FirstAlert[tm] 1/6: No Baracking Down

(financialwire.net via COMTEX) -- VZ | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- January 6, 2009 (FinancialWire) (By Philip Holmes) Stocks ended lower on Monday, with investors unable to sustain the warm New Year sentiment that had led to last Friday's rally. C'mon guys, the stimulus is coming! BusinessWeek tells us that the Dow suffered from analyst downgrades of AT&T and Verizon Communications, but that "activity in the broader market was positive," with 21 stocks rising in price for every 10 that fell on the NYSE. The Nasdaq saw 15 to 13 positive ratio. Then there were the automakers, who collectively saw a 35% sales decline in December. The NY Times reports that Detroit automakers' sales totals for 2008 are their worst in fifty years. Chrysler saw a 53% drop in December sales, and 30% on the year, while Ford's were down 21 percent for 2008. GM saw a 31% decline for the month. Japanese automakers didn't fare much better. According to the Times, sales dropped by 37% at Toyota, 35% at Honda and 31% at Nissan. BW reports that U.S. construction spending dropped 0.6% in November, after a 0.4% decline in October. This was better than the 1.2% drop that analysts were expecting. Of course, all eyes are on the incoming Obama administration, which plans to launch a mighty stimulus. The $775 billion, two-year plan will include around $300 billion in tax cuts for individuals and businesses. Political pundits say that the tax cuts will be needed to win support from congressional Republicans, who are miraculously rediscovering their aversion to government spending after eight years of rubber stamping Bush's Great Society-level increases. Paul Krugman fears that the stimulus won't go far enough, fast enough, and that Republican attempts at revisionist history vis-a-vis the New Deal with tie up any large scale stimulus in endless debates. Republicans always hated the New Deal, and it's true that they've lately taken to claiming that FDR's sweeping measures for job creation, stimulus spending and regulation actually prolonged the pain. Krugman, a Keynesian, violently disagrees. C'mon guys, we all know that the Great Depression finally ended with WWII. You know, that socialist command economy complete with five-year plans. Talk about massive government spending. Nobody bickered over mealy little tax cuts for shopkeepers then, we had a war to win! If that meant government dominated the economy for a few years, well, that was the price of preserving the free market system.

The Investrend Earnings Calendar features Acuity Brands (NYSE: AYI), expected at $0.82; Global Payments (NYSE: GPN), expected at $0.57; Neogen (NASDAQ: NEOG), expected at $0.25; Team Inc. (NASDAQ: TISI), expected at $0.49.

The Investrend Economics Calendar lists Weekly Chain Store Sales (8:55 a.m.), Factory Orders for November (10 a.m.), Pending Home Sales for November (10 a.m.), ISM Services Index for December (10 a.m.), Treasury auctions 10-year TIPS (1 p.m.), FOMC Minutes released (2 p.m.).

The Investrend Events Calendar showcases A, GES, QLGC, FNSR, RATE, & WBMD at Needham & Company Growth Conference; MCO, MDP, DLR, UNTD at Citi Global Entertainment, Media & Telecommunications Conference.

The Investrend Money Index is an indicator of the depth of market direction or indirection. While not always including the same stocks, the NYSE/NASDAQ 50 Most Actives indicate the direction in which the mass of money is flowing. Last session's trading showed 21 advancers versus 27 decliners and two unchanged. Advancers were led by American Capital, Ltd. (NASDAQ: ACAS) up 41.30%, Las Vegas Sands Corp (NYSE: LVS) up 19.61%, Micron Technology (NYSE: MU) up 16.90%, Dryships Inc. (NASDAQ: DRYS) up 10.92%, Sandisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) up 9.48%, Sprint Nxtel Cp (NYSE: S) up 8.72%, Powershares Db Crude (NYSE: DXO) up 7.67%, Companhia Vale Ads (NYSE: RIO) up 6.90%. Decliners followed Jp Morgan Chase Co (NYSE: JPM) down 6.70%, Wells Fargo & Co New (NYSE: WFC) down 6.47%, Verizon Commun (NYSE: VZ | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) down 6.24%.

Vote in the Investrend Poll Question of the Day at Investrend Information (http://www.investrendinformation.com).

Investrend Website of the Day: http://www.libertynet.org/~edcivic/fdr.html

Quote of the Day: "I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers." Kahlil Gibran

Today is: Asarah B'Tevet

Happy Birthday: Joan of Arc, Thomas Fincke, Benjamin Franklin, Carl Sandburg, Tom Mix, Sam Rayburn, SKhalil Gibran, Loretta Young, Danny Thomas, Earl Scruggs, Vic Tayback, Bonnie Franklin, Syd Barrett, Malcolm Young, Rowan Atkinson, Nancy Lopez, Howie Long, Julie Chen, Gabrielle Reece.

Today in History: Samuel Morse first successfully tested the electrical telegraph in 1858. New Mexico was admitted as the 47th U.S. state in 1912. Thomas Edison submitted his last patent application in 1931. Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered his Four Freedoms Speech in the State of the Union Address in 1941. Schoolhouse Rock premiered on American television in 1973. In response to the energy crisis, daylight saving time commenced nearly four months early in the United States in 1974. Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed on the right leg by an assailant under orders from figure skating rival Tonya Harding in 1994. In 2001, Al Gore, as President of the U.S. Senate, tallied the electoral votes and certified George W. Bush the winner of 2000 U.S. presidential election.

[FirstAlert" was created by Gayle Essary, founder of Investrend Communications, Inc., parent of Investrend Information (http://www.investrendinformation.com). The opinions expressed in FirstAlert" do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Investrend.]

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