UPDATE 9.16.2012: With a sell-off after Earnings, this stock has sold off and the Call Spread I sold has gone to $.10, good for a triple, but I will leave this trade on until Friday and hope it expires worthless.
UPDATE 9.21.2012 With the stock settling at $15.81, this Spread went out worthless, time to move to the next trade.
Biggest movers in the S&P 500 so far today are Alpha Natural Resources Inc. (ANR) up 3.77%, First Solar Inc (FSLR) up 4.0% and Sprint Nextel Corp (S) up 3.9%.
Pandora Media Inc (P) continues to slide today, down 4.39%. Shares of the internet radio provider have been falling since Apple’s announcement of interest in the internet radio business.
James Ramelli B.S. in Finance from UIUC Email: james@keeneonthemarket.comFollow: @Jim_KOTM
AIG is a half of a point higher in pre-market trading. AIG has a 52-week high/low of 35.36/19.18. The stock hit its yearly low at the end of September last year. Since July, the stock has floated above thirty dollars and in the last 3 weeks has been pushing thirty-five dollars, up almost 5% in the last month. AIG reported second quarter growth in early August, growing its insurance operating income 26%. Six major analysts have downgraded AIG’s outlook, as the Fed, possibly holding back dividends among other controls, will regulate AIG.
On Friday, Google (GOOG | 706.15[+6.75%]) broke above the $700 price line, a new four year high. The 52-week range for GOOG is now 480.60 – 712.25, a range of about $230. In pre-market trading GOOG is down less than a tenth of a point, with an overnight high of $709.72, currently sitting at $708.84.
US indices futures are all down. Dow futures have dropped 21 points, NASDAQ futures down five and a half, and the S&P futures down 3.25. News from the National Bureau of Statistics yesterday had exports rising lower than expectations and imports to china decreasing. Consumer credit reports come out today and international trade balance for the US is announced tomorrow.
The biggest movers today were on earnings; Lululemon Athletica Inc. and Smith & Wesson Holdings Corp. Both beat analysts projections and gained over 10% on their stock prices.
Lululemon (LULU) reported a net revenue increase of 33% to $282.6 million from $212.3 million in the second quarter fiscal 2011. Gross profit for the quarter increased 28% to 155.8 million and made up 55.1% of net revenue.
Pandora (P) stock was crushed today on an announcement from Apple, Inc. (AAPL), stating plans to develop a competing internet radio product. Apple has been aggressively competing with other companies who have their service on Apple products, like Google Maps. P was down over 16% today ending at $10.47.
Monday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) will release its monthly report on international trade. The current global marketplace has been weak; Some of the stronger european economies have begun to struggle and China’s manufacturing has been shrinking for months now. The report on monday is composed of goods and services that are exported and imported into the US, calculating the balance between the two values. The report will primarily affect currencies.
Both the Dow and NASDAQ fell below its opening price today by 11:00 am, but the S&P 500 stands alone ahead 0.30% for the day sitting at 1,436.52. US indices futures have stayed put as well. Metals futures gained substantial points today with gold, silver and copper up 1.99%, 3.02% and 3.57% respectively. Silver is sitting just below its high of the day at 33.67 and a high of 33.74. Copper is right below its daily high at 3.6425 with a high of 3.6525. Natural Gas just moved away from its low of the day at 2.6740 with a low of 2.6660, down 3.67%.
The Cooper Companies, Inc. (COO | 93.33) hit a new all time high today gaining 7.32 when the market opened to sit around 93. The gain is representative of the company’s third quarter growth in income of almost 50% from last year. Analyst expected earnings at $1.29 per share but the company outperformed with earnings of $1.36 per share.
Facebook (FB | 19.11) has shown three straight days of growth up almost 2 dollars from its new 52 week low on Tuesday. How long can Zuckerberg’s statement keep Facebook from continuing it’s slope downward? The 52-week at-the-money implied volatility has touched its low today. Put/call sentiment is bullish and the stock might just continue its slow climb up next week.
This space is not anything new however…similar companies like Spotify, SoundCloud, Grooveshark, LastFM and many other services have been in this space for some time now too. While this competition formidable, is seems as though willing consumers around the world, who are already financially linked to iTunes, love anything that AAPL pumps out into their pocket.
This seems to be another effort by AAPL to further dominate the app tiles on your iPhone screen. Recently, a story broke that AAPL may drop GOOG maps and search capabilities on the iPhone. This disintermediation effort may discourage developers in AAPL apps and smother entrepreneurs looking to break into the most popular device. This may further drive consumers and developers to other devices like Android; and as we know, where cutting edge apps are…consumers are so caveat emptor.
mark@keeneonthemarket.com
Leading the market’s growth yesterday was Men’s Warehouse Inc. (MW) at 19% ending the day up about 6 points. After hours MW continued to grow another 0.5%. MW’s 52-week low and high is 24.50 and 40.97 respectively. The specialty retailer of men’s suits and tuxedo rentals products in the US and Canada began to lose value this year when it missed on a third earnings estimate in a row, dropping the stock 20 points in June 2012. The CFO left in July. The stock then surged to a four month high after Q2 earnings results that were $0.06 cents higher than last year and $0.03 cents higher than estimates. Expect the stock to continue to rely on earnings for any movement.
Yesterday’s morning rage discussed Navistar International Corp (NAV | 23.97). The stock was one of the bigger movers yesterday, growing 17.44%. The stock moved on earnings Wednesday and yesterday seemed to connect to the new CEO’s statement to focus on returning to profitability while switching to different engines in order to meet EPA standards. Navistar’s expenditures have been high because of this switch, and they are expecting to report losses in the fourth quarter.
Look out for the employment situation report released by the labor department today at 8:30am EST. Employment situation is a set of labor market indicators based on household surveys. The prior level of unemployment and number of private payrolls were at 8.3% and 172k. The new levels are expected to sit around 8.3% and 134,000.