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Melissa Lee, the moderator of cnbc's "Fast Money" TV show, said that Alcoa (AA Quote) was up 6% in after-hours trading after it beat revenue and earnings ...
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Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) has just posted a surprise profit after it was expected to lose money in the quarter. Here are the full details, but we took a 4:20 PM EST snapshot and many metals companies are running up that are not just in the aluminum space:
Century Aluminum Company (NASDAQ: CENX) $9.65 close; $10.41 A-H; +7.88% on 139,411 shares
Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ: STLD) $15.23 close; $15.45 A-H; +1.44% on 22,381 shares
Titanium Metals Corporation (NYSE: TIE)Â Â Â $9.80 close; $10.10 A-H; +3.06% on 8,333 shares
AK Steel Holding Corporation (NYSE: AKS)Â $18.88 close, $19.35 A-H, +2.49% on 42,645 shares
United States Steel Corporation (NYSE: X) $42.59 close; $43.60 A-H; +2.37% on 52,037 shares
Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLF) $33.21 Close; $33.99 A-H; +2.35% on 14,691 shares
ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT) $36.37 close; $37.09 A-H; +1.98% on 4,390 shares
JON C. OGG
OCTOBER 7, 2009
Sirius XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) is seeing some elevated trading and it looks like the average daily volume may be hit before the noon hour today. As of 9:49 AM EST we have seen some 37 million shares trade hands and the drop is by 7% at $0.535. Average volume is about 50 million shares and the recent highs were $0.78. The WSJ called the stock ‘Not yet a Buy’ this morning. And then there is word of all the insider selling taking place soon. JON OGG
Repros Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: RPRX) has more than doubled this morning on the heels of yesterday;s report that Androxal® restores normal sperm counts while increasing testosterone levels in hypogonadal men. In short, this is being treated by traders as a potential fertilization clinic killer when it comes to the issue being on the men. At 8:52 AM EST we have seen some 2.2 millioin shares trade hands with the stock up over 150%. The shares are around $2.40 and the close yesterday was $0.89. Average volume is only 1.4 million shares and the 52-week range is $0.65 to $13.94. JON OGG
Alcoa, Inc. (NYSE: AA) is trading up 4% at $13.97 today ahead of tomorrow’s earnings. At 3:20 PM EST we have seen some 34 million shares trade hands, which is only an average day’s trading volume. But we are seeing elevated call option trading ahead of tomorrow’s earnings report. Here is the volume and open interest data for the selected OCT-2009 CALL and PUT strike prices:
CALLS   Volume   OpInt.
$14.00Â Â Â 28,328Â Â Â 56,582
15.00Â Â Â 10,049Â Â Â 55,084
16.00Â Â Â 12,852Â Â Â 6,745
PUT$   Volume   OpInt.
$12.50Â Â Â 12,469Â Â Â 25,712
$14.00Â Â Â 6,782Â Â Â 18,141
It is assumed that the bets are that the company is finally on the path to resuming earnings, and the notion that gold is soaring has put a bid in under the rest of the major metals companies.
JON C. OGG
NutriSystem Inc. (NASDAQ: NTRI) is surging on word that it scored an introductory 14-day pact with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) at retail and locations and the walmart.com site. Full details are at 24/7 Wall Street but the stock closed at   $15.05 today. As of 5:11 PM EST we have shares up almost 15% at $17.30 on over 150,000 shares in the after-hours session. Average daily volume is only 352,000 shares and the 52-week high is $18.30. -JON OGG
Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF) was raised to the Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs. This replaces Fifth Third Bancorp. (NASDAQ: FITB), although FITB was maintained as a BUY rating as well. Interestingly, both shares are higher. Capital One is up 4% at $34.52 on 66,000 shares at 9:00 AM EST, while Fifth Third is up 1.6% at $9.51 on about 25,000 shares. It is very rare for a stock getting booted off that Conviction Buy List to rise, even if the underlying sentiment and call remains positive on the replaced stock. Watch for volume to rise sharply in these as the specialist opens more and more shares up for trading closer to the 9:30 AM EST Opening bell. JON OGG
Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) is surging this morning considering that it is a super-regional bank without a news release of its own. Its shares are up 4% at $27.35 but only on about 350,000 shares as of 8:54 AM EST. This was raised at Goldman Sachs to BUY and that appears to be exactly what traders are doing. Interestngly enough, this stock has petered out when it gets north of $28.00 and we could not help but noticing in this weekend’s unusual suspects that traders were buying downside protection via put options ahead of earnings season. With an average volume of over 50 million shares, you can count on the trading volume to pick up drastically after the specialist-led NYSE stock gets closer and closer to the 9:30 AM EST opening bell. -JON OGG
Amicus Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: FOLD) is going to be a top stock to watch Monday morning. This one lost 24.7% of its value down to $6.40 on Friday evening after the close and traded some 59,900 shares in the after-hours session. The Phase II results in its Plicera(TM) type 1 Gaucher disease treatment showed that clinically meaningful improvements in key measures of this disease were seen in only 1 of 18 patients who completed the study, while 1 additional subject discontinued treatment because of an adverse event. Needless to say, the data is very far short of what the company was hoping for and Amicus does not expect to advance Plicera into Phase III studies. The company is of course changing its 2009 guidance and, based on its current projections of net operating expense, Amicus now expects to end 2009 with approximately $70 to $80 million in cash.
For a reference on this, Amicus has a 52-week trading range of $6.26 to $15.26 and trades only about 35,000 shares per day. Its market cap before the 24.7% drop was listed as $192.4 million. It is impossible to know on Sunday morning if the stock will break those 52-week lows or not, but there were trades that went out under $6.00 and some even under $5.00 in the after-hours session before the stock settled in. We do not count the after-hours sessions in measuring 52-week highs and lows, but by some counts this one has already busted through its 52-week lows.
We do not see any stock options available in this name, although the stock has performed atrociously over the last two weeks. Its most recent short interest was also listed as over 1.4 million shares or about 61 days to cover, so this will be very active on Monday despite and average volume this low.
JON C. OGG