Here is a tall list of stocks which traded higher Monday November 16, 2009 on unusually higher volume. When we have a move such as we did Monday, it is not unusual to see this many stocks moving higher on greater volume than the 50 day average. I will keep an eye on these stocks Tuesday to see if there is continued buying pushing the stocks higher. This method is just one of the ways I use to pick stocks to structure particular option trades. This post requires the knowledge of stock options. To learn more about the option strategies outlined in this post, risks, pricing, calculations, other strategies, and options in general, click here.

The table below shows the company, ticker, per share % increase, and volume increase (% increased compared to 50 day average). For your convenience I have ranked the stocks in order from greatest to least volume % change.

Prominent value investor Warren Buffett made a bet on the future of America with his purchase of Burlington Northern Santa Fe. While few are as rich as Buffett, it doesn’t mean you can’t play along with what he’s buying using ETFs.

Warren Buffett’s company Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) announced this week that it plans to buy Burlington Northern Santa Fe (NYSE: BNI) for $100 a share, writes Jack Hough for SmartMoney. Buffett named rail car loadings as his favorite economic indicator.

As the economy continues to struggle domestically, many big corporations have started to look abroad to fatten up their bottom lines. How exactly will this affect ETFs?

What’s different this time is that corporations aren’t looking abroad to growing nations such as China, Brazil and India to cut costs, but instead to drive revenues, reports The Los Angeles Times.

Moody's sees signs of very modest growth but does not expect improvement to be exceptionally robust.

Excerpts from Moody’s revises North American Manufacturing Industry Outlook to stable

By Murray Coleman

As stock markets took a beating in 2008, so did assets in most niche-focused sector exchange-traded funds.

Currently, just 14% of stocks in the S&P 500 are trading above their 50-day moving averages.  While this is extremely oversold, the number got down to 8% last August and 11% in January.

Financials and Industrials are the sectors struggling the most.  Each of them have just 2% of stocks trading above their 50-days.  Consumer Discretionary isn't far behind at 5%, however.  The two sectors that look the best at the moment are Health Care and Utilities.  Health Care has 42% above their 50-days, while the Utilities sector sits at 39%.

A reader asked for my opinion about what sectors and countries to buy when the market eventually starts a new bullish phase.

So this post has two parts to it in terms of how I try to frame the answer.

By Murray Coleman

If you're looking for exchange-traded funds to add, the pickings just got cheaper in many cases.

It's doubtless that you've heard as many times as I have over the last few weeks various financial advisors touting large caps, generally, and large cap industrials as the place to be at this point in the economic cycle. More recently, I've also taken great interest in the growing debate regarding bottom fishing in value. Recently, SeekingAlpha ran a story written by the folks at Bespoke Investment Group. That article offered some evidence that "the rally in growth stocks has come to a grinding halt… as value stocks have taken back the reigns of outperformance".

If we are inclined to play into either (or both) of these supposed trends, which options have we? According to this review, we are allowed to purchases ETFs tracking the following, ex-international: 1) Industrials; 2) Large Cap; and, 3) Value, of small-, medium-, and large-cap persuasions.

Hickey and Walters (Bespoke) submit: While it seems like nearly every area of the market has gone down over the last couple of weeks, certain sectors have held up better than others. The best way to monitor this is by looking at the relative strength of each sector vs. the S&P 500.

Below we show the relative strength of each sector over the last year. A rising line means that the sector is outperforming the market, while a falling line indicates that the sector is underperforming. Sectors which have underperformed over the last year are highlighted in red. For reference, the red dot in each chart shows when the S&P 500 reached its intraday high on July 16th.

Claymore Super Sector ETFs
Claymore/Morningstar Information Super Sector Index ETF (MZN)
Claymore/Morningstar Services Super Sector Index ETF (MZO)
Claymore/Morningstar Manufacturing Super Sector Index ETF (MZG)

Eddy Elfenbein submits: The U.S. dollar has been in freefall lately, but it seems to have little or no impact on the stock market’s rally. In fact, it seems to be helping.

I decided to do a little analysis and see how much the exchange rate, the dollar/euro in particular, impacts equity prices.

Hickey and Walters (Bespoke) submit: After periods of heightened volatility like we have experienced over the last several days, we like to take a step back and see what, if anything, has changed in the market. One way which we have found useful over the years is to gauge the relative strength of each of the ten S&P 500 sectors.

The ten graphs below highlight the relative strength of each S&P 500 sector. Rising lines indicate the sector is outperforming, while falling lines indicate periods of underperformance. Charts highlighted in red indicate that the sector has underperformed the market over the last year. Finally, the red dots in each chart indicate the day in which bonds peaked in May.

April durables orders weak, jobless claims rise

New orders for U.S. durable goods rose by a weaker-than-expected 0.6 percent in April as volatile transportation orders fell, while initial claims for jobless benefits rose by 15,000 in the latest week, government reports showed on Thursday.

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Financials, Capital Goods, Health Care and Utilities are also registering as overbought based on their 10-day A/D lines.

That got us thinking about what sectors (if any) are entering a period of time which has yielded positive returns. One which stood out was Industrials. Over the last ten and five years, the sector has tended to rally in the coming months (red dot represents yesterday's date).

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FedEx Switches Orders To Boeing From Airbus [Wall Street Journal]

Summary: In yet another loss to its cross-Atlantic rival Boeing, Dutch-based EADS, owner of Airbus, has learned that FedEx has canceled an order for 10 Airbus A380s (pictured) due to production delays. That leaves only UPS to still order the cargo and shipping planes. FedEx first placed the order, valued at $2.3 billion, in 2001 and was forced to cancel it after Airbus repeatedly delayed its arrival. Frederick W. Smith, Chairman, President and CEO of FedEx, said his company desperately need the increased freight capacity for flight to and from its new Asia-Pacific hub scheduled to open in Guangzhou, China, in December 2008. "The airplane was delayed not once, but twice," explained CEO Smith, "with a level of uncertainty that simply was unacceptable to us, given the steps that we have taken to build our network out." The winner in all this is once again Airbus' largest rival, Boeing, who inked a deal with FedEx in Airbus' place for $3.5 billion (list value). The Chicago-based airplane builder will provide FedEx with 15 Boeing 777 freighters, with the option for 15 more. In still more potentially bad news for Airbus, UPS, who still has 10 A380Fs on order, said through a company spokesman that it is reviewing Airbus' projections for completing production and hasn't decided whether it will alter or cancel its order due to delays.
Related links: AP • WSJ - (i) (ii). • Seeking Alpha commentary: Boeing One-Ups Airbus Yet Again With FedEx Contract • Airbus' Loss in Market Share is Boeing's Gain • Embraer Poised to Capitalize on Airbus' Jumbo-Jet Sized Difficulties • The Jumbo Jet (Airbus) is Fast Becoming Irrelevant • Airbus' New Headache: Boeing Wins TAM SA Jet Order • Boeing's Outsourcing for the 787 Dreamliner. Earnings conference call transcripts: Boeing Q3 2006 Earnings Call Transcript • FedEx Discusses New International Routes (FDX F2Q06 Conf Call Quotes) • FedEx on Asian Expansion Developments (FDX 1Q06 Conf Call Quotes).
Potentially impacted stocks and ETFs: Boeing (BA), FedEx (FDX), United Parcel Service (UPS) • ETFs: iShares Dow Jones US Aerospace & Defense (ITA), PowerShares Aerospace & Defense (PPA), Vanguard Industrials (VIS)