Selling Overblown....

After a somewhat weaker jobs report, traders sent the market much lower today.  To me the selling was not justified, it seemed more like a panic selloff.  We are now back at the level we saw in the "flash crash" last month.
The selloff gives some discount prices to enter some leading stocks in here. Over the weekend, I'll give you some stocks to look at.  Have a nice weekend.

How bad is this Oil Spill...

The general consensus that the BP (BP) oil spill is the worst-ever environmental disaster is "wildly overblown," a University of Alabama professor says. The amount spilled is tiny in comparison to the amount spilled by rigs and tankers around the world every year, he says, and it's not even the worst spill ever in the Gulf of Mexico.

Noon Update....

Stocks lower following disappointing jobs report.  Traders clearly wanted to take the market lower and sure enough...

Dow -212
Nas -41
S&P -22

Dell may go private....

DELL – Michael Dell remarked late in trading on Thurs at the Bernstein Conf that he has considered taking the company private; Dell says "not necessarily" a high probability that company would do a big acquisition.

Start Buying Natural Gas stocks....

Clean Energy – Majority Leader Reid says the Senate will start debating a comprehensive clean energy bill next month.

Earnings due next week...

Mon June 7: earnings after the close (FCEL, CWST)

Tues June 8: earnings before the open (DG, TLB); earnings after the close (TTWO, PLL),

Wed June 9: earnings before the open (RGEN, MTN, CIEN, BFB).
Earnings after the close (SHFL, MW).

Thurs June 10: earnings before the open (LULU, DLM);
earnings after the close (NSM, FNSR, ARST)

The latest on BP's efforts...

BP – the co said it has successfully placed a containment cap on the oil well; the coast guard said "It will be some time before we can confirm that this method will work and to what extent it will mitigate the release of oil into the environment,"; once the cap is fully in place, the plan is to start funneling some of the crude to a ship on the surface.

Analyst Downgrades...

• Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (ANF) price target cut to $41 from $44; rating neutral at UBS

• Aflac Inc. (AFL) price target cut to $48 from $58; ratng neutral at UBS

• Suntech Power (STP) price target cut to $9 from $16; rating market weight at Thomas Weisel

• Walgreen Co. (WAG) price target cut to $36 from $40; rating hold at Jefferies

ULTA on a roll....

Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc. (ULTA). The company on Thursday posted a higher-than-expected first-quarter profit, helped by improved merchandise margins, and the company forecast strong second-quarter results. The company posted first-quarter net income of 23 cents a share, compared with 8 cents a share, a year ago.

Ulta Salon sees second-quarter adjusted profit between 19 cents and 21 cents a share, on net sales of $311 million to $317 million.  Analysts were expecting earnings of 15 cents a share on revenue of $308.1 million.

It's national donut day!!!

Krispy Kreme giving away one free donut of your choice...

McDonald's recalls glasses....

McDonald's (MCD) recalls 12M "Shrek"-themed drinking glasses after discovering the cups contain the toxic metal cadmium. Cadmium is a known carcinogen that can cause bone softening and severe kidney problems.

Steel stocks hard to figure....

Goldman drops U.S. Steel (X) from its Conviction Buy list, citing a trio of negatives: weak European credit markets; a Chinese tightening; and now the Gulf oil crisis. The downgrade is Goldman's fifth switch on X during 2010 - as good a read as any on this year's economic uncertainty.

Jobs report disappointing...

Stock futures dive following strong but disappointing jump in payrolls. The key disappointment was in private payrolls, strategist T.J. Marta says. "While we did get the census hiring, the private economy is not hiring the way we would have liked." Census hirings accounted for 411K of the 431K new jobs reported.

This could hurt blackberry and Iphone subscribers...

AT&T shifts away from unlimited data plans. AT&T (T) announced yesterday that it will no longer sell unlimited internet data plans to new customers with smartphones and iPads (AAPL), opting instead for usage-based pricing that charges heavy bandwidth users more. Analysts said the move will bring some much-needed common sense to the wireless industry, and likely marks the beginning of the end for unlimited data plans.

VMware (VMW)...

Looks like a twin of CRM...

Salesforce.com (CRM)...

Pretty nice looking chart here.....

Market closes slightly higher...

Market recap: Stocks bounced around and finally ended in marginally positive territory in cautious trading ahead of tomorrow's jobs report. The major averages were boosted by a continued rebound in the tech and energy sectors, and NYSE advancers outnumbered decliners by about three to two.

At the close:

Dow +5.74
Nas +21.96
S&P +4.45

BP making progress....

BP (BP) says it achieves an "important milestone" on shearing a pipe from the blown-out Gulf well and that it could take 12-24 hours to determine success in capping the wellhead.

Bad news for drillers...

MMS stops issuing permits for new oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico regardless of water depth, effectively extending the earlier suspension of permits for deepwater drilling into shallow waters.

I need to get in the Govt. Contacting business...

Apart from Boeing's (BA) $1.7B contract to work on the FAA's GPS-based "NextGen" air traffic control system, another $2.5B is yet to be awarded on two more contracts. The program has a $7B ceiling - largest ever for the FAA - and General Dynamics (GD) and ITT (ITT) won contracts last week as well.