Impressive bounce off that 1260 level on the S&P. Like a magnet the market bounced to S&P 1275…. (thanks PPT) and away we go to 1280s. Reader Shax is happy and smug somewhere in Asia with his 100% long exposure. I just cannot see a break through that 1260 on the first attempt with all the King’s Horses and all the King’s Men here to socialize the market, all over again. They have charts too and realize how important this level is. It’s going to take repeated attempts I believe, to break through their purchasing power.Frankly at this point we have 2 outcomes (a) crash i.e. a 10% drop in the markets (June) followed by even more rampant selling layered on top or (b) an oversold bounce.I wrote last week I was done for now with Ultrashort Financial (SKF) as …

Source: Citigroup Cutting More Jobs Soon; Housing Outlook Remains Bleak; Consolidating Waste; Declining Euro; Huntsman Sues Apollo; GM Boost Prices, Cuts Costs; Safran Woos with Higher Offer; Motorola Slumps on "Sell" Rating Citigroup Inc. (C) may lay off more workers this week under a March plan to cut its trading and investment-banking workforce by about 6,000, or 10%. So far, about half of the jobs have been shed, a source with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg. The Joint Center for Housing Studies released its annual State of the Nation’s Housing report yesterday (Monday), MarketWatch reported. According to the report, the slump still has further to run, as local markets continue to grapple with drops in housing starts, new home sales and existing home sales. Republic Services Inc. (RSG) said yesterday (Monday) that it would buy Allied Waste ...

Jim Corridore, analyst at Standard & Poors Equity Research raised his opinion on UAL (UAUA) from hold to buy:

1. UAUA is cutting 100 aircraft, and 2009 capacity will be down 17%-18% and Corridore believes it is near the level needed to get yields up enough to suit this oil price environment.

2. He believes oil could drop from current levels.

3. He expects unit costs to rise on lowered capacity in the short term, but expect the capacity cuts to help revenue growth in 2009.

4. 12-month target price is $12.

Personally, I don’t think I would put too much faith in the Airline industry; it is a horrible business (high capital costs, and low returns).  If oil prices drop substantially, the stocks will go up, but I would rather bet elsewhere for the time being.

See stock picks from S&P analysts at:

http://www.trackthepros.com/categories.php?category_id=382

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Much like I did with Ctrip.com (CTRP) last week [May 2: Cutting Ctrip.com to Almost Nothing] I am going to cut these 3 positions to almost nil; they are small positions at this time as I cut them at lower prices, but the gains (% wise) have been huge, and the stocks are not near any major support. Fundamentals remain strong in all the stocks so there is no change in that area. Further, this does not mean the stocks need to pullback anytime soon but consistent with my strategy, I am simply going to take the last of these gains off the table and wait for meaningful pullbacks, after some staggering moves. These positions are in the 0.5-0.7% range of the portfolio, so I am essentially dropping them to what I call "holding positions" aka tiny positions (0.1% or 0.2%), but not selling them out ...