The market is still grinding along but surprisingly there are a few buyers.  Well they aren’t the buyers that we usually look.  Dow Chemical is finally buying Rohm Hasss.  Merek buys Schering-Plough.  Pfizer buys Wyeth.  Roche buys Genetech.  Healthcare consolidation.  Not only do private and institutional investors look for deals but corporate buyers are huge buyers as well.  Especially during these economic times, companies looking to gain market share and it looks like consolidation may rise at a much faster pace once credit eases a bit more.  It may not happen all too soon but it’s a foregone conclusion that it will eventually occur.  Consolidation will probably occur in many industries that are collapsing.  Auto suppliers.  Energy.  Metals.  Financials.  It’s pretty much endless at this point in which there is opportunity for the corporate buyer.  Again this is probably just the beginning but we’ll have a long way to go before the merger and acquisition wave comes back.  There is still a lot of money out there.  It’s either use it or lose it.

Disclosure: Long AAPL, MSFT, XTO, UNG, QLD, GS calls.

It’s a reversal of trends.  The losers of the first half are now the winners.  It’s a complicated reversal but it’s happening.  Apple comes rallying back as well as Shering Plough.  (Sold my Apple position a little earlier today).  All the financials are well off their lows so another sign of the rally is here to stay for a bit.  Gas plunged another $4 today with the hurricane missing the oil rigs but the market seems to still be very fragile with most earnings are not excepting the complete worse yet.  The VIX is back down to 21 so volatility is way off but it’s inevitable that the market test it’s recent bottoms in the next few months.  Healthcare still seems like the place to be.  GILD and AMLN got upgrades so it’s another good sign to shift to the health sector.

Disclosure: Long: CHK, CLF   Short: GRMN (reduced position size), Nasdaq through QID,

Disclosure: