AIG Price-Volume Spike (AIG)

American International Group, Inc. (NYSE: AIG) saw a rather large price and volume spike late in the afternoon.  Before 2:30 PM EST AIG shares went from being down around the lows of the day at $33.30+ and went all the way up to $36.37 in a very rapid fashion.  We have seen notes that Macquarie may bid for a $3.5 billion aircraft lease assets and then there are comments that Berkowitz owns more than 13 million shares now.  At 3:00 PM EST the stock is trading about 3% around $35.50 and we have seen 32 million shares trade hands versus an average of almost 14 million shares.

JON C. OGG

Boston Scientific’s Ides of March (BSX)

Is it ironic that Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE: BSX) has another round of awful news out on one of its key products on the Ides of March? It gets harder and harder to imagine that this company is ever going to be able to manage a proper turnaround.

The troubled medical device maker announced today that it has stopped shipments and is now in the process of recalling (retrieving) field inventory of all of the company’s implantable cardioverter defibrillators and cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators after it has determined that some manufacturing process changes were not submitted for approval to the FDA.

Boston Scientific identified two instances of changes which were successfully validated but were not submitted to the FDA. It further plans to work with the FDA to resolve the situation as soon as possible and said that it has no indications that the manufacturing process changes pose any significant risks and is not recommending explantation or removal of the devices.

This one was active in pre-market trading but after 65 minutes since the open, we have a total of 89 million shares and a price drop of 12.7% at $6.79. The 52-week range is $6.33 to $11.77 and the average volume is ‘only’ 21 million shares.

4X-volume in an hour…. Be advised that this $6.33 low that is listed was put in this morning. We would note that the low close last year was $6.14 and the intraday low was $6.08 hit on two days. Today’s 52-week low would not be a low if you made it a 53-week low.

JON C. OGG

Top Day Trader Alerts (BIDU, PEP, MNKD, TM, AMLN, ALKS, BCON, ISPH)

Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) is running on word that Google is now much more likely than not about to close its China website.  At 8:45 AM EST we have seen 77,000 shares trade and the stock is up 3.8% at $571.43.  The old 52-week high is $559.47.

Pepsico, Inc. (NYSE: PEP) is trading higher at new 52-week highs.  This might not be a monster move but yet another 52-week high after it announced a share buyback plan of $15 billion and the dividend was raised by 7% to $1.92 from $1.80 per year.  Shares are up 1.5% at $66.03 as of 8:41 AM EST on thin volume.  The old 52-week high was $65.25 and Friday’s close was $65.10.

MannKind Corp. (NASDAQ: MNKD) is HALTED PENDING NEWS….. Stay tuned, this could be a big day of trading volume versus a 2.3 million share per day average.

Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) is seeing a potential win today on news that regulators have been unable to reproduce the results from that recent runaway Prius and on word that the results are inconsistent with what had been described in the incident.

Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMLN) is trading up despite an FDA on its once per week Byetta approval as a Type II diabetes drug.  The FDA is ok with its safety issues, but wants expanded data for labeling.  At 8:42 AM EST we have seen 750,000 shares trade hands and shares are up about 8.35% at $21.95.  This is not an approval, but it leans much closer to an approval compared to other FDA delays.  Keep in mind that the 52-week high is $21.58.

Alkermes, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALKS) is the technology behind the once per week absorption/delivery method for Amylin.  Its shares are up almost 11% at $13.55 on 125,000 shares as of 8:42 AM EST.

Beacon Power Corp. (NASDAQ: BCON) announced earnings and revenues this morning, but most important is that it said it needs to raise funds.  Unfortunately this is a penny stock. At 8:39 AM EST we have shares down 1.3% at $0.45 on 35,000 shares.

Inspire Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ISPH) is trading lower after its eye drug failed a mid-stage trial endpoint.  Shares closed at $7.06 on Friday, but the stock is down over 16% at $5.90 on 28,700 shares as of $8:46 AM EST.

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JON C. OGG