New Split Drops
| BAX – Baxter International $91.90 +1.65 (-1.00) |
On Monday, the broad markets sold off sharply with both the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU) and the NASDAQ Composite Index (COMPX) down triple digits. During this flood of selling, BAX fell #3.32 to close at $90.25. From this level, it didn’t take much of a fall to hit our stop of $89, which is exactly what happened in today’s trading.
| LTR – Loews Corporation $113.89 –0.19 (-2.88) |
Loews Corporation was met with heavy resistance this week after hitting an all-time of $117.10 on Friday. On Tuesday, shares of LTR traded to an intra-day low of $112.90 before bouncing back late in the session. We were stopped out at $113, so we are dropping LTR tonight.
| GVA - Granite Construction Inc. $32.77 -0.89 (-$1.78) |
After GVA survived Monday's wicked broad-market sell-off, we thought we might be in this play for the long-haul. That didn't turn out to be the case, though. We were stopped out of GVA today after it trended lower with the Dow Jones Industrial during the first half of the session. Still, we were able to exit GVA with a small profit.
New Candidate Drops
| IGT - International Game Technology $52.28 -2.18 (-3.37) |
Either IGT was unfairly cursed by having the word "technology" in its name or investors were simply looking for anything they could sell for a profit during yesterday's steep market slide. That said, we are pleased to take a profit, considering the recently dismal performance of the stock market. Some of you may be interested in jumping back on board if IGT can find support around its 50-DMA of $50.44. Bounces off this trend line have proven to be quite profitable throughout IGT's lengthy ascent.
| PII - Polaris Industries Inc. $47.05 -1.95 (-3.09) |
PII was another one of our plays that was able to avoid yesterday's free-fall only to succumb in today's morning Dow Industrial sell-off. Unlike the Dow, though, PII was unable to recover and continued to sell-off through most of the day. We will exit PII with a small loss, which is unfortunate because we had a small gain in this stock up until today's capitulation.
| WFT - Weatherford International $55.15 –1.95 (-2.86) |
Weatherford International announced that it has acquired Tesco Corporation's underbalanced drilling (UBD) business for $33 million on Monday. Although the deal is not very large, the news had a negative effect on the stock. WFT traded as low as $54.64 during Tuesday’s session. Our stops were triggered at $55, so we are removing WFT from our Current Play list.
New Momentum Drops
| ELY – Callaway Golf Corporation $24.80 –1.20 (-1.71) |
It looks like ELY may have encountered a near-term top with its recent rally to the $27 mark. Starting with a slow pullback from this level, shares picked up momentum on Tuesday and hit our stop of $25.50. We were, however, able to lock in a gain of 6% on our play. This is encouraging, given the significant market sell-off.
| PHCC - Priority Healthcare Corporation $35.00 -3.00 (-4.63) |
PHCC's downtrend didn't stop today, as the stock sold off hard for most of the day. We were actually fortunate to get out at our stop-loss of $39.00 yesterday because PHCC gapped down to open at $37.50 today to trade lower through most of the session. With that said, we will keep an eye on PHCC for future trading opportunities.
| TX - Texaco, Inc. $68.30 -1.01 (-1.64) |
TX has turned out to be a catch-22 for us. As many readers are aware, we've been preaching the merits of keeping stop-losses tight. For the most part, this strategy has work well by allowing us to lock in gains while limiting our downside. However, in TX's case, it may have been better to keep the stop-loss a little loose. We were stopped out at $68 within the first hour of trading, as TX traded down to $67.60. Unfortunately, though, we missed the rebound that took place later in the session. Still, we are satisfied to exit this play with a $3.10 gain.
Drops Index
