Monthly Archives: April 2012
FLASH: Fed Issues a Review and Penalties Against JPM for Mortgage Misconduct
Most Active Options Trades
-CALLS- OPTION EXP.DATE STRIKE PRC. VOLUME LAST S/PRC. NET CHANGE AAPL 4/5/12 630.0000 377 6.2800 up 4.0500 F 4/21/12 13.0000 370 0.2500 up 0.1100 AAPL 4/5/12 635.0000 310 4.2000 up 2.9500 HAL 4/21/12 35.0000 300 0.2700 dn 0.0900 AAPL 4/5/12 640.0000 180 2.4300 up 1.6700 AAPL 4/21/12 650.0000 140 7.3000 up 2.4500 GIS 10/20/12 41.0000 116 0.8000 up 0.0500 AMZN 4/21/12 205.0000 115 2.7600 up 0.3600 AAPL 4/21/12 620.0000 108 20.6500 up 5.5200 AAPL 4/5/12 650.0000 107 1.1800 up 0.9100 -PUTS- OPTION EXP.DATE STRIKE PRC. VOLUME LAST S/PRC. NET CHANGE BRCD 7/21/12 3.5000 276 0.0400 up 0.0200 BRCD 5/19/12 2.5000 270 0.0100 dn 0.0300 AAPL 4/5/12 625.0000 210 5.1000 dn 6.1500 AMD 4/21/12 5.0000 184 0.0100 dn 0.0100 RIMM 6/16/12 12.0000 174 0.6600 up 0.1400 AAPL 4/5/12 620.0000 151 3.1000 dn 4.1000 BRCD 7/21/12 3.0000 138 0.0400 dn 0.0900 BRCD 7/21/12 4.0000 138 0.0600 up 0.0100 BRCD 5/19/12 3.0000 135 0.0200 dn 0.0400 BRCD 5/19/12 2.0000 135 0.0200 dn 0.0200 -VOLUME- CALLS PUTS TOTAL 8762 10301 19063
-CALLS- OPTION EXP.DATE STRIKE PRC. VOLUME LAST S/PRC. NET CHANGE F 5/19/12 14.0000 5057 0.1700 up 0.0600 AAPL 4/5/12 630.0000 4474 6.3000 up 4.0400 AAPL 4/5/12 625.0000 3155 8.7000 up 5.1000 AAPL 4/5/12 635.0000 3068 4.2000 up 2.9400 PZG 9/22/12 2.5000 2937 0.4500 up 0.1500 AAPL 4/21/12 630.0000 2763 14.7500 up 4.0000 BAC 4/5/12 10.0000 2613 0.0200 dn 0.0200 AAPL 4/5/12 620.0000 2364 12.1000 up 6.2500 AAPL 4/5/12 640.0000 2276 2.7000 up 1.9500 F 4/21/12 13.0000 2006 0.2500 up 0.1000 -PUTS- OPTION EXP.DATE STRIKE PRC. VOLUME LAST S/PRC. NET CHANGE AAPL 5/19/12 630.0000 1894 30.7600 dn 4.1400 RIMM 4/21/12 13.0000 1824 0.3100 up 0.1000 AAPL 5/19/12 605.0000 1721 20.0600 dn 2.4900 AAPL 4/5/12 610.0000 1624 1.3000 dn 1.7700 AAPL 4/5/12 615.0000 1558 2.1000 dn 2.7000 AAPL 4/5/12 620.0000 1553 3.2500 dn 3.7500 LVS 4/5/12 57.5000 1247 0.4000 dn 0.1100 AAPL 4/5/12 625.0000 1237 5.2200 dn 4.8800 AAPL 4/5/12 600.0000 1174 0.6400 dn 0.6000 AAPL 4/5/12 605.0000 1120 0.8700 dn 1.1000 -VOLUME- CALLS PUTS TOTAL 272638 202694 475332Comments »
52 Week Highs and Lows
NYSE
New Highs 88 COMPANY SYMBOL HIGH VOLUME ------- ------ ---- ------ AES Tr III 6.75% Tr pfd. AESpC 50.14 882 Airgas Inc ARG 90.48 57,631 Amer Campus Communities ACC 45.49 75,508 Amer Vanguard AVD 23.97 170,790 Amphenol APH 61.84 77,664 Anheuser Busch BUD 73.92 90,473 Arabian American Dev ARSD 10.60 103,402 Asbury Automotive ABG 28.68 107,140 Avalonbay Communities AVB 141.73 46,233 Ball Corp BLL 43.22 108,919 Bluegreen Corp BXG 4.57 5,700 Carlisle Cos CSL 52.70 46,500 Church & Dwight CHD 49.95 42,079 Coca-Cola Femsa KOF 108.88 29,692 Colgate-Palmolive CL 98.76 278,406 Colonial Properties Tr CLP 22.08 65,404 Community Bank Sys CBU 29.47 31,678 CompanhiaSBEDP SBS 80.79 41,994 Energ Gerais-Cemig C CIG/C 21.77 800 Cons Ed 4.65% pfd. C EDpC 102.00 1,000 Constellation Brands A STZ 24.43 452,038 Constellation Brands B STZ/B 24.38 200 Copa Hldgs Cl A CPA 81.00 23,430 Core Labs CLB 134.99 45,469 Credicorp BAP 134.88 36,730 Culp Inc CFI 11.78 8,460 DWS Hi Incm Opps Fd DHG 16.25 9,301 Douglas Emmett DEI 23.17 52,391 EastGroup Properties EGP 51.05 92,726 Ecopetrol EC 62.69 55,722 Education Realty Trust EDR 10.99 57,087 El Paso Corp EP 30.53 1,140,154 Equity One EQY 20.43 31,753 Family Dollar FDO 65.21 673,092 GNC Holdings A GNC 35.60 533,841 Gazit-Globe GZT 10.80 19,028 Global Cash Access GCA 8.17 97,254 Group 1 Auto GPI 59.73 117,340 Haemonetics HAE 71.50 11,281 Health Net HNT 40.52 104,079 Hitachi Ltd HIT 66.99 24,208 Hospitality Properties Tr HPT 26.92 57,374 Imperva IMPV 41.07 1,760 IBM IBM 210.61 714,606 Jarden Corp JAH 40.89 50,054 Just Energy Group JE 14.14 31,391 KKR Finl 7.5% Notes 2042 KFI 25.10 12,194 Kayne Andrsn Midstr Engy KMF 28.17 38,950 Kenneth Cole KCP 16.39 5,516 Kilroy Realty KRC 47.29 41,136 Kinder Morgan KMI 40.25 425,154 LeapFrog Cl A LF 8.69 59,279 Liberty Property Tr LRY 36.28 66,612 Macy's Inc M 40.98 670,726 McGraw-Hill MHP 48.89 126,908 McKesson Corp MCK 88.92 104,103 Myers Industries MYE 15.50 17,254 Novo Nordisk NVO 151.16 101,783 Nuveen Ins CA NXC 15.15 774 Nuveen Ohio Qual Income NUO 17.92 7,951 Omnicare Inc OCR 36.31 403,556 Par Pharma PRX 40.00 20,777 Polaris Indus PII 75.41 107,141 Post Properties PPS 47.98 56,220 Primerica PRI 26.57 87,993 Primus Telecommunications PTGI 16.40 1,200 RSC Hldgs RRR 23.12 32,516 Roundys RNDY 11.98 577,373 Select Income REIT SIR 23.59 8,225 Sempra Energy SRE 62.47 464,106 Simon Property Group SPG 147.14 92,515 JM Smucker SJM 81.97 68,630 Sovran Self Storage SSS 50.91 4,666 Stewart Info Svcs STC 14.87 22,686 Sturm Ruger RGR 52.99 98,506 Sun Communities SUI 44.05 14,670 Taro Pharmaceutical Indus TARO 39.94 10,215 Tempur-Pedic TPX 85.93 74,510 Tennant Co TNC 46.24 17,685 Teradata Cp TDC 70.00 101,607 Textron Inc TXT 29.18 511,078 Thai Fund Inc TTF 16.13 6,500 Thermon Group Holdings THR 22.10 23,949 Total Sys Svcs TSS 23.28 52,846 Tyler Tech TYL 39.60 10,307 Utd Rentals URI 44.71 166,044 Virtus Glbl MultiSector VGI 20.25 57,107 Xinyuan Real Estate XIN 3.95 294,931 New Lows 8 COMPANY SYMBOL LOW VOLUME ------- ------ ---- ------ BlackRock Utility & Infr BUI 17.65 159,810 Christopher & Banks CBK 1.84 7,127 EXCO Resources XCO 6.48 871,887 GasLog Ltd GLOG 12.25 122,789 Memc Elec Materials WFR 3.45 1,163,192 NTT DOCOMO Inc DCM 16.54 45,767 Supervalu SVU 5.50 1,065,774 YPF SA YPF 23.50 472,253
NASDAQ
New Highs 68 COMPANY SYMBOL HIGH VOLUME ------- ------ ---- ------ Aceto ACET 9.98 22,577 Acorn Energy ACFN 11.25 33,765 Align Technology ALGN 28.99 53,310 Amsurg AMSG 28.33 10,397 Analogic ALOG 69.72 5,724 Apple AAPL 631.29 7,525,581 Arctic Cat ACAT 44.42 32,724 Array BioPharma ARRY 3.53 140,279 Bank of The Ozarks OZRK 32.19 9,841 BBC Capital Trust II 8.5% BBXT 32.30 2,700 CalAmp CAMP 5.38 17,064 Carmike Cinemas CKEC 14.92 14,787 Carrols Restaurant Group TAST 15.89 9,987 Chefs' Warehouse CHEF 27.26 3,810 Citizens Republic Bancorp CRBC 15.85 6,570 Columbia Banking System COLB 23.45 4,561 Computer Task CTGX 15.53 3,191 Conn's CONN 19.83 584,035 Descartes Systems Group DSGX 9.29 4,978 Discovery Comm A DISCA 51.19 99,199 EnteroMedics ETRM 2.85 396,986 Equinix EQIX 161.56 128,228 eResearch Tech ERT 8.08 33,362 Euronet Worldwide EEFT 21.34 18,937 FEI Co FEIC 49.92 6,178 F5 Networks FFIV 138.80 285,847 Fiserv FISV 70.67 61,011 Fonar Corp FONR 3.24 153,482 Hackett Group HCKT 6.28 24,120 Hain Celestial Group HAIN 45.70 50,025 Heritage Commerce HTBK 6.77 13,905 Home BancShares HOMB 27.29 4,238 ICU Medical ICUI 50.43 4,327 Infinity Pharmaceuticals INFI 12.55 22,756 Integrated Silicon Sol ISSI 11.50 21,861 Interval Leisure Gp IILG 17.88 4,748 iShrNasdaqBiotch IBB 124.70 37,280 Madison Square Garden MSG 34.80 13,695 Medivation MDVN 78.40 197,114 Monster Beverage MNST 63.74 101,237 O'Reilly Automotive ORLY 94.00 107,482 On Assignment ASGN 18.30 31,500 PDF Solutions PDFS 8.59 13,276 PLX Tech PLXT 4.23 14,767 Pacer Intl PACR 6.53 98,735 Parametric Tech PMTC 28.80 145,939 Peapack Gladstone PGC 14.20 1,477 PwrShs S&P SmCp Hlth Cre PSCH 35.74 860 Pozen POZN 6.51 283,754 ProShs Ult Nsdq Biotech BIB 98.03 752 Quality Distribution QLTY 14.12 19,819 Regeneron Pharmaceuticals REGN 121.75 115,603 Repligen RGEN 6.25 38,140 Retalix RTLX 19.05 9,960 Ryanair Hldgs PLC (ADS) RYAAY 36.82 70,145 SXC Health Solutions SXCI 78.75 378,164 A Schulman SHLM 27.96 13,940 Shuffle Master SHFL 18.73 109,413 Smith & Wesson Hldg SWHC 8.60 486,420 Snyders-Lance LNCE 26.38 12,785 Spirit Airlines SAVE 21.18 183,061 Starbucks SBUX 56.94 647,022 Tractor Supply Co TSCO 92.86 125,976 US Ecology ECOL 22.30 11,474 Ulta Salon Cosmetics ULTA 95.15 133,246 VeriSign VRSN 39.17 229,756 Waterstone Fincl WSBF 3.28 2,300 Zumiez ZUMZ 38.65 72,354 New Lows 12 COMPANY SYMBOL LOW VOLUME ------- ------ ---- ------ A123 Sys Inc AONE 0.92 1,380,940 Analog Devices ADI 39.54 268,413 CafePress PRSS 17.24 12,876 First Solar FSLR 23.33 1,302,918 Giga-Tronics GIGA 1.13 4,128 MDC Partners (Cl A) MDCA 10.88 6,436 Nexxus Lighting NEXS 0.51 102,890 SMART Technologies SMT 2.95 5,002 SatCon Tech SATC 0.30 386,093 Sunshine Heart SSH 8.50 200 Swisher Hygiene SWSH 2.04 275,669 YRC Worldwide YRCW 6.26 18,156Comments »
GM Falls Slightly Short of Sales Estimates
Factory Orders: Prior -1%, Market Expects +1.4%, Actual +1.3%
Judge Overrules FEC’s Support of Anonymous Campaign Donations
“Wealthy benefactors of special-interest political campaigns may have to reveal their identity in the wake of a federal judge’s ruling.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled late last week that the Federal Election Commission (FEC) went too far in 2007 when it allowed groups that fund certain election ads to keep their financiers anonymous.
The ruling could have serious ramifications for groups supporting both Republican and Democratic campaigns, such as the Karl Rove-controlled Crossroads GPS and the President Barack Obama-friendly Priorities USA Action.
These organizations may now have to expose who has donated to them and how much. For Representative Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland), who sued the FEC over its regulation, that’s a good thing.
“This is good news for our democracy and for voters—this victory will compel the FEC to require enhanced disclosures of the funders of campaign-related advertisements,” Van Hollen said in a statement.
In 2010, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, almost 44% of independent campaign spending was contributed by undisclosed donors. As recently as 2006, that figure was 1%.
The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, commonly known as the McCain-Feingold Law after its sponsors, John McCain (R-Arizona) and Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin), said that all groups that spend more than $10,000 on campaign ads had to file reports with the FEC. In January 2010, the Supreme Court, in the Citizens United case, overturned portions of McCain-Feingold. However, Judge Jackson ruled that the FEC does not have the authority to overrule the section of McCain-Feingold that deals with anonymity.”
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‘We May Yet See the End of Too Big To Fail’
“We may yet see the end of Too Big To Fail.
That’s the message of a research note on Monday by Frederick Cannon and other bank-stock analysts at the firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, after studying historical patterns of regulation and de-regulation.
“We believe that the historical analysis suggests that investors should be prepared for the possible eventual break-up of the largest financials,” the analysts write, “including” Bank of America, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase.
The note hits just as Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher is getting headlines for hiscalls to break up the biggest banks. These calls don’t appear to be getting any traction with lawmakers just yet, but they do resonate with a public angry about how these banks blew up the economy only to be encouraged to get even bigger and riskier in the aftermath.
In the note, the KBW analysts apply a World Bank method for studying cycles of regulation and de-regulation of national economies to the U.S. banking sector. They point out that these cycles follow regular patterns, like the stages of grief.
The cycle starts with a frenzy for de-regulation, followed by a period of the abuses that de-regulation inevitably causes, and eventually ends with the brutal re-regulation of the industries that got de-regulated, including the breakup of the biggest institutions in those industries.
It’s easy to see the pattern developing here. U.S. banks were heavily regulated and kept from getting too big to hurt the economy in the years that followed the Great Depression. They started chafing at their restraints eventually, lobbying for new laws that let them get bigger, more powerful and riskier.
Congress gladly obliged, leading to a de-regulating cycle that peaked, KBW argues, with 1999’s Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which repealed the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, letting banks form super-giant conglomerates that could take your deposits in one hand and make risky bets on mortgage-backed securities in another.
Thus was born the First National Bank of Huge: KBW points out that, in 1996, none of the 10 biggest U.S. banks had more than $350 billion in assets. By 2006, four banks had more than $1 trillion, and seven had more than $500 billion in assets.
The first sign that this wave of deregulation had broken and was starting to retreat came with the Sarbanes-Oxley law in 2002, and the re-regulation picked up pace with the Dodd-Frank act that followed in the wake of the financial crisis.
That re-regulation cycle has only just begun, KBW argues.
In fact, the biggest banks have only gotten bigger since the crisis: JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America have more than $2 trillion in assets each, while Citigroup has nearly $2 trillion. That could change, KBW argues, either due to regulatory pressure or — maybe more likely — market pressure, as gargantuan banks find it increasingly hard to keep growing their profits and attracting new investors.
“As part of the current cycle of re-regulation, the industry has already experienced declining profitability and public subsidies to ensure credit availability,” KBW writes. “Other parts of the current cycle traditionally would include declines in services and the break-up of the large institutions.”
And it’s not just the big banks that are at risk:
“At some point in the future, we would expect the current cycle to include public debate on the reduction in financial services and cuts in subsidies, particularly to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” the analysts add.”
Comments »Experts Say Stocks Still Have Room to Run
Click chart for more market data.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Despite uncertainty about the global economy and corporate profits, experts say stocks are still poised to move higher this year.
Stocks have already staged an impressive rally, with the major gauges posting their biggest first-quarter gains in over a decade. The advance has pushed the S&P 500 (SPX) its highest level in nearly five years.
The strong gains have raised speculation that the market may be due for a pullback. But traders say any so-called correction will likely be modest and provide an opportunity for longer-term investments.
“We think there’s more room to run,” said Kate Warne, chief investment strategist with Edward Jones. “The fundamentals have continued to move in a stronger direction in terms of earnings and economic growth.”
The outlook for stocks should become clearer next week when corporations begin reporting first-quarter earnings, starting with Dow (INDU) component Alcoa (AA, Fortune 500), which reports April 10.
Overall, earnings for companies in the S&P 500 are expected to grow just under 1% in the first quarter, compared with the prior year, according to S&P Capital IQ.
That would mark a sharp slowdown from the fourth-quarter of 2011, when earnings grew more than 10%.
What earnings would look like without Apple
In addition, much of the anticipated growth in the first quarter can be attributed to the strong performance of individual companies, such as Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500), rather than broad-based improvement across Corporate America.
Still, the fact that few companies have preannounced results suggests that earnings may beat investors’ very low expectations, said Kevin Rendino, senior portfolio manager at Blackrock.
“The good news is that we can expect another slew of very solid earnings reports,” he said.
In addition to continued earnings growth, investors say the recent rally can also be sustained because stocks are currently undervalued.
Stocks only look cheap
The price-to-earnings ratio for the S&P 500, which investors use to gauge whether stocks are cheap or not, stood at 14.2 at the end of March. That’s far below its average of 18 over the past 23 years, when S&P started measuring operating earnings.
“I recognize that there are potholes out there,” said Rendino. “But I also recognize that the market is very inexpensive.”
Comments »Crack Spreads are About to Hit 52 Week Highs
Brent WTI Spread Blows Out
US Economy Enters Sweet Spot as China’s Growth Slows
“The U.S. once again may be emerging as a main engine for global growth — and at an opportune time, as Europe slides into recession and China’s economy decelerates.
An improving job market, rising stock prices and easier credit are combining to lift U.S. consumer confidence and spending, with optimism measured by the Bloomberg Comfort Index near a four-year high. Personal-consumption expenditures increased by the most in seven months in February, rising 0.8 percent, the Commerce Department said last week.
“We’re entering a sweet spot for the economy,” said Allen Sinai, president of Decision Economics Inc. in New York. “We’re in a self-reinforcing cycle,” where faster employment growth leads to higher household income and increased consumer spending.
International companies, including Milan-based Gianni Versace SpA, already are benefiting. Revenue for the Italian designer will rise at a “really strong double-digit” pace this year in the U.S., compared with “a significant single-digit” amount in Europe, according to Chief Executive Officer Gian Giacomo Ferraris.
“America is doing fantastic,” he said last month.
The blossoming of the U.S. expansion comes amid a slowdown in China, until now the pacesetter for the world. While a purchasing-managers’ index rose to a one-year high in March, according to China’s logistics federation and the National Bureau of Statistics, analysts said the gain was seasonal and pointed to a separate index produced by HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics that showed manufacturing contracted and export orders fell last month….”
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Stanford’s Lazear: US Suffering Worst Economic Recovery in History
High Gas Prices Have Not Hurt Consumer Spending…….YET
Most Notable Premarket Movers
“NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Shares of the following companies were among those making notable moves ahead of Tuesday’s U.S. stock-market open:
Advancers
CVR Energy Inc.’s CVI +1.68% shares climbed 6% after investor Carl Icahn said 55% of its outstanding shares were tendered into his $2.26 billion, or $30 a share, unsolicited bid for the crude-oil refiner.
Vringo Inc.’s VRNG +6.45% shares jumped nearly 12%. Tech Crunch’s James Altucher argued in a posting Saturday that the maker of social-networking software’s patent suit against Google Inc. GOOG +0.17% could prove lucrative. Read his viewpoint.
Decliners
Uranium Energy Corp.’s UEC -6.48% shares skidded 6.7% to $3.60 a day after it said it would conduct a secondary public offering of nearly 5.6 million shares priced at $3.60 each. “
Comments »The Trade Deficit is Reported to Be Worse Than Originally Thought; 1.3 Million Jobs May Have Been Lost
“If you go by the official data, U.S. workers have benefited from international trade in the past few years. The reported deficit in the trade of goods fell 25 percent from 2007 to 2011, adjusted for price changes. A shrinking trade gap is good for workers because it means more Americans are being kept busy producing things for domestic and foreign consumption.
But what if those trade numbers are wrong? After all, the U.S. lost 2 million manufacturing jobs from 2007 to 2011. A new research report from the Democratic-leaning Progressive Policy Institute says the trade deficit isworse than officially stated. It says the government is understating how much of what Americans consume is actually produced abroad, particularly in such low-cost nations as China. Report authors Michael Mandel and Diana Carew calculate that rising imports account for the loss of about 1.3 million American jobs from 2007 to 2011, or about one-third of all the job losses in the private sector outside construction over that period.
Mandel and Carew say the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis underestimates the value of imports from low-wage nations because of an “import price bias.” They say when a U.S. company switches to a cheaper supplier—such as a Chinese company—and its import bill falls, the government mistakenly assumes the American company is buying fewer items, rather than getting a lower price per item. So it understates imports.
I have asked the Bureau of Economic Analysis about this issue in the past, and it has responded that, while the phenomenon is real, it is not as big as Mandel makes it out to be. Mandel, a former chief economist atBusinessweek, and Carew present case studies from apparel, furniture, autos, communications equipment, and computers to bolster their case. I asked the government for comment on the latest report today and will update this article if I hear anything.”
Comments »U.S. Equity Preview: UEC, SZYM, SIAL, GWRE, CVI, & CAVM
Cavium Inc. (CAVM) fell 3.4 percent to $29.52. The San Jose, California-based chipmaker forecast revenue in the first quarter will fall as much as 7 percent from the prior quarter.
CVR Energy Inc. (CVI) gained 7 percent to $29.10. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn extended to April 30 the deadline for his unsolicited offer for the producer of refined products and fertilizer, after 55 percent of shares were tendered under his $30-a-share bid for the company.
Guidewire Software Inc. (GWRE) (GWRE US) fell 5 percent to $28.50. The developer of software for the property and casualty insurance industry filed plans to offer 7.5 million shares.
Pep Boys — Manny, Moe & Jack (PBY US): The Philadelphia- based automotive retailer reported a fourth-quarter loss of 8 cents a share, compared with the average analyst estimate of a 13-cent profit.
Sigma-Aldrich Corp. (SIAL) : The maker of chemicals for research laboratories acquired biomedical supplier Research Organics Inc. Terms of the deal weren’t undisclosed. The St. Louis-based company said the deal will be “neutral” to earnings in 2012.
Solazyme Inc. (SZYM) (SZYM US) rose 6.8 percent to $15.28. The maker of oil products from genetically modified algae formed a joint venture with Bunge Ltd. (BG) for a commercial-scale renewable tailored oils production facility in Brazil.
Uranium Energy Corp. (UEC) fell 6.5 percent to $3.61. The developer of a mine in Texas said it plans to sell up to 5.6 million shares at $3.60 each.
Comments »Upgrades and Downgrades This Morning
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) Started as Buy at Auriga; target raised to $715 at JPMorgan
Carnival Corporation (NYSE: CCL) named as Bear of the Day at Zacks.
Clean Energy Fuels Corporation (NASDAQ: CLNE) Started as Neutral at Macquarie.
Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) named as Bull of the Day at Zacks.
Express Scripts Inc. (NASDAQ: ESRX) Started as Overweight at JPMorgan.
GNC Holdings Inc. (NYSE: GNC) Raised to Outperform at BMO.
Goldcorp Inc. (NYSE: GG) Started as Neutral at Citigroup.
Groupon, Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) Started as Neutral at Stern Agee.
Kinross Gold Corporation (NYSE: KGC) Started as Buy at Citigroup.
Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) Cut to Equal-weight at Barclays.
Newmont Mining Corporation (NYSE: NEM) Cut to Neutral at Citigroup.
Philip Morris International, Inc. (NYSE: PM) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Schlumberger Limited (NYSE: SLB) Raised to Buy at Stern Agee.
The Timken Company (NYSE: TKR) named as Value stock of the day at Zacks.
Urban Outfitters Inc. (NASDAQ: URBN) Raised to Neutral at Citigroup.
Comments »In Play and On the Wires
CFTC Accuses Royal Bank of Canada of Trading Millions of Dollars of Futures Trades to Create Tax Breaks
“Royal Bank of Canada was accused by U.S. regulators of hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal futures trades with itself in order to reap tax benefits.
In a federal-court lawsuit filed Monday in New York, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission alleged a “wash trading scheme of massive proportion” by Canada’s largest bank. From 2007 to 2010, officials at RBC coordinated with two subsidiaries on the purchase and sale of futures contracts that gave the right to sell stock later at certain prices, the CFTC alleged….”
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