Cost of Living Index Hits Pre-Great Recession Highs

but there is no inflation according to gubmint statistics….

Full Story

Full Story & Video

Full Story

Full Story

Full Story

Full Story

Full Story

Full Story

Full Story

Full Story

Bullish Call Activity:

• S calls are seeing interest with weakness in the underlying stock following T/DTEGY news. So far today 54.9K total calls have traded vs 17.4K total puts. Most notable are the S May 5.5 calls (volume: 36.4K, open int: 12.9K, implied vol: ~57%, prev day implied vol: 47%)
• EXPR Apr 16.94 calls are seeing interest ahead of earnings Mar 22 before the open (volume: 2550, open int: 310, implied vol: ~56%, prev day implied vol: 46%)
• DANG Apr 19 calls are seeing interest following M&A speculation (volume: 2290, open int: 730, implied vol: ~73%, prev day implied vol: 70%)

Bearish Put Activity:

• FCN Jan12 40 puts (volume: 1460, open int: 170, implied vol: ~31%, prev day implied vol: 30%) — co is expected to report earnings early May
• MNKD May 4 puts (volume: 2010, open int: 5160, implied vol: ~65%, prev day implied vol: 64%) — co is expected to report earnings early May

Sentiment: The CBOE Put/Call ratio is currently: 0.78… VIX: (20.65, -3.79, -15.5%).
*Please use the Talk to Us link at the top of the page to provide feedback on this comment as well as the OPTNX comments.

Full Story

Full Story

Rates, Bullishness, Oil, Dollar, Inflation, Economy….

Full Article

The following are some of today’s most notable movers of interest, categorized by market capitalization (large cap over $10 billion and mid cap between $2-10 billion) and ranked by % change (all stocks over 100K average daily volume).

Large Cap Gainers

• CCJ (31.35 +6.65%): uranium co seeing strength following sell off
• CHU (16.08 +5.1%): select telecom and communication related stocks showing strength
• QCOM (53.73 +3.91%): upgraded to Buy at Sterne Agee; select telecom and communication related stocks showing strength
• PCAR (50.22 +3.63%): upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS
• T (28.44 +1.79%): agreed to buy T-Mobile for $39 bln; upgraded to Buy at Citigroup

Large Cap Losers

• S (4.43 -12.18%): weakness attributed to T’s acqusition of T-Mobile
• AMT (46.75 -7.65%); CCI (37.15 -5.13%): tower related names showing weakness due to T’s acqusition of T-Mobile

Mid Cap Gainers

• TIF (61.42 +7.21%): beat EPS with in-line revs; guided Q1 and FY12 EPS and revs above consensus
• SWC (21.87 +5.55%): select metals/mining stocks showing strength
• ATML (11.95 +4.99%): upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Gleacher
• PCS (15.65 +4.82%): select telecom and communication related stocks showing strength
• AWI (45.45 +3.84%): upgraded to Top Pick with target raised to $50 at RBC Capital

Mid Cap Losers

• SBAC (37.19 -8.4%): tower related names showing weakness due to T’s acqusition of T-Mobile
• MMI (25.27 -3.81%): select handset makers showing weakness, attributed to T’s acqusition of T-Mobile
• CF (125.51 -1.48%): downgraded to Sell at Goldman

The S&P Energy Index (+2.5%) is sharply higher this morning and is the largest advancing sector in the broader market (+1.6%).

Sector News: ATPG (+1.6%) received a permit to resume drilling the Mississippi Canyon Block 941 #4 well in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, on Friday afternoon. GPOR (+6.5%) commenced an underwritten public offering of 4 mln shares of its common stock. The co was also initiated with a Buy at Sidoti. APC (+3%) announced a joint-venture agreement with a subsidiary of Korea National Oil whereby KNOC will earn approximately 1/3 of co’s interest in its Maverick Basin assets, located in southwest Texas, for ~$1.55 bln.PTR (+2.9%) and a subsidiary of Saudi Aramco signed a Memorandum of Understanding related to the planned development of a 10 million metric tons per annum (200,000 barrels per day) grassroots full conversion refinery in Yunnan Province in the People’s Republic of China.

Broker Calls: GEVO (-0.3%) was initiated with Overweight at Piper Jaffray. EXH (+4.9%) was upgraded to Outperform at Credit Suisse. TSS (+1.4%) was initiated with a Hold at Citigroup.

Futures: A spike in the dollar index, and poor econ data, has pushed April WTI crude oil ($102.01 +$0.94) to its worst levels of the morning. It it still in positive territory in mid-morning trade, however. April natural gas ($4.216 +$0.048) has rallied off its session lows to trade to fresh highs at $4.228, a fresh ~2 week high.

Stock indices opened on a strong note and have extended.  Top performing sectors include: Telecom TTH +2.3%, Coal KOL +2.2%, Silver SLV +2.1%, Energy XLE +2%, Energy XLE +2%, Technology XLK +2%, Disk Drive +2%, Ag/Chem MOO +2%, Semi SMH +1.9%, Industrial +1.9%, Casino BJK +1.8%, Broker IAI +1.6%, Defense PPA +1.6%, Software IGV +1.5% (MSFT +2.6%)

BONDS

Treasuries moved to their worst levels of the session following word the U.S. Treasury would unwind its $142 bln mortgage portfolio. The announcement will put an additional $10 bln of supply on the market each month, and will compete with Treasuries for dollars. The complex saw little reaction to another disappointing housing number as existing home sales fell short of expectations. Yields across the curve continue to hover just below session highs with the 10-yr near 3.35%. A slighty steeper yield curve continues as the 2-10-yr spread hangs out near 270 while the 10-30-yr spread is flatter at 112. Precious metals trade higher with spot gold up 12 dollars to 1431 and spot silver higher by 63 cents at 35.90. Click here to see a 5 minute 10-yr yield chart.

2-yr -03/32 @ 99 30/32
3-yr -07/32 @ 100 11/32
5-yr -14/32 @ 100 12/32
7-yr -18/32 @ 100 05/32
10-yr -20/32 @ 102 09/32
30-yr -24/32 @ 104 20/32

$1 billion in stock for OXPS share holders. Stock up 15% . Also a lawsuit has been filed to explore the violation of share holder protection laws…..

Full Story

Performance bonus may put pay @ risk, but should turn up better quality….

Full Story

Full Story

The dollar index spiked back near the unchanged line about an hour ago, which pulled select commodities lower including crude oil.

April crude oil has been in positive territory all session, but pulled back ~$1/barrel to new session lows of $101.93/barrel on the spike in the dollar index earlier. It’s now back above the $102 level, now up 1.1% at $102.16/barrel.

April natural gas fell quickly after pit trading opened, falling into negative territory and new session lows of $4.116/MMBtu. It’s erased over half of its losses and is now 0.8% higher at $4.20/MMBtu.

Precious metals have shown strength all morning. April gold is currently up 1% at $1430.3/ounce, while May silver is 2.4% higher at $35.91/ounce. Industrial commodity copper is the worst performer in the CRB Index, showing losses of 1.2% at $4.29/lb

A broad-based bid has driven the three major equity averages to gains in excess of 1% in the early going. The buying effort comes amid improved sentiment among market participants, who first began to show a willingness to return to riskier holdings late last week after they had reacted fearfully to headlines out of Japan and the Middle East and North Africa region… Just released, the U.S. Treasury announced that it will begin to wind down its $142 billion Mortgage-Backed Securities Portfolio. Starting this month, the Treasury plans to sell up to $10 billion in agency-guaranteed mortgage-backed securities per month, subject to conditions. The idea of increased debt supply in the market has stirred selling interest among Treasuries, such that the yield on the benchmark 10-year Note is now back to 3.30%. Dow +1.7%, S&P 500 +1.5%, Nasdaq +1.7%