Stocks on the run pre market

Macy’s volatility low, shares up in pre-open on July sales and EPS outlook
Macy’s is recently trading at $15.35 in pre-open trading, above its close of $14.22. M expects Q2 earnings of 15c to 17c. M is scheduled to report Q2 EPS on August 12. M August option implied volatility is at 69; September is at 63; below its 26-week average of 81, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movemen

Chinese drywall may adversely be affecting thousands of U.S. homes, WSJ says
Thousands of homes built in the U.S. between 2006 and 2007 may be negatively impacted from the use of drywall made in China, reports the Wall Street Journal. The drywall is being investigated by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, state health departments, and others. A number of reports are expected to be released this month and next. Recalls or others actions are expected.  We will have a list of stocks to short later today.

Reference www.wsj.com

UQI International Inc. (NASDAQ: FUQI) The Chinese jeweler said that Q2-2009 revenues rose by 50.6% to $100.8 Million as gross margin rose 660 basis points to 17.2%.  Net income rose 86.8% to $9.9 million, or $0.45 EPS.  To add a bit of juice, it raised its full year revenue and net income guidance. At 8:41 AM EST we show a gain of 13% to $27.61 on some 44,000 shares.  As this was the #1 pick from IBD and as this is a 52-week high above the old $25.60 hit this week,

XTO Energy upgraded to Add from Neutral at CapitalOne southcoast; tgt $51  (41.96)

Gerdau GGB  posts 2Q net loss of
GGB reports in Q2 net loss as a decline in the value of the company’s assets and tax payments added to the pain of the global economic slowdown. Gerdau reported a second-quarter net loss of 329 million Brazilian reals $181 m down from a net profit of BRL2.12 billion in the same quarter a year ago. Without the non-recurring charges, Gerdau said the company would have posted a second quarter net profit of BRL467 million. Gerdau, the largest long steel maker in the western hemisphere, reported net revenue of BRL6.4 billion in the second quarter, down 42% from BRL11.1 billion a year ago.

ZUMZ gets up grade to Average from Below Average and raises their tgt to $9 from $7 following the co’s July comps of -16.8%.  While the firm doesn’t see ZUMZ as out of the woods yet, in regards to their exposure to Western states and their higher price branded product, but things do look less bad as the co heads into back to- school in earnest and even the Western states are showing improvement.

Mid Day stocks

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Stocks rebounding.

Stocks are still lower but they’re off their worst levels of the session. Profit taking all day is the main reason.
Each sell off has brought out buyers. The averages have been establishing higher lows with each sell off and subsequent buying, setting up what could be a late day move towards positive territory. The Dow is down 70 to 9,250, the NASDAQ is down 25.50 to 1,985.85, and the S&P is down 6.75 to 998.90.

MOVERS
On2 Technologies (ONT) up 50% after announcing that it will be acquired by Google (GOOG)

Onyxx Pharmaceuticals (ONXX) is down over 14% after announcing concurent offerings of 4M shares of common stock and $200M in convertible senior notes.

INOVIO Biomedical (AMEX:INO) (INO) is still up in the $2.56 up over 25% on 15milion shares.

If you think inflation is coming back go long TBT. I plan to

Unusual options trading activity in Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE).

As of 11:00 AM EST we have seen some 47,000 PFE AUG $13 CALLS traded today alone versus a prior open interest of a mere 120 contracts.  Out in September expiration, we have seen 10,500 of the SEPT $11 Calls trade versus a prior open interest of 10 contracts.

Stocks on the Move Volume spike premarket

Pharmacyclics (PCYC) released preliminary results of its rights offering to purchase up to 22.5M shares of the Company’s common stock at a subscription price of $1.28 per share.

Affymax (AFFY) releaseds Q2 EPS ($1.17) vs. consensus of ($1.27)
Reports Q2 revenue $26.92M vs. consensus of $25.32M.

Whole Foods(WFMI) at 52week high which is about 50% of the 2007 highs. The companyt released earnings which were better than expected.  We had over 1 million shares trade hands after the report after the close yesterday.

Novavax,Inc. (Nasdaq:NVAX) pre market spike on volume.  This biotech company makes a virus particle vaccine that works on  H1N1 influenza.  Novavax has produced essential reagents for measuring vaccine potency and also has plans to produce additional batches of the pandemic H1N1 VLP vaccine to support human clinical studies. Shares are up a sharp 23% at $5.76 in trading as of 8:15 AM EST on 657,000 shares.

American Capital Ltd. ACAS is looking like a short this morning  The businesses posted a $547 million second-quarter loss and is outside of its covenants.  The loss came to -$2.52 EPS and net operating income fell 86% to $20 million or $0.09 EPS

Big 5 (BGFV) Sporting Goods upgraded to Neutral from Underperform at Wedbush
Wedbush upgraded Big 5 following the company’s better than expected Q2 results and raised its target on shares to $14 from $9.

Nasdaq Composite

Pivot points for the $COMP. Pivot High: 2024.375, Pivot Low: 2002.525. It is generally believed to be bullish when price breaks out above the pivot high or bearish when price breaks down below the pivot low.

INO CLOSES 30 Million Funding Stocks flying

INO closes $30 mln registered direct offering

July 31 (Reuters) – Inovio Biomedical Corp: * Closes $30 million registered direct offering

Stocks in Play

Inovio Biomed (Amex:INO)  announced this morning pre market of a  $30m  registered direct offering (INO) 3.18 : Co announces that it has institutional investors to purchase $30 mln of securities in a registered direct offering. INO expects to receive net proceeds of approximately $28.5 mln.

Shares were on fire yesterday up 300%.  What about today?  Pre market is trading at 2.80

HGSI about to issue more shares

Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: HGSI)  has launched public offering of up to 18 million shares of its common stock. Goldman, Sachs & Co. (NYSE: GS) and Citigroup Global Markets (NYSE: C) are acting as joint bookrunning managers.

HGSI will give underwriters a 30-day option to buy up to 2.7 million shares a part of the investment banking otions.  (not a bad deal)

Use of proceeds from the offering are for clinical trial, research and development, general and administrative and manufacturing expenses and  potential sales and marketing activities.

HGSI hinted about a  potential acquisition of, or investment in, companies, products or technologies that complement its business.

Genome Sciences is a commercially focused biopharmaceutical company. In the first half of 2009, HGS achieved its first product revenues of $162.7 million when it delivered raxibacumab to the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile for the treatment of inhalation anthrax.

The company has two other products in late-stage clinical development, including Zalbin for chronic hepatitis C and Benlysta for systemic lupus erythematosus.

PRE MARKET Stocks on the Move July 23

July 23, 2009 Futures higher after initial jobless claims report

BEST BETS TODAY  Robert Half (RHI), Ann Taylor (ANN) and TrueBlue (TBI) were upgrades: Citigroup upgraded Robert Half to Hold from Sell following the company’s Q2 results, believing the worst may be behind the company.

Citi raised its target on shares to $24 from $18.
Goldman upgraded Ann Taylor to Buy from Neutral and raised its target to $13 from $6.50 citing improved merchandising and inventories.
Baird upgraded TrueBlue to Outperform from Underperform and raised its target to $12 from $9 citing the better than expected Q2 report and guidance, strong balance sheet, and valuation.

F5 Networks (FFIV) was upgraded to Neutral from Underperform at BofA/Merrill.
Sanmina (SANM) was upgraded to Neutral from Underperform at Credit Suisse.
F5 Networks price target raised to $28 from $22 at Broadpoint AmTech
After F5 Networks reported better than expected results, Broadpoint AmTech maintains a Neutral rating on the stock, but would become more constructive if the company’s product revenue significantly increases or the stock falls below $30.

Stocks slightly higher in premarket trading as Bulish Investors will attempt to get back in control today after the market broke its consecutive winning streak yesterday.
Besides the corporate leaders that will be reporting earnings, economic data due out this morning could change the direction of the stock prices.

Weekly initial jobless claims reports was 554,000 initial claims versus the expected 557,000, and the continuing claims were 6.22M versus the expected 6.39M. Also housing data of existing home sales are reported at 10 am ET, and natural gas inventories at 10:30 am ET.

Immucor: Earnings release
On better than expected news the stock could trade to the upper limit of the bullish price channel at $16. On a bullish breakout above the price channel the following resistance levels would become upside objectives: $16.69, $16.99, $17.25, $17.52, $17.85

On worse than expected news shares could trade to the lower limit of the price channel at $14.47.  On a bearish breakdown below the price channel the following support levels would become downside objectives: $14.37, $14.15, $13.75. Traders are positioned for positive news. Reactions on a surprise, especially a negative one given the short-skew, have a high probability of being extreme in duration and price. Very high gap risk.

Amazon (Nasdaq:AMZN) could trade to the upper limit of the  bullish price channel of $89.43. A breakout above the price channel the following resistance levels would  $90.00,  $93.38, $95.75,

Short side case. Shares have completed at “W” pattern ahead of earnings, trading at major multiyear resistance. On worse than expected news shares could trade to the lower limit of at $87.94  $84.75, $83.27, $81.97 Very high gap risk.

ONXX, on a tear this morning

Sharesof ONXX up ove $6. this morning.  Look at the charts it tells it all.    the $36 range could form a double top (bearish) or a breakout that the skys the limit.

Stay tuned

PIPE REPORT July 21, 2009

PIPE Volume Rose in 2nd Quarter, Compared With First
Posted July 21, 2009 12:00PM PST

The second quarter saw a promising increase in PIPE activity, as U.S.-listed companies raised $12.9 billion, or 63% more capital than they did in the first quarter, according to PrivateRaise, the data service of DealFlow Media. The number of deals rose 32% over the first quarter.

Major players in the PIPE market in the first half of the year included Iroquois Capital and Downsview Capital, the only fund managers to invest in more than 10 offerings; and Rodman & Renshaw, which placed 27 PIPEs, three times the number of placements by Lazard, the second most active placement agent. Investors who brought the most cash to the PIPE market were Berkshire Hathaway, which invested $3 billion in a private placement; Aabar Investments PJSC, with $2.6 billion; and Kuwait Investment Authority, with $1 billion. The companies that raised the most capital included four Dow Chemical, with $4 billion; BlackRock, Inc., with $2.8 billion; Daimler AG, with $2.5 billion; and ArcelorMittal, with $1.7 billion.

Data from the first half shows that PIPE financing activity has not returned to levels prevailing before the credit crunch of late 2008 and fickle securities markets depressed most forms of financing. The first half of 2009 saw a 44% drop in deal volume, compared with the year earlier period, and a 68% decline in total investment.

The third and fourth quarters could bring a further rebound towards last year’s numbers. In addition to increased deal flow, second quarter numbers reflect a growing trend in registered shelf offerings or “registered directs.” Companies raised $967.7 million in 57 registered direct offerings last quarter, compared to $417.9 million in 25 first quarter deals. While registered directs accounted for only about 7% of capital raised in the second quarter, the number of shelf statements filed in anticipation of future raises more than doubled from the same quarter last year. The 250 shelf statements filed in the second quarter of this year could be used to raise as much as $39 billion. As much as $72 billion could be raised from shelf statements filed during the entire first half of the year.

Even at the current level of activity they represent a fraction of the total PIPE market, and are not a viable option for the majority of emerging growth companies that remain ineligible for S-3 registration and must rely on the traditional PIPE market for equity capital.

Earnings on CTXS

Citrix Systems (CTXS) reports Q2 earnings after the market close on Wednesday, July 22, Citrix Systems to announce strong Q2 results,or above current expectations, and to maintain its FY09 guidance.

The core business held up reasonably well in the quarter, with William Blair estimated XenApp license revenues of $88M. The firm’s checks continue to indicate strong customer interest in desktop and client side virtualization, and it believes the company is well positioned to capitalize on this trend in the long term. However, despite its confidence that Citrix is likely to maintain full-year guidance

Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) is expected to report Q2 earnings before the market open on Wednesday, July. Analysts are looking for EPS of .34 on revenue of $18.95B. The consensus range for EPS is 0c to 50c, while the consensus range for revenue is $18.95B to $21.71B, according to First Call. A Sterne Agee analyst, reporting that he heard Wells had sold $600M of non-performing subprime loans for 35c on the dollar, recently predicted that Wells would have to raise more money through the equity markets. Last month S&P lowered the ratings of Wells and 21 other banks as the ratings agency predicts that operating conditions for the banking industry will become less favorable than in the past. June that Wells could report strong Q2 results. The firm said that Q2 estimates appeared to be low. The Citigroup analyst expected Wells to provide bullish guidance, although it maintained a Hold rating on the stock based on valuation. Also, the Q2 EPS of Wells peers JP Morgan (JPM), Bank of America (BAC) Goldman Sachs (GS), and Citigroup (C), beat expectations. JP Morgan and Citigroup said they saw improvements in the performance of the financial markets, while Goldman and Citigroup both said that the trading environment was favorable. Bank of America reported that it felt less constrained by macro economic factors. On the other hand, some analysts have been unenthusiastic about both banks’ fundamentals, and their stocks have fallen in recent days. (the Fly)

ECB Bancorp (Nasdaq:ECBC) reports Q2 EPS 19c vs.