Welcome to John Ransom’s Stocks in the News where the headlines meet the trendlines:
Stock number one: Ballard Power Systems
And the headline says: Partnership Fuels Ballard Power's Gains- The Street.com:
In what is turning out to be a positive day for alternative fuel-cell developers, Ballard Power Systems (BLDP) soared 25.2% to $1.79 by mid-morning Friday. The micro-cap has risen 35.6% this week.
The Canada-based business is making gains after signing a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Van Hool NV, Europe's fourth-largest bus manufacturer, to develop zero-emission fuel-cell vehicles. Van Hool has committed to 27 fuel-cell buses, powered by Ballard technology, in operation across Europe through 2014.
Note: This stock recently traded at $1.79. The company’s stock price peaked near $130 back in 2000. In the day Ballard was like the Tesla of solar—which is why I included it today.
Symbol: BLDP
Dividend: NA
Forward PE: NA; Trailing PE: NA
Estimate Trend: NA
Ransom Note Trendline: Avoid Ballard.
Stock number two: Sell Lumber Liquidators Holdings, Inc.
Fastenal November Daily Sales Above Oct- Yahoo Finance:
Fastenal Company (FAST) released decent sales results for the month of November wherein net sales rose 3.1% year over year to $621.3 million. Currency was a 0.4% headwind.
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November daily sales grew 8.2% to $13.1 million, showing an improving trend from growth rates of 2.9%, 7.2%, 5.7% and 7.7% in the months of July, August, September and October, respectively. The daily sales growth was flat from November last year.
Fastenal carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). Better-ranked stocks in the building products/ building construction sector include Liquidators Holdings, Inc. (LL), Builders FirstSource, Inc. (BLDR) and CaesarStone Sdot-Yam Ltd (CSTE). While Lumber and CaesarStone carry a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Builders FirstSource holds a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
Symbol: LL
Dividend: 3%
Forward PE: 30; Trailing PE: 31
Estimate Trend: None
Ransom Note Trendline: Buy Lumber Liquidators
Ten-Year Treasury
Market Action: Taper Concern Still Hovers- Cheat Sheet
Just when you thought it was gone – it’s back. After stocks managed to advance last Wednesday following three positive economic reports, financial commentators had reached the conclusion that the Federal Reserve’s new mantra, “tapering is not tightening” had finally sunk in, and that investors no longer had the same fears concerning cutbacks to the Fed’s bond purchases.
Thursday’s trading action demonstrated that the only difference is that the fear has been reduced to concern. Instead of a huge stock selloff in the wake of positive economic data, we saw a more restrained, 0.43 percent decline in both the Dow and the S&P 500. The yield on the ten-year Treasury note rose slightly to 2.87 percent.
Symbol: ^TNX
Dividend: N/A
Forward PE: NA; Trailing PE: NA
Estimate Trend: Steady
Ransom Note Trendline: Avoid Ten-Year Treasury
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