Morning Coffee with TradingMarkets

Good Morning!

Happy Valentine's Day (hint, hint)... Bush Signs Stimulus Package Into Law... Markets Rally for Third Consecutive Day... Writers Union Ends Strike... Japanese Economy Grows by 3.7% in Fourth Quarter... UBS Posts Record Loss on Subprime Writedowns... Bernanke, Paulson, Cox Testifying Before Senate Banking Committee... Options Expiration Tomorrow... MBIA Rejects Talk of Bailout... Initial Jobless Claims Due Today...

Asian stocks up... European stocks up... Greenbacks moving lower against the Euro, steady against the yen... And the futures are trending higher in the hour before the bell.

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TradingMarkets 5 Business Stories You Need to Know

UBS Hammered by Writedowns - AFP
UBS suffers its first ever full-year loss after losing more than $18 billion in subprime mortgage-based investments. In the fourth quarter, the Swiss bank lost more than $12.45 billion Swiss francs. The company had posts a profit of more than $3 billion Swiss francs for the same quarter a year ago. The stock was down some 5% in pre-market trading.

Bernanke, Paulson Appear Before Senate Today - Associated Press
Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke will be joined by Treasury Secretary Paulson and Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Christopher Cox in an appearance before the Senate Banking Committe later today. The topic will be the strength of the economy, the consequences of the economic stimulus package recently signed into law, and the prospect for further rate cuts in the months to come.

Will Shoppers Save the Dollar? - Daily FX
Is consumer spending the culprit behind the rising strength of the dollar? Chief Strategist Kathy Lien of Daily FX takes a look at how rising consumer spending in January accompanied a rising greenback.

Comcast Sees 4Q Profit Surge - Bloomberg
Forth quarter profit rose more than 54% for the cable giant, although guidance was mixed. The company announced plans to renew dividend and to begin a $6.9 billion stock buyback. Based on the stock's PowerRating, Comcast is a just-above-average opportunity for investors right now.

Banks Look to Pass Buck - Wall Street Journal
With the government coffers opened by way of the economic stimulus package just signed into law, big banks are turning to the Federal government for some financial assistance for themselves: namely in the form of transfering to the public the risk of many of the industry's most troubled loans types.

For more stories as they happen, go to our Breaking News section.

TradingMarkets 7 Stocks You Need to Know for Today

Here are 7 stocks for traders for today from TradingMarkets.com:

• Skechers (SKX | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) missed earnings on Wednesday afternoon, reporting $0.26 EPS versus a consensus of $0.29 EPS.
  

• Baidu.com (BIDU | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) saw its earnings surge by 79% for the fourth quarter, as sales more than doubled.
  

• Daimler AG (DAI | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) reports earnings on Thursday before the market opens, with traders looking for $1.93 EPS.
  

• Comcast (CMCSA | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) announced EPS of $0.20 this morning before the bell, beating analyst estimates.
  

• Goodyear Tire (GT | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) reported $0.23 EPS this morning before the bell, falling short of analyst estimates.
  

• Watch for Ingersoll-Rand (IR | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) to announce $0.97 EPS on Thursday morning.
  
  
• Marriott (MAR | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) is poised to announce $0.62 EPS on Thursday before the stock market opens.
  

For a list of today's highest PowerRating stocks, click here.

TradingMarkets 5 Top PowerRatings Stocks for Today

TradingMarkets Tracking the Wizards

Lampert Ups Stake in AutoNation - FINalternatives
The hedge fund run by Eddie Lampert, ESL Investments, has increased its stake in auto retailer, AutoNation, to the tune of an additional $20 billion. ESL Investments now owns 33% of the company whose shares are up more than 25% over the past few weeks.

Murdoch Muscles in On Microsoft's Yahoo Deal - Portfolio.com
Will Rupert Murdoch come to Yahoo's rescue and do what Google couldn't in keeping the online business independent?

Forex: Trading a 24 Hour Market - TradingMarkets
Just because the forex markets are open 24 hours a day doesn't mean that you have to sit in front of your screen around the clock. Find out what timeframes are best for trading different currency pairs in a new forex trading article by Mark Whistler just posted on the home page of TradingMarkets.com.

View Portfolios of Prominent Investors

TradingMarkets Playbook

As the markets move higher, the number of stocks that are going along for the ride has spiked. While it may be difficult for traders who did not buy the pullback days ago, the goal right now is not to chase stocks that have already begun to move higher. Rather, the most appropriate strategy going forward is to wait for the next correction or pullback before buying the strong stocks, while continuing to stalk those weak stocks--stocks trading under their 200-day moving average--that are masquerading behind temporary strength. The longer the markets continue to rally without pullback, the more likely the eventual pullback will be a sharp or deep one.

David Penn is Senior Editor at TradingMarkets.com.

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