Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Dow Hits Another All-Time High as Energy Prices Fall and New Home Sales Surge

Indices
S&P 500 1,426.84 +.70%
DJIA 12,510.57 +.83%
NASDAQ 2,431.22 +.73%
Russell 2000 797.73 +1.21%
Wilshire 5000 14,306.90 +.74%
S&P Barra Growth 656.01 +.62%
S&P Barra Value 769.36 +.78%
Morgan Stanley Consumer 699.58 +.47%
Morgan Stanley Cyclical 898.08 +1.11%
Morgan Stanley Technology 570.11 +.71%
Transports 4,591.86 +1.13%
Utilities 459.35 +.30%
Put/Call .78 -7.14%
NYSE Arms .49 -43.65%
Volatility(VIX) 10.64 -5.51%
ISE Sentiment 138.0 -8.61%
US Dollar 83.97 -.11%
CRB 306.04 -.13%

Futures Spot Prices
Crude Oil 60.42 -1.11%
Reformulated Gasoline 159.35 +1.39%
Natural Gas 6.12 -3.36%
Heating Oil 161.26 -.66%
Gold 629.90 +.48%
Base Metals 237.11 +.69%
Copper 290.50 +.94%
10-year US Treasury Yield 4.65% +1.12%

Leading Sectors
Steel +2.34%
Homebuilders +1.5%
Networking +1.13%

Lagging Sectors
Biotech +.25%
Hospitals +.23%
HMOs +.05%

Evening Review
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In Play

Afternoon Recommendations
- None of note

Afternoon/Evening Headlines
Bloomberg:
- US stocks surged, propelling the Dow Jones Industrial Average above 12,500 for the first time, as oil tumbled to a one-month low and home sales exceeded estimates. The DJIA is now 19.5% higher for the year.
- Peter Beutel, president of energy consultant Cameron Hanover, says oil may break below $20/bbl. in 4-8 years.
- Natural gas fell 4% to the lowest level in more than 10 weeks as near record speculation by investment funds continues to subside with inventories near all-time highs.
- Democratic Representative Barney Frank, who will head the committee that oversees the SEC, said Congress should cap executive pay after the SEC changed rules for how companies value stock-options.

Dow Jones:
- Boeing Co.(BA) won a $1.15 billion order form the US Army to build 126 Apache helicopters over the next three years.

Boersen-Zeitung:
- SAP AG(SAP), the world’s largest maker of business-management software, expects double-digit growth in the coming years and may raise its dividend for 2006.
BOTTOM LINE: The Portfolio finished higher today on gains in my Internet longs, Semi longs, Telecom longs and Medical longs. I did not trade in the final hour, thus leaving the Portfolio 100% net long. The tone of the market was very positive today as the advance/decline line finished substantially higher, every sector rose and volume was above average. Measures of investor anxiety were mostly lower into the close. Today's overall market action was very bullish. The May housing futures are now predicting only a 1.9% drop in the average home price by May. This is up from a 5.2% loss projection just a couple of months ago. Negative arguments regarding housing data are well known. The median home price is up over 50% the past few years. In my opinion, you can't have a meaningful consumer slowdown without a home price collapse. Without a meaningful consumer slowdown, a recession is highly unlikely. This is why so many market participants in the current negativity bubble constantly try to scare and dissuade home buyers from stepping in. The possibility of a home price collapse looks increasingly remote, while the many bears tell us to ignore all data that don't fit their doomsday thesis. The bond market seems to agree. Oil is finished near session lows and continues to trade very poorly despite numerous potential upside catalysts and near universal love for the commodity by the investment community and media. Russia said last night that it may pump as much as 12 million tons of crude to Europe via a Ukrainian pipeline next year, almost three times the amount pumped this year, as the country "steps up exports to sustain economic growth." I continue to believe non-OPEC oil production will rise much more than expectations over the intermediate-term.

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