A Few Winners on an Awful Day (MA, V, APOL, BSDM, CTRN, AAP, PLCE, DLTR, ROST, WSM, ARUN, SPLS)

The market might feel like it is in free fall mode as suddenly 1,100 on the S&P500 has been taken out and now the DJIA is within 2% of challenging the DJIA 10,000 mark.  What is always interesting to see is those few stocks are actually up on the.  For starters, none should be inverse or leverage ETF/ETN products.  None should be M&A stocks either, nor should they be ADRs.  Some of today’s few key winners are MasterCard Inc. (NYSE: MA), Visa Inc. (NYSE: V), and Apollo Group Inc. (NASDAQ: APOL) on favorable climate news.  Bounces on oversold conditions include BSD Medical Corp. (NASDAQ: BSDM), Citi Trends, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTRN), and Advance Auto Parts Inc. (NYSE: AAP).  Then come favorable earnings reports sending shares of The Children’s Place Retail Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLCE), Dollar Tree, Inc. (NASDAQ: DLTR), Ross Stores Inc. (NASDAQ: ROST), Williams Sonoma Inc. (NYSE: WSM), Aruba Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: ARUN), and Staples Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLS).

We have provided the news or logic behind the gains as well as price. volume, and other relative data where applicable.

REGULATORY BOUNCES

MasterCard Inc. (NYSE: MA) is up 1.5% at $205.40 on over 2.6 million shares and Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is up 2.5% at $74.84 on almost 15 million shares.  These two are bouncing after being very much oversold on swipe fee regulation.  Apollo Group Inc. (NASDAQ: APOL) is up again on continued hope that a recent regulatory boss has resigned that was deemed unfavorable to for-profit education companies, and shares are up 0.35% at $56.38.

OVER-SOLD BOUNCES

BSD Medical Corp. (NASDAQ: BSDM) is up over 7% at $1.48 on a recently oversold chart as this was just a $2.00 stock as recently as April 22.  Citi Trends, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTRN) is just a bounce after a big drop this week, but shares are up 6.5% at $32.50 on double-volume.  Advance Auto Parts Inc. (NYSE: AAP) is not just up, but it hit 52-week highs after beating earnings last night and due to an analyst call from Raymond James reiterating a BUY and taking the $55 target to $60 on the stock.  Shares are up 5.7% at $48.71.

EARNINGS GAINERS

The Children’s Place Retail Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLCE) is up 3.4% at $42.91 after bearing earnings handily and raising guidance next quarter and for the year.  Dollar Tree, Inc. (NASDAQ: DLTR) is showing that the dollar store trade is not dead after it beat earnings and raised guidance; shares up over 3% at $51.58.  Ross Stores Inc. (NASDAQL ROST) is up over 2% at $52.78 after beating earnings and claiming record margins. Williams Sonoma Inc. (NYSE: WSM) beat earnings handily again as its store traffic recovers, sending shares up 4.6% at $29.75 on almost 6 million shares.  Aruba Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: ARUN) is one that was up more and is barely up now after beating earnings and seeing a Stifel Nicolaus upgrade, with shares up 0.3% at $11.61.  Staples Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLS) beat earnings but guidance was soft.  Staples was soft this morning then went up close to $22.00 and shares are currently 0.25% at $21.60.

Imagine how well these stocks would be doing today if the ticker-tape was not such a disaster.  As it stands right after 1:00 PM, the markets are sharply lower:

• DJIA is at 10,132.17, down 312.20 or -2.99%
• S&P500 is at 1,077.31, down 37.74 or -3.38%
• NASDAQ is at 2,211.01, down 87.36 or 3.80%

Longer-dated U.S. Treasury prices are about the only winners in town outside stocks; now the 10-year is yielding 3.21% and the 30-year is yielding down at 4.09%.  Gold is down about 0.6% around $1,184 per ounce and crude oil is getting wiped out with a drop of $5.24 to $64.63 around the contract roll-date.

JON C. OGG