Has anyone seen the Bull?

Hewlett Packard (symbol: HPQ) came out after the bell with a solid earnings report that beat the street and issued positive guidance. This will provide the battered Bulls with an opportunity to see if they have at least the strength to hold this one stock up. Should the Bulls fail tomorrow and HPQ's stock acts poorly the market may accelerate to the downside.

Applied Materials (symbol: AMAT) also came out after the bell and at first blush seems better than expected. However, we have learned over the years that the conference calls with AMAT are not always consistent with first blush headline reports. Credibility with AMAT's management is an issue for us, but that's only our opinion.

The Semiconductor Sector lost 2% which is also typical of what we can expect as the Bears get more ferocious. As we have mentioned in prior posts Semiconductor stocks usually exasperate the downtrend. The Small Cap Sector (Russell 2000) also faired poorly, down 1.7%. This is particularly disconcerting but may be explained due to the lack of liquidity in many Small cap stocks. This particular sector will need to exhibit relative strength before we are willing to aggressively part with our precious cash.

There was one stock that made "GOOGLE-eyes" with us all day. Can you guess which one? We'll give you a hint: Name a stock that often acts like a Put Option, confounds the value players, and is often a flight to safety in tech land. Strange as it seems Google (symbol: GOOG) often fits that bill.

If You Held A Taser To Our Head: Abercrombie and Fitch (symbol: ANF) missed estimates in another example of consumer's terrible gas pains. The CPI showed softer trends in apparel pricing this morning and we are concerned that the retail sector may soon start leading the stock market to the downside.

-See you in the morning-

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