Monday Morning Coffee with TradingMarkets

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Carlyle Group Faces $400 M in Margin Calls... Six Flags: Attendance Up, Profits Down... Banks Demanding More Collateral from Hedge Funds... Goldman Anticipates Fed Rate Cut Next Week... Countrywide Faces FBI Investigation... Will Bank of Japan Tolerate Soaring Yen?... Obama Wins Wyoming Caucuses... Socialists Win in Spain.

Asian stocks down... European stocks up... Greenbacks moving higher against the Euro, Australian dollar... And the futures are trending higher in the hour before the bell.

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TradingMarkets 5 Business Stories You Need to Know

Ciena Biggest Gain Since Late May - Forbes
Fiber optics and the Ethernet are part of Ciena's route to greater revenues and greater profits in 2008. Ciena is a leading member of the top rated Communications Equipment industry group.

Alcoa Drags the Dow Down - CNN Money
An analyst downgrade on Friday left shares of Alcoa reeling as the stock fell more than four and a half percent. Although its PowerRating projects Alcoa to perform as well as the average stock over the next year, Alcoa belongs to an industry with a few stocks that investors should definitely avoid.

Too Much Dollar Doom and Gloom? - DailyFX
Technical currency strategist for DailyFX, Jamie Saettele uses a variety of methods--from Fibonacci extensions to wave counts--to suggest that the Euro still has room to run to the upside.

Dynamic Materials Plunges - CNN Money
Strong global demand and growing profits were not enough to sate investors, who sold shares of Dynamic Materials after hours oncer the company failed to meet analyst expectrations. BOOM's very low Long Term PowerRating marks the stock as one that is likely to disappoing investors in a year's time.

Fannie Mae Rallies on Upgrade - Barron's
Barrons's takes a grim look at Fannie Mae, looking into whether or not the government-sponsored mortgage lender will require a government bailout to stay afloat. Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock on Friday.

For more stories as they happen, go to our Breaking News section.

TradingMarkets 7 Stocks You Need to Know for Today

Here are 7 stocks for traders for today from TradingMarkets.com:

• Washington Mutual (WM | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) plunged 15% on Friday, falling to its lowest level since 1995. WM lost more than 8% yesterday after its debt was downgraded by S&P.
  

• Thornburg Mortgage (TMA | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) warned it may not survive the credit crunch.
  

• Also on Friday, shares of Dynamic Materials (BOOM | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) plunged more than 19% after the company reported disappointing earnings.
  

• National Semiconductor (NSM | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) jumped nearly 12% after beating earnings estimates.
  

• Ciena (CIEN | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) rose more than 11%, also after beating estimates.
  

• The credit crunch has devastated the balance sheets at many financial institutions, and the next big one to report is Blackstone Group (BX | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating). Analysts are expecting BX to report earnings of $0.19 per share before the market open on Monday.
  

• Under investigation by the FBI for potential security fraud, shares of Countrywide Financial (CFC | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) were down more than 7% in pre-market trading Monday.

For a list of today's highest PowerRating stocks, click here.

TradingMarkets 5 Top PowerRatings Stocks for Today

TradingMarkets Tracking the Wizards

The New TradingMarkets.com - TradingMarkets
"We've moved everything to the front," says founder and CEO, Larry Connors, in announcing the new design of TradingMarkets.com, which puts thousands of pages of analysis, commentary, educational articles as well as proprietary tools and data right where traders can get at them. The world's best trading resource just got even better!

Deron Wagner's 2 Rules for Daytrading Gap Opens - TradingMarkets
Author and head trader at Morpheus Capital Hedge Fund, Deron Wagner talks to traders about one of his key methods for day trading gap opens in both stocks and exchange traded funds.

Market Testing Wizards to the Rescue! - TradingMarkets
Got a trading plan? If so, are you serious enough about your success to have your trading strategy backtested by a team of market professionals? Visit TradingMarkets for your free report on the "10 Steps to Successful Backtesting," from Market Testing Wizards. Whether or not you are new to backtesting or an old hand at analyzing parameters and optimizing performance, Market Testing Wizards will let you know if your trading plan is truly a winning one.

View Portfolios of Prominent Investors

TradingMarkets Playbook

The selling that ended last week changed the market from one that was overbought and ripe for reversal to one that is increasingly oversold and likely to bounce. This bounce is all the more likely given the proximity of the year-to-date lows from January--low which, on a closing basis, have been exceeded (the intraday lows from late January continue to hold up). With the markets still below their 200-day moving average, traders are best off sticking to strong stocks in pullback mode, strong stocks being those above their 200-day moving averages. Now is not the time to give the benefit of the doubt to weak stocks that are trading below this level. See Larry Connor's "5 Mistakes to Avoid in a Market Trading Below its 200-day Moving Average" for more tips on trading troubled markets.

David Penn is Senior Editor at TradingMarkets.com.

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