Bulls Take Control

Morning News of Note:

• PEP KO: Soda Sales Are Losing Their Pop The next generation may not be the Pepsi generation — or the Coke generation, for that matter. For years, soda has been the quintessential American drink, considered the perfect thirst quencher, morning pick-me-up or accompaniment to lunch or dinner. (Full Story) NY Times
• LVS: Heard on the Street... Asia Push Makes Las Vegas Sands a Risky Bet Las Vegas Sands Corp. is on a roll. Its stock price is up about 87% since October and recently reached a record high, thanks largely to owning the only Vegas-style casino in Macau. Macau, an island enclave on the southern coast of China, was a Portuguese colony until it reverted to Chinese control in 1999. (Full Story) WSJ
• AAPL: According to Reuters, Apple Computer's iTunes music and video store on Wednesday launched a new service called Multi-Pass that lets users buy TV shows on a monthly basis. iTunes is launching the service in partnership with Viacom's Comedy Central Network, which is rolling out "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report" on the service. Fans will be able to buy the next month's series of 16 new episodes via Multi-Pass for $9.99, or to pay $1.99 per episode. Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of iTunes, said MultiPass is not a subscription service, even though customers would pay for it on a monthly basis.
• Asia Economy: BoJ anncd it will raise reserve requirements to cut cash provided to lenders by 80% to ¥6trln over a few mo's; BoJ to hold interest rates near 0%; aims to keep inflation bet 0%-2%; sees mild deflation persisting; BoJ Gov Fukui said interest rates will stay close to 0% for a while even after its reserves tgt falls below ¥6trln // Tokyo Feb office vacancies 3.67% fro 3.99% in Jan, 8th consecuitive monthly decline, lowest since Oct01 // Bank of Korea Gov Park said consumption and exports healthy; sees global rate increases probably nearing its end
• US Economy: MNST Feb employment index 157 vs 151 in Jan; highest reading ever; strength in business mgmt, retail trade, buildling and maintenance and engineering
• Mad Money Summary: Intersections (INTX), a company which makes software and provides services that prevent identity theft, is a money making play in the identity theft prevention market, said Jim Cramer at the beginning of his show. He believes the stock is cheap and that pessimism has already been priced in. Cramer then discussed a way to play the "noodle craze" which the New York Times reported was going on in East Asia. The company is House Foods, and they trade on the Tokyo Exchange. Cramer then discussed TurboChef Technologies (OVEN), a stock he was once behind but sold long ago. Cramer now sees the stock being range bound near $11 for a long time. He said the kitchen equipment maker to invest in is Middleby (MIDD), which has contracts with Papa John's (PZZA) and Domino's Pizza (DPZ). He says not to buy the company until after their conference call this week. In the Lightning Round, Cramer was bullish on Carnival (CCL), Royal Caribbean (RCL), American International (AIG), ABB Ltd. (ABB), Crown Castle (CCI), Powerwave Tech (PWAV), Myogen (MYOG), Cypress (CY), Sunpower (SPWR), Gilead (GILD), Terex (TEX), Hexcel (HXL), Costco (COST), NMT Medical (NMTI), Procter & Gamble (PG), NE Utilities (NU), Abbott (ABT), and Citi Trend (CTRN), and was bearish on Pixar (PIXR), O’Reilly (ORLY), Applied Materials (AMAT), Novavax (NVAX), Estee Lauder (EL) and Baxter Int'l (BAX).

Market Comments: The SPX has recaptured its 50-day moving average, putting the bulls back in control for the time being. The COMP has yet to trade above its 50-day, so I would still like to see this occur before getting more bullish. I expect the Nazz to lead this year.

The Monster Employment Index hit a record high in February, which bodes well for income and spending. And the Bank of Japan held rates steady for the time being. In the U.S, the 10-year yield is hovering around 4.74%.

HANS reported a great quarter, and the stock gapped to a new high this morning. URBN reported a lackluster quarter, but the stock looks to have stabilized after an early swoon. Most other sectors look higher, with tech leading the way.

long AAPL, PEP, URBN