The Breaking Trade

KKR is going to buy TXU in the largest private equity deal in history.

Strazzini: TXU was getting cheap. Other similar utilities that will trade up because of this are: EIX, FPL, EON.

Bolling: Tim’s stocks are perfect picks.

Michael Dell as Patton

Macke: Dell needs to address his customers, his team and the street. He needs to set a clear goal. And he has to love the fight. Anything short of this and DELL loses.

Strazzini: Dell won’t be able to have a big enough impact.

Bolling: HPQ has better numbers– own HPQ.

Adami: Dell can turn this around. BUY DELL.

Retail Stocks set up for Pullback

Macke: Sell JWN, RTH, RSH. Buy them again in 6 months.

The “Crack Trade”

Bolling: The refiners are killing it. Existing refiners are in a sweet spot as gasoline margins are going way up (the crack)

Adami: TSO still has room to grow.

Strazzini: I’m afraid that the huge recent performance might spell trouble ahead. Take some profits heading into Spring.

Word on the Street

The Nasty Rat-Infested Taco Bell Trade:

Macke: This should be the end of the bad news for YUM. If not, they are in even bigger trouble.

Strazzini: It’s just unacceptable for rats to be running around in a Taco Bell. Disgusting.

Bolling: GOOG is a textbook perfect BUY.

Macke: Sirius and XM merger will go through only if both companies make some huge changes to their respective infrastructures.

Adami: AAPL is still in no man’s land. It has room to go back down to $84-85.

Bolling: Ben cannot raise rates with the housing market still so soft.

Strazzini: Smaller regional lenders are blowing up.

Macke: There’s trouble at CC with the CFO resigning. The parade has passed on this stock. BBY is a better play.

Strazzini: CC is Dead Money.

Macke: SBUX killed all coffee shops that had a soul. Nothing you can do about it.

Face2Face

Gregory in NJ– What’s your preferred exchange stock?

Bolling: Hold off on CME. ICE and NYX are BUYS.

Glory in IN– How do you play the subprime lender meltdown?

Strazzini: This is a dicey game to play right now. Stay away from this whole area.

Larry in CT– What are some other cement plays?

Adami: CX and RIN will go higher. MCM and VMC are also BUYS.

Bolling: Check out EMP.

Fast Fire

Adami was wrong on HPQ: Stock went down. He says: I still like the stock. It’s cheaper than DELL. But it’s dicey below $40.

Strazzini’s bad call: NVDA: Stock is down. He says: Short this stock or get out if you are long now.

Bolling’s bad call: SYMC: Stock is down. He says: It’s down 4%. Still buy this stock.

Macke’s bad call: SWY. Stock is down. he says: I still like SWY and so does Mrs. Macke. Stay with SWY and be patient.

>>Happy 52 Week High to IHP<<

Dice ROll of the Day

The Oscar Trade

Bolling: Norbit was the wort movie I have ever seen. But my kid loved it.

Strazzini: Little Miss Sunshine will be interesting to see what the Academy does.

The FInal Trade

Nolling: The Nets will beat the Knicks on Sunday.

Strazzini: Mark Wahlberg will win Best Supporting ACtor. Short Eddie Murphy at 61%.

Adami: Peter O’Toole will win Best Actor.

Macke: Scorsese will win best Director.

Have a great weekend!