If black boxes survive air crashes, why don't they make the whole plane out of that stuff? ~George Carlin
Hours after Boeing finally managed to get a test flight on the new 787, the IATA came out to report larger than previously forecasted losses for airlines in 2010. Some of us have traded them long on the jump, but for those so inclined here is the list of domestic airline stocks if you'd like to watch them for a possible short in the future. The chart of the sector index is below, as well as a current chart on TRAN. Congratulations to the employees of Boeing by the way- it was a long time coming.
Other news of interest you may not be aware of includes the new margin requirements on gold futures. I won't venture to guess why this new requirement suddenly appeared, but I'm sure they have the trading community's best interest at heart, right? Will this put a crimp in gold speculation? I guess we'll see soon enough. Meanwhile, central banks continue to build reserves, but Bloomberg reports a caveat to that fact.
As we wait for the FOMC announcement at 2:15 EST, I was reminded of the trades I had in place for Dec. FOMC 2007. I rushed to the grocery store, forgot my wallet, locked my keys in my car and barely made it home in time for the announcement. Those were the days when you knew the tape was going to rock and roll, and oh how we long for some volatility like that again. It doesn't matter which way the tape moves, as long as it does something! Anyway... good trading to you into the afternoon whichever way you decide to position yourself, or if not.. just watch the games post announcement and let the dust settle. Preservation of cash is far more important than anything else on a day like this and a Mad Max style tape could be in store for us.
Tomorrow's economic calendar includes Jobless Claims before the bell, Leading Indicators and Philly Fed Survey at 10:00, followed by the Nat Gas report at 10:30. Also on tap will be earnings from RIMM, PALM, DRI, FDX, NKE and ORCL. We could really see some fireworks from the FDX earnings and outlook, and RIMM will be post session, so how the Qs respond to that won’t show up until Friday.
 |  |
See you all at 2:15 and let's see if the tape can do something like this
