Congrats to the Dendreon (DNDN) longs… really. I know what you're feeling. You held on for so long, you earned this gain. The happiness regarding the potential to see this game-changing-technology, and how it will benefit thousands of people… you're a part of it.

It's a good feeling, and you want to keep being a shareholder… I know.

A 10yr chart of General Electric (GE) reveals the company has seen the $20 level only three other times in previous cycles, and each time quickly bouncing from it (click to enlarge):

Microsoft (MSFT) is walking away from the Yahoo (YHOO) bid due to Yahoo’s high requested price. Yahoo, on its own, cannot justify a price tag of $37-38 per share in the near term, especially with a pending consumer recession. The macro conditions of the Ad market and Yahoo’s stand alone growth simply do not justify it. Ballmer knows this, and offered the reasonable $31 per share.

Big Oil is having a hard time replenishing their reserves and Wall Street is concerned. The concern is obvious, but playing devil’s advocate, does it really matter?

The WSJ’s recent article on Exxon’s (XOM) lack of new reserves states that XOM will run out of oil in a generation. That is about 40 years or so.

The total unique vistors and page views for New York Times Online has increased pretty significantly over the past few days.  This is obviously making it more viable as an internet ad play, and offset its lost print ad revenue.

NYT is still in cost-cutting mode and internet ads are not offsetting print as one would hope to see for meaningful stock appreciation. However, NYT does pay a dividend over 5%.

There is a company that benefits when markets are volatile, has a proven fundamental basis and management that knows what it is doing. Oh, and this company is key to any investor, period.

With an increasingly volatile market, why wouldn’t anyone be interested in this company?

I have been following Broadcom (BRCM) for some time now, and was tempted a few days to get in due to its price drop. On Monday it was upgraded, which got me even more tempted… but this voice in the back of my head whispering ‘consumer slowdown’ keeps me away.

The daily chart looks to have no drop in sight, but the weekly chart is much more structured, and could explain the upgrade (click to enlarge):

I recently watched an interview with Jim Rogers on the ‘Wall Street Report’, where the Money Honey asked Rogers what his best investment was for the foreseeable future. He stated either the Chinese currency (which I do not know how to purely play via the States), Japanese Yen and/or the Swiss Franc

The Yen and the Franc can be played via the FXY and FXF, respectively. Both are CurrencyShares pegging the foreign currency against the dollar (click to enlarge charts):

J Crew (JCG) produced a really nice quarter. The company raised guidance, in the mist of a blood bath retail environment. There was nothing not to like.

Most impressive: 79% of revenue comes from the ‘direct biz’, with a growth of 36%. (In other words, same store sales from JCG is becoming irrelevant.)

I am a fan of J Crew (JCG) and their management. The company has room to grow, and management with the know-how to make sure things go smoothly.

In the current retail environment, JCG is getting beaten down, and the daily chart is indicative of this negativity. Observe the resistance of the SMAs…

The NDAQ may deserve a premium due to its ability to gain market share in the U.S. and the level of its efficiency, and CME gets a premium due to its position in derivatives. But why are all the positives ignored from NYX to give it such a low valuation when the company it is becoming is like a combination of NDAQ and CME?

It has a heavy short interest, with insiders buying fairly consistently for the past few months. With a solid earnings upside, TIE can see a pretty big run upward given the short interest… and unfortunately vice versa.

I am not playing anything on the short-term with TIE so I do not care if it does not beat when it reports (although I think it will). It will definitely have a better 2nd half due to the increase in production. TIE’s facilities consistently run at 95% capacity, increasing capacity increases earnings. It is a matter of what it was able to squeeze out of its new facilities, as well as costs. So it may not blow away revenue, but earnings should beat.

click to enlarge:

The weekly chart also indicates a level of support via the 14SMA, that has acted as support before:

With HD about to announce their new EPS guidance on July 10th, I figure now is a good time to closely go through the numbers with a generous (albeit conservative) reduction of estimated earnings.

click to enlarge

The real question is whether or not all this negativity on the IBs will have an impact to earnings?

If it will, then GS has all the right in the world to go down. And the chart is not pretty right now. Two moving averages are pointing downward, and it looks like GS (with the market) will stay in the mud until this fear and uncertainty go away. The only thing that can do that is the end of summer earnings of the brokers. (Or if Goldman were to flat out tell us that this is meaningless. But Goldman is not about to do that.)

Echo To All submits: Home Depot (HD) is selling its Supply business and buying back $22.5B worth of shares. THIS IS HUGE. $22.5B represents about 28-29% of shares. With a share count of 1.97B, a buyback will leave the share count to 1.40. (Assuming the buyback occurs by the end of the 2009 year, and not accounting for option dilution.) Here is a quick run down from a trader’s perspective.

So lets take a look at HD’s PE: PE is currently around 14-15, arguably cheap. Now lets account for the share buyback and the removal of the Supply biz. On the back of the envelope calculation and estimates, the Supply biz will account for about 30 cents of the current 2009 earnings estimate. (Disclaimer: my estimate is crude and meant to be quick and simply good enough for an initial assessment.)

Echo To All submits: From a technical perspective, FedEx Corporation (FDX) is looking toward the upside. But FDX reports on Wednesday, and fundamentally speaking they have not been doing so hot. But the recently strong retail numbers make me think about them. A review of their chart indicates the SMAs are generally moving upward, and the MACD support a bullish run.

In my opinion, if no catalyst is present (to change the fundamental picture of FDX) it could trend to 116. However, FDX reports on Wednesday, and if they cannot meet the current expectations, the stock will be in a lot of hurt. If they meet or beat, the benefit is to the upside.

Echo To All submits: Apparently Lenny Dystra beat me to the punch, but I did not share his sentiment until after I saw Boeing’s (BA) long-term projections for aircraft needs.

All these new planes that are being planed will need titanium, thanks to the high cost of oil and the ability of titanium to make the plane not as heavy and use less fuel. The new projections gives Titanium Metals Corporation (TIE) a revived long-term sustainability in the market.

Echo To All submits: General retail sales were good, as were department store sales. Herein lies the problem with J.C Penny (JCP). Same store sales for May at JCP were weak, yet on average, department store sales were relatively good. I do not like to see this as it is the opposite of what I was expecting to see from JCP. So much so that it made me sell my JCP holdings.

Currently, JCP is cheap, and the daily chart is oversold. But the weekly is telling me it will most likely see 75 (barring a positive catalyst).