EB Watch List Update Report

Dear Members: MARKET NOTE: Here we go again? So far another day of selling with all of the major indexes substantially lower. We can point to any number of reasons the market is lower but there is no disputing the bears have quite a grip on the action at the moment. When you see this type of persistent selling it's always worth looking underneath the surface to see if the worst of the selling is over. For example, I looked at the NASDAQ for the past two years and saw that the NASDAQ has only had five periods where it lost ground five days in a row. Today makes it five days if the selling holds into the close. Next, all of the major indexes are getting closer to being technically oversold. They aren't there yet but it won't take too many more days of selling to get there. So far all of the major indexes have held the mid October lows. And, in spite of the "Sky falling" the S&P is hugging 2000. Finally, the VIX is up 5% today but remains below Monday's high when the Dow was down over 400 points before making up ground by day's end. None of this might matter if selling accelerates into the close. In fact the most recent low close on the S&P was 2005 on December 18 and you have to go back to October 14 to see a lower close of 1994. So that 1994 level is now key support. To the upside, any close above 2005 would be welcome by the bulls, and the higher the better! Bottom line? There's a lot of negative sentiment at the moment with traders looking for any good reason to go long. We will be getting the FOMC minutes from the last Fed meeting later today and then the all important monthly job report on Friday so perhaps we'll see some reaction into the end of the week. In the meantime we need to proceed with caution until we see signs that the selling is indeed over. KEY EARNINGS REPORTS Companies reporting earnings today (January 6) include: MON and UNF Companies reporting earnings tomorrow (January 7) include: BBY and STZ ADDITIONS TO WATCH LISTS: Here's what I said yesterday, and it remains my thinking today. The market is technically challenged here so it doesn't make sense to get aggressive here. We also know that Alcoa will report its numbers next Monday which will kick off earnings season. From that point forward and for the next 3-4 weeks, thousands of companies will report their numbers. So I think it makes sense to lay low for a bit, see if the market can find a tradeable bottom, let a bunch of companies report their numbers which will allow us to "refresh" our Candidate Tracker and look for some higher reward to risk trading candidates. So if we're patient it could pay off. If we try to chase here it could get frustrating and expensive so why take unnecessary risks? BRIEF COMMENTS ON SELECT WATCH LIST STOCKS: Large Cap Watch List BSX - Stock is fairly flatup almost 1.4% and needs to close back above $18.29 to get back on track. FB - Stock is up slightly and a close above $105.29 would be very bullish. Mid Cap Watch List MPWR - Stock is down slightly after hitting our second entry level at $59. SBGI - Stock is up slightly and a close back above $32.82 would be very bullish. Small Cap Watch List AMKR - Stock is down over 3% today and a close back above $6.38 would be very bullish. DELETIONS FROM OUR WATCH LISTS: There are no deletions from the Watch List today unless a Watch List stock closes below the stop loss provided. At your service, John Hopkins, EarningsBeats