The Kirk Report

The Blind Squirrel

The blind squirrel finally finds an acorn and stocks see the long-awaited and and severely overdue reversal rally. If we didn't see a strong close to the trading day relatively soon, I was going to get really concerned.

Though I jumped on board this afternoon, I can honestly say I don't have a tremendous amount of confidence that I'll look smart come this time tomorrow afternoon or next week. Then again, I rarely look smart these days, so it won't be anything I'm not already use to.

Tonight I'll spend a few hours listening to conference calls, catching up on paperwork, and firming up a few watch lists. In other words, back to business as usual in what has been an extremely weird and hectic week.

As always, I hope you caught a piece of the upside action and more importantly, it stays around longer than a few days. See you tomorrow!

When It Rains, It Usually Pours

The Beige Book points to an economy not falling apart and the bulls try to press. I've put a little money back in play in the QQQQ to catch some of this lift.

On another topic, in the when it rains, it usually pours department, this has been one unusual week. Just to name a few things, I have been contacted to write a software review in a Active Trader, a highly-respected book publisher, Wiley, has contacted me about writing a trading book, and I've been asked to give a presentation at the TradersExpo in February. If that doesn't make your head spin, I should tell you what happened to me last week!

Don't get me wrong - I'm not complaining. But I have to admit that I do sometimes relish the days when the only responsibility I had was to trade for a living and keep my mouth shut. Like the saying goes, you have to be careful for what you wish for because you might just get it.

Now, if I could only hit today's powerball!

Brain Food

• Crummy action out there as my trading screens swim in a sea of red


• Oil drops as crude piles up


• The number of bears among independent financial newsletter writers increased this past week to 67%


• Eric Miller explains why we've had a tough 4Q start and where we go from here


• The Weekly Charts with Ike Iossif


• 10 reasons not to listen to the bears


• Some interesting numbers regarding the short-interest in the exchange traded funds


• Shares of BOT surge


• U.S. consumer confidence rises


• High fuel prices have the Christmas shopping season off and running


• Wall St. vet urges lower card rates


• How a $4 billion dollar company collapsed in a week


• "Losing is like fertilizer: it stinks for a while, then you get used to it." - Tony Hibbing


• Pump And Dump


• Q&A with Bill Gates and Warren Buffett


• Tom Taulli turns more defensive


• Credit quality lags in North America


• The U.S. dollar hits new highs


• Right now the hot energy bet is whether gasoline prices will hit $3 a gallon again by the end of the year


• I've never really understood all of the fascination with Intel (INTC)


• What is the best indicator?


• Program trades dominate NYSE


• Stocks I'm tracking include BOT, BRLC, NTST, GNTX, PRLS, CAKE, JAKK, STMP, BABY, CTLM, & SGDE


• Shares of many companies will look a lot more expensive soon as stock option reform takes hold


• Morningstar finds four gold stocks for your radar screen


• John Dorfman steals some stock ideas for his Purloined Portfolio


• Like Canadian stocks? The 2005 Investor 500


• Stocks with improving money flow


• IBD profiles Cal Dive International (CDIS)


• Copper shines while gold declines


• Sam Stovall likes the brokers


• Forbes goes stock screening again (Blue Ribbon Companies, Price-To-Sales Plays, Cheap-Growth Stocks, Good-Yield Plays, & Price-Momentum Stocks)


• Cisco to invest $1.1 billion in India


• Inc.com's fastest-growing private businesses


• Robert Kiyosaki on why savers are losers


• Explaning the coming housing meltdown


• "If you want to know what a man is really like, take notice how he acts when he loses money." - New England Proverb


• If it is true that more desktop space equals greater productivity I should be more productive than ever before


• My mother loves I-Bonds


• Since 2000, state college tuition is up +40%


• Military gambling is a big business


• Broadband goes stratospheric


• Splogs roil the web


• EBay halts bird flu drug auction


• Odds are long for giveaway newspapers


• Top magazine covers for the past 40 years


• I always enjoy reading Neville


• Have a website or blog and need an online form? Take a look at In-Form


• Ten ways to use RSS


• In the market for a new digital camera? Visit Dpreview


• Another price drop for Dell LCD Monitors


• The ultimate mobile home office


• My favorite online coupon website


• Friday's Q&A should be a good one!


• "In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield." - Warren Buffett

More Arm Wrestling

Good morning. Investors don't seem to be in a buying mood this Wednesday morning. Perhaps everyone has grown tired and frustrated with positive market opens only to later surrender those gains by the closing bell. I can't say I blame them.

While everyone is blaming Intel's (INTC) disappointing guidance for this morning negativity, there are quite a few solid earnings reports out there from the likes of Yahoo (YHOO), Motorola (MOT), Cheesecake Factory (CAKE), ICU Medical (ICUI), & JP Morgan (JPM). In addition, housing starts and building permits in September both came in higher than expected. Perhaps the premarket futures are giving us a false read.

Yet, it is difficult to argue with the fact the market's mood continues to be quite gloomy. Case in point - 75% of U.S. investors in a Merrill Lynch survey said profit growth for publicly traded U.S. companies will slow in the next 12 months. Global investors were also very pessimistic on U.S. stocks. Not helping matters include continued comments from several of the members of the FOMC that indicate higher interest rates are still ahead.

Among more earnings reports & conference calls, traders will also be watching the oil inventory data due out at 10:30am. In addition the Federal Reserve will release its Beige Book, a survey of regional economic conditions, at 2 p.m. Hurricane Wilma, while not threatening to the oil infrastructure, will also be closely watched as it jumped to a Category 5 status overnight. And, finally, the sharks will certainly surround the debut of the CBOT (BOT) as it begins trading.

The bull and bears are likely to step up their efforts today to take control over the tape, so it will be important to note who wins this prolonged arm wrestling match. Have a wonderful Wednesday!