Manutius (24.69)

Journal 20 Oct 09

October 21, 2009 – Comments (0) | RELATED TICKERS: HOL , ENR , AMZN

A sideways day where S&P500 first dropped, then crawled back to nearly even. I was happy with the results of my new discipline: although I lost a little, I gained on the index and, for what it is worth, on my CAPS rating.  There were two news items of note: first, Holly Corp. (HOC) announced that they have contracted to acquire the Tulsa refining facilities owned by Sinclair (a significant addition to their capacity); second, a rumor surfaced that Panasonic was interested in acquiring ENR.  The second rumor is financially possible, but seems unlikely as Panasonic recently acquired another battery company (Sanyo?); why would they want another? In any event, the Holly news bumped their stock up about a buck and a half, while ENR had a dissapointing day.

I also invested in AMZN today.  I feel that it is compulsary for a homegamer to be in a winner retailer for the holiday season.  I hae been watching Costco, BJs, BBBY and AMZN; technicals and fundamentals (plus common sense) converge on AMZN.  Who's going to buy a Christmas present at Costco? Or BJ? (Here, honey, I've gotten you a nice case of toilet paper! Happy holidays!) I like BBBY (mostly because they include Christmas Tree Shops) but wifey says "No! You can get anything there way cheaper elsewhere", and J.Q.Publlic IS in a frugal mood.  I plan to do as much holiday shopping as possible online; I bet I have plenty of company,  and AMZN is the online Macy's.  QED.