Christmas Presents? Sorry sweetie, only if there's a sale.

You won't be getting a Christmas present from me this year. Not unless I can find something you like that is on sale. Because, frankly nobody likes cheap presents that they have absolutely no use for. Luckily for you, and the rest of penny pinching America --(basically everyone this year except for any wall st. executives who were lucky enough to lose billions on subprime bets and were subsequently fired and given millions in termination packages)-- retailers may be catching on and posting last minute markdowns.

It's the talk of the regular non-financial news programs these days. American consumers simply can't afford to spend as much as previous years. The holiday shopping season commenced with a boom! as we had one of the most successful Black Fridays in years. Hopes were high that we were about to side-step economic slowdown as consumers powered through the credit mess. Sadly, this was all pre-mature news making ridiculousness. Any of you bargain hunters out there know that Black Friday is the day when all the cheap-skates (like me) run rampant searching for deals. Perhaps, the huge volume on Black Friday was indicating that this year more people needed to be shopping on Black Friday, because they knew they couldn't afford otherwise. Now with one week left before Christmas we have article after article about the slow sales season and desperate retailers. Here is one and another one.

But as I said, retailers may be catching on. As a last minute attempt to salvage a horrible sales season, retailers may be forced to give markdowns in the coming days. Now why does this matter? Well for starters, this proves that last minute shopping = smart shopping and does NOT imply laziness. More importantly, some stocks must be in the Christmas commercialization spirit, because the following stocks are on sale:




ISRG - Intuitive Surgical, the creator of Da Vinci surgical equipment just tested its 50-day MA. I was able to add to my position in stock. If the price begins to consolidate I will definitely look to buying some call options.

AAPL - Apple Inc. was mentioned along with Google in yesterday morning's trading alert. See that article for why AAPL is a must buy right now.

DSX and DRYS - The dry-bulk shipping companies in general are retreating from recent highs. Almost all the dry-bulk shipping stocks have the exact same chart, which indicates that the strength of these companies is based purely off of the dry bulk rate that they can charge. In October, this rate decreased for the first time in a long time leading to a massive sell off. Still, the industry remains strong and the rate is expected to increase throughout all of next year. You can create a mini ETF (exchange-traded fund) on the dry bulk shippers by buying an equal portion of each one. Still, my favorites are Diana and Dry

Jefferies analyst comment

After selling off 14% yesterday, and 45% over the past six weeks, the firm believes DRYS shares are extremely oversold given the current strength in dry bulk shipping charter rates, expectations for dry bulk shipping charter rates to strengthen further in 2008, and an improving outlook for the dry bulk shipping market in 2009. In fact, DRYS shares now trade at 3.6 times 2008E EPS, 3.1 times 2008E CFPS, and 3.9 times 2008E EV/EBITDA. With dry bulk shipping charter rates likely to increase further next year, they believe their current estimates could actually prove conservative. Although the firm would have preferred for DryShips to utilize it's surplus cash flow to either acquire additional dry bulk vessels, pay down debt, repurchase shares, and/or increase the Company's dividend payments, nonetheless, DryShips still has the most operating leverage to the attractive dry bulk shipping market. As a result, the firm reiterates their Buy rating and their 12-month price target of $160 per share

BIDU and GOOG - both are testing their 50-day moving averages. Both are geared for growth. If I had to pick one, I would say Baidu was more likely to hold its 50-day than Google.