Out Fox The $treet

Interesting news from China today. Not sure where the original feed is, but this Stop Trading with Cramer highlights his views on the news. That is mindboggling that China would urge the replacement of that many TVs, but I guess the issue is that without the US and Europe buying they need to create domestic demand. Not much more to add. Just watch the video.....

Coventry Health (CVH) jumps today on better then expected earnings. This has been a continuing theme in the health insurance sector. Just yesterday Humana (HUM) strong on much stronger results. This sector in general trades at very low PEs so it isn't that surprising that they've jumped on earnings. This doesn't erase the fears that the Obama administration will continue to look at ways to wring profits from this group, but they remain very cheap at current levels. CVH forecasts a average eps of $1.8 for 2009 placing it's PE at 8. This sector may not see the 15+ PEs of the past decade, but I'd expect some expansion to the 12 range or a 50% gain. CVH is now the 5th largest position of the Growth Fund at 4.2% of the portfolio following an added purchase yesteday on the HUM earnings. CVH was a $60 stock when 2008 began so getting back to $15 isn't that exciting, but I wouldn't expect this sector to return to its old highs. Too much scrutiny over the next 4 year...

The Conference Board reported today that Consumer Confidence soared in April to 39.2 from 26.9 in March. Some how expectations were only 29.5 which seems incredibly low considering the huge market rally and stabilization in the economy in general. Considering the index remains below the year ago levels of 62.8, consumers have a long way to go just to get to those depressed levels. Though this report typically has little value because it measures how consumers feel and not how they spend it is encouraging that the Expectations Index soared showing that consumers have become a lot more confident about the future. The New York-based Conference Board said Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index rose more than 12 points to 39.2, up from a revised 26.9 in March. The reading marks the highest level since November's 44.7 and well surpasses economists' expectations for 29.5. The huge jump in confidence follows a small increase in March, following a freefall in February. Still, th...

Zacks posted a bullish report on Gafisa (GFA) picked up by the wires. GFA is one of our favorites for the Growth Fund because of the shortage in Brazilian homes. This homebuilding stock has also been a favorite investment of Sam Zell. The report by Zacks was very bullish for the company, but oddly they provided a conservative guidance for the stock with a target of only $16. Typical of conservative firms like Zacks and S&P is that they completely provided low multiples for high growth stocks. A 10 PE? Are they serious? The historical PE for the SP500 has been around 15. This stock is a decade or so away from being SP500 like. So really, a 10 PE??? Ironically the stock soared 12% on Friday to $15.66 or close to the target already. Clearly signs that Zacks has lowballed yet again. We are reiterating our Buy recommendation on Gafisa S.A. (NYSE: GFA - News ). We have been encouraged by the stimulus package and the new value-added tax relief recently announced by the Brazilian gover...

The Hedged Growth Fund was only started on October 1st, 2008 so being breakeven after nearly 7 months might not seem impressive, but the market is down 24% since the inception. So being breakeven means beating the market by a whopping 24%. It's not too surprising that this fund has outperformed the market during a down period since its mandate is to be 1/3 short or cash. Definitely only 2/3 long at most. The astonishing amount of the beat is surprising to us not to mention the fact that the fund is nearly flat with the SP500 during April. A month when the market is up over 8%. As of last week, the fund currently has no shorts and $333K in cash which has allowed the fund to keep up with the market with a lot less risk having so much in cash. The fund will likely keep the short portion in cash until the 900s are breached on the SPs. Over the 6 month period ending March 31st, the fund outperformed 98.6% of all funds on Marketocracy. Not too bad considering the site doesn't allow ...

As recorded on Marketocracy , the Stone Fox Capital Growth Fund is up 21.33% MTD versus 8.72% for the SP500. Over a 14% out performance. YTD the fund is up over 10% and has out gained the SP500 my nearly 14% as well. For a very aggressive long fund, we're proud that the performance has been this strong with the market down 34% since starting on Marketocracy in June last year. The fund is now basically flat and has extremely outperformed in the strong market in March and April. Friday was a huge day for the fund as the biggest holding, Riverbed (RVBD) surged over 20%. At its high around $18, the stock appears short term overbought so we trimmed 1,000 shares to bring our holdings to 2,750 or about 7.5% of the fund. Apple (AAPL) is now slightly the largest holding and it's had a stellar year as well. The 3rd largest holding, Millicom (MICC), appears to be breaking out as well. MICC has huge room for advancement and might be one of the biggest winners over the next month. GMarket w...

Doesn't really add that this merger rumor with Deutsche Boerse would make the stock jump nearly 14%. This isn't the time for NYX to merge with anybody especially somebody trading at more then 100% its value. We know that DB isn't buying NYX for regulatory reasons so the price jump seems unjustified based on that reason. Another reason for the jump might be CME earnings report and a nice jump off the 20/50ema on a technical basis. We'll see if the rally lasts. We're long the stock but not counting on this move. Edit: though not posted yesterday we luckily added stock to the Net Payout fund because of the wonderful 5.5% dividend and the technicals.

Stone Fox Capital used the jump in DKS share prices this morning on the back of the JCP bullish news to lighten up on 40% of our shares at $20. The stock is overextended having run roughly 20% above the 20ema. The story is still strong so this is definitely just a trading move. At this point, we'll likely look at the $17 range to re enter a full position. Morgan Stanley (MS) on the other hand had a rather disappointing Q. After the strong results from Goldman Sachs (GS) we had expected MS to report strong numbers. Instead they missed by a huge margin. This was partly due to credit costs, but the CEO also mentioned cautious trading operations that evidently missed the market opportunities gained by GS and the ML unit of BAC. We didn't buy this stock for them to be cautious so we exited the position as the stock looks like it wants to breakdown.

Not that we head much weight into buyout rumors. They do peak our interests when its followed by options volume. Somebody is 'betting' that the rumor has some validity. Alpha Natural Resources (ANR) is a metallurgical coal play or basically a play on China demanding steel as this type of coal is used in production of steel. It has been one of our favorite picks since it bottomed out in the $15s from a high of $120. Anybody buying them now would likely get a huge steal if steel demand comes back strong. Details on the rumor from OptionSizzle . We think this stock has huge upside so we're not in favor of a buyout at these levels, but if a China firm wants to offer a huge premium we could definitely redeploy the capital in another stock. Appalachian coal supplier Alpha Natural ( ANR ) is seeing an unusual spike in call options traded. Shares are higher by 4.5% at $18.09 on an increase of average stock volume traded. Just yesterday UBS lowered estimates on the coal sector ...

Maybe this Tween just isn't that good in school or maybe the market knows something that we don't. Tween Brands ( TWB ) has greatly underperformed the market in this huge rally. Both pre-tween retailers GYMB and PLCE have both rebounded strongly over their 200ema and even hated retailers like SHLD, JCP, and M are all above those marks as well. Then why is TWB now even below the 20/50ema's? On a valuation basis, this stock provides a compelling story. Even on a business plan basis, this stock seems much more attractive then the other mentioned stores. Just using the most common comparisons of GYMB and PLCE, the movement away from the mall seems to give them a leg up. Maybe the market seess execution risk in moving from the Limited Too mall brand to just a Justice only brand. The Q4 margins were probably a good reason to pause, but most of that issue was related to the sell out of the Liimited Too clothing line. TWB has been a very well run company for a while now so it seems...

Very interesting that the current market rally only made it to the level prior to the big early March sell off that lead to the March 9th low of 666. Yes the negativity reigns on Wall Street. I'll agree that the rally has been significant and a slight pullback is warranted, but I wouldn't expect any break of 825 on the SP500 which is only slightly lower then today's close of 832. CNBC did a nice job of summarizing the negativity of pros on their show today. So called expert after expert expect a huge drop in equities for a retest of the lows or at least a 50% retracement to the 740 to 760 range. Only a handful of experts like Cramer and Kass have talked about the rally sustaining without a sizeable pullback. Today Kass talked about a 6% decline which would place us at the 820 level. Too many investors are focused on a bear market rally and are completely missing the turn in the economy. If you read the news today you'll be overwhelmed by the continuing credit losses ...

More encouraging signs that CEO and BODs think the market has reached a bottom. Mergers are starting to fly in from even the beaten down sectors like homebuilding. FundMyMutualFund highlights the details of this merger so I won't go into the details. We sold the Centex (CTX) in the Growth fund on the 20% bump. Over the last year it's been costly to hold onto shares of buyout targets The American Homebuilding sector hasn't been a favorite sector of ours though we've had a few shares of CTX and Toll Brothers (TOL). This sector is likely to have a slow few years due to high inventories and the negativity on the housing bubble. The more promising sector is international were demographics is much more pormising. The better plays today were Gafisa (GFA - Brazil) and Homex (HMX - Mexico). Both shot up on the news with GFA being up nearly 10% which I don't really understand. Guess they are somewhat related being in the same sector, but the markets in the US and Brazil are ...

Apparently to great shock in the rest of the world, housing is actually showing signs of life this shouldn't be a big surprise to this blog as we've been noting the growing sales volume in places like California for months now. Apparently it is now spreading to FL and Las Vegas. The pattern appears to be that once prices are down roughly 40%, the investors and first time home buyers come rushing in. This article by BusinessWeek shows the disconnect between the main media outlets and reality. With Housing Affordability off the charts, it shouldn't be surprising that volumes are picking up. It doesn't mean that prices will go up any time soon, but stability is huge especially for banks. Investors expecting a huge decline in the market might be caught off guard with this news. For the Garvins, who weren't eligible for the government tax credit, record-low interest rates were a big enticement. With the rate on their 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at 4.75%, the payment ...

You're not likely to see much positive press about these payments on mainstreet media. They'll still be talking about the reported $12.8T 'spent' so far on government 'bailout' programs. Not alot of the media outleets will mention that one of the most hated programs, TARP, is beginning to pay solid dividends plus the paybacks are becoming more and more likely. The government might just actually make money on this and other programs. Such much for all that debt! Bank of America (BAC) has now paid over $1.1B in dividends and is solidly on pace to pay back all of the $45B TARP funds given to BAC/ML by maybe next year. That would mean that the government would get in the $47-50B range back from BAC on a $45B investment. Remember all the noise about the bailouts. Maybe they'll correctly be called prudent investments going forward. If one of the supposedly worst programs is starting to pay dividends from one of the supposedly worst recipients, then maybe the other...