Markets Perk Up as Fed Looms
January 30th, 2007 by Buck Woodford
Judgement on my inaugural Mea Culpa might have been a bit premature. Stocks were kosher even with a 5% spike in oil prices, as the indexes tacked on a few tenths of a percent to the upside. Volume was low as the big boys did some hand-sitting in front of the Fed decision at 2pm Wednesday. Oils & oil service stocks worked well and I was happy to welcome old friend BTJ back into the portfolio.
With our recent biz card & stationery order, Teewinot was a tiny speck in VistaPrint’s 4Q earnings report. VPRT doubled revenues and showed several strong business metrics in the press release. I’ve always liked their online do-it-yourself business product design platform, and can envision larger company marketing people also cutting the middleman out of the printing business. This move looks huge, maybe even overdone in the short term.. but the pattern has a lovely breakway gap look to it.
We face yet another interesting juncture in stock-land. The 4 major indexes are all over the map, as many a good trading blogger will explain (check RevShark, for one). The Russell is one of the better ones, trying to ban on this 79.25 area for the fifth time in two months.
With the Fed meeting tomorrow and the helter-skelter trading that tends to follow, it’s not bad timing for my limited trading schedule the rest of this week.
Long BTJ, IYT, VPRT
