Commodity Chemicals

Brazilian chemical maker Braskem (BAK) now has a chart I'd be searching for when seeking short candidates, so I am going to punt the remaining holding position of 0.15%.  The majority of this position was sold in latter January, with more going out in early February - both in the mid to upper $14s...

Westlake Chemical Corp. (NYSE: WLK) reported early Tuesday morning that its 4th quarter net income was $12.5 million, or 19 cents per share, up from last year's loss of $109.6 million, or $1.67 per share. Sales for the 4th quarter were up 5.5%. A FactSet Research survey of analysts showed and a...

BB&T Capital Markets has maintained a Buy rating for Innophos Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: IPHS), with a target price of $27. Innophos reported EPS of $0.23, which is lower than the consensus estimate of $0.41. The lower-than-expected earnings were mainly due to higher taxes, and higher-than-...

JP Morgan analyst Jeffrey J. Zekauskas raised his rating for shares of Georgia Gulf Corp. (NYSE: GGC) from Neutral to Overweight, with a price target of $20. According to Zekauskas, "our belief is that it is better to be a little too early in owning Georgia Gulf than a little too late. Georgia Gulf...

Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE: BRO) was upgraded today by Stifel Nicolaus from Sell to Hold. Brown & Brown is now trading at $16.57, 0.42% up in the pre-market session. Brown & Brown closed at $16.50 in the previous trading session. In the last year, BRO has declined over 11%. Georgia Gulf...

I am cutting back on these names for identical reasons in all situations.  Stocks that had blown through support and now have made their way back to a resistance area or very close; identical set up as we see in the major indexes.  I will go with the same concept as with the indexes - if they jump...

The mutual fund is now on schedule for a summer 2010 launch. If, after reading the blog content you might have an interest in participation, please consider reading why this blog exists. [Jan 2008: Reader Pledges Toward Mutual Fund Launch] [May 2008: Frequently Asked Questions] Our story in...

Not many places to hide right now, and a lot of charts are going sour at once.  Braskem (BAK) is sitting at the edge of turning bad - after a sharp dip in the opening minutes it spiked back up but I am going to sell 1/3rd into the spike to mid $15s simply to reduce risk. If it continues to break...

Year 3, Week 23 Major Position ChangesTo see historic weekly fund changes click here OR the label at the bottom of this entry entitled 'fund positions'.Cash: 34.9% (v 63.0% last week)29 long bias: 64.5% (v 36.3% last week)  [Includes 1 option position]2 short bias: 0.6% (v 0.7% last week) 31...

Thus far Brazilian chemical maker Braskem (BAK) has traded like a slave to technicals.  We began the position on Dec 18th as it fell to support in the $15.40s.  Not 2 sessions later it surprised me by jumping to $16.90 and we were compelled to lock in a 9% gain.  At the time it was approaching ...

Year 3, Week 21 Major Position ChangesTo see historic weekly fund changes click here OR the label at the bottom of this entry entitled 'fund positions'.Cash: 42.1% (v 78.4% last week)28 long bias: 57.2% (v 18.9% last week)  [includes 1 option position]2 short bias: 0.7% (v 2.7% last week) 30...

We just purchased Brazilian chemical maker Braskem (BAK) last Friday and already the stock is up 9%; certainly not what I expected, especially since the Bovespa index has been weak since.  Somehow we caught a stroke of luck here - other Brazilian stocks are not doing that well.   I did not...

Year 3, Week 20 Major Position ChangesTo see historic weekly fund changes click here OR the label at the bottom of this entry entitled 'fund positions'.Cash: 78.4% (v 80.7% last week)23 long bias: 18.9% (v 17.0% last week) 3 short bias: 2.7% (v 2.3% last week) [includes 1 option position]26...

Braskem (BAK), the Brazilian chemical maker, highlighted earlier in the month [Dec 9, 2009: Braskem - Brazilian Chemical Maker] is our newest addition.  The stock was in full "break out" mode when I wrote about it, which I prefer not to chase (even though that's been the preferred money making...

It is becoming increasingly clear that stock market speculators are going to be treating "clean" (green) tech as the next internet.  Parallel to what was seen in the late 90s, a very true thesis (the internet will change the world) will be taken to extremes.  Back then when a company announced a...