The Best of Kass

As I have previously mentioned, I am playing the prospects for a durable housing recovery with Berkshire Hathaway(BRK.B) , Bank of America(BAC) and Ocwen(OCN) .

Of the three, Ocwen's price likely presents the best risk/reward ratio.

I have bought more of each of these stocks during the week's trading.

At the time of publication, Kass was long BRK.B, BAC and OCN

Expanding Bond Short
Originally published on Thursday, April 26 at 9:40 a.m. EDT.

Today's initial jobless claims were slightly weaker than expected at 388,000 (a five-month high and the fourth month in a row above forecasts) vs. expectations of 375,000 and 389,000 a week ago, and interest rates are falling across the board.

I am using the bond strength to expand my short position further -- I sold more iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond Fund(TLT) at $117.45 this morning.

Let me explain my reasoning.

The recent claims figures are consistent with May-June payroll gains of about 150,000 a month (weather payback from strength earlier in the year). But, from there I expect a return to back toward the 200,00-per-month level based on the strength of regional ISMs, the employment component of the national ISM, corporate profit growth, final sales growth, consumer confidence readings and intentions to expand (capital expenditures), among other factors.

At the time of publication, Kass was long TBF and TBT, and short TLT.