There are wacky bids underneath all over the place and they are making for a far more orderly market than one would expect.
Take Disney (DIS) . A week ago it was swooning on weaker ESPN numbers until CEO Bob Iger said on his conference call in answer to a Michael Nathanson question that he's feeling bullish about ESPN.
Today, Deutsche Bank (DB) pretty much signals an all-clear based on that call and says things are indeed getting better. So there are buyers all over the place.
Last week, people widely panned Starbucks' SBUX quarter, but look out as it is now nicely above where it reported. That's pretty monumental given that the company didn't do the U.S. comp number people were looking for.
TJX (TJX) , like Starbucks a big holding for Action Alerts PLUS, gave a totally bullish conference call yesterday with its usually cautious guidance and somehow the guidance was viewed as gospel. Today it's viewed as nicely conservative and the stock rockets.
Target (TGT) had missed projections for the last couple of quarters and didn't have as strong growth online as some were looking for. Plus, when CVS (CVS) reported its miserable call, the stock got blasted because CVS said its drugstores in Target weren't anything to write home about. So Target didn't participate in the great retail rally that we had last week. Now it is front and center after that stronger-than-expected quarter. And make no mistake about it, that quarter was stronger than expected. (Disney and CVS are part of TheStreet's Trifecta Stocks portfolio.)
There are lots of stories like that out there these days. People were perplexed about the Illinois Tool Works (ITW) and Cummins Engine (CMI) and Caterpillar (CAT) quarters, but they turned out to be classic buying opportunities after years of being sell opportunities if the stocks had run. I can't explain to you how amazing that is. Here are three stocks that have spent months and months in purgatory when they have missed or guided down or slashed forecasts. Now they are up gigantically.
I can't believe how much CAT must be hurting the shorts. All they did was say China would be better next year but gave little hope for the U.S. But that was before Donald Trump's election. Now it is widely hailed to be the stock to own! Mind you, this is happening at a time when the dollar is in total blast-off mode, which means the competitive advantage of a CAT vs., say, a Komatsu (KMTUY) is going kerflooey. Does that mean Trump will try to get the dollar down vs. Japan? Or does it mean lost sales to the Japanese? Or will he simply say the Federal Highway Administration will have to use American equipment if it's going to get the money it needs after Trump issues the $500 billion 30-year Make American Highways Great Again bonds? Same with the states, of course.
How about this bid underneath for oil? That's something isn't it? We have a president who has spoken so negatively about OPEC for so many years and has encouraged the U.S. drillers as aggressively as possible, which just accentuates the glut, and oil takes off! Of course, so do the oils, helped by the futures, which are rallying even though the inventories and the strong dollar would say otherwise.
Remarkable time.
Buyers underneath.
