This Market is a Little Schizophrenic....

U.S. Markets

Dow +261.66 (+2.16%)
Nasdaq +48.15 (+2.18%)
S&P 500 +31.09 (+2.39%)

News That Moved the Market

Good Thursday. We will not know for at least a couple days if this is simply a bear market rally or an indication that markets actually hit a bottom last week, but it would be difficult to deny the market looked strong today. On solid volume, stocks were bid up throughout the day, helped by more good news coming out of the financial sector. Fannie Mae (FNM, +11.5%) and Freddie Mac (FRE, +9.0%) were upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. The Fed also announced it has expanded acceptable collateral for its auction of Treasuries to include collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs) and AAA rated commercial mortgage-backed securities. The Fed will basi cally be exchanging highly liquid Treasuries for illiquid assets. The first auction will take place March 27th, with an offering of $75 billion for a term of 28 days.

Commodities Slide. With the U.S. dollar showing some strength, most commodities fell for the second day in a row. Crude traded below $100/barrel during the session before closing down $0.70 to $101.84. Gold fell $25.30 to $912.22/ounce.

Investors Jump Out of CIT. CIT Group (CIT, -17.2%), the largest commercial finance company in the U.S., was forced to tap its $7.3 billion credit line to repay debt. After a ratings downgrade, the company was unable to raise funds through commercial paper. CEO Jeffrey Peek said the CIT may be forced to sell assets and is looking for a "strategic funding partner."

Quick Tics:

The Philly Fed, a leading manufacturing indicator, came in at -17.1, a better than expected reading…

G.E. (GE, +5.3%) received an upgrade to "Buy" from "Hold" from Merrill Lynch (MER, +13.0%)...
Citigroup (C, +10.2%) will layoff 2,000 investment bankers and traders.


Markets Closed Tomorrow For Good Friday.

Today's Upgrades...

Morgan Stanley (MS) by Punk, Ziegel & Co
Rent-A-Center (RCII) by Stifel Nicolaus
Abbott Labs (ABT) by Wachovia
Global Industries (GLBL) by CapitalOne southcoast
TeleTech (TTEC) by Wachovia
Netflix (NFLX) by Cantor Fitzgerald
Zimmer Hldgs (ZMH) by Lehman Brothers
Fannie Mae (FNM) by Keefe Bruyette
Freddie Mac (FRE) by Keefe Bruyette

What was that Yesterday???

Apparently, we saw a panic selloff yesterday by hedge funds that are heavily leveraged in the commodity market. The selloff was so severe, it took down the rest of the market. The panic was started by the strengthening of the Dollar. Most of the commodity play has been tied to weakness in the Dollar. A stronger Dollar, though positive for the rest of the market, will undoubtedly cause a mass exodus out of Oil, Gold, Metals, Wheat and anything that has to do with those.

Nike Reports Blowout Earnings...

Nike Inc. (NKE). The Beaverton, Ore.-based footwear and apparel company on Wednesday said third-quarter net income rose to $463.8 million or 92 cents a share from $350.8 million or 68 cents a share same time a year earlier.

The mean estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Financial was for earnings of 81 cents a share for the quarter. Revenue rose 16% to $4.54 billion from $3.93 billion a year ago, benefiting from favorable currency exchange rates movement, the company said.

China Mobile Growing Fast...

China Mobile Ltd. (CHL). The Chinese mobile telecommunications services provider today said net new subscribers in February totalled 7.97 million, bringing total subscribers to 384.35 million at the end of the last month. The company had reported 7.04 million net new subscribers for January.

Anadarko Wins Major Bid...

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC). The Houston, TX-based energy company said late Wednesday it was the apparent high bidder on 20 deepwater tracts in the Central and Eastern Gulf of Mexico oil and gas lease sales 206 and 224, representing an expenditure of $143 million.

With the addition of the new blocks, Anadarko said it will have access to 633 blocks covering 3.5 million gross acres in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico.

Earnings Due Today....

• Barnes and Noble Inc. (BKS). Expected to report Q4 pforift of $1.70 per share, according to analysts polled by Thomson Financial. This is a decreased of 7.88% from the same quarter last year when the company earned $1.84.

• FedEx Corp. (FDX). Expected to report Q3 profit of $1.22 per share, down 9.56% from the same quarter last year when the company earned $1.35.

• Palm Inc. (PALM). Expected to report Q3 loss of $0.14 per share, against a profit of $0.16 earned the same quarter last year.

• Winnebago Industries Inc. (WGO). Expected to report Q2 profit of $0.23 per share, down 5.83% from the same quarter last year when it earned $0.24.

Today's Top Stories....

Oil drops below $100 a barrel; April gold hits 1-month low of $904.70/oz.

• PepsiCo, Pepsi Bottling to pay $1.4 billion for 75.5% stake in Russian juice maker

• Credit Suisse warns Q1 unlikely to be profitable

• Airline sector downgraded to 'neutral' from 'positive' at Lehman Bros.

• Abbott Labs raised to 'outperform' at Wachovia after end of Takeda joint venture

• Children’s Place Retail swings to Q4 loss; in talks over partial ownership of Disney Store chain in North America

• Amgen cut to ‘market perform’ at Wachovia on competitive threat to Epogen

•AOL may sell Indian call centre biz for $100 million - report