2/18 Watchlist

There's no change in the indicators from this morning's trends. I won't waste our time trying to make something out of nothing new. Let's go straight to the scans.

Here's what's interesting among high-volume . . .

. . . exchange-traded funds: Nothing of interest. Seriously. Not joking. My scan of etfs with 5 million plus shares of volume generally takes up a couple of pages. Less than one page today. . . . corporate shares: ZNT (Yes, I haven't heard of them either) is trading 30.6% above yesterday's close after a buyout agreement. Not a trade for me, obviously, but I'm just fascinated that this stock had a volume of 140,088 shares yesterday, and has exceeded 25 million shares today. Just as a motivating thing, I don't understand why traders would jump into the stock after the move, but a tick chart shows heavy volume all day long. HPQ is up for a third day after breaking through near-term resistance on a macd bull signal. Now at $50.53, it's heading toward resistance at $51.50. The rise began a couple of days before earnings were announced yesterday. In a broader view I see this move as a bear-market retracement, so it's not really a trade for me.

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• QCOM is showing a new macd bull signal as it trades at very near term resistance (at $39.67).  If it can break above $40, then it has a chance to fill in a large downward gap, say at $44, and maybe to hit the next higher resistance, at about $46. I see it a as an upward retracement in a downtrend.
• MO shows a new macd bull signal on a rise traversing 1.8% low to high. At $20, it's trading at resistance dating back to December. If that's cleared, the next resistance oint is around $20.50, so not a lot of upside here.
• Lots of sharp moved dictated by earnings surprises, which I don't find to be interesting, since the news has already prompted the move. ("Buy the rumor, sell the news," says the old trader adage.)

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Topics:
Zenith National Insurance, Hewlett-Packard, Qalcomm, Altria.