Travel volume has dropped along with consumer spending and consumer sentiment over the past several months. And Avis Budget Group suffered from the decline in travel losing $1 billion dollars and having to cut 700 jobs in the most recent quarter preliminarily reported last night.

American Airlines is seeing its stock decline by near 12% today as gas rebounds after a prolonged down trend in the commodity. Airlines generally move in the opposite direction of gasoline as fuel is a large part of their variable expense in flight costs. Only Southwestern was able to hedge against the large spike in gasoline that the US experienced over the summer. But the decline in oil has helped the airline industry tremendously.

Freeport McMoRan stumbled out of the gate this morning after releasing an earnings report that showed slowing demand for copper in China as the world begins to worry about slowing economies everywhere. The price of copper fell dramatically over the past quarter after an incredible run with a number of other commodity names like oil, gas, wheat, coal, and others. This drop in pricing power made it difficult for the Phoenix based miner and producer of gold and cooper to make it's expected earnings numbers for the quarter.

The Casino Operators have had a precipitous fall along with the rest of the market during the month of October. Les Vegas Sands has fallen near 40% while MGM Mirage has taken a fall from $30 a share down to $12 a share today. Look for more weakness as gambling is not in the cards for American consumers struck will dismal economic outlooks.

Retail Pharmacies Decline

The retail pharmacies/drug stores have hit fresh 52 weeks lows recently as consumer strength is questioned by investors as job losses mount. Walgreens and CVS Pharmacy are still growing in revenue and earnings but the stocks continue to fall.

Regional Banks get Taken Out

Investors shed shares of regional banks quickly and with intensity on a day that saw a record drop in the DOW Jones Industrial average of 780 points. Buyers of Put options stepped in just as strongly to purchase out of the money and in the money Puts in Sovereign Bancorp Inc. (SOV), National City Corporation (NCC), Regions Financial Corp. (RF), and Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB). All four banks significantly dropped in value placing into question their ability to survive for very much longer with or without a Federal bail out package.

International Game Technology (IGT)

The stock of International Game Technology has rallied 9% from its 52 week low struck on the 23^rd of September and presents a good opportunity to short the stock. The stock is rallying again today 4.75% on a Goldman Sachs Analyst opinion of increased sales in the next quarter.

Fundamentals

            The company fundamentals are not great which has caused the stock to fall 60% over the past 52 weeks to a low of $15.22 on September 23^rd. Sales are decreasing 3% for the year compared to their last fiscal year. And earnings are decreasing 15% from a year ago period. The stock pays out a 3.5% dividend which would be appealing if the stock ha

This developer, manufacturer, and seller of healthcare products nationally and internationally has held up well during the past six months of turbulence in the markets.

By Steve Patterson

Six Month High and a Channel

The six month chart shows some early weakness down to the low $50 area for Abbott Labs’ stocks but since May of 2008 the stock has rallied recently reaching a new six month high near $60. The current range is between $56.50 and $60 and a breakout in either direction would signal additional movement to the upside or the downside.

Commodities like Silver (AMEX:SLV), Gold (NYSEArca:GLD), Oil & Gas (AMEX:USO), and Industrial Metals all shot up swiftly on Monday as the dollar (AMEX: UUP) declined on the US Government’s plan to bail out financials from the sub-prime crisis.

On a day that saw two more Investment Banks in Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS) drop down 25-45% each before rallying late to unchanged, five banks reached new 52 week highs.