Trade Ideas for January 26, 2010

Weakness is prevailing across the globe this morning – Asian markets are down big time, and the European Markets are down as well. On the futures, the Dow is currently down 47 points, the Nasdaq is down 4.25 points and the S&P down 7 points.

Of noted importance is that the Fed begins a two-day meeting today where they will be releasing their statement tomorrow at 2:15pm ET. I’ll make sure to post the statement as soon as it is released. We also have the ICSC-Goldman Store Sales at 7:45am, Redbook today at 8:55am, followed by the S&P Case-Shiller HPI at 9am, Consumer Confidence, FHFA House Price Index and State Street Investor Confidence Index at 10am. Wow – lots of stuff hitting the wires later on. Not really necessary to follow each of these reports, just be cognizant of the effect they have on the market.

On the earnings front we have some big names reporting such as Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Verizon (VZ), US Steel (X), Yahoo (YHOO) and Delta Airlines. Apple (AAPL) reported yesterday and did a solid job of beating street estimates, but so far its effect on Wall Street sentiment has been negligible.  

Here are Today’s Trade Ideas…

Potential Swing-Trade (Long): Brigham Exploration (BEXP) – This stock has pulled back nice and orderly since breaking out to new highs earlier this month. Despite the market sell-off from last week, this stock has held up quite nicely and the long-term trend is still in place. I would consider using a stop-loss of 12.31 on this trade.

Potential Swing-Trade (Short): None (market oversold). Chack out my Short Watchlist though from yesterday

Ready to Bounce: Falconstor Software (FALC) – Extremely oversold and showing a very nice candle patter with a doji formed on unusually high volume at a critical support level. This stock is primed for a bounce (given that the market provides relief in the short-term). A stop-loss of 3.19 would suffice.

Ready to Pullback: None (market oversold)