9:10am (EST)
Futures are pointing towards a higher open this morning following yesterday’s selloff. The Dow ended Thursday with a 132 point drop and settled at 10,308 while the S&P 500 fell 13 and finished at 1,096.
Today is a quadruple witching day which means contracts for stock index futures, stock index options, stock options and single stock futures all expire today. It is what is known as “Quadruple Witching” day on Wall Street and it can be extreme volatility depending on the current market environment.
We mentioned yesterday that we expected the market to power higher today but given the lack of volatility over the past couple of months, we don’t believe we that will be the case today.
We had a number of companies report earnings after the bell last night and Wall Street seems to like what they heard. Research In Motion (RIMM, $63.46, down $1.21) is over $70 in pre-market trading after reporting strong earnings that beat analysts’ expectations. The company reported earnings of $1.10 a share versus estimates of $1.04. Revenue came in at $3.92 billion which was ahead of the $3.78 billion the Street was calling for.
Oracle (ORCL, $22.88, down $0.24) also came in with better-than-expected results while Palm (PALM, $11.72, up $0.11) however, reported a wider loss than expected as their smart-phone sales declined. Palm is back below $11 in pre-market trading.
Elsewhere, Celgene (CELG, $50.62, down $1.16) is up 9% in early trading to $55 after a late-stage study show its drug, Revlimid, significantly slowed the progression of sickness in patients following a type of stem cell treatment.
We have much more to talk about this morning in the Members Area so let’s get to it. As we head to press, the Dow futures are up 22 points.











Bears Trying to Hold Resistance
Tuesday, September 7th, 2010
9:00am (EST)
The market is pointing towards a lower open this morning to start the holiday-shortened week on concerns over the health of a few European banks. There isn’t much economic news or earnings releases scheduled to hit Wall Street this week so trading could be tricky. Although news will be light, Wednesday could be pivotal as the Fed will release its latest beige book report on regional economic activity.
The bulls will be trying to continue their momentum following a 3-day rally off last Tuesday’s lows while the bears look to hold key resistance levels. Across the pond, European markets are trading lower following a report said the country’s major banks have more potentially risky government debt on their books than was disclosed during the “stress tests” a couple of months ago..
In corporate news, Oracle (ORCL, $22.92, up $0.44) is up nearly 8%, to $24.67, in pre-market action after they announced it was hiring ex-CEO, Mark Hurd. The former CEO of Hewlett-Packard (HPQ, $40.34, up $0.66) resigned in August after a probe into sexual harassment allegations but could pump new life in Oracle.
As we head to press, Dow futures are down 50 points to 10,386 while the S&P 500 futures are lower by 6 points to 1,097. The Nasdaq 100 futures are off by 10 points to 1,857.
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Tags: HPQ, option picks, oracle, ORCL, stock options trading
Posted in Company Commentary, Market Analysis, Market Commentary | Comments Off