Boenning & Scattergood's Research Department strives to give its clients an edge through in-depth industry knowledge combined with a regional focus. We frequently emphasize "under the radar" ideas and companies, where a lack of coverage can often yield new opportunities and under-valued situations. In addition, our analysts try to look beyond day-to-day events to proactively spot emerging trends and companies ahead of the competition.

7-23-2008	I would love to say that I understand what is going on in this market, but I can’t. Two weeks ago, oil was pushing $150 per barrel and I was listening to story after story about...
7-21-2008	Friday’s modest rally, accompanied by a strong close and a selloff in the price of oil late in the afternoon, felt really good coming as it did after a strong two-day rally...
7-18-2008	It has been quite a week thus far. On Monday, investors were lining up every bank, broker and mortgage company for burial. The question wasn’t who was going bankrupt; it was...
7-16-2008	As the market opened yesterday, investors flushed any security that looked like a financial stock down the toilet. As far as they were concerned, every bank was headed for bankruptcy...
7-14-2008	Friday’s market was one of the most volatile in recent memory. Stocks fell sharply in the morning on fears that Fannie Mae (FNM-$10) and Freddie Mac (FRE-$8) would collapse...
7-11-2008	Stocks finished higher yesterday in a session of bipolar behavior with the leading averages screaming back and forth across the breakeven line several times during the day. Retailers...
7-10-2008	Yesterday was one of the worst looking market days in years. Huge declines once again in the values of Fannie Mae (FNM-$15) and Freddie Mac (FRE-$10) set off a cascade of selling...
7-9-2008	Stocks had a solid rally yesterday relieving some of the unrelenting pain investors have felt since late May. It felt good. Time will tell whether there is any enduring message...
7-7-2008	Stocks staged a tepid relief rally on Thursday after the June employment report offered no unusual surprises and ECB head Jean-Claude Tricet’s comments following a rate increase...
7-2-2008	Stocks ended with a modest gain yesterday but if you just look at the headlines you missed the real story. Stocks started the second half of the year by falling sharply at the...
6-30-2008	Friday was just more of the same. Oil up; everything else down. The Dow is now within a whisker of a confirmed bear market, a step that requires a 20% decline from peak to trough...
6-27-2008	Do you remember my positive spin I presented on Wednesday? Forget it! Stocks sank to their lowest levels since September 2006 yesterday. Everything went wrong. Companies...
6-25-2008	Lately I have been even making myself depressed listening to all the bad news that I write about every week. So today I plan to get optimistic. Hopefully, that optimism will...
6-23-2008	Friday’s 220 point drop in the Dow punctuated a perfectly lousy week for stocks. And if last week was bad for stocks, it was absolutely brutal for the financials. The Dow...
6-20-2008	Stocks broke a three day losing streak yesterday after China reduced its energy subsidy and raised prices by about $10 per barrel. The price in China remains at about half the...
6-18-2008	Despite better-than-expected earnings from Goldman Sachs (GS-$179#) and Best Buy (BBY-$44#), stocks fell across a broad front yesterday led by further weakness in the financials...
6-16-2008	Stocks staged a nice rally on Friday spurred by a strong dollar, a modest pullback in oil prices, and a benign CPI report. Tech stocks and small caps led the rally while financials...
6-13-2008	Even though the Dow rose more than 50 points yesterday, there was nothing inspiring about the rally. The market opened strong despite more tumult at Lehman Brothers (LEH-$24...
6-11-2008	Stocks closed mixed in a fairly dull session yesterday. There was a lot more action in the bond market where short term Treasury yields continued their sharp rise, which was...
6-9-2008	On Thursday, stocks rallied after May retail sales results reported by leading chain stores were better than expected. Modest unemployment claims gave hope that the Friday employment...
6-6-2008	Stocks staged a strong rally yesterday as retail chains reported better than expected sales in May. Today, the big news is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ report. While the...
6-4-2008	Stocks fell sharply for the second day in a row amid more carnage in the financial sector and reports of very weak auto sales in May. A $3+ drop in the price of oil couldn’t...
6-2-2008	May is now in the books. After a hopeful recovery in April, May lived up to its reputation as a relatively tough month for stocks. But the old adage, “sell in May and go away...
5-30-2008	Good morning and happy Memorial Day. (For those of you who may have forgotten, May 30 was the traditional date for Memorial Day since its beginning shortly after the Civil...
5-28-2008	Stocks rallied yesterday in part due to bargain hunting after last week’s sickening 4%+ decline and partly in reaction to the drop in oil prices. But nothing stocks did yesterday...
5-23-2008	Stocks struggled to small gains yesterday after two sharp days of losses. Oil prices fell sharply but no one is going to take that decline as anything more than profit taking...
5-21-2008	Stocks took a beating yesterday amid a flood of bad news. Producer prices rose more than expected in April. CEOs of Sandisk (SNDK-$29#*) and GE International (GE-$32#) gave...
5-19-2008	Watching the stock market on Friday was like watching paint dry. It was a very dull day with little movement and light volume. It almost seems as if traders are waiting for...
5-12-2008	Stocks fell on Friday in the wake of economic worries and very poor earnings from AIG (AIG-$40#). AIG demonstrated that even as the credit crisis is losing its grip, the economic...
5-9-2008	After experiencing sharp losses on Wednesday, stocks staged a very unenthusiastic and unconvincing rally yesterday. Chain stores reported respectable sales for April after a...
5-7-2008	Stocks staged an impressive rally yesterday afternoon despite continued surges in oil prices. In the morning, the stock market looked like March déjà vu. Energy and materials...
5-5-2008	Stocks had a mixed session on Friday rallying sharply in the morning on a better than expected employment report but then slipping back in midday as oil prices rallied sharply...
5-2-2008	Stocks staged a strong rally yesterday following Wednesday’s interest rate cut by the FOMC and a post-meeting statement that seemed to imply that the end of the cycle of rate...
4-30-2008	The leading averages fell yesterday although the NASDAQ Composite posted a modest gain. The Dow was hurt by a sharp decline in the price of Merck (MRK-$37). But the bigger story...
4-28-2008	Clearly the tone of the stock market has changed during April. Barring an unexpected sharp correction this week, April will be the first up month in a very long time and the...
4-25-2008	Stocks rallied yesterday although they finished well off their highs for the session. But the big news yesterday wasn’t in the stock market. Bond prices swooned and the dollar...
4-23-2008	Stocks fell early yesterday but held their ground through most of the balance of the session despite turmoil in the bond market and continued economic pressure from rising oil...
4-21-2008	If you are an equity investor, last week was about as good as it can get, at least within the context of a weak economy. Several financial companies issued awful earnings reports...
4-18-2008	RANDOM THOUGHTS: • The Dollar - If you are going to invest successfully over the next 12-24 months, you are going to have to be right in your judgment of the value of the dollar...
4-16-2008	Earnings season is only a few days old but already we have learned a lot. It started off miserably. Alcoa (AA-$35) disappointed as it often does but then the real shock...
4-14-2008	Friday was all about General Electric (GE-$32#). The company reported earnings that were substantially below forecasts, the biggest miss in at least 16 years. It was the worst...
4-11-2008	For the past couple of weeks, I have been talking about a market trying to find a bottom. I said that investors seemed to be grasping the size of the economic problems we face...
4-9-2008	Stocks spent all day yesterday in negative territory but finished down only modestly. The news front was almost completely negative. There was yet another report on the horrid...
4-7-2008	Stocks retreated slightly on Friday in the wake of a worse-than-expected employment report. But after an initial decline, equities held their ground throughout the session and...
4-4-2008	Stocks have essentially marked time over the past two sessions waiting for this morning’s employment report. I will get to that in a moment, but before I do I want to set the...
4-2-2008	For the third time in three weeks the Dow Industrials rallied approximately 400 points in one session. Coming at the start of the second quarter, after a miserable first three...
3-31-2008	Today ends the first quarter and the worst quarterly performance for the equity markets in six years. With hindsight, the markets faced an absolute barrage of bad news. Consumer...
3-28-2008	Stocks fell yesterday as economic concerns and worries about the investment banks sent traders running for the exits. After a brief celebration in the wake of the Fed’s rescue...
3-26-2008	Stocks finished mixed yesterday in a rather quiet session, quite a contrast to last week’s trading. After the market closed, a deal to take Clear Channel (CCU-$33) private appeared...
3-24-2008	Before last summer began, it was noted many times that volatility had withered so much that it had been a record interval since stocks had moved by as a much as 2% in a single...
3-19-2008	Yesterday the Dow rose by more than 400 points for the second time in a little over a week. The S&P 500 had its best day since October 2002. It was a day when Wall Street literally...
3-17-2008	Friday was a day for the record books. The Dow fell almost 200 points and Bear Stearns (BSC-$30) nearly fell into oblivion. Although the company spent most of last week assuring...
3-14-2008	Stocks staged an impressive recovery yesterday after sharp early losses. The early slide was caused mostly by news that Carlyle Capital was imploding. This $20+ billion hedge...
3-12-2008	Boy yesterday felt good. It was the biggest up day in five years. The Federal Reserve took bold steps to help improve liquidity with the cornerstone being a huge repo lending...
3-10-2008	If you would like to e-mail me your best word to describe last week’s stock market performance, feel free to do so. Maybe it will be cathartic. For the moment, I will simply...
3-7-2008	Ugly. Scary. Fearsome. These are just some of the words to describe yesterday. Forget the stock market performance with the Dow down a bit over 200 points. That doesn’t...
3-5-2008	Stocks fell once again yesterday in a session that very much resembled Monday’s. Prices fell sharply at the outset and by mid-afternoon it appeared that it would be another...
3-3-2008	Thank goodness leap year only happens once every four years. The Dow fell by over 315 points on Friday amid a plethora of bad economic news and massive liquidation of municipal...
2-29-2008	The week long rally ended yesterday with a thud. Stocks fell at the opening and never looked back although they did finish off their lows of the session. Record prices for oil...
2-28-2008	The Dow made it four in a row for the first time this year yesterday, although the gains were rather muted and it looks like the bulls might be running out of gas. The bond...
2-27-2008	Stocks rose for the third straight session, a rare performance within the current bear market. Good news from IBM (IBM-$114#) served as a catalyst. Retail stocks also continued...
2-26-2008	For the past seven years, I have been writing this column on a daily basis. I enjoy doing it. It clears my own scrambled mind every day and gets me pointed in the right direction...
2-21-2008	If you are bullish, or at least want to be bullish, you have to love the way the market acted yesterday. From a technical point of view, it rose after a sharp morning decline...
2-20-2008	Stocks tried to rally yesterday morning, but another wave of credit concerns and a sharp jump in oil prices sent investors back to the sidelines as the bears took over once again...
2-19-2008	Stocks gave up ground once again on Friday as credit concerns continued to overwhelm worries about the economy. Taking center stage once again was the likely solution to the...
2-15-2008	Although I was a bit more optimistic yesterday morning, I noted the big “IF” was no additional credit market problems. Yesterday, the headlines were all about another market...
2-14-2008	Good fundamental news sent stocks higher for the third day in a row. A surprising gain in retail sales during January gave investors optimism that the economy may not be as bad...
2-13-2008	Stocks rallied again making it two days in a row and 3 of the last 4 sessions. That is close to the best performance we have seen so far this year. But with that said, yesterday’s...
2-12-2008	Stocks managed to rally yesterday despite shocking news from AIG (AIG-$45#) that it would have to take a much larger than expected charge to earnings relative to its credit default...
2-11-2008	Stocks gave back all of Thursday’s gains on Friday. But it was worse than that. The inability for the market and virtually all sub-groups within the market to gain any momentum...
2-8-2008	Stocks turned in an amazing performance yesterday. That doesn’t seem to be an apt description of a market that was up 46 Dow points in one of the worst weeks of a bear market...
2-7-2008	Stocks tried to rally yesterday morning but gave way once again to selling pressure and finished moderately lower. After the strongest week in 6 years, stocks are on pace to...
2-6-2008	Stocks suffered their worst one-day loss in almost a year as the Dow fell by more than 370 points. All 30 Dow component stocks fell in price. Except for McDonald’s (MCD-$54...
2-5-2008	Stocks took a beating yesterday as the energy created by the euphoric rally of the past 10 days seemed to fade. There was little in the way of news and both the economic and...
2-4-2008	Stocks had their best week in years and finished on a solid note Friday after a weaker-than-expected employment report. The reversal in psychology that took place less than...
2-1-2008	Stocks took another wild ride yesterday. The Dow opening down over 100 points on credit worries but then gained momentum throughout the session. Near the end, it was up over...
1-31-2008	The Fed cut the Federal Funds rate by 50 basis points yesterday in line with the overwhelming consensus forecast. Yet, as I have said many times before, one cannot read what...
1-30-2008	Stocks rose again yesterday but now the fun begins and data start to flow rapidly over the next three days. The centerpiece today is the FOMC meeting to decide the near term...
1-29-2008	Stocks had a good day yesterday, in fact one of the best looking sessions in a long time. The Dow was up almost 180 points and if it hadn’t been for disappointing same store...
1-28-2008	Stocks finished lower on Friday in another highly volatile session. By the numbers, the Dow was down 171 points or 1.4%. A year ago that would have been called a volatile...
1-25-2008	Stocks rose yesterday and the day played out according to the script the bulls might have written. Volume was extremely heavy once again. In fact, of the dozen most active trading...
1-24-2008	If I had to define the insanity level of yesterday’s stock market on a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate it a 12. Stocks opened sharply lower on all sorts of fears, rumors and earnings...
1-23-2008	We knew we were in for quite a day yesterday morning after futures indicated an opening drop in the Dow Industrials of close to 500 points. Then the Fed stepped up to the plate...
1-22-2008	It’s hard to know where to start this morning. While Americans were celebrating the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday yesterday, global markets sold off 5-10%. Asian markets repeated...
1-18-2008	On top of an awful start to 2008, yesterday’s trading was an absolute rout. The Dow finished down over 300 points and most leading averages fell close to 3%. The Russell 2000...
1-17-2008	It was a rather unusual trading session yesterday. Stocks opened sharply lower after Intel (INTC-$20#*) reported disappointing results Tuesday evening. Oils were big losers...
1-16-2008	Stocks fell sharply once again yesterday. Shrinking retail sales shrieked recessionary alarms and Citigroup’s (C-$27#) earnings were not only worse than expected, but forward...
1-15-2008	Stocks rallied smartly yesterday spurred by good earnings news from IBM (IBM-$103#), which demonstrated that growth was still possible in an economy that seems to be falling into...
1-14-2008	Stocks fell sharply on Friday wiping out all the gains achieved on Wednesday and Thursday. With two weeks in the new year now history, stocks have fallen sharply in all but three...
1-11-2008	Stocks rallied again yesterday, adding to the sharp gains of Wednesday afternoon. For the second day in a row, the Dow rose by well over 100 points. The catalysts yesterday...
1-10-2008	Stocks staged a solid afternoon rally sloughing off several brokerage forecasts of a 2008 recession in the process. A nice earnings preannouncement from DuPont (DD-$45) calmed...
1-9-2008	Navigating this stock market is a bit like trying to walk across a mine field. Everything goes fine for a while and then, boom! That is what happened once again yesterday...
1-8-2008	Stocks seesawed back and forth yesterday before ending up slightly in the black. After the horrid performance last week, yesterday’s action could be declared a victory. A decent...
1-7-2008	Last week was simply a train wreck for equity investors. The Dow fell about 3.5%. The S&P 500 was down almost 4%. The NASDAQ Composite was off a bit over 5.5% and the Russell...
1-4-2008	Stocks finished mixed yesterday but it was a very ugly looking session. Stocks opened higher on the heels of some relatively positive economic data but couldn’t hold up caving...
1-3-2008	Yesterday was one of the worst starts to a year in Wall Street history. The Dow dropped over 200 points. In terms of points, it was the biggest drop ever. In percentage terms...
1-2-2008	Happy New Year to everyone. Hopefully, the stock market will start off 2008 better than it finished 2007. One of those late afternoon selloffs on light volume sent the Dow...
12-31-2007	It’s the final trading session of the year. Sandwiched between a Sunday and a Tuesday holiday, not much is expected today. With thin volume likely, anything might happen but...
12-27-2007	Watching the market yesterday was a bit like watching paint dry. Not much happened and when all was said and done, stocks were little changed for the day on light volume. Bulls...
12-26-2007	Stocks advanced again on Monday as the year end rally continued for another day. The lack of negative news was probably more important than the presence of any positive catalysts...
12-24-2007	For months investors have been fretting that a horrible housing market, rising foreclosures and disarray in the credit markets would spoil Christmas. But it appears that it...
12-20-2007	It’s less than a week before Christmas and the financial markets have been acting like a bit of a Scrooge. More and more economists have been talking about recession in 2008...
12-19-2007	Stocks got off to a good start yesterday, quickly lost ground, and then managed to stage a decent afternoon recovery. Central banks injected lots of liquidity and there was...
12-18-2007	After a string of days like the last two, with the Dow dropping at a rate of well over 1% per day, and, with quadruple option expirations staring us in the face this Friday, it...
12-17-2007	Stocks fell sharply on Friday after a gloomy report on consumer prices increased the odds that the Federal Reserve might have to step back from aiding economic growth and liquidity...
12-14-2007	Stocks did an about face yesterday afternoon and rallied to a small gain. As has been the case for months, it was a bifurcated market with strength in industrial, energy, commodity...
12-13-2007	If you have a nasty upper respiratory infection, going to bed and taking aspirin might make you feel better but it is not going to eradicate the bug. That takes antibiotics...
12-12-2007	If one just looked at recent economic data, the likely move by the FOMC yesterday would have been a quarter point cut in both the Fed Funds and Discount rate. If one looked at...
12-11-2007	Stocks continued to build on the strongest 2-week rally since September hoping for a FOMC rate cut this afternoon. In the process, traders ignored a huge $10 billion writedown...
12-10-2007	Stocks inched higher in a very quiet session on Friday. The much anticipated employment statistics for November came in just about in line with consensus forecasts. The numbers...
12-7-2007	On Wednesday I started out using Yogi Berra’s phrase déjà vu all over again to describe the market on Tuesday. I could use the same phrase this morning. However, it is nicer...
12-6-2007	Stocks rallied sharply yesterday on some favorable economic data and the absence, at least for a day, of more problems in the credit markets. A private forecast for strong employment...
12-5-2007