Now Protests in Jordan

There are widespread protests in Jordan and apparently dozens are injured.

UPDATE: More than 100 injured in Amman.

The VIX is getting dismantled over the last week.

On the back of surging crack spreads, now north of $23, investors are piling into refinery related stocks.

The top gainers are:

No. Ticker Industry % Change
1 WNR Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing 5.65
2 HOC Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing 5.53
3 FTO Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing 5.33
4 CVI Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing 4.53
5 VLO Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing 3.92
6 ALJ Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing 3.67
7 DK Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing 3.42
8 TSO Oil & Gas Refining & Marketing 2.81

Data provided by The PPT

Stocks with more than 15% of its float sold short, up more than 4%.

No. Ticker Short as % of Float % Change
1 ZAGG 34.50 16.01
2 EK 27.70 10.86
3 BC 18.80 7.71
4 TZOO 30.30 7.66
5 OREX 40.10 6.79
6 TSTC 29.60 6.60
7 CVVT 15.60 6.36
8 SODA 33.40 5.88
9 JBLU 23.00 5.64
10 WIBC 20.70 5.32
11 GDP 24.60 4.86
12 PVA 22.40 4.73
13 WNR 24.10 4.65
14 MBLX 23.40 4.64
15 ZUMZ 24.30 4.48
16 RAX 19.00 4.46
17 UTA 17.50 4.44
18 PMI 46.10 4.34
19 MEG 20.14 4.31
20 KEYW 17.10 4.29
21 OPEN 33.20 4.05

Data provided by The PPT

The following stocks are up 10%+ today.

No. Ticker % Change
1 CRYP 28.10
2 BSPM 25.68
3 BODY 18.76
4 ZAGG 13.66
5 PRAN 13.30
6 ICGN 12.35
7 WTSLA12.25
8 CNIT 11.88
9 FTLK 10.89
10 GIGM 10.77
11 EK 10.54
12 ALN 10.42
13 WRES 9.98

Data provided by The PPT

Reported earlier, 100’s of thousands of Syrian are protesting in the streets of Daraa. According to Reuters, they burned the statue of late. President Hafez Al-Assad. As a result, heavy gunfire is being reported.

UPDATE: Early reports indicate 3 people have been killed by Syrian police.

UPDATE II: CNN is reporting 15 dead (source)

Despite the naysayers, OPEN just passed $100 in pre market trading.

Herb Greenberg is chuckling to himself somewhere.

They lost 10 million users in one month. Epic fail.

Full article

via live Twitter feeds, people on the ground in Syria are claiming massive protests are underway near the city of Daraa, due to recent Government massacre.

Update: the protests are not exclusive to Daraa.
Apparently, they are nationwide.

Let’s hope they are more accurate than their bank stress tests.

via Reuters: President Sarkozy says any European nuclear reactor that fails planned stress tests will close.

Japanese and Hong Kong markets are up about 1%, with most Asian markets not too far behind.

US S&P futures are up nearly 4.

Japanese police are reporting the death toll from the dual disasters have topped 10,000. Possibly worse, over 17,000 are still missing.

Crack spreads are up another 2.4% to $23.44. This follows today’s 10% upside reversal, putting today’s net gains just north of 8%.

Research In Motion sees Q1 $1.47-1.55 vs $1.65 Thomson Reuters consensus; sees revs $5.2-5.6 bln vs $5.64 bln

Research In Motion sees FY12 EPS in excess of $7.50 vs $6.81 Thomson Reuters consensus

raises quarterly dividend 20% to $0.06

Nymex first month crack is now up a staggering 5.82% to $23.34.

Stocks to watch: WNR, TSO, VLO, HOC, DK, ALJ, MRO, SUN

Bravo for first class manipulation. Bravo. Today’s SA hit piece is brought to you by Copperfield Research. It’s magic.

Parts 1

2

3

Crack spreads have reversed an earlier 3.5% loss and are now up 1.8% to $22.45. Refinery stocks are responding in kind, with gains in DK, SUN and TSO.

UPDATE: They are now up 2.2%

Mean intra-day reversal in gold and silver underway. Stock keep their gains.

The following are stocks up more than 4% with more than 10% of their float sold short.
No. Ticker Short as % of Float % Change
1 TLB 22.50 26.88
2 GLUU 14.50 11.67
3 QPSA 17.30 10.53
4 ARIA 11.20 7.40
5 OCLR 11.60 6.01
6 CAR 17.70 6.01
7 WAVX11.70 5.43
8 AMRN 35.45 5.37
9 CIEN 32.60 5.33
10 MCP 22.70 5.32
11 NTSP 10.60 5.31
12 YONG 16.90 5.26
13 CBEH 33.30 5.22
14 VIVO 11.00 5.15
15 MELI 13.60 4.66
16 TTMI 12.40 4.62
17 STEC 23.20 4.61
18 GCO 12.50 4.57
19 BYD 31.90 4.56
20 GME 24.20 4.55
21 SOLR 13.90 4.23
22 OSBC 15.30 4.17
23 ARUN 17.30 4.04
24 CAAS 12.67 4.03