Here We Go Again

Morning News of Note:

• ERTS: EA to Buy Mythic, Raising Presence In Online Games Electronic Arts Inc. agreed to acquire Mythic Entertainment Inc., a deal that gives the world's largest videogames publisher by sales an expanded presence in the growing market for so-called massively multiplayer online games. EA, which didn't disclose terms of the deal, said it will form a game-development studio in Fairfax, Va., where Mythic is based, called EA Mythic. (Full Story) WSJ
• VOD: Vodafone, Ericsson Get Hung Up In Greece's Phone-Tap Scandal In early March 2005, George Koronias, Vodafone Group PLC's top executive here, contacted the Greek prime minister's office about an urgent security matter. Vodafone's network in Greece had been infiltrated by phone-tapping software targeting an elite group of cellphones: those assigned to many of the country's leaders, including senior police and defense officials, cabinet members and the prime minister himself. (Full Story) WSJ
• NYX: Heard on the Street... Big Board Sees a Bond Bonanza The New York Stock Exchange says its planned merger with Euronext NV will help the Big Board expand its bond-trading business, which has been in steady decline. NYSE Group Inc., the parent of the New York Stock Exchange, has been working for months to get approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to increase the number of corporate bonds that trade on its electronic system, but that regulatory effort has been going slowly. (Full Story) WSJ
• UVN: Disarray in Auction of Univision The auction of Univision, the nation's largest Spanish-language media company, was sent into disarray last night as a consortium of investors led by the Mexican television giant Grupo Televisa, the group tipped to win the contest, missed the deadline to submit an offer, executives involved in the process said. Televisa let the deadline lapse, the executives said, in part because an investment partner, the Carlyle Group of Washington, dropped out of the consortium at the last minute after an internal dispute over the price that the group was prepared to bid. (Full Story) NY Times
• Mad Money Summary: Cramer opened his show discussing the two makers of passenger jets, Airbus and Boeing (BA), saying that Airbus is "imploding." He said that investing in Boeing isn't the way he would play the other company's woes, however. He suggested buying Triumph Group (TGI), Heico (HEI) and Moog (MOG.A). Cramer then suggested investing in hotels to play the boom in travel. He said the best of breed in hotels is Hilton (HLT), saying it is "too good to pass up." Cramer then recommended buying investment banks Bear Stearns (BSC), Goldman Sachs (GS) and Lehman Brothers (LEH), saying they are all undervalued. Cramer then welcomed the CEO and chairman of Darden Restaurants (DRI) to the show. Cramer said the stock is down right now and recommends picking it up. In the "Lightning Round," Cramer was bullish on TECO Energy (TE), Goldman Sachs, Martek Biosciences (MATK), Southern (SO), Votorantim Celulose e Papel (VCP), Diageo (DEO), Tellabs (TLAB), Scientific Games (SGMS), Progressive (PGR), Pioneer Drilling (PDC), Grey Wolf (GW), Halliburton (HAL) and Amgen (AMGN), and was bearish on Usana Health Sciences (USNA), Gaiam (GAIA), Microsoft (MSFT), Sonus Networks (SONS), Geron (GERN), Northern Trust (NTRS) and Steven Madden (SHOO).

Market Comments: Regular readers know by now that I don't like a market that opens strong. Sure, once in a while it can continue to build into the close, but those days are few and far between. I prefer to see a market that opens weak, and reverses that weakness into a strong close.

So today we have the market pretty much ripping in the first hour of trading. That just sets us up for disappointment, just like yesterday and the countless other times. Let's hope the sellers don't overwhelm buyers again today.

GOOG is breaking above its 50-day, which could help a bit. And MWD reported strong earnings, which is helping the brokers again.

Oil and bond yields are flat so far, which is another positive. Don't ask me why, but lately energy and tech have traded together. So in a preverse way, I am hoping that oil doesn't drop too fast, as that could weigh on the energy stocks and then spill into other groups.

Also, the Investor's Intelligence bull/bear survey came out today and showed there are as many bears as bulls (35.6%). This is the lowest spread between bulls and bears since October 2002!

long GOOG