We saw a lot of buying in the Freddie Mac March 2008 puts this afternoon.

In researching the performance of the streetTracks Gold Shares (GLD) vs individual gold mining companies I found that four out of the five top gold miners outperformed the ETF during the past 6 months.

Three stocks in the Agricultural Chemicals business reached new highs on Wednesday, Potash Corp. (POT), Mosaic Co. (MOS), and CF Industries (CF).

 This stock is a little expensive at this time but the industry has been strong with Warren Buffet purchasing shares of Burlington Northern around $80 according to reports and Carl Icahn purchasing shares of American Railcar (ARII), Greenbrier (GBX) and a 9.5% stake in CSX Corp (CSX).

Genetech Inc. (DNA) March options in the 70, 75, and 80 calls are being purchased with high volume today ahead of a FDA decision.

This is a difficult market. Agricultural Chemicals work some days, Mosaic (MOS) is the one I have mentioned before but can't see getting into until the market breaks to the upside. Gold works some weeks, with Barrick Gold (ABX) and Newmont Mining (NEM) being my favorites. Banks move on certain days, State Street (STT) and Northern Trust (NTRS) I have recommended before. But overall this is a really tough market with next to nothing working on a continued basis.

Crude oil peaked at 100 in January, dipped into a trading range of 86 to 94 for about a month, and has now broken out to the upside reaching 98 this morning. This has allowed a number of oil drilling/exploration and oil equipment/services companies to rally and they are doing quite well today.

When the market is in a down trend it makes sense to balance not only your stocks by sector, but the amount of cash you have and the amount of hedging in your account.

This market is still not out of the woods and stocks will struggle as we go forward for some time. I still like the banks with the Fed continuing to lower rates another 1% over the next 4 months.

Yahoo March 32.50 Calls