Friedman, Billings, Ramsey

Just about the time the bulls appeared to be poised to make a break for it to the upside, a batch of very big numbers from a variety of sources apparently caused them to lose their nerve. One might have thought that getting some details on the banking situation would have been a plus for the market this week. However, the bottom line is that it is still tough to look ahead when faced with the type of numbers we got yesterday.

For starters, while everybody knew that General Motors (GM) was going to lose money – a LOT of money – when you see an earnings report like this one, it takes your breath away. We won’t bore you with the gory details, but when a company the size of GM loses $9.65 per share, you know there are some very big numbers, as well as some very big ...

StreetInsider.com Notable Analyst Rating Changes:

UPGRADES:
Deutsche Bank upgrades Nucor (NYSE: NUE) from Hold to Buy with a $53 price target.

UBS upgrades Burger King (NYSE: BKC) from Neutral to Buy, saying the fast-food chain offers double-digit EPS growth which is increasingly difficult ...

Friedman Billings downgrades Prudential Financial (NYSE: PRU) from Outperform to Market Perform ...

Santa Stuck In Holding Pattern

The bulls came into Friday morning expecting the "Bridge to Obama" bailout of the automakers to release Santa and his reindeer from their holding pattern. And with the Dow popping 180 points or so in the early going, it appeared that the traditional Santa Claus rally had finally gotten underway.

But unfortunately, the holiday cheer didn’t last long. Standard & Poors said “bah humbug” to the banks, Treasury Secretary Paulson tried to pick a fight with Congress and before long, the major indices were back in a holding pattern hovering around the breakeven mark for the day.

To be sure, the ratings agencies have taken their share of the heat (as they should) for the subprime mess, the ensuing credit crisis, and now, the economic meltdown. And in a move that certainly raised some eyebrows, Standard & Poors downgraded a long list of banks (12 ...

A Day of Rest?

After an insanely wild ride over the past couple of weeks, Friday appeared to be a day of rest for the markets. Although, I will have to admit that a drop of 127 points or 1.4% isn’t normally something you just shrug off as unimportant. However, given the violence we’ve seen lately, Friday’s intraday volatility of a mere 550 points seemed a little on the light side.

One of the major reasons for our assessment is that the results of Friday’s trading did nothing to impact the charts. On a chart basis, it looked like a lighter volume day of consolidation, which, believe it or not, is actually a good thing right now.

Our thinking is this was the type of day that helps the bulls argue that last Friday’s key-reversal day will wind up marking the low of the move. As we’ve been saying, if October ...