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Stocks followed a perfect arc today. The market opened higher, slowly rallied in the morning, flattened out by lunch, and gave back much of its gains during the afternoon. Still, we ended higher and that’s a nice change of pace.

Despite Biomet’s (BMET) sluggish earnings, the Buy List had a decent day. The S&P 500 rose 0.25% and our Buy List added 0.53%. (By the way, have you seen our Buy List for 2006? Check it out.)

Sixteen of our stocks went up and nine went down. Our big gainers were Expeditors (EXPD), Golden West (GDW) and Quality Systems (QSII).

Expeditors was helped by the strong earnings report from FedEx (FDX). FedEx surged to a new all-time high. The stock is up 6,700% since its IPO in 1978. Both FedEx and Expeditors are part of the Dow Transportation Average (^DJT), which also hit a new all-time high today. The new high there is crucial to Dow Theorists.

The economically cyclical sectors were very good today. The top sector today was Basic Materials (^DJUSBM). This may signal that the economy has more strength than many people think. Although, FedEx’s earnings covered the period through November; Wall Street really wants to know how well business is going right now. Interestingly, the small-caps had another big day. The Russell 2000 (^RUT) is close to a new all-time high.

Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) just reported earnings after the close of 45 cents a share. This was in line with expectations, although sales were slightly below expectations. The stock is trading sharply lower after-hours. Anytime this stock is below $40 a share, it’s an excellent buy. Here’s some perspective: Sales grew from $1.31 billion to $1.45 billion, instead of $1.47 billion. That’s basically one-day’s worth of sales. Is that really worth $600 million in market cap? I didn't think so.

Also, mad props to GroovyStocks for the profile on yours truly.

And finally, pork pie-makers in England want trade protection. I really wish I were making this up.

Posted by edelfenbein at December 21, 2005 5:21 PM