Market Trends
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT:NYSE) continues to expand itself by planning to invest at least $1 billion in China by buying Trust-Mart, which could give WMT a huge and influential chunk of the Chinese retail market.

Trust-Mart, known in the business as a hypermarket, is similar to the concept of Wal-Mart Supercenters where groceries and other consumer items including clothing and furniture can be purchased in one-stop shopping.

Trust-Mart is a Taiwanese company but has about 100 stores in China.

Regardless of this news, WMT is still slowly creeping down to its 50-day Moving Average and still shows negative Momentum levels. Money Flow has just dropped below 50 (neutral). Our slow moving put option in WaveStrength Trader should begin to pick up price shortly.

Because regardless of the news, WMT's price chart is still in a correctional phase…

Trading Tactics
Economists are really being thrown for a loop this morning. And I'm not referring to the Dow's 50-point loss - or even the fact that my prediction that “The Dow will not see 12,000” has still been proven correct.

What I am talking about is wholesale prices, which plunged 1.3% in September thanks to energy prices dropping at the fastest rate in 20 years. (Trading note: This is a governmental report, so please expect a revised number in the next week or so.)

At the same time, the core producer price index (which excludes food and energy costs) rose a surprising 0.6%, which is the biggest jump since January 2005. This jump was sparked by the prices of motor vehicles, which jumped at the fastest rate in more than 15 years! Economists expected a 0.7% decline in the headline PPI, and a 0.2% gain in the core PPI, so you can see just how far off they were.

In terms of our trading positions, our Wal-Mart puts are doing a nice job of using the Dow's downside to maintain an equally balanced trading ledger, as Ann noted. If you need to take any trading actions, you'll be the first to know!

=============================================================

Copyright 2006 by The Taipan Group,LLC. All rights are reserved. Printed in USA. Information, opinion, research, and commentary contained herein is obtained from sources believed to be reliable; their reliability, however, cannot be guaranteed. The maxim of Caveat Emptor applies - let the buyer beware! WaveStrength Market Report does not provide individual investment advice, or act as an investment advisor, or individually advocate the purchase or sale of any security or investment.

Investments recommended in this service should be made only after consulting with your investment advisor, and only after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.

WaveStrength Market Report reserves the right to use email endorsements and/or profit claims from its subscribers for marketing purposes. All names will be kept anonymous and only subscriber's initials will be used unless express written permission has been granted to the contrary.

The Taipan Group, LLC.expressly forbids its writers from having a financial interest in any security that they recommend to their readers. Furthermore, all employees and agents of The Taipan Group, LLC and its affiliate companies must wait 24 hours before following an initial recommendation published on the Internet, or 72 hours after a printed publication is mailed.