A technology trade that will be somewhat market neutral is the combination of shorting VMWare (VMW) and being long International Business Machines (IBM). If the market stays in a trading pattern you will be able to profit on both the long and the short side of this trade.

A number of coal stocks have fallen out of favor as the price of coal has dramatically fallen over the past three weeks. There was an initial spike down in coal at the beginning of July with a small rally. Now the chart for coal has broken below resistance and is due for a further decline.

Amgen Inc (AMGN) is looking very attractive heading into earnings with the additional good news of Nplate being approved by the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday or Thursday.

This was a difficult week for bears of financials as financials shot up 11% on Wednesday for next to no real reason minus a less than terrible earnings report from Wells Fargo and the federal government threatening short sellers.

Starbucks (SBUX) is too expensive and not just the coffee but the stock itself. The stock reached a new 52 week low today as the market sold off during the morning and has rebounded some. But the price to earnings of the stock is still too expensive for the limited revenue growth and the declining earnings the company is now experiencing.

After reaching a new 52 week low on Monday, SunTrust jumped 10% along with all financials on Tuesday but returned to its selling pattern on Wednesday falling 5%.

I was watching the housing stocks back in August and September of 2007 when they were falling to new lows everyday but switched out of the industry in favor of banks, autos and financials. But after seeing an old name reaching a new low after-hours, I started to re-examine the old names.

Both the quasi-government corporations at the center of the mortgage crisis have been performing poorly and neither looks to be in the process of bottoming at this time.

Just when you think the Banks, Brokers and Money Centers cannot go any lower the Proshares Ultrashort Financials ETF (SKF) hits a new high.

Steel prices continue to rise as China needs more. US Steel Corp is riding the rising price of steel to new levels of profitability and market capitalization.