Monday, May 18, 2015

Hornbeck Offshore Services, Inc. (NYSE: HOS)

Hornbeck Offshore Services, Inc. operates offshore supply vessels (OSVs) and multi-purpose support vessels (MPSVs) in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, Latin America, and internationally. It provides marine transportation, subsea installation, and accommodation support services to exploration and production, oilfield service, offshore construction, and U.S. military customers. The company owns and operates a fleet of U.S.-flagged OSVs and MPSVs that support the deep-well, deepwater, and ultra-deepwater exploration, development, production, construction, installation, inspection, repair, maintenance, well-stimulation, and other enhanced oil recovery activities of the offshore oil and gas industry. It also operates a shore-base support facility located in Port Fourchon, Louisiana, as well as provides vessel management services, such as crewing, daily operational management, and maintenance activities for other vessels owners.
Take a look at the 1-year chart of Hornbeck (NYSE: HOS) below with my added notations:
1-year chart of Hornbeck (NYSE: HOS)
After peaking last summer, HOS declined for over 6 months, but since December the stock has been trending sideways. During this possible sideways bottoming process, HOS has created a resistance at $25 (green), which is a level that had also been support back in October and December. A break above that $25 level should mean higher prices for the stock.

The Tale of the Tape: HOS has a key level of resistance at $25. A long trade could be entered on a break through that level. However, if you are bearish on the stock, a short trade could be made on any rallies up to $25.
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Chart of the Day - The Blackstone Group (BX)

The Chart of the Day belongs to the Blackstone Group (BX).  I found the stock by sorting the All Time High list for the stocks with the highest technical buy signals, then used the Flipchart feature to review the charts.  Since the Trend Spotter signaled a buy on 3/31 the stock gained 11.34%.

Blackstone is one of the world's leading investment and advisory firms. Their alternative asset management businesses include the management of corporate private equity funds, real estate funds, funds of hedge funds, credit-oriented funds, collateralized loan obligation vehicles (CLOs) and closed-end mutual funds. The Blackstone Group also provides various financial advisory services, including mergers and acquisitions advisory, restructuring and reorganization advisory and fund placement services.

Barchart technical indicators:

  • 100% Barchart technical buy signals
  • Trend Spotter buy signal
  • Above its 20, 50 and 100 day moving averages
  • 6 new highs and up 5.58% in the last month
  • Relative Strength Index 69.40%
  • Barchart computes a technical support level at 42.52
  • Recently traded at 43.29 with a 50 day moving average of 40.19
Fundamental factors:
  • Market Cap $23.09 billion
  • P/E 9.61
  • Dividend yield 8.36%
  • Revenue expected to grow 10.20% this year and another .30% next year
  • Earnings estimated to increase 8.20% this year, decrease by 5.40% next year and decease annually at a rate of 2.22% for the next 5 years
  • Despite these negative forecasts Wall Street analysts issued 5 strong buy, 9 buy and 1 hold recommendation
The 20-100 Day MACD Oscillator has been a fairly reliable trading strategy for this stock and should continue to be used for entry and exit points.
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Alon USA Energy, Inc. (NYSE:ALJ) looks ready for a long-awaited breakout move

Alon USA Energy, Inc. (NYSE:ALJ) — Shares of this oil refining company perked up in Thursday trade and made a good attempt at breaking past a pesky and obvious horizontal line of resistance. As a result, they look closer to a long-awaited breakout move.

ALJ stock rose 2% on Thursday, likely due in part to news the company is looking at options to expand its refinery in Big Spring, Texas. But the bigger picture driver for the sector is the U.S. dollar. While I think we may see one more bounce in the greenback heading into summer, the near-term trend remains down, which is bullish for commodities like oil and related stocks.  (more)

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US Weekly Economic Calendar

time (et) report period ACTUAL CONSENSUS
forecast
previous
MONDAY, MAY 18
10 am Home builders' index April   -- 56
TUESDAY,  MAY 19
8:30 am Housing starts April   1.03 mln 926,000
8:30 am Building permits April
-- 1.04 mln
WEDNESDAY, MAY 20
2 pm FOMC minutes April 29   -- --
THURSDAY, MAY 21
8:30 am Weekly jobless claims May 16
269,000 264,000
8:30 am Chicago Fed national activity index April   -- -0.27 3-mo
10 am Existing home sales April
5.25 mln 5.19 mln
10 am Philly Fed May   8.5 7.5
10 am Leading indicators April   -- 0.2%
FRIDAY, MAY 22
8:30 am Consumer price index April
0.1% 0.2%
8:30 am Core CPI April   0.1% 0.2%
9:45 am Markit PMI flash May   -- 54.1
 
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