A potpourri of catalysts is finding a bit of pre-holiday style bargain-hunting. As of 10:55 ET the “Cubes” (QQQQ) and “SPYder” (SPY) are up .22% to .46% on lower seasonally-adjusted bull.

If investors are “Early Bulls” in clicking on their daily dose of CNBC, lingering concerns over America’s Anchor Bankers (XLF) and a third session of oil running contra to recently restored visions of $100-a-barrel presaged a slightly bumpy start to Wednesday’s session. Fresh news of the FDIC stating troubled member banks had increased by 30% in the second quarter to its highest levels in five years also aided in that grizzly tone-setting. “BOOyah!”

Fortunately, regular-operating hour’s market bulls can thank officially-slated economic data for swapping jeers for cheers by the Opening Bell daily ceremonies. A report on durable goods was expected to find flat demand for the July period following June’s 0.8% increase. Instead and much to eternal optimists collective delight, a “b-t-e” jump of 1.3% and record unfilled order backlog increase of 0.8% point to continued manufacturing growth in the months ahead. The report reflects a strengthening GDP via the business investment component and currently sports some trader appreciation for those few fast money operators left to man the switches.

Elsewhere, financial anchors are, by and large, being hoisted aboard the market vessel USS Bull. Highlighting for investors caught nibbling, Brother Lehman (LEH) is pleading with the rock star formerly known as PE to keep bidding for its asset mgt unit despite having yet put it up on the auction block per the Financial Times. Investors appear ok with the arm twisting as shares trade up .80 at 14.83.

Separately, the Fannie & Freddie (FNM, FRE) Show are tacking on percentage gains for a third-straight session and running quite contrary to the Mad Money’s Monday night declaration. That night our host with-the-most said quite emphatically investor satisfaction could only be possible by a Treasury-backed rescue; and one already a day late in his estimation. Make that three days as bulls optimistically bid shares on reports of Freddie successfully selling $1.0B in 1-month notes, a 10-year high on new investment mortgage profits and Merrill stating that neither GSE needs a bailout by the government as each is adequately capitalized for several quarters. “MOOyah! Not BOOyah! Jimmy!!”

In passing, shares of Merrill (MER) are trading up .37 near 24.50 as reports of Singapore-based Temasek Holdings has received US antitrust clearance to raise its stake up to 14% according to Bloomberg. If they so chose to hit the buy key once again, that’s called dollar-cost averaging for home-gamers that like to distance themselves from the more troubling realities of doubling and tripling down or Martingale type maneuverings.

For the bears trying to keep a lid on the pre-holiday festivities, Black Gold and the US Oil Fund (USO) are up 1.35% on heightened TS Gustav jitters. Equity traders are fidgeting with their bear goggles on worries the storm could strengthen once more into hurricane status and result in Katrina-style inflationary headaches related to gasoline output.

Additionally, the latest wide miss by analysts has the weekly inventories data coming in with an unexpected drop of 177K in crude supplies versus estimates calling for a 1.1M increase. The report, along with a 1.2M decline in gas stockpiles is kinda, sorta being taken as a bullish prop by oil traders in ever-volatile conditions.

Bulls are getting singed in a couple solar names this morning following attractive-looking results. Recent IPO GT Solar (SOLR) reported profits of $0.03 per share versus a loss of -$0.04 in the year prior on sales growth of 272%. Management is pegging Q2 earnings and revenues between $0.12 – 0.15 and $120M – $130M respectively. However, due to zero analyst coverage and possibly equally thin coverage on the trading desks on this late August early afternoon; shares are off 1 point at 13.07 and now developing a bit of a ladle quality in that prior bullish-looking handle which never quite was.

And finally, 2007 hottie, Solarfun (SOLF) announced results of RMB$1.62 per share which was RMB$0.13 north of analyst views and well above last year’s RMB$0.05 profit. Revenues rose by 192% to RMB$1.35B in beating estimates of RMB$1.25B. The company also raised its Y08 shipment guidance to 175-190MW and announced a three year supply agreement with Germany’s Q-Cells as bullish-sounding highlights within its report. With shares off 1.85 at 17.10, either translating RMBs and MVs into USDs isn’t nearly as exciting or investors have opted for the stateside schnitzel following a two week run of a slightly harder-to-handle 70% gainer.

Chris Tyler
Staff Writer & Options Strategist
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