A fear driven rally may be underway….

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Gapping up 

OPLK +5.2%, NOK +4.5%, BRCD +3.9%, TEF +3.3%, IDIX +7.9% , GTAT +1%,

AAPL +0.3%, FINL +2% , AFCE +0.7, CHC +34.7% , ANN +11.2%, FL +5.6%,

OPLK +5.2%, GPS +1.5%, SAN +1.9%, DB +1.8%, CS +1.6%, BCS +1.5%, UBS +1.1%, ING +0.7%,

Gapping down

MRVL -8.5%, ARO -7.8%, COSI -7%, LPHI -6.7%, PMT -4.1%, MCP -4.1%, DRYS -2.2%, AVGO -1.9%,

GRPN -1.6%, VVUS -6.4%, ARCC -3.6% , MCP -7.7%,  GGP -2%,  GSK -0.9%, NVS -0.8%,  IO -22.1%,

GOLD -4.1%, HMY -3.3%, RIO -1.8%, AU -1.6%, BBL -1.5%, SCSC -4.7%, HIBB -3.9%,

“International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), following a deal to buy Texas Memory Systems Inc., vowed to continue its five-year shopping spree by acquiring more companies in the storage industry.

IBM announced the purchase yesterday of closely held Texas Memory, a designer of flash memory, without disclosing terms. The goal is to provide a more complete storage system than competitors by assembling the components through purchases of smaller companies, said Bob Cancilla, vice president for storage systems at Armonk, New York-based IBM.”

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“CSCO, FB, SIRI, GRPN, NTAP, AMAT, SINA, ZNGA, MSFT, EA, ARNA”

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” Facebook Inc. (FB) fell after freeing up an additional 271.1 million shares, boosting by 60 percent the number available to trade and compounding concerns that have depressed the stock since the initial public offering.”

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Gapping up

CCRT +57.4%, EA +13.8%, CSTR +8.5%, CSCO +5.8%, PETM +5.6%, NTAP +5.5%,

SINA +5.2%, DANG +2.6%, EMC +2.2%, JNPR +1.4%, NFLX +1.2%, HOTT +1%,

INSM +3.6%, ANF +0.8% ,  GME +5.6% , VQ +14.4%, CCRT +57.4%, PPHM +8%

Gapping down 

A -7.6%, AMAT -5.9%, NYMT -4.9%, LTD -0.4%,  GNC -4.4%,  CRH -1.1% , SPLS -1.1% ,

SBAC -0.7%, MCP -10.4%,  FB -2.4%, DANG -3%, WMT -2.8%, PRGO -2.2%,

“(Reuters) – Shares of Cisco Systems Inc looked set to open up 7 percent on Thursday after the network equipment maker’s dividend hike overshadowed a lackluster quarterly sales performance and prompted several brokerages to raise their price targets on the stock.

Shares of the company, which closed at $17.35 on the Nasdaq on Wednesday, rose to $18.49 in premarket trading on Thursday. The stock had fallen 11 percent after Cisco reported a weak third-quarter profit in May.

Cisco said on Wednesday it will raise its quarterly dividend by 75 percent to 14 cents per share after reporting fourth-quarter revenue largely in line with analysts’ estimates. It also said it bought back $1.8 billion worth of shares in the quarter.”

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“SYDNEY (Reuters) – BHP Billiton said on Thursday jobs could go at its Australian coal mines as the company faces a deteriorating market, the latest sign of global miners scaling back operations due to slowing industrial activity in China.

The prospect of job cuts raises doubts about the strength of Australia’s mining boom, which has hinged on China importing hundreds of millions of tonnes of iron ore, coal, copper and other minerals year-in and year-out for most of the past decade.”

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“Apple Inc. (AAPL), the world’s most valuable company, is in talks with at least one of the largest U.S. cable companies about building a set-top box that would carry live television and other content, a person with knowledge of the discussions said.

Consumers would be able to purchase the device instead of paying a monthly leasing fee to cable companies, said the person, who requested anonymity because the talks are private.”

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“Warren Buffett’s company has dropped its stake in Intel and added new investments in National Oilwell Varco and Phillips 66.

Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc. revealed the moves in a regulatory filing after the market closed Tuesday. The report revealed the new holdings and detailed other shifts in the company’s $74.3 billion stock portfolio.

In the three months ending June 30, Berkshire dropped all of its 7.7 million shares in Intel Corp. It bought 2.8 million shares in National Oilwell Varco Inc. and 27 million shares in Phillips 66.”

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“Billionaire investors George Soros and John Paulson increased their stakes in the biggest exchange- traded fund backed by gold as prices posted the largest quarterly drop since 2008.

Soros Fund Management more than doubled its investment in the SPDR Gold Trust to 884,400 shares as of June 30, compared with three months earlier, a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing for second-quarter holdings showed. Paulson & Co. increased its holdings by 26 percent to 21.8 million shares.

Gold slumped 4 percent in the second quarter, the biggest such loss since Sept. 30, 2008. Prices fell as European Central Bank President Mario Draghi and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke failed to increase stimulus measures, damping the outlook for global growth and demand for the metal as a hedge against inflation. The price is little changed since end-June.”

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“More than a dozen big merchants announced Wednesday their plans to jointly develop a mobile-payments network that will battle similar services from Google Inc.GOOG +0.66% and other companies.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., WMT +0.44% Target Corp., TGT +1.78% 7-Eleven Inc. andSunoco Inc. SUN +0.21% are among the companies hoping to elbow their way into the burgeoning market that turns smartphones into devices for making purchases.”

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“(Reuters) – Government-owned Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are stepping up efforts to find bad home loans that they can force mortgage lenders to buy back from them, providing an increasingly bigger headache to banks.

The government-controlled companies are squabbling with banks over who should bear the burden of losses from the housing crunch, in particular loans made between 2005 and 2008, when the market was at its frothiest.”

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RIMM, AET, CI, CVH, UNH, WLP, DELL, RIMM, MSFT, GDXJ, GDX

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Gapping up

APP +16%, REGI +7.4%, PEIX +6.1%, JDSU +5.8%, NOK +5.6%, NOV +2%,

PSX +1.4%, AET +1.2%, WAG +0.3%, VIP +7.7%,  GALE +5.3%, TGT+1.4%.

Gapping down 

CRMB -12%, NLST -10.5%, CVV -7.3%, KCG -6.4%, PPHM -4.8%, KITD -4.7%,

EFC -4%, MYGN -3.8%, RIO -3.7%, TICC -2.1%, MT -1.9%, STSA -1.8%, BBL -1.6%,

AGNC -0.8%,  CRH -3.4% , VOD -1.2%,

Having lost a billion-dollar case over illegal marketing of its pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson is now being sued for misleading consumers about the artificial sweetener Splenda.

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Dormant software….hmmmmmm

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Gapping up

ANW +9.2%, HD +2.6%, TTM +2.4%, SAN +2.2%, MLNX +1.8%, BCS +1.5%,

DEG +2.9%,  MCP +2.4% , ARMH +0.4% ,  KORS +13.8%, VELT +10.8,

ANW +9.2%, WX +7.3%, ARRY +4.8%, EL +4.5%, CEL +4.2%,  AGU +3.1%,

MNST +1.6%,

Gapping down 

ENVI -43.9%, SUMR -31%, GRPN -18.7%, MWE -4.3%, EDR -3.1%, TRS -0.9%,

WEN -1.4%,  LUV -1%, VALE -0.5% , CLSN -8.5%, TRS -0.9%,

“The same problems that plagued the foreclosure process — and prompted a multibillion-dollar settlement with big banks — are now emerging in the debt collection practices of credit card companies.

As they work through a glut of bad loans, companies like American Express,Citigroup and Discover Financial are going to court to recoup their money. But many of the lawsuits rely on erroneous documents, incomplete records and generic testimony from witnesses, according to judges who oversee the cases.”

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$GRPN is up  2% and is said to be subject of short covering.

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