Among the biggest winners in Tuesday’s early trading are Worthington Industries (NYSE: WOR), Smithfield Foods (NYSE: SFD) and Alimera Sciences (Nasdaq: ALIM). Top Percentage Gainers — Tuesday, June 29, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Gain 52-Week High 52-Week Low Alimera Sciences (Nasdaq: ALIM) $8.51 +5.4% $11.30 $7.76 Smithfield Foods (NYSE: SFD) $15.52 +4.3% $21.48 $11.36 Worthington Industries (NYSE: WOR) $13.52 +3.4% $17.97 $10.70 *Table includes companies with minimum market capitalizations of $200 million and three month trading volumes of at least 100,000… Read More

Among the biggest winners in Tuesday’s early trading are Worthington Industries (NYSE: WOR), Smithfield Foods (NYSE: SFD) and Alimera Sciences (Nasdaq: ALIM). Top Percentage Gainers — Tuesday, June 29, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Gain 52-Week High 52-Week Low Alimera Sciences (Nasdaq: ALIM) $8.51 +5.4% $11.30 $7.76 Smithfield Foods (NYSE: SFD) $15.52 +4.3% $21.48 $11.36 Worthington Industries (NYSE: WOR) $13.52 +3.4% $17.97 $10.70 *Table includes companies with minimum market capitalizations of $200 million and three month trading volumes of at least 100,000 shares. All percentage returns are listed as of 11:30AM Eastern Standard Time. Click on ticker symbols for up-to-the-minute price quotes and percentage gain data. Bad News for Worthington, Good News for Investors If there is a silver lining to a horrendous trading environment that we are seeing in Tuesday trading, it is that companies with clearly good news to report can get lost in the shuffle. As a result, investors have time to pounce, as these shares almost always head higher once the market stabilizes. Shares of Worthington… Read More

Among the biggest losers in Tuesday’s early trading are Micron Technology (NYSE: MU), Baidu.com (Nasdaq: BIDU) and Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS). Top Percentage Losers –Tuesday, June 29, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Loss 52-Week High 52-Week Low Barnes and Noble (NYSE: BKS) $13.74 –16.3% $28.78 $13.58 Micron Technology  (NYSE: MU) $8.76 -12.6% $11.40 $4.55 Baidu.com (Nasdaq: BIDU) $69.37 –6.8% $82.29 $26.80 *Table includes companies with minimum market capitalizations of $200 million and three month trading volumes of at least 100,000… Read More

Among the biggest losers in Tuesday’s early trading are Micron Technology (NYSE: MU), Baidu.com (Nasdaq: BIDU) and Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS). Top Percentage Losers –Tuesday, June 29, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Loss 52-Week High 52-Week Low Barnes and Noble (NYSE: BKS) $13.74 –16.3% $28.78 $13.58 Micron Technology  (NYSE: MU) $8.76 -12.6% $11.40 $4.55 Baidu.com (Nasdaq: BIDU) $69.37 –6.8% $82.29 $26.80 *Table includes companies with minimum market capitalizations of $200 million and three month trading volumes of at least 100,000 shares. All percentage returns are listed as of 10:30AM Eastern Standard Time. Click on ticker symbols for up-to-the-minute price quotes and percentage gain data. Micron’s Mixed Bag Shares of Micron Technology (NYSE: MU) are trading down -12% this morning after the memory chip maker delivered decent results on Monday evening, but a slightly cautious near-term outlook. Shares had looked set to open with more modest downside, but a Tuesday morning rout in the Nasdaq is really sinking this boat. For a fuller look at Micron’s quarter, and its impact on the peer… Read More

Don’t let the stock action fool you. Just because shares of Micron Technology (NYSE: MU) are off more than -10% in Tuesday trading, the company’s Monday night earnings release should give a cheer to the entire tech sector — that is, when investors are ready to once again embrace this highly cyclical industry. Right now, the whole technology group is getting no love from investors for fear that global economic pressures will kill the party before it really gets underway. Read More

Don’t let the stock action fool you. Just because shares of Micron Technology (NYSE: MU) are off more than -10% in Tuesday trading, the company’s Monday night earnings release should give a cheer to the entire tech sector — that is, when investors are ready to once again embrace this highly cyclical industry. Right now, the whole technology group is getting no love from investors for fear that global economic pressures will kill the party before it really gets underway. But the party has already started, if you look at the tech results we saw in the spring. Micron’s fiscal third-quarter results simply underscore the industry momentum that is already underway. For example, Micron’s sales doubled from the year-ago quarter, and a $246 million operating loss back then has morphed into a $540 million gain in the most recent quarter. Gross margins rose from 9.7% a year ago to 37.1% this time around. (Analysts expected gross margins to be only 35% — not because selling prices were higher than they expected, but because cost control was… Read More

It just might be one of the biggest, far-reaching pacts of the decade — and I’m betting you’ve never heard of it. It will govern business in more than a dozen countries, influence the shopping patterns of 1.9 billion consumers and facilitate trade in a region whose annual… Read More

Among the biggest winners in Monday’s early trading are Amylin (Nasdaq: AMLN), Orexigen (Nasdaq: OREX) and PolyMet Minerals (AMEX: PLM). Top Percentage Gainers — Monday, June 28, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Gain 52-Week High 52-Week Low Orexigen (Nasdaq: OREX) $4.95 +19.3% $10.83 $4.00 PolyMet Mining (AMEX: PLM) $1.77 +14.2% $3.79 $1.10 Amilyn (Nasdaq: AMLN) $19.76 +2.3% $24.21 $11.01 *Table includes companies with minimum market capitalizations of $200 million and three month trading volumes of at least 100,000 shares. All percentage… Read More

Among the biggest winners in Monday’s early trading are Amylin (Nasdaq: AMLN), Orexigen (Nasdaq: OREX) and PolyMet Minerals (AMEX: PLM). Top Percentage Gainers — Monday, June 28, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Gain 52-Week High 52-Week Low Orexigen (Nasdaq: OREX) $4.95 +19.3% $10.83 $4.00 PolyMet Mining (AMEX: PLM) $1.77 +14.2% $3.79 $1.10 Amilyn (Nasdaq: AMLN) $19.76 +2.3% $24.21 $11.01 *Table includes companies with minimum market capitalizations of $200 million and three month trading volumes of at least 100,000 shares. All percentage returns are listed as of 11:45AM Eastern Standard Time. Click on ticker symbols for up-to-the-minute price quotes and percentage gain data. Amylin Produces a Safe Profile During the past few weeks, several biotech stocks that are focused on diabetes have been in the news as sharp gainers or losers. It’s no coincidence. This is the time of year when many of these firms update the clinical progress for their key drugs and devices, highlighting their respective efficacy and toxicity. Diabetes is already a large and growing problem in the United States, and… Read More

Among the biggest losers in Monday’s early trading are Cellcom Israel (NYSE: CEL), Sinovac (NYSE: SVA) and Microvision (Nasdaq: MVIS). Top Percentage Losers –Monday, June 28, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Loss 52-Week High 52-Week Low Sinovac (NYSE: SVA) $4.53 -9.1% $12.50 $3.60 Microvision  (Nasdaq: MVIS) $3.28 –8.9% $5.75 $1.92 Cellcom Israel (NYSE: CEL) $26.40 –2.9% $36.41 $25.00 *Table includes companies with minimum market capitalizations of $200 million and three month trading volumes of at least 100,000… Read More

Among the biggest losers in Monday’s early trading are Cellcom Israel (NYSE: CEL), Sinovac (NYSE: SVA) and Microvision (Nasdaq: MVIS). Top Percentage Losers –Monday, June 28, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Loss 52-Week High 52-Week Low Sinovac (NYSE: SVA) $4.53 -9.1% $12.50 $3.60 Microvision  (Nasdaq: MVIS) $3.28 –8.9% $5.75 $1.92 Cellcom Israel (NYSE: CEL) $26.40 –2.9% $36.41 $25.00 *Table includes companies with minimum market capitalizations of $200 million and three month trading volumes of at least 100,000 shares. All percentage returns are listed as of 11:00AM Eastern Standard Time. Click on ticker symbols for up-to-the-minute price quotes and percentage gain data. For Cellcom, the Bad News Keeps on Coming It’s been a forgettable year for Israeli wireless communications firm Israel Cellcom (Nasdaq: CEL). Earlier in the year, analysts downgraded the stock, citing concerns that new firms would enter the race and steal market share. The market for Israeli voice and data services is nearly mature, so the key players… Read More

Each Friday we highlight the most compelling investment ideas that our research has uncovered from the 30 or so stocks that made it into our daily “winners” and “losers” write-ups during the week… Perfect World (Nasdaq: PWRD) Investors jumped into China-related stocks on Monday, looking for companies that would benefit from a stronger yuan and/or more robust Chinese consumer spending. Perfect World was seen as a play on that latter factor, and shares rose sharply Monday morning. #-ad_banner-#But after briefly touching $26 mid-day on Monday,… Read More

Each Friday we highlight the most compelling investment ideas that our research has uncovered from the 30 or so stocks that made it into our daily “winners” and “losers” write-ups during the week… Perfect World (Nasdaq: PWRD) Investors jumped into China-related stocks on Monday, looking for companies that would benefit from a stronger yuan and/or more robust Chinese consumer spending. Perfect World was seen as a play on that latter factor, and shares rose sharply Monday morning. #-ad_banner-#But after briefly touching $26 mid-day on Monday, they’ve been in freefall since, trading down to $22. There’s no good reason for the sell-off, though as we’ve noted before, Chinese gaming stocks may not be very timely as the industry is going through one of its once-every-few years no-growth modes. The industry — and Perfect World — are suffering from a dearth of hot new titles at the moment. The company’s quarterly earnings per share have been flat in the $0.70 to $0.80 range during the past four quarters. And it probably won’t be until the December quarter before they bust out… Read More

If someone told you two hundred years ago that an inherently worthless item would be hocked to generations of people, and that the asking price for this item would be several thousand dollars per gram, you probably wouldn’t believe it. But as an investor, you’d probably want a piece of… Read More

Among the biggest losers in Friday’s early trading are Research in Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM), Aerovironment (Nasdaq: AVAV) and BP (NYSE: BP). Top Percentage Losers — Friday, June 25, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Loss 52-Week High 52-Week Low Research in Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) $25.90 -8.3% $88.08 $53.55 Aerovironment (Nasdaq: AVAV) $69.68 -3.9% $35.38 $20.90 BP (NYSE: BP) $39.87 -3.8% $62.38 $27.07 *Table includes companies with minimum market capitalizations of $200 million and three month trading volumes of at least 100,000… Read More

Among the biggest losers in Friday’s early trading are Research in Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM), Aerovironment (Nasdaq: AVAV) and BP (NYSE: BP). Top Percentage Losers — Friday, June 25, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Loss 52-Week High 52-Week Low Research in Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) $25.90 -8.3% $88.08 $53.55 Aerovironment (Nasdaq: AVAV) $69.68 -3.9% $35.38 $20.90 BP (NYSE: BP) $39.87 -3.8% $62.38 $27.07 *Table includes companies with minimum market capitalizations of $200 million and three month trading volumes of at least 100,000 shares. All percentage returns are listed as of 11:29AM Eastern Standard Time. Click on ticker symbols for up-to-the-minute price quotes and percentage gain data. RIMM can’t Defy Critics Heading into Thursday evening’s earnings report, an increasing number of investors had been grumbling that Research in Motion’s (Nasdaq: RIMM) Blackberry line of smartphones is losing cachet, and that Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone and Google’s (Nasdaq: GOOG) Android would start to steal market share. Quarterly results were… Read More

Among the biggest winners in Friday’s early trading are Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL), Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and MannKind (Nasdaq: MNKD). Top Percentage Gainers — Friday, June 25, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Gain 52-Week High 52-Week Low Accenture (NYSE: ACN) $39.62 +5.5% $44.67 $17.74 MannKind (Nasdaq: MNKD) $42.06 +5.4% $12.30 $4.76 Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) $22.83 +2.7% $26.63 $19.79 *Table includes companies with minimum market capitalizations of $200 million and three month trading volumes of at least 100,000 shares. All percentage returns… Read More

Among the biggest winners in Friday’s early trading are Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL), Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and MannKind (Nasdaq: MNKD). Top Percentage Gainers — Friday, June 25, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Gain 52-Week High 52-Week Low Accenture (NYSE: ACN) $39.62 +5.5% $44.67 $17.74 MannKind (Nasdaq: MNKD) $42.06 +5.4% $12.30 $4.76 Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) $22.83 +2.7% $26.63 $19.79 *Table includes companies with minimum market capitalizations of $200 million and three month trading volumes of at least 100,000 shares. All percentage returns are listed as of 10:49AM Eastern Standard Time. Click on ticker symbols for up-to-the-minute price quotes and percentage gain data. Oracle makes Quick Progress with Sun When software developer Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) announced plans to acquire Sun Microsystems last year, most thought that CEO Larry Ellison had finally gone too far with the company’s growth-through-acquisition strategy. After all, Oracle is a software giant, and had little experience selling the kinds of hardware that Sun Micro sold. Moreover, Sun had become a no-growth platform that was barely profitable. Read More