Filed under: Options

Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) closed at $26 Tuesday.

NVDA is expected to report Q1 EPS 35 cents today according to Thomson Call.

NVDA February 25 straddle is priced at $2.50. NVDA March option implied volatility of 71 is above its 26-week average of 54 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

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Filed under: Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), General Electric (GE), Pfizer (PFE), Coca-Cola (KO), Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), Venezuela, Schlumberger Limited (SLB), Money and Finance Today, Costco Wholesale (COST), News Corp’B’ (NWS)

More Stocks to Love
Who says investing isn’t romantic? Kiplinger swoons over the shares of these five companies that will continue to flourish long after the Valentine’s Day roses wilt. They include GE, GameStop, Schlumberger, Costco and Microsoft.
5 Stocks We Love - Kiplinger.com

America for Sale
It’s not just Wall Street bailouts. Foreign ownership of U.S. assets is accelerating - and that’s a worrisome trend.
America for sale: Foreign buyers are grabbing U.S. assets - FORTUNE

Continue reading More stocks to love, America for sale & what’s in your wallet? - Today in Money 2/13

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Filed under: Deals, Management, Delta Air Lines (DAL)

As is true at many large companies, Delta (NYSE: DAL) gives pay-outs to senior management if there is a change of ownership and controlling interest in the corporation. Executives who might be pushed out in a merger or takeover are guaranteed a big pay day as they leave. Richard Anderson, the chief at Delta, has said he will waive his package.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the decision “is seen as a good-faith gesture by Mr. Anderson, who took the Delta helm in September, that he intends to remain at the airline well beyond the completion of any deal.” It is the kind of largess that is rarely seen in corporate America and it is refreshing.

Mr. Anderson may think there is a good chance of him staying in a merger with Northwest (NYSE: NWA), but that is clearly not guaranteed. One of the biggest problems in a merger would be a fight by labor unions to keep as many jobs as possible as a combined company cuts costs. The unions often point to out-sized management pay packages as a reason that they should retain jobs.

Mr. Anderson has taken that union argument off the table.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

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Filed under: General Motors (GM), Market matters, Stocks to Buy, Cramer on BloggingStocks

TheStreet.com’s Jim Cramer says it’s hated, but it’s got the world’s biggest share and several things that could go right for it.

So somebody must be short GM (NYSE: GM) (Cramer’s Take) and feeling the pain. Because no sooner did I mention on CNBC’s “Stop Trading!” yesterday that you had to think about buying GM, guys were emailing me about how I was really going to hurt people now. I guess, vs. what I have already been doing!

First, you have to understand my life. When you say, “Take a look at GM” when you told people to sell it in the 40s, buy it back at $18, sell it again at $36 and buy it back at $27 as I did yesterday, I think I deserve the benefit of the doubt. But the angry emailers either had no idea that I had that good a record on this one OR they didn’t care because I hurt their shorts.

Worse, they couch their pathetic pleadings in terms of how I am going to hurt “retail,” which is Wall Street gibberish for the great unwashed, struggling to meet subprime loan-shark mortgages.

Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: The case for taking a shot on GM

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Filed under: Before the bell, Deals, Rumors, Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Apple Inc (AAPL), Pfizer (PFE), Research in Motion (RIMM), Nortel Networks (NT), News Corp’B’ (NWS), Palm Inc (PALM), BHP Billiton Ltd ADR (BHP), Rio Tinto plc ADS (RTP)

A new study shows that Pfizer (NYSE: PFE)’s cancer drug Sutent may be linked to more instances of heart failure than previously thought. Some 15% of patients suffered heart failure when taking Sutent, according to results from a small study, a higher rate than the 8% previously recognized.

After already raising its offer for Rio Tinto (NYSE: RTP), a senior executive on Wednesday said BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP) would have to raise it “considerably” to lure the miner into talks from the latest offer of 3.4 BHP shares for every RTP share — a deal at worth around $147.4 billion.

While Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) co-CEO Jim Balsillie declined to give details about future product plans, he said his company may bring out a touchscreen version of its BlackBerry if customers want it. Of course, this was in direct response to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone, which has won praise for its innovative touchscreen control. RIM would introduce devices based on HSDPA.
RIM customers experienced service disruption Monday and an early investigation indicated a problem caused by a recent upgrade aimed to increase capacity.

Continue reading Before the bell: PFE, RTP, BHP, RIMM, NWS, YHOO …

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Filed under: Before the bell, Applied Materials (AMAT), Vonage Holdings (VG)

Vonage (NYSE:VG) is up 4% on a narrowed loss in the most recent quarter.

Applied Material (NASDAQ:AMAT) is up over 5% on an upgrade from Citigroup.

E*Trade (NASDAQ:ETFC) is up over 2% on news of good January results.

Blue Nile (NASDAQ:NILE) is off 24% on bad earnings.

First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR) is up 20% on strong earings.

Stocks may trade differently in the pre-market than they do in the regular session.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

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Filed under: Newspapers, Magazines, Exxon Mobil (XOM), Walt Disney (DIS), Amer Intl Group (AIG), China Mobile Limited (CHL)

MAJOR PAPERS:

• The Wall Street Journal reported that analysts are looking to assess the significance of a new accounting problem at American International Group Inc (NYSE: AIG) which includes “material weakness” the company’s auditor found that relates to subprime exposure.
• China Mobile Limited (NYSE: CHL) is expected to announce its support today for Long Term Evolution, a wireless broadband standard gaining strong momentum as the next-generation wireless technology for providing super-fast web surfing on cellular phones, the Financial Times reported.

OTHER PAPERS:

• According to the Associated Press, Petroleos de Venezuela SA said it has stopped selling crude oil to Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM). The decision, made “as an act of reciprocity” for Exxon’s “judicial-economic harassment,” will also include the suspension of commercial relations with the U.S. company.

WEB SITES:

• Reuters reported that The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) signed a deal to buy 20% of Net TV, a digital television company controlled by Spanish media company Vocento.

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Filed under: Before the bell, Earnings reports, Coca-Cola (KO), Exxon Mobil (XOM), Market matters, Economic data, Deere and Co (DE), Housing

U.S. stock futures were moderately higher this morning, indicating a similar open for U.S. stocks Wednesday. Before the opening bell, investors will turn their attention to earnings, including Coca Cola’s as well as to the government’s January retail sales report, which will likely show another drop.

On Tuesday, U.S. stocks climbed after billionaire investor Warren Buffett proposed a buyout of bond insurers’ municipal liabilities. The Dow industrials, which added as much as 220 points intraday, ended up 133 points, or 1.09%. The S&P 500 gained 9 points, or 0.73%, while the Nasdaq Composite finished flat.

At 8:30 a.m. EST, the Commerce Department will report January retail sales. Sales are expected to have dropped 0.3% in January, while sales ex-autos may have increased 0.2%. Through the state of retailers, investors will learn how consumers are faring. Since consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity and has been key in driving the economic expansion of recent years, the market could react to any surprises that would change the general pictures individual retailers have painted when reporting weak January sales figures earlier this month.

At 10:00 a.m., December business inventories are due and after that weekly crude inventories.

Gasoline stocks likely rose the past week and oil prices rebounded slightly Wednesday after earlier falling below $93 despite. Traders seemed to be reacting more to the expected rise in U.S. supplies and falling global demand rather than Venezuela’s halt of crude sales to Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM).

Continue reading Before the bell: Stock futures higher; Coke beats

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Filed under: Before the bell, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Morgan Stanley (MS), SLM Corp (SLM)

Oppenheimer downgraded Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) to “perform” from “outperform” and also knocked down Q1 estimates according to the AP.

Citigroup upgraded Dynergy (NYSE:DYN) from “hold” to “buy” according to Briefing.com. The news service also said that Bank of American upgraded Schering-Plough (NYSE:SGP) to “buy” from “neutral.”

SLM (NYSE:SLM) was raised to “outperform” at FBR according to 24/7 Wall St.

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Filed under: Deals, Industry, Citigroup Inc. (C), MBIA Inc (MBI)

Bond insurers including MBIA (NYSE:MBI) and Ambac (NYSE:ABK) can turn down an offer from Warren Buffett to back their muni-bond assets, but they will still have to get capital from somewhere. Government officials, especially in New York State, have been trying to get the big money center banks such as Citigroup (NYSE:C) to put that money up.

The question is whether the banks can spare the capital. As the FT notes of the Buffett program “it does not relieve the ratings pressure on the bond insurers, because of their exposure to structured bonds.” In other words, bond insurance companies could still be downgraded by credit agencies and the bonds that they insure could also have their ratings cut.

That would be bad news for banks who hold a lot of the muni-bonds and derivatives based on them. If this debt is devalued, banks could be forced to another round of write-offs.

What is clear is that the Buffett plan does not address the most critical need of the insurers. They must have help with their exposure to CDOs and other structured investments involving subprime paper. The banks are now damned if they put up capital which they may not readily have and damned if they don’t because bonds on their books, which are now insured, could lose their value.

A bit of a Mexican stand-off.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

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