Daily Stock Pick of the Day - Thurs., Sep 22, 2010

The winning streak came to a halt Wednesday led by the tech-heavy Nasdaq and banks as the Dow closed down 21 points.  Still, the Dow is up 7% for the month of September. 
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq also closed lower. The S&P closed down 5 points at 1,134.  The Nasdaq closed down almost 15 points at 2,334.  The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) closed at 22.50, virtually no change from yesterday.
 
Stock in the news today included Adobe Systems (ADBE) which dove 20% after the software firm announced a disappointing fourth quarter forecast.  Also notable, PMC-Sierra (PMCS) trimmed 6% off it's share price after the broadband communications company lowered its revenue outlook.


Meanwhile, Research In Motion (RIMM) rose nicely in fast trade today.  News hit the wire today that RIMM is set to unveil a tablet computer to compete with Apple's (AAPL) iPad.
In economic news, the Fed Housing Finance Agency released reports today that showed U.S. home prices fell 0.5% in July from June, and 3.3% from one year earlier. Reports also showed that demand for home loans fell for a third straight week, despite the fact that the 30-year fixed-rate mortgages rate has dropped to about 4.44%

Today stock pick is VeriSign (VRSN).  VeriSign operates in Internet Infrastructure and Identity Services.  It closed at $31.89 today and it looks to me like it's going to roll over a bit at this level and possibly pull back.  I'd love to see a pullback to the $30-$31 range and accumulate some shares around there.  It's been in a trading channel for most of the summer and along with many stocks this month, it's broken out of it's channel and trading around 4-month highs.  With so much going on in this space (think authentication services), this is a stock that could bounce back to the $32 range and possibly higher on a longer term basis. 

As always, stay cautious.  The broad market may pull back here a bit, so pick your entry points carefully.  Stay tuned for existing home sales data to be reported tomorrow (Thursday) and new home sales data on Friday. 

Happy trading and remember to check out Wall Street Survivor below.  It's free, it's fun and you can compete for real cash prizes!  Gotta luv that!

Obligatory disclaimer: This blog is for information only.  Past results do not guarantee future performance. All financial decisions involve risk and there are no guarantees.  The suggestions above are for informational purposes only and the blogger is not liable for any losses incurred as a result of actual investment activity on the part of the reader.