Stocks close higher...

Stocks made it five for five for the week with another positive day of trading.

Dow +75 to 11509
Nas +15 to 2622
S&P +7 to 1216

Leaders on the day:

Amazon +12.52 to 239.30 (New High)
Apple +7.54 to 400.50
Salesforce.com  +4.34 to 136.56
eBay +1.65 to 33.69
IBM +2.90 to 172.99
Hansen Natural +4.16 to 92.11

Losers:

Netflix -14.06 to 155.19
Research in Motion -5.61 to 23.93

Gold and silver were also slightly higher.  Nice week.  Hopefully more of the same next week.

Have a nice cool weekend!!!

Good read on ETFs by Jim Cramer...

Very accurate and I share the same exact view.

http://www.thestreet.com/story/11251161/1/cramer-etfs-are-market-parasites.html?puc=_booyah_html_pla2&cm_ven=EMAIL_booyah_html

Apple looking to break thru $400....

Apple (AAPL) stock is climbing again today.

It is currently up 6.89 to 399.82.  The previous high was 404.50 set on July 26 of this year.

Here is the weekly chart:

Amazon on fire....

Amazon.com (AMZN) is breaking out to new highs yet again.

The stock is up 7.74 today to 234.62

Here is a look at the weekly chart:

Hansen Natural (HANS) hitting new highs again....

This one is starting to look like something is going on behind the scenes...possible buyout???

Hansen is up another 4.25 to 92.20 today.

Here is the weekly chart:

At Noon....

Stocks are holding on to gains in a volatile session.

Dow +44
Nas +9
S&P +3 to 1211

Oils, banks and commodities are lower, Gold is slightly higher.

Nu Skin (NUS) breaks out to new highs...

"Based on highly favorable feedback and encouraging pre-launch enthusiasm from senior-level Nu Skin distributors we have surveyed, we believe the upcoming fall launches of a new ageLOC skin care product for the body (and related new Galvanic Spa device), and a new nutritional supplement called R2, will act as key fundamental catalysts to earnings performance in upcoming quarters," A Wedbush analyst wrote after the company's latest earnings release on August 31.

The analyst said the expected success of its upcoming product launches should solidify Nu Skin's reputation in the direct-selling industry and boost its shares about 20 percent higher than those of its competitors.

Today, the stock is up 0.65 to a new high of 44.28
Here is the weekly chart:

Sprint preparing for increase in demand...

Sprint's (S) CEO doesn't quite confirm the iPhone (AAPL) rumors, but says at a conference that the carrier is preparing for an influx of demand should it get a new smartphone. All the internal excitement at Sprint didn't quite prevent UBS from cutting EPS estimates and maintaining a Neutral rating on shares.

Sprint is down 0.08 today to 3.36

Wedbush likes eBay...

eBay (EBAY) rises after Wedbush upgrades shares to Outperform, and lifts its Price Target to $48, on bullishness regarding eBay's PayPal unit. The firm believes PayPal will continue growing at a 25-30% clip, and will account for over half of eBay's revenue by 2014. A new in-store payment system is seen as a key growth driver.

eBay is currently up 0.76 to 32.80 and is up 15% this week.

Earnings Growth Monsters...

When earnings growth slows, it often highlights the growth monsters—companies with extremely powerful growth drivers that continue to generate earnings when everyone else decelerates. Growth monsters are always around, but during a cyclical rebound it is not always easy to distinguish them from companies that temporarily have the wind at their back. Growth monsters are more apparent when everyone else is slowing down.


Relative strength tends to identify growth monsters very effectively. Below is a table of the top performing stocks in the S&P 500 and the S&P Midcap 400 for the trailing 12 months.

Consumer sentiment improving...

A gauge of consumer sentiment rose to 57.8 in the preliminary reading for September after tumbling to a nearly three-year low 55.7 in August, according to Friday reports on the gauge from Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan.

Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected a slight rise to 57.3 with stock volatility and weak employment maintaining downward pressure on consumers' sentiment. In August, sentiment had reached the lowest level since November 2008 with Washington's protracted debt-ceiling negotiations taking a toll on consumers.

The sentiment reading, which covers how consumers view their personal finances as well as business and buying conditions, averaged about 87 in the year before the start of the most recent recession.

Market opens higher...again...

At 10:00 am stocks are broadly higher traders are buying the blue chips again.  27 out of 30 Dow stocks are higher.

Dow +51
Nas +8
S&P +5 to 1214

Netflix is down another 7 points to 162
Research in Motion is down 6 to 23.46

Market preview...

Stocks go for a clean sweep in the win column this week, but S&P futures -0.2% as investors eye a meeting of euro-zone finance ministers for signs of progress toward a debt crisis solution. European shares are broadly higher. RIM -23.6% premarket after big EPS and revenue misses. Quadruple witching could add volatility.

Where are we???

It all depends on your perspective.  The S&P 500 currently sits at 1209.  This is the same value the S&P held on each of the following dates:

November 11, 2010
April 26, 2010
September 16, 2008
November 2, 2005
March 3, 2005
August 3, 2001

If you bought $100,000 worth of an S&P 500 Index fund on the following dates, your account would currently be worth:

March 24, 2000 (height of Tech Bubble)  $79,200
Sept 11, 2001 (9/11)  $110,700
January 1, 2009  $133,880
March 9, 2009  (Bottom after finanical crisis) $178,846
September 16, 2010  (Last year) $107,560
January 1, 2011 (Year to date) $96,200