Every few years, there is a scare. We had the bird flu in the latter half of 2005. We had the SARS scare in a chunk of 2002 and much of the first half of 2003. And of course who can forget the anthrax scare following the horrific day of September 11, 2001 in which people kept their eyes and ears out for news reports of powder in the mail? Without understating that their were indeed numerous deaths particularly from SARS and the bird flu in many Asian nations, thankfully for humankind none of these things turned into a worldwide pandemic. Ever since the usage of such wonderful anecdotes like Flemingâs discovery (which didnât become widely used until about 15 years after much of Flemingâs work was published), the entire world is always on the lookout for that one thing that cannot be combated by a drug (well, at least until said drug is invented). Well, the latest crisis is the swine flu. For those who arenât news junkies like myself, some sort of flu- mostly generated from pigs - has spread to humans mostly in Mexico. The new swine flu affecting humans, however, is rather unique in tat it somehow mutated from genes from swine, bird, and human flu bugs. It is very difficult for humans to attain swing flu which makes this one a bit unusual, but there have apparently been some genetic changes with this particular strain. In fact, the last swing flu outbreak was in Fort Dix, NJ in 1976 which was the same strain that caused the terrible pandemic of 1918-1919; luckily, at the time, it turn out that there was no swing flu problem as the nation prepared for its 200th anniversary. However, several cases (including 30 or so in New York City) have been discovered in the United States and the worry is legitimate in less developed places in the world that this can be a very major problem. Shifting from facts to the more mundane (which is what we as day traders must do), there is a subculture of stocks which tend to react only in times such as this. There are notable names like Gilead (GILD) which popped yesterday and things like Smithfield Foods (SFD) which fell amid fears that demand for poultry and other meat will plummet. But you also get names like Novavax (NVAX) and Biocryst Pharmaceuticals (BCRX) which have their shares snapped up in a day traderâs paradise panic. Indeed, NVAX traded up almost 200% yesterday morning â before 8AM! BCRX is another case as its stock was also up almost 200% from Thursdayâs close to yesterdayâs high. These things have different degrees of real relevancy; a name like Gilead (GILD) can produce some antibiotic at will (which will not help as there is no discovered swine flu anecdote, but at least GILDâs stuff can help with some of the symptoms) to a case like BCRX with no product on the market yet as its flu anecdote is still in clinical trials. Which leads to the daily epiphany: nobody knows with any certainty how bad this scare will get. But, while it is sheer folly for stocks like BCRX to get bid up, it does not mean anything to a day trader. There is fear by many shorts that a company like BCRX can get early approval for its drug and of course fear by longs that the scare dissipates. Thus, there is action in both ways rapidly for day traders; monitor the situation, be aware of the positions of the individual companies in the turmoil, and trade accordingly. Markets throughout the world fell overnight about 2-3% throughout both Asia and Europe. The prevailing worries are the aforementioned swine flu issue along with rumors circulating about the stress test- namely that BAC and C will require additional capital. Futures are lower across the board state-side as well on this same nervousness with commodities and the dollar down across the board. After the huge run-up, there is no real reason for a good rally at this point today so look for the same sort of action as yesterday- very choppy but mostly to the downside. Use things like BAC as your benchmark; although BAC will likely be relatively weak to the market, it will likely provide guidance to the overall tone today as this is the first real test as to how the market will react to a bank potentially needing more capital. Reiterating- Please understand that if the ideas do not get to the hoped for set-ups cited below, more often than not, one should not blindly trade the symbol next to said idea. If the whole story is not there - If something is good, assume either a short thru unchanged or an A-B-A2 (preferably to the downside in a downside market and the upside in an upside market) based on direction of the market unless specifiedIf something is bad, assume either a buy thru unchanged or an A-B-A2 (preferably to the downside in a downside market and the upside in an upside market) based on direction of the market unless specified- Good- The following stocks have good news and/or a strong technical pattern BIDU- beat earnings and raised guidance DDRX- continued its stunning multi-day rise; closed near a high NVAX, BCRX, CRXL, GILD- among the âfluâ stocks which closed off their highs, but may move in reaction to CDC movement last night SFD, ELX- recommended on âFast Moneyâ AAN- great earnings PRE- good earnings PRXL- great earnings WRI- good earnings HPQ, FRO, NAT- recommended on âMad Moneyâ last night EFUT- great earnings RKT- good earnings UA- good earnings WAT- good earnings CCE- good earnings DIN- good earnings TLAB- good earnings FPL- good earnings UHS- good earnings Bad-The following stocks have bad news and/or a weak technical pattern X- missed earnings and doing stock offering SPWRA- having a stock offering OEH- closed near a low after earnings, share offering, and flu fears XL- bad earnings DFG- share offering NTRS- doing a share offering RCII- poor earnings WMGI- bad earnings CMP- bad earnings COL- bad earnings FDP- bad earnings JEC- bad earnings LAZ- bad earnings SMG- bad earnings AM- bad earnings ARE- bad earnings CPO- bad earnings KRC- bad earnings BAC, C- rumored to need more capital Earnings: TUES APR 28 BEFORE AG AM AMB AMED AVY AXE BCO BDX BEC BEN BMY BP CCE CE CNC COG COL CPO CVG CVH DAI DIN DVA ECL EME FDP FMER FPL GPI HCP HSP IPG JEC LAZ MHP MJN ORB OXPS PCAR PCH PCZ PFE SMG TLAB UA VSH WAT WDR X TUES APR 28 AFTER ACC ACE AMX BWLD CBI CERN CPX CRI CTV DWA FIS FSP HTZ JLL LIFE MEE MPWR NAL NLC OFC PMTC PNRA PSYS QCOR RRC SRCL TRMB TRMK TSS VFC WBSN ZRAN Good luck today. Erik R. Kolodny