massive loan growth of the first half of 2009, the Chinese government will be writing off a huge swath of debt sometime in 2011-2013; but they have a massive annual surplus at this point so I assume much of the money will come from that, and not add to their smallish debt.

But overall, the lessons of the late 90s seemed to have given most Asian countries "financial religion."

This morning on Bloomberg TV, U.S. Special Master on Executive Compensation Kenneth Feinberg had some interesting comments on John Thain’s new package at CIT and bonuses at Goldman Sachs (GS):

Here are the key highlights from the full interview on Bloomberg TV:

Despite enjoying 2 full quarters of 'recovery', and coming off a hefty 5.7% GDP quarter - the reality is not so happy down on Main Street (business). Keep in mind the year over year comparisons are versus the period of time (fall 2008/winter 2008-2009) when the recession was at its deepest, so to see continued "growth" in this area is certainly not a green shoot. However, I am sure it can be explained away as all bad news is... let me think of an appropriate head in sand response. Ah yes... let's throw this on the pile of "it's a lagging indicator". [My comments in italics]

Via Reuters:

“I also want to show you UTX, United Technologies because its board of directors just approved a 10.4% increase in its first quarter dividend to 43 cents a share.” — Fox Business Network 2/8/2010

As shown in the chart below, Apple (AAPL) has bounced a bit over the past two days. This bounce occurred right after the stock hit the bottom of its trading range channel that it has been in for a few months now.

If the stock can take out its highs from last Wednesday, it clears the way for a move back to the top of its range.