A Look Ahead At A Market Pull-Back

The market, for the first time this month has seen a fair amount of selling as it fell back below the 1130 breakout level on the S&P. The question on the minds of the bulls is whether this is something to be concerned about or to use as an opportunity for buying stocks on the cheap. The best approach is to take a step back, look at a few charts, and realize that the market from the end of August to its highs this past Monday, rallied over 10%. That is quite a bit, where even in July, which saw an incredible rally, moved only 7%. You’d have to go back to April ’09 to see a rally that was this strong, and that was when the market bottomed from the disastrous sell-off of ’08. So the bulls shouldn’t be too distraught when they see the market pullback a few percentage points. With that said, the best strategy moving forward is to do your research now so that when the market seems ready to resume its upward trend you are in position to pull the trigger. Below, you’ll find some of the more notable stocks that have been on the front-lines of this market rally and my thoughts on them.  

LONG: Apple Inc. (AAPL)

LONG: Amazon.com (AMZN)

Short: Salesforce.com (CRM)

Short: Crocs, Inc. (CROX)

LONG: Netflix (NFLX)

LONG: Potash (POT)

BHP’s bid at $130 isn’t going to be enough and if they want this company they are going to have to up their bid, which could bring about interest from the Chinese state-owned chemical company Sinochem. There is a strong possibility that this stock goes up to the $170-190 range as a result.