HHS Secretary Determines That Potential Threat of Exposure to Anthrax Constitutes a Public Health Emergency

New Contract Extends USG's Commitment to Purchase BioThrax Through 3Q 2011 and is a Follow-on to the Existing 2007, $448 Million Contract

--AV7909 Contract is in Addition to Recently Announced $24 Million Development Contract for Anthrax Monoclonal and Pending Proposal to Supply HHS with Up to 25 Million Doses of a Recombinant Anthrax Vaccine

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The best biotech stocks are within your reach.

European Shares Move Off Early Lows

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. has won a contract worth $24.3 million from the Department of Health and Human Services to research an experimental drug to fight anthrax. (EBS)

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The stock market indices after dropping sharply and retracing then backed and filled for the rest of the day in what I consider a potentially bullish consolidation.[More...]

Amazon has announced Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), persistent storage offering that can be used in tandem with applications using the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). With this move, they are the heat on everyone from storage area network vendors, server companies and of course data center operators. Continue Reading

Amazon Web Services has launched Elastic Block Services (EBS), adding persistent storage capabilities to its cloud computing service, expanding the utility and potential uses of Amazon's platform. Prior to Amazon EBS, storage within an Amazon EC2 instance was tied to the instance itself so that...

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Everyone's excited about 08/08/08. I don't remember the same buzz last year (07/07/07). If you missed it, don't worry--09/09/09 is right around the corner. Now, some thoughts.

MORE PANIC, MORE UPSIDE?

The selloff yesterday smelled of panic. I'm seeing it as an opportunity to add to several positions. But it's a grim reminder to follow the bear market rules and take your trading gains while you can. That includes covering the shorts into strength (as I did with SKF yesterday).

I'm not all that surprised to see market up big today. I think the bias of the market is to the upside, at least to S&P 1300, which is about where the 50-day moving average is. If we get above the 50-day, I'll start selling, and if we get close to the 200-day, I'll start shorting. Notice what happened from March to May (click chart to enlarge). I expect a similar scenario.

THINGS THAT SINK AND STINK

Just saw on CNBC video of people working at Fannie Mae (FNM). Poor people. Do they know they are government workers? Not sure what they were doing, but it looked a lot like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

Speaking of the Titanic, look at Potash (POT), natural gas (UNG), and Arch Coal (ACI)--all down much more than oil (USO). I used to like UNG, but this is why I use stops and watch for trend breaks. Every story sounds great (The whole world needs fertilizer!!) until it doesn't (Fertilizer is just a pile of stinking sh**!) .

Speaking of oil, some are still saying that the oil drop will spur the market higher. Reuters today: Oil's Slide Revives Wall Street Rally. But I think we're going to start seeing more of this: Falling Oil Prices Not Necessarily Good For Stocks.

GAMES

Two weeks until my fantasy football draft, and the question is who to take at #6? Consensus top 5 seems to be LT, A. Peterson, Westbrook, S. Jackson, and Addai. Most would go Tom Brady, but then who will run the ball for you?? Maybe I'm old school, but I still think RBs are the key...

Activision (ATVI) is acting very poorly compared to all the other video game stocks. It seems that in bear market rallies, stocks that have been creamed rise to the top--only to get creamed again. I don't expect it to continue. Electronic Arts (ERTS) can't get expenses under control, although they do seem to have some decent games on the way. THQ (THQI) is a mess across the board, and can only hope for a buyout, in my opinion. I left Take-Two off the chart because it's a unique case. I'd love the ERTS offer to go away and TTWO to get back under 20.


BIOTECH AND HEALTH CARE

My theory of buying spikes down in biotech seems to hold some water. Yes, I know what happened to Elan (ELN), but that was 2 consecutive days of bad separate but equal bad news. The key is not to buy on the day of the drop, but on the open. Here's an example. Emergent Biosciences (EBS) was down over 20% yesterday. Buying the open today would've produced a quick 8-10% gain. It takes cojones though.


Along those lines, I've established a position in beaten-down Biogen (BIIB) as I saw it catching a bid yesterday. This is for a trade only--BIIB has broken stronger hearts than mine. Why do I continue to like biotech? Relative strength, insulation from credit or commodity issues, and merger activity in the sector.

I also like some other health care names, like Johnson & Johnson (JNJ). For that reason, I bought the Ultra Health Care ETF (RXL) for a trade. JNJ is 10% of the ETF, with some pharma and medical device stocks thrown in.

Good luck out there. As always, comments welcome...

Major indices closed down the week here the details:
Nasdaq -2,4%
Dow Jones -1,5%
S&P 500 -0,8%

Here The Weekly Movers:

GAINERS
Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (EBS)
Converted Organics Inc. (COIN)
InterMune, Inc. (ITMN)
USANA Health Sciences, Inc. (USNA)
DICE HOLDINGS, INC. (DHX)
HealthSpring, Inc (HS)
LOSERS
Cadence Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (CADX)
InfoSpace, Inc. (INSP)
Interactive Intelligence (ININ)
Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (AMCC)
SiRF Technology Holdings Inc. (SIRF)
Meritage Homes Corporation (MTH)