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1030 ET 04June2009
Citi positive on E&P natural gas companies

Citi on Thursday wrote a positive note on natural gas exploration and production (E&P) companies, saying the stock would 'do well as spot prices rise in the next year to near or above current futures prices.'

It recommended that investors build positions on pullback of the natural gas focused E&P names, and listed Newfield Exploration Co, Forest Oil Corp, Quicksilver Resources, XTO Energy, Southwestern Energy and Anadarko Petroleum as its natural gas leveraged buy stocks.

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1023 ET 04Jun2009
Treasury, Fed maybe itching for Wall St correction

A stock market correction could be just what the U.S. Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve now need to sustain the political will in Congress to push ahead with a raft of measures to jolt the economy out of recession.

With the benchmark S&P 500 index up nearly 40 percent since the
12
year low of early March, there is likely to be a feeling among lawmakers that everything is OK, says BTIG chief market strategist Mike O'Rourke.

'Most investors and policymakers agree that the greatest threat to recovery is lack of political will,' he said in a note. 'At this point, it is almost as if Treasury and Fed need the equity market to correct in order to maintain the political will to continue with their chosen strategy.'

A correction is a temporary price decline of at least 10 percent in an index or an asset that briefly halts the uptrend.

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1012 ET 04June2009
Players eye puts in Emerging market ETF

Some option players appear to be betting that the gains of the iShares MSCI Emerging Market Index fund may be short-lived and sought its put options. The exchange-traded fund shares rose 25 cents to $33.18 in morning trade. For the second straight session, the fund has drawn bearish order flow, said WhatsTrading.com option strategist Frederic Ruffy. He noted interest picked up in the EEM June $29-$32 and June $30-$32 put spreads Wednesday. 'Today, we're seeing some straight put buying.' One player bought 7,800 September $31 puts for a premium of $2.18 per contract. Another, or maybe the same, player bought 5,000 September $31 puts for $2.17, he said. In all, 27,000 puts traded vs. 2,028 calls in the ETF, according to Trade Alert.

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1006 ET 04June2009
UBS to defend itself in New Hampshire Lehman case

UBS on Thursday said it would defend itself against a case brought by the New Hampshire Bureau of Securities Regulation over its sale of Lehman structured products.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the regulator filed a civil complaint against a unit of UBS on Wednesday, alleging that it failed to pass along a warning to clients about the safety of structured financial products underwritten by Lehman Brothers.

UBS said it had properly sold Lehman products, following all regulatory requirements and client disclosure guidelines.

For details, see

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0955 ET 04June2009
Citi raises price target on JPMorgan Chase

Citi on Thursday raised its price target on JPMorgan Chase & Co to $40 from $35, citing a lower assumed risk premium on the bank.

The firm also wrote that in a recent meeting with Todd Maclin, the chief executive officer of JPMorgan Commercial Bank, Maclin 'noted that JPMorgan's negotiating power and ability to re-price the loan portfolio is currently the best it has been in decades, with pricing strength likely sustainable at least through 2010.'

Shares of JPMorgan, a Dow component, rose 1.5 percent to $34.50.

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