Today's Key Market News - Market Turmoil, A Fearless Buy Idea

As the global community digests an unsavory day of trading in the U.S., American investors will have to reassess the situation again today. Because of the serious driver behind this decline, Wall Street Greek expects trading to be highly volatile today, but adopt a decisive downward bias. It is still early in this move, and many will advise investors operating within a long-term time horizon to buy. The thing is, the short term matters. It could trouble you to see your portfolio statement at the end of July if you stay put, and if you can mitigate some of the losses, it certainly makes sense to do so.

Therefore, I agree with Jim Cramer, my fellow Philadelphian, in that as we pick at buys, we should also be hedging against greater losses. Consider selling at "risk firms" within the financial space. Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) tanked yesterday before finding late buyers, and the shares are trading sharply lower in the premarket today. We wrote in our article, "Taxing Consequences for Private Funds," that the Blackstone guys were going to look brilliant down the road. Folks, when smart, wealthy fellows like these, who fund takeovers based on liquid credit, decide to share the profits, there's a red flag there. Here's a Greekism for you, "Never buy from a smarter guy than you..." Regarding BX in particular, the move may be overdone on the open, but think about like risks and holdings within your portfolio. Yes, I'm worried about the investment banks.

Once again defying the permabear stigma, here's a buy for you. Heely's (NASDAQ: HLYS) reports earnings in a couple weeks, and today, peer CROCS Inc. (NASDAQ: CROX) is moving on a strong EPS report. HLYS shares are down dramatically since their last report, but since then the company has backed out of a new financing plan that would have diluted existing interests. This has allowed participating brokerage analysts to once again speak about the shares. We expect upgrades and reiterations soon and a solid earnings report. In the interest of full disclosure, we added to Heely's holdings within our portfolios yesterday. Unlike many of our independent equity research breathren, we're not afraid to put our money where our mouth is, and we'll tell you about it when we do. Another idea for portfolio insurance is the UltraShort S&P 500 ProShares (AMEX: SDS), but be careful when and where you buy. This investment seeks to advantage from downward moves in the S&P 500 Index (see Yahoo!'s profile page here).

Please find today's key market-moving news below, and remember, this is available daily in our sidebar section "Headline News."


Bloomberg: Advanced GDP Report for Q2 +3.4% Bests Consensus +3.2%
CNBC: July Michigan Consumer Sentiment 90.2, Misses Consensus 91.0
CNN Money: Asian Markets Run for Cover
AP/Yahoo!: Communist China Stocks in the Dark
Financial Times: Europe Contends with Largest Weekly Drop Since March
CNBC: Oil Stabilizes
Kiplinger's: Video - What to do When Market Tanks
Yahoo! Earnings Calendar
AP/Yahoo!: Volkswagen's Stellar Q2
AP/Yahoo!: Medco Health Profits
AP/Yahoo!: Baker Hughes' Q2 Slump
AP/Yahoo!: Toshiba's Fivefold Profit Rocket
Bloomberg: Blackstone Shares Collapse
CNN Money: Headwinds for KKR IPO
CNBC: Amgen Tops Forecasts
Economist: Putin Versus Nobody Serious
BBC: Students Occupy Red Mosque
Iran Daily: Tales from the Dark Side

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