Fast Money Recap: 100 Trades for 100 Days (1/13/09)

CNBC's Fast Money, Tuesday January 13.

100 Trades: AthenaHealth (ATHN)

Fast Money is dedicating a segment to Obama’s first 100 days in office; every day, an Obama-related trade will be featured. On Tuesday, the group discussed AthenaHealth, which should benefit from Obama’s plans to devote $50 billion to making medical records available on the computer. AthenaHealth develops software which will allow paperwork to be processed and doctors to be paid more quickly and efficiently. Doctors will be more willing to see patients on Medicaid because of the ease of filling out forms with up-to-date software.

Decline in China: Baidu (BIDU), iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index (FXI)

As Chinese exports fell to the lowest level in ten years, and unemployment looms, the Chinese economy is looking bleak. However, Tim Seymour remains confident that China is still a growth story in spite of the bad news and would consider Baidu or FXI for a trade.

LIBORFalls…Stocks on the Rise? : Ishares iBoxx $ Invest Grade Corp Bond (LQD)

London Interbank Offered Rate or LIBOR, fell to 1.09%, a move which will make loans between banks more affordable and may help ease the crisis in credit markets. So why aren’t stocks looking any better? “The phenomenon that dragged down the credit market was so much more powerful than the equities market,” said Karen Finerman. “The pendulum had swung way too far in the debt market.” However, Joe Terranova says LIBOR rates don’t matter when there is already so much debt. However, Guy Adami does see an upside in the S&P if oil rises on Wednesday. Joe Terranova suggests looking closely at the balance sheets of interesting stocks or to get exposure to bonds with LQD.

Save the Citi (C), Morgan Stanley (MS)

On Citi’s decision to sell a part of its Smith Barney brokerage unit to Morgan Stanley, many see this move as a necessary amputation to save Citigroup, which is expected to announce a dismal quarter. Guy Adami thinks CEO Vikram Pandit was forced to sell Smith Barney, since some time ago, he declared that he never would. Finerman remarked Citi is giving away the brokerage unit, not selling it. Dylan Ratigan said it is regrettable Citi is dragging the entire financial sector down along with it.

General Electric (GE) Brings Down the Dow: Honeywell (HON), HSBC (HBC)

General Electric dropped on news that it may rely heavily on tax benefits. Guy Adami says GE is too heavy on the financial side unlike a true industrial like Honeywell. Speaking of financials, Pete Najarian reiterated his warning about HSBC and Karen Finerman said none of the financials are that far off their lows. Guy Adami notes Goldman, at about $78, may be a buy.

Comments

[James Wilson:]

Pandit was smart declaring not to sell but later taking bids for it and getting a great price not selling anything cheap.

Pandit told long ago he was taking Citi back to being a Bank.

Panid t will bring Citi thru like even with all the bad paper the U.S. Treasury forced Citi to take before they could get TARP money.

Jan 14 09:15 AM

[User 283977:]

GE:
I have been getting increasingly uncomfortable with GE and the financial part of their business model. I bought GE as a long term investment and was attracted to their dividend. GE seems to be well positioned for an infrastructure play, but I am very uncomfortable with their seemingly broad financial market exposure. Their dividend yield is currently at 17%. EPS is $2.02 while the dividend is .61 per share per quarter.

There was another article on SA that made the point that if GE maintains their dividend, its likely they will loose their AAA rating. There is logic in that, and if push comes to shove, their board should select the AAA rating over maintaining an accidental dividend yield of 17%. I still think GE is a good infrastructure play, and whatever their dividend ends up as, its still going to be good.

However, I agree with Guy Adami, GE is too heavy on the financial side with its associated unknown risks. I sold my GE position for alternative infrastructure plays.

Jan 14 11:15 AM

[happysoul77777:]

Why bother buying any stock? The market is structurally unsound and broken. Most of the rules are on the shorts' side. KEEP SELLING!

Jan 14 04:57 PM

[svosavvy:]

don't forget the stinkiest part of the swamp is the bottom.

Jan 15 12:30 PM

[svosavvy:]

ge yield is accidentally 10% as of this morning not 17%

Jan 15 12:51 PM

[snowboy:]

It doesn't take a financial genius to know that GE is much too heavy in the financial sector,they need to get back to being a manufacturing company.
Westinghouse should have been a lesson to the wise.

Jan 15 08:42 PM

[svosavvy:]

dividend is .31 per quarter for now, thus at or around 9-10% yield recently.

Jan 16 12:23 AM