Posts Tagged
‘PNC’
by Option Review - March 4th, 2011 6:30 pm
Today’s tickers: PNC, CEDC, SPLS & GILD
PNC - PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. – Shares in the financial services firm are down 1.00% at $60.34 in early-afternoon trade, but activity in May contract call and put options suggests one strategist sees shares in PNC rising sharply in the next few months. The three-legged bullish player appears to have sold 5,000 puts at the May $55 strike for a premium of 1.39 each, purchased the same number of calls at the May $62.5 strike for a premium of $2.15 per contract, and shed 5,000 calls up at the May $67.5 strike at a premium of $0.68 a-pop. The options trader paid a net premium of $0.08 per contract for the transaction, and stands ready to profit should PNC’s shares reverse course and rally 3.7% over the current price of $60.34 to exceed the average breakeven price of $62.58 by expiration day in May. The investor responsible for the trade could accumulate maximum potential profits of $4.92 per contract if the firm’s shares jump 11.9% to trade above $67.50 before the options expire. PNC’s shares last traded above $67.50 back in May 2010. The financial services provider reports first-quarter earnings before the opening bell on April 21, 2011.
CEDC - Central European Distribution Corp. – Near-term options activity on the vodka producer this morning suggests some investors expect the pain of Central European Distribution Corp.’s post-earnings hangover to stick around through March expiration. Shares in CEDC lost 11.2% today to trade at $12.38, the lowest recorded price for the stock since April 2009. The alcohol beverage provider’s shares dropped 45.8% during the trading week, from a closing price of $22.85 on Monday, to today’s low of $12.38. Put buyers in the March contract, however, do not seem to think CEDC has hit…

Tags: CEDC, GILD, PNC, SPLS
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by Option Review - September 23rd, 2010 4:19 pm
Today’s tickers: CECO, ROST, LSI, ADBE, AVNR, PNC & ODP
CECO – Career Education Corp. – Shares of the for-profit provider of education geared toward career-oriented disciplines rallied as much as 10.9% during the session to secure an intraday high of $23.00 on analyst reports stating the industry is likely to rebound as bearish investors close out short positions. Options traders employed a mix of bullish and bearish strategies on the stock ahead of the release of the Education Department’s timeline for regulations on for-profit education industry firms tomorrow. One cautious investor prepared for CECO’s shares to falter ahead of October expiration by purchasing a ratio put spread. The options trader picked up 500 puts at the October $22 strike at a premium of $1.15 each, and sold 1,000 puts at the lower October $19 strike at a premium of $0.20 apiece. The net cost of the transaction amounts to $0.75 per contract. The investor is poised to profits should Career Education’s shares fall 7.6% from today’s high of $23.00 to breach the effective breakeven price of $21.25 by expiration day next month. Maximum potential profits of $2.25 are available to the trader if CECO shares plummet 17.4% to settle at $19.00 at expiration. In contrast, bullish players looking for a near-term rally picked up roughly 3,200 calls at the October $23 strike for an average premium of $1.02 each. Investors make money if shares gain 4.4% to surpass the average breakeven point at $24.02 by October expiration. The most optimistic traders purchased approximately 1,000 calls at the October $25 strike for an average premium of $0.43 a-pop. Call buyers at this strike stand ready to profit should shares surge 10.55% and exceed the average breakeven price of $25.43. Options implied volatility on stock is up sharply ahead of the Education Dept. announcement, and currently stands 11.6% higher on the day at 61.28%, as of 3:40 pm ET.
ROST – Ross Stores, Inc. – Shares of the operator of off-price retail apparel and home accessories stores increased as much as 2.3% during the trading session to secure an intraday high of $56.12. Ross Stores appeared on our scanners due to near-term activity in call options. It looks like the majority of trading in October contract calls is the work of one investor booking profits and rolling a previously purchased chunk of calls to a higher strike price. The investor likely…

Tags: ADBE, AVNR, CECO, LSI, ODP, PNC, ROST
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by Phil - March 6th, 2010 8:34 am
This whole week did not feel right to me.
We were too bearish as I had expected a bogus commodity rally in last weekend’s wrap-up but I didn’t expect it to persist for a week, even as the dollar held it’s ground above 80, a 10% pullback off the top, when oil was $40, copper was $1.50 and gold was $850. Now oil is $80 (up 100%), copper is $3.35 (up 123%) and gold is $1,135 (up 33%). Let’s say gold is a true indicator of dollar weakness – that means that only 33% of oil and copper’s move up can be attributed to the 10% drop in the dollar (not that even that makes sense but we’ll give it to them). Can the rest be attributed to demand?
Certainly not with copper. Global copper consumption was down 1.9% in 2009 and Q1 2010 is lower than any quarter since Q1 2009 and even Barclays’ very aggressive targets for China growth only bring global demand up 2.5% this year – whch would just about bring us back to 2007 levels of consumption. That, of course, also assumes a rebound in housing construction – something we are not seeing at the moment. Also, China spent $700Bn last year stimulating their economy and one of the ways they did this was to stockpile copper. As you can see from the chart – that too appears to be winding down and even Goldman Sachs has abandoned the bullish side of copper at this point.

Oil is just as silly. According to the EIA, global oil consumption is not expected to return to 2007 levels until late 2011 – and that is with some very rosey estimates of a global econonomic recovery – exactly the type of thing that can be derailed by high oil prices! Mighty China’s consumption is projected to go from 8.66Mbd this year to 9.13Mbd in 2011, a 500,000 barrel increase. Last week, the US had a build in inventories of 4Mb – we just send those over to China and everyone is happy! I’ve already had my say on oil demand this this weekend, so let’s just move on…
Let’s just say I’m a little skeptical about any market moves that are lead by commodity pushers at this very early stage in a recovery. Prices are not going up based on demand but…

Tags: AAPL, BRK.B, DBA, DIA, EDZ, ERY, EWJ, FAZ, FCX, FTR, GLL, GOOG, OIH, PNC, RUT, SDS, SPWRA, TASR, TBT, TIVO, TZA, USO, VIX
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by Option Review - July 23rd, 2009 4:35 pm
Today’s tickers: MSFT, CMCSK, HIG, PNC, F, WFC, XLU & FXI
MSFT – Shares of the software company are currently higher by about 3% to $25.53, but options activity on the stock suggests investors are bracing for bearish movement in the price of the underlying through expiration in September. Traders may be feeling a bit nervous ahead of MSFT’s fourth-quarter earnings report, as the firm is expected to reveal that earnings declined to 36 cents from 46 cents in the same period last year. Investors acted on fears of potential declines in the stock by selling approximately 10,000 calls short at the September 26 strike price for a premium of 85 cents apiece in order to finance the purchase of some 10,000 puts at the September 25 strike for 1.11 per contract. The net cost of getting long protective put options amounts to 26 cents. Traders will begin to amass profits, or protect long positions in the underlying, if shares slip beneath the breakeven point to the downside at $24.74. – Microsoft Corp.
CMCSK – The provider of entertainment announced that it will be the first cable provider to offer full HBO On Demand service in high definition (HD) to its customers. Shares of CMCSK have rallied approximately 1% to $13.70 during today’s trading session. Comcast appeared on our ‘hot by options volume’ market scanner after option traders took bullish stances on the firm in the near-term August contract. Hoping for continued upward movement in the stock, investors purchase about 8,900 calls at the August 15 strike price for an average premium of 22 cents apiece. In order for these individuals to amass profits by expiration, shares would need to surge at least 11% to surpass the breakeven point at $15.22. Option implied volatility edged slightly higher to 41% this afternoon from the opening reading of 38%. – Comcast Corp.
HIG – Frenzied call-buying by bullish option traders was apparent on the insurance and financial services firm today, amid a share price rally of more than 14% to $14.03. Call options were traded five times to each put option in action on the stock, as evidenced by the call-to-put ratio of more than 5-to-1. The near-term August 14 strike had about 5,200 in-the-money calls picked up for an average premium of 73 cents apiece. We note that now the same in-the-money calls tote an asking price of 1.25 each.…

Tags: CMCSK, F, FXI, HIG, MSFT, PNC, WFC, XLU
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by Option Review - March 6th, 2009 11:34 pm
Today’s tickers: PNC, GT, ROH, WMT, CX, PG & XLF
PNC – PNC Financial Services Group – Shares have fallen over 12% to $17.60 and put action today indicates that there may be more down-days to come. At the March 15 strike price nearly 14,000 puts were sold for an average premium of 1.78 per contract. We believe this sale could be the work of an investor who is short the stock initiating a covered put strategy. By taking in the premium today, this investor stands ready to take delivery of the shares at $15 come expiration. The risk to this trader is that shares are remain stable above the strike ahead of delivery and thereafter rebound, in which case he has to buy back at some point. But, the trade would yield a satisfactory outcome if shares continue to fall below $15 by expiration in which case the investor has his short position alleviated with a long put holder putting the stock to him. In the meantime this investor retains the full premium of 1.78. At the April 10 strike price, more typical put buying was seen given the fall in shares today. Over 5,500 puts were picked up for about 1.65 apiece, indicating that investors do expect that shares will continue to fall.
GT – The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company – A victim of the decline in auto sales, Goodyear has fallen 4.5% to a new 52-week low, touching down at $3.40 today. Despite the depressing news plaguing the auto industry from all sides, one option investor sees the world through rose-tinted shades and initiated to purchase of 20,000 calls at the January 2010 7.5 strike price for 50 cents per contract. Shares will need to rally like there’s no tomorrow and increase by 135% in order to breach the breakeven share price of $8.00 by expiration next year. Option implied volatility for GT currently stands at 128%. Lately we have noticed similar structured trades using optimistic options plays in both Ford and GM.
ROH – Rohm and Haas Company – Shares have jumped over 17% to $63.60 amid news that discussions over merger resolution have resumed between ROH and Dow Chemical Co. We can only speculate as to how the discussion will turn out and scant information is available at the present time. The uncertainty has created a veritable hot bed of frenzied trading among option…

Tags: CX, GT, PG, PNC, ROH, WMT, XLF
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February 11th, 2012 8:20 pm
Submitted by Mark Hanna
Courtesy of MarketMontage. View original post here.
Damn. Two (MJ and Whitney) of the big 4 of the 80s gone – Madonna and Prince remain. Probably the most well known Star Spangled Banner ever…
Disclosure Notice
Any securities mentioned on this page are not held by the author in his personal portfolio. Securities mentioned may or may not be held by the author in the mutual fund he manages, the Paladin Long Short Fund (PALFX). For a list of the aforementioned fund's holdings at the end of the prior quarter, visit the Paladin Funds website at http://www.paladinfunds.com/holdings/blog
...
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February 11th, 2012 8:05 pm
Courtesy of ZeroHedge. View original post here.
Submitted by Tyler Durden.
We have posted various extracts from this piece from Credit Suisse previously. We will post from it again, because, to loosely paraphrase Lewis Black, it bears reposting... especially in the context of the latest and greatest Greek "bailout" (of Europe's bankers), which incidentally, will achieve nothing and merely bring the country one step closer to a military coup and/or civil war.
The flaw
The market is essentially proceeding on the assumption, as we see it, that banks’ capital requirements can be met organically, through earnings and deleveraging. We ...
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February 11th, 2012 6:46 pm
It's Well Past Time for Plan Z
Courtesy of The Automatic Earth
Mario Draghi captured the utter ineptitude of him and every other Eurocrat out there when he said the following at today’s press conference in response to a question about a Greek exit: “To have a Plan B means defeat already. I am confident that all the pieces of this will fall in the proper places.”
Most 5-year old children in pre-school have already been told not to believe that they can always win and that “winning isn’t everything”, but Draghi & Co. still refuse to consider the possibility of failure even as it is staring them in the face. What’s really disturbing is that the stakes here are obviously much, much higher than they are o...
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February 11th, 2012 5:35 pm
Courtesy of Doug Short.
Advisor Perspectives welcomes guest contributions. The views presented here do not necessarily represent those of Advisor Perspectives.
It's interesting to watch some of the terms bandied about in headline news. For example, the LA Times headline reads S&P says student loan debt could be next financial bubble.
Next? Could Be?
What with the word "next"? Also what's with the words "could be"? Without a doubt student loans are in a bubble and have been for many years. The source of the problem, as it always is with financial bubbles, is cheap money, loans to nearly anyone, and in the case of student loans, no way to discharge the debt, even in bankruptcy.
From the article:
"Student-loan debt has ballooned and m...
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February 11th, 2012 12:00 am
Top 5 RisersStockRatingAnalysis
ICABUYThe projected value for Empresas ICA is still rising quickly even though past earnings have already improved significantly.
XBUYThe projected value for US Steel is still rising quickly even though past earnings have already improved significantly.
FEICBUYProjected value continues to rise for FEI while long term increases in earnings growth are also becoming more widely expected.
ASBCBUYMany analysts are expecting higher than previously expected long term growth from Associated Bancorp, and its near-term earnings outlook is also improving....
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February 10th, 2012 6:20 pm
Courtesy of Benzinga.
The following are the M&A deals, rumors and chatter circulating on Wall Street for Friday February 10, 2012:
Actuant Acquires Jeyco Pty
The Deal:
Actuant (NYSE: ATU) announced Friday that it has acquired Jeyco Pty Ltd (“Jeyco”). Headquartered near Perth, Australia, Jeyco designs and provides specialized mooring, rigging and towing systems and services to the offshore oil & gas industry in Australia and other international markets. Additionally, its highly engineered products are used in a variety of applications for other markets including cyclone mooring and marine, defense and mining tow systems. Jeyco generates annual revenues of approximately $20 million.
Actuant shares closed at $27.33 Friday, a loss of 0.18% on average volume.
...
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February 10th, 2012 4:11 pm
Courtesy of John Nyaradi.
Greece was “saved” for less than 24 hours but now major ETFs around the world skid into the weekend on Greek fears
After wangling for a week or more, Greek took their new deal to the European Ministers meeting, only to have it promptly rejected and so as we go into the weekend, major global markets and ETFs have again hit the skids on Greece.
After two years of wangling, the European zone is demanding yet more and deeper cuts for Greece to qualify for the next round of bailout loans that will keep the country from going bankrupt on March 20th.
Major European and United States ETF responded negatively to the new developments:
SPDR Dow Jones Industrial ETF (NYSEARCA:...
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February 10th, 2012 1:40 pm
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February 10th, 2012 1:22 pm
Today’s tickers: TRLG, KR & IGT
...
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February 6th, 2012 9:02 am
Reminder: OpTrader is available to chat with Members, comments are found below each post.
This post is for all our live virtual trade ideas and daily comments. Please click on "comments" below to follow our live discussion. All of our current trades are listed in the spreadsheet below, with entry price (1/2 in and All in), and exit prices (1/3 out, 2/3 out, and All out).
We also indicate our stop, which is most of the time the "5 day moving average". All trades, unless indicated, are front-month ATM options.
Please feel free to participate in the discussion and ask any questions you might have about this virtual portfolio, by clicking on the "comments" link right below.
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February 5th, 2012 5:19 am
NEW: Elliott and Ilene are available to chat with Members regarding topics presented in SWW, comments are found below each post.
Here's the latest Stock World Weekly, called "The Relentless Pursuit of Meaningless Metrics."
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January 30th, 2012 7:22 am
Here is a quick update of past trades and our current position.
AA Money
No trade this week as we wait for AA to settle. Phil remarked last week that AA seemed overvalued. In the meantime, it looks like we might have to roll our Feb 9 calls. Good thing we sold only 5 of them against our position.
Last week P&L - 310.00
We lost ground last week, but we still have 11 months to sell premium!
FAS Money
Very good week for FAS Money as we benefited from the large amount of premium sold the previous week. We covered most of the shorts in advance of the Fed speech, but sold another set of options on Wednesday after the speech - 2 FAS calls that expired worthless on Friday, 2 FAS put that we are still holding and 2 FAZ put that we bought back for a profit on Friday. A late stick comparable to last week's almost gave us problems at the end of the day though!
Last week P&L - $4277.00
IWM Money
A decent week in this virtual portfo...
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January 18th, 2012 1:09 am
Reminder: Pharmboy is available to chat with Members, comments are found below each post.
Finding new and exciting Biotech companies that target novel mechanisms is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Sure there are many companies working on cutting edge science, but investing in those companies to reap the rewards of their work is a very dangerous game. More often than not, companies fail because the mechanism does not pan out, the compound(s) do not have pharmacokinetics (get into the body or last very long in the body), or an adverse event happens that knocks years off a development timeline. In addition, the stock can be manipulated by market makers so investors don't know which way is up. I approach investing in biotechs as a long term prospect. I continue to like our current portfolio of biotech companies (join in chat for many of those plays), and we continually add/subtract shares and sell/buy options on ...
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