The market is beginning to show some weakness and that was probably expected but the fact that it pretty much recovered much of a huge drop Monday of last week was a good sign.  Walmart’s earnings were a good positive as well as John Paulson’s SEC filings showing this interest in the banking sector especially a huge position in Back of America.  I saw a good entry into gold miners but Paulson’s filing made them run away from my entry.  Again I was eying Angola Gold (AU) which is slowly removing their hedge book which will dramatically boost their profits.  But it’s difficult to question the only man to really make huge money last year.  We really don’t know how he is hedging his positions so it’s difficult to see how he is really positioned but his large positions are much more difficult to hedge.

Here is a summary of the upcoming week.

Monday, August 17:

Lowe’s (LOW), Agilent (A)

Tuesday, August 18:

Cardinal Health (CAH), Home Depot (HD), Target (TGT), TJX Companies (TJX), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ)

*****Housing Starts (July)… PPI (July)

Wednesday, August 19:

BJ’s Wholesale (BJ), Deere (DE), Limited (LTD), Network Appliance (NTAP), PetSmart (PETM)

Thursday, August 20:

Barnes & Noble (BKS), GameStop (GME), H. J. Heinz (HNZ), Hormel Foods (HRL), Ross Stores (ROST), Sears Holdings (SHLD), Gap (GPS)

***Initial Unemployment Claims

Friday, August 21:

Ann Taylor (ANN), J.M. Smucker (SJM)

Options Expiration… Existing Home Sales (July)

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Looking at the week, Tuesday is probably the headliner with earnings from Home Depot, Target, and HP but of course the housing data seems to always makes headlines there days as existing and housing starts will make news.  With options expiration this Friday and housing data, it looks to be a feverish finish to the week.  I’m not quite positioned long but waiting for some positions to come in to my ranges.  I don’t sense that at this point the market will roll over until something  more dramatic occurs in terms of events.  Now that many companies were able to raise money the last six months, it looks like we are buying some time.  But there are many shoes that may fall in the coming months which include a wave of foreclosures and the end of unemployment benefits.

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