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    • Banks, banks, banks -- that's the earnings story this week. With Goldman beating nicely in its earnings report this morning, can we get long now and bank on returns? Or is now the time to bail?

      We asked John Roque, managing director of WJB Capital Group, what he thinks about the financials. And what he thinks is that they are sales. The technical analysis specialist and strategist sees little chance of financials recovering fully from the beatings the sector took in 2007 and '08. Roque draws a parallel between the financial stocks today and semiconductors after the Internet bubble popped, leaving former leaders such as Intel, Microsoft and Cisco dead money to a whole generation of stock pickers. The banks and brokers are as dead as the one-time market-leading techs and semiconductors have been since 2004.

      Read More »

    • Never mind the torpedoes, it's full steam ahead for stocks. That's more or less the message from Phil Dow, director of equity strategy at RBC Wealth Management.

      To begin with, Dow sees an end to the much-discussed rally in crude oil, which has jumped around 25% in roughly two months. "Prices will moderate somewhat over the next couple of years," says Dow, who has a $95 to $97 a barrel target for 2011 and only slightly higher than that for next year, projecting prices of $102 to $105.

      "[That's] still a very robust profit environment for people that can successfully find oil and gas, but one that shouldn't damage the consumer too much," he tells me in the accompanying video.

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    • David Einhorn's portfolio as of the quarter and year ended Dec. 31 was worth some $4.9 billion, according to filings that his firm Greenlight Capital made with the Securities and Exchange Commission in February.

      Greenlight had 38 positions at the end of the year, up from 35 at Sept. 30. Technology companies, medical and health providers and financials were among the notable sectors making up his holdings.

      Moves: Einhorn eliminated three positions in the quarter -- Foster Wheeler (FWLT), Oritani Financial (ORIT) and Ralcorp (RAH) -- and added six, including BP (BP), Potash (POT) and Sprint Nextel (S). Among other changes, Einhorn added to his holdings in Becton Dickinson (BDX), Cardinal Health (CAH) and the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX), while lowering his interests in CIT (CIT), Health Net (HNT) and Verigy (VRGY).

      Here are Einhorn's largest holdings as of Dec. 31, 2010:

      -Ensco (ESV)
      -Pfizer (PFE)
      -CIT (CIT)
      -CareFusion (CFN)
      -Apple (AAPL)
      -Cardinal Health (CAH)
      -Sprint Nextel (S

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    • Aaron Task sat in for Matt Nesto for this edition which, of course, addressed the sell-off sparked by the Standard & Poor's negative outlook for U.S. debt.

      With markets down nearly 2%, Task was looking at where investors could hide, or even profit, from a negative tape. His answer, alas, was nowhere. As it turns out, bearish mutual funds were the worst performers over the last decade, something of a surprise given the fact that markets have gone though at least two drops of historic proportions during the period. If bear funds can't at least break even during stocks' Lost Generation, we quickly dispensed with the notion that going into a bearish fund would be prudent at all.

      I offered the idea that cash may be, as Task put it, "the most contrarian stance." My logic? Local currency is impacted by local inflation rates. Period. When you hear the dollar is getting battered, that means you need to stay at cheaper hotels when you go abroad. Trading foreign currencies as a hedge is a tough proposition for most investors, and the Fed, for all its failings, is likely to be spending a significant amount of time fighting U.S. inflation rates if and when they finish quantitative easing.

      Read More »

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