Its Friday April 28, 2006, and Investors as well as traders received some guidance as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gave indication that the interest rate hikes will pause sooner than later. We are probably looking at a 5% roof, which means one more interest rate hike to go.

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Political Front

Not too long ago President Bush tried to push the ports deal through that would have given control of major U.S. Ports to a Dubai company, that deal was blocked. The U.S. Government recently purchased or was close to purchasing millions of dollars worth of Lenovo computers for the U.S. government, Lenovo is now a China owned company and no longer a part of IBM (NYSE: IBM). The latest is the thumbs up from President Bush that would put control of 9 U.S. plants that produce parts for U.S. military vehicles and aircraft to a soon to be Dubai owned company, Doncasters. Now if ever there was a red flag it would be here but it seems as though the administration pushed it through the review process to avoid a public debate, but the New York Times broke the story and there may be a public interest in this one.

Its no big surprise but it looks as though Iran is not going to comply with the United Nations Security Councils request to cease enriching uranium. Now the question is what is going to happen once the U.N. Security Watchdog gives their report.

China Raises Interest Rates

China joins the ranks of the United States and Europe as China rose their key interest rate. On that news U.S. Stocks fell which brought up the concern of slower growth in the most populous nation.

The sectors affected include oil and mining, and companies like Phelps Dodge (NYSE: PD) and Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) may feel the pinch in todays trading session.

Movers and Shakers

Some major movers in yesterdays trading session included Libbey (NYSE: LBY) which traded up $2.80 to close at $12.85, Fidelity National Financial (NYSE: FNF) which traded up $8.51 to close at $43.50 , Diagnostics Products (NYSE: DP) which traded up $9.36 to close at $57.81, Spartan Motors (NASDAQ: SPAR) which traded up $2.72 to close at $14.00, Interdigital Communications (NASDAQ: IDCC) which traded up $4.56 to close at $27.01 after being awarded $253 million against Nokia (NYSE: NOK), Luminex (NASDAQ: LMNX) which traded up $2.34 to close at $15.73 and OfficeMax (NYSE: OMX) which traded up $5.14 to close at $38.49.

Analyst Upgrades/Downgrades

Recent Analyst upgrades include Citigroup (NYSE: C) which was upgraded to a Outperform from a Market Perform by Piper Jaffray, Western Digital Corp (NYSE: WDC) was upgraded to a Outperform from a Neutral by Robert W. Baird, and Everest Re Group (NYSE: RE) was upgraded to a Buy from a Hold by Citigroup Investment Research.

Recent Analyst downgrades include Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) which was downgraded to a Equal-Weight from an Overweight by Morgan Stanley and to Sector Underperformer from a Sector Outperformer by CIBC World Markets, Siemens A.G. (NYSE: SI) was downgraded to a Neutral from an Overweight by JP Morgan and Millennium Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: MLNM) was downgraded to a Sell from a Neutral by Banc of America Securities.

Recent Analyst Coverage Initiations include Transdigm Group (NYSE: TDG) which was initiated with a Neutral and a target price of $28 and Cherokee Inc (NASDAQ: CHKE) which was initiated with a Neutral and a target price of $45.00.

Tid Bits

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is going to feel some pain in todays trading session and a bad way to close out a week. They reported earnings of $2.98 billion, or 29 cents per share, compared with $2.56 billion, or 23 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier. The analyst estimate was 33 cents. The company also lowered their guidance for both 2006 and 2007. So let the downward movement begin.

On the topic of downward movement there was blood on the street in the healthcare industry as Aetna (NYSE: AET) led the way down as they traded down $9.43 to close at $37.00, they didnt want to be lonely so they dragged the industry with them with companies like CIGNA Corp (NYSE: CI) trading down $11.94 to close at $106.58, Humana (NYSE: HUM) trading down $2.87 to close at $43.39, UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) trading down $1.22 to close at $47.75 and Wellpoint (NYSE: WLP) trading down $2.94 to close at $67.50.

Micron Technology (NYSE: MU) may be looking to merge with the German chipmaker Infineon Technologies, Micron is keen on Infineons dynamic random-access memory business

Archer Daniels (NYSE: ADM) has appointed former long time senior executive at Chevron Corp (NYSE: CVX) Patricia Woertz to the position of President and Chief Executive Officer, succeeding Allen Andreas who will remain Chairman of the company. This is a good move for Archer Daniels as they look towards the future and need a powerful leader with global experience to lead the way and they found it in Patricia Woertz.

Readers Speak

We received a question from one of our readers/listeners Marni from New York, NY, and she wanted to know what our take was on Energy Partners Limited (NYSE: EPL).

Marni, first of all thank you for contacting us, Energy Partners Limited (NYSE: EPL) is an oil and natural gas exploration company. There are a few things that I am looking at that have me on the ropes with the company, first just looking at the chart the last time that the stock traded in the $27 range or better was on January 26, 2006 and it drifted down as low as $21 on March 9, 2006, then it crept back up to the $27 range again and it seems to be backing off, you may get a short bounce here and there but it looks like it may be on its way back down the valley.

Another thing is their CFO just resigned, and the last thing is that we are headed into hurricane season and the company is based in New Orleans, Louisiana and approximately 14% of their net daily production comes from the Gulf Coast Onshore area.

So those are some things to think about, we dont see it as a buying situation right now.

One last note, the company set up a earnings call on May 9, 2006 to discuss their earnings with analyst and investors.

FURIOUS FIVE

This is the fifth of our Furious Five companies that we see excelling in their industry in 2006. The best was left for last as our fifth addition to this weeks Furious Five is Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) it trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol AMD.

To get our outlook on the Furious Five and other vital information about this company and others, just subscribe to Wall Street to Main Street FREE at www.namcnewswire.com

We cannot stress enough that investors need to do their due diligence, call the companies, get the information, consult with your investment advisor and if you do not have one consider getting one. Put the same time into investigating these companies as you do when you go to purchase a new television, its only for your protection. When it comes to thinly traded securities stagger your orders or put a limit order in to avoid a run up.

NAMC Newswire Note

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Louis Victor
NAMC Newswire
888-463-9237

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