Attention Bears: Prepare for Execution

What a glorious morning. Futures are higher by 112, the air is both brisk and clean, and the melodious tunes of 17th century classical music reverberate throughout House Fly. I am prepared to book profits on my SOXL trade this morning. Even though I should hold for another day, maybe two, I don’t want to be greedy. One in the hand is always better than two in the bush.

After all, I bought it on Friday and now I’m +21 points, nearly 14% from my basis. I think it’s fair to say that I nailed this trade. As for the Exodus Quant SPY trade, I am scheduled to sell it tomorrow — due to the data for that signal. In the past, I would hold for 5-10 days. But this signal is saying the optimal holding period is just 3 days.

My other longs will likely remain intact, as I am mostly long oil in my trading account. I’m a big fan of the black and feel its scarcity will increase in the coming weeks — thanks to the MUH driving season.

Lads, I’ve been doing this a very long time and this is just about as good as it gets.

Cryptos are getting fucking manhandled this morning, especially Ripple — off by 14%.

Here are this morning’s standouts.

Gapping up
In reaction to strong earnings/guidance:

• BTE +12.8%, TNTR +10.4%, AMRC +10.2%, ALOG +10.1%, TEDU +8.3%, HAIR +6.3%, BZUN +6.3%, NX +5.2%, EGLE +4.8%, PQ +4.2%, YY +3.5%, CARS +3.5%, ANAB +2.5%, KLXI +2.4%, CIEN +2.3%, PARR +1.8%, NVGS +1.8%, LOGI +1.1%, (guidance), FAST +0.5%, (Feb Sales)

M&A news:

• CAG +1.9% (ConAgra responds to FTC decision to challenge the sale of Wesson oil to The J.M. Smucker – disagrees with the Commission’s decision; to review all of options)

Other news:

• QDEL +5.1% (receives FDA clearance for its point-of-care Sofia Lyme Fluorescent Immunoassay)
• TI +4.3% (indicated higher on reports of Paul Singer’ Elliott Management stake)
• MU +2.2% (positive Cramer mention)
• HL +1.9% (receives $31.6 million loan investment in Hecla from Ressources Quebec)
• BOJA +1.8% (CEO Clifton Rutledge resigns for personal reasons; co puts current Director James “Randy” Kibler in place as Interim President and CEO)
• GOGO +1.5% (CEO Michael Small steps down, co appoints appoints Oakleigh Thorne as President and CEO)
• ADRO +1.5% (earned a $3.0 mln development milestone payment under its worldwide licensing agreement with Merck for the initiation of a Phase I clinical trial of its anti-CD27 antibody)
• GSK +1.3% (reports new clinical data demonstrate high vaccine efficacy of Fluarix Tetra in children 6-35 months of age)

Analyst comments:

• GNCA +25.2% (initiated with a Overweight at Cantor Fitzgerald)
• MYL +3.2% (upgraded to Overweight from Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley)
• HLF +2.9% (upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup)
• ALB +2.1% (upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Seaport Global Securities)
• UPS +2% (upgraded to Buy from Hold at Stifel)
• BG +1.6% (upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup)
• NTAP +1.5% (added to US 1 List at BofA/Merrill)
• ADM +1.2% (upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Citigroup)

Gapping down
In reaction to disappointing earnings/guidance:

• MRNS -14.3%, ASNA -13.2%, FRPT -12.5%, NLS -6.7%, SNDX -5.6%, FATE -5.5%, TGT -4%, STRL -2.4%, BLRX -1.8%, RYI -1%

M&A news:

• JWN -2.2% (Nordstrom announces the receipt and rejection of an indicative proposal to acquire the company; Nordstrom family offered $50.00/share)

Other news:

• GLYC -17.2% (GlycoMimetics announces its design for a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 3 clinical trial to evaluate GMI-1271 in combination with MEC Mitoxantrone, etoposide and Ara-C or in combination with fludarabine, cytosine arabinoside and idarubicin in individuals with relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemi )
• SCYX -11.2% ( commences an underwritten public offering of shares of its common stock and warrants)
• ARES -9.1% (announces 15 mln share offering -10 mln by selling shareholder and 5 mln by the company)
• UQM -6.2% (UQM Technologies and CNHTC have withdrawn their CFIUS Application)
• NYRT -3.8% (announces 1:10 reverse split effective at approximately 5:00pm ET on March 15, 2018 )
• GTHX -1.5% (filed for 3 mln share common stock offering)
• CDEV -1.5% (commences an underwritten public offering of 25,000,000 shares by selling shareholders)
• TRU -0.8% (pricing of underwritten secondary offering by certain of its stockholders of 19,889,564 shares of common stock )

Analyst comments:

• GRUB -2.9% (downgraded to Neutral from Buy at BofA/Merrill)
• CNI -1.1% (downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at BofA/Merrill)
• SEP -0.8% (downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel)