THURS MAR. 10- Earthquaaaaaaaaaake

So, anybody been to or heard of Faulkner County? Nope, it’s not named after the famous author, William Faulkner. It was actually formed from parts of Conway and Pulaski counties in 1873 and named after Colonel Sanford Faulkner. It does have about 100,000 people. How about the fact that Faulkner was the composer of the fiddle tune “The Arkansas Traveler?” In any case, Faulkner County is included in the Little Rock metropolitan area. And I bring it up because of a story that has gotten stunningly little press. The strongest earthquake in several decades rocked the county last week when a 4.7 temblor hit the area followed by several aftershocks in the 3.5 range. There is actually a major fault line- the New Madrid Fault- found in the region. In fact, the worst earthquake in the history of the continental U.S. (well, since records were kept) took place along this line in the early 19th Century. It was so powerful that it literally reversed the flow of the biggest river in the country- the mighty Mississippi. Today, there are untold millions of people along the river…and untold billions of dollars in real estate dollars much less industry. Here’s another possibility- what if the British Petroleum type action such as the hydraulic drilling to procure natural gas in particular from shale depositaries far below the Earth’s surface is causing this? It’s not highly likely quite admittedly but it could make for political (much less economic) fodder for traders in the future. So, in between the inundation of Charlie Sheen stories, join me in monitoring the seismic activity in Arkansas along with the areas along the Mississippi River as there could well be an impact on stock prices should the activity augment in frequency and particularly intensity.

Markets in Asia were down overnight with Tokyo off 1.5%. The trend ain’t much better in Europe with markets well off by about 1% on average. Interestingly, oil and gold are both down just under 1%. The dollar is slightly stronger. There are five issues this morning. Jobless claims and trade data came in worse than expected. China posted an unexpected deficit. Spain’s debt was downgraded one step closer to junk. There are image of burning oil plumes on TV coming out of Libya. And the “Day of Rage” starts in Saudi Arabia tonight. Fun times. Look for the weakness to stick today in a choppy and volatile session. If some of the bigger caps become exacerbated, the market could really move today…not likely but worth monitoring. The focus will be on the coffees, biotechs in the news (such as HGSI), the rare earths, and big cap techs and financials.

If the whole story is not there -

If something is good, assume either a short thru unchanged or an A-B-A2 (preferably to the downside in a downside market and the upside in an upside market) based on direction of the market unless specified.

If something is bad, assume either a buy thru unchanged or an A-B-A2 (preferably to the downside in a downside market and the upside in an upside market) based on direction of the market unless specified-


Good- The following stocks have good news and/or a strong technical pattern

CRDN- closed near a high after posting great earnings

PLCE- closed near a high after posting great earnings

AMZN- closed near a high

CSKI- closed near a high

CHSI- closed near a high after announcing it will acquire Walgreen’s health initatives unit

MCP- decent earnings

MW- decent earnings

SMTC- good earnings

HRB- good earnings

FRPT- decent earnings

HGSI- FDA approved the company’s and GSK’s Benlysta used for treating lupus

HF- closed near a high

XRS- closed near a high

SFD- decent earnings

GIVN- received FDA clearance for expanded PillCam indications

GMCR, SBUX- GMCR agreed to sell Starbucks for Keurig system



Bad-The following stocks have bad news and/or a weak technical pattern

SSN- closed near a low

SHZ- closed near a low

MEE- closed near a low

NVLS- closed near a low

LRCX- closed near a low

ATRN- closed near a low

FXEN- closed near a low and announced a stock offering

POT, MOS, MON- closed near their lows

FCX- closed near a low

X- closed near a low

CLF- closed near a low

DANG- closed near a low after issuing earnings

NPTN, FNSR, JDSU, OCLR, AVGO- closed near their lows after FNSR issued a terrible earnings outlook

CWTR- bad earnings

FXEN- share offering

YOKU- closed near a low

CSIQ- poor earnings

EJ- poor earnings

PEET- business may be affected by the GMCR/SBUX deal



Earnings:

THURS MAR 10 BEFORE

CSIQ EJ MTN

SFD

THURS MAR 10 AFTER

ARO CLNE CMTL

NSM OPTR PLL

SHFL STRI ZQK

ZUMZ


Epiphany Trading, LLC
www.epiphanytrading.com

Erik R. Kolodny- Chief Markets Strategist
Brendan P. Byrne- President