What Is Frank Walsh Thinking for January 31?
Tuesday Tidbits, January 31, 2006 – somewhere between Phoenix and Orlando
- We will be, through the weekend, and after a long day of travel, at the World Money Show in Orlando, Florida. Therefore, our usual daily missives may not be as forthcoming as usual, but do not fret, the positions are all being watched over, from afar, with hawk-like eyes, and, as always, the news of any adjustments or closing trades will be emailed and posted at the web site as they occur. We are at the beautiful Gaylord Palms Resort, not far from Disneyworld, looking for Donald and Mickey as possible future customers. No – we aren’t Goofy!
- From our friends at The King Report, comes news the “St. Louis Fed President Poole, perceived to be a hawk (for a Fed official, he is the one-eyed man in the legion of the blind.), over the weekend said inflation is no concern as long as oil doesn’t rally further from here, so he sees only one or two more rate hikes.” We understand that the large international firms that have become so dependent on foreign oil have also learned how to hedge their oil positions, but at some certain point (as all good option traders know) their oil deltas have to start going against them.
- According to Variety magazine (no, we don’t read it!), Amazon.com (AMZN) is planning an online movie service featuring full-length films from at least two major studios. The company does not want to cannibalize their large business in DVDs, so they are trying to figure a way to stream a movie to a customer credited against the purchase price of another – or some sort of marketing mumble-jumble. Stand-by, there will soon be an action packed thriller appearing on your monitor!
- Back to the oil patch, comes news from Petroleum Intelligence Weekly (no, we don’t read it either!) notes that Kuwait’s oil reserves may be much lower than thought, and according to internal Kuwaiti records are “a good deal lower.” The OPEC nation was thought to have had oil reserves of approximately 99 million barrels, so even a slight discrepancy is a lot of black gold!
- Still in the oil patch… Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM *) stunned the investment world on Monday (01/30) with news that they had fourth-quarter profits of almost $11 billion. This puts the world’s largest publicly traded oil firm with a $36.13 billion profit for 2005 – a record in United States corporate history. Their record number was on sales of nearly $100 billion, and the powerful sales at the pump had a similar effect on the stock price, which was up big on Monday.
- Adios Little Al, a fond farewell! Welcome Big Bad Ben!
FHW
Frank Walsh is a trade analyst and commentary provider for RED Option.com, a strategy-based advisory service that also provides comprehensive options education.
