Volume Spike Investor

Alpharma inc. (NYSE: ALO) isn’t exactly your run of the mill “most active” stock, but it is this morning.  King Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: KG) has offered to buy the drug company in a $1.4 Billion buyout valuing the company at $33.00 in cash per share.  Shares are already up over that level at $34.20 after ten [...]

Pacific Sunwear (NASDAQ: PSUN) came out after the close and posted a second quarter profit, but the apparel retailer lowered its outlook for the second half of the year based upon a soft economy. Shares fell over 20% to $5.95 last night in after-hours trading.
Right after the open by about 3 minutes we have seen [...]

Based upon the rise in oil and commodities and the ultimate flight to safety or the ultimate flight to inflation protection, we are seeing again some increased call option activity in SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD).  This is the ETF that tracks the price of gold by essentially 1/10 of the price.  At 11:08 AM [...]

We are seeing yet another day of the murderous selling in Fannie Mae (FNM) and  Freddie Mac (FRE).  This is becoming a self fulfilling prophecy despite the GSE’s saying they are adequately capitalized.  At 9:42 AM EST we have seen already 19.2 million shares in FNM trade down 7% at $4.18 and 15.3 million FRE [...]

COAL STOCKS are gapping up higher this morning at the open, and it isn’t just over higher oil prices rising almost $4.00 to back over $118 per barrel.  UBS has raised its sector ratings to a BUY from the NEUTRAL sector rating.  Shares raised to BUY were Arch Coal (NYSE: ACI) +3.5%, Foundation Coal (NYSE: [...]

Higher gas costs are already rolling back into hitting airline stocks.  As some of these have risen 3-fold or more from lows after the last $30+ drop in oil prices per barrel, any rise in black gold takes a toll.

UAL Corporation (NASDAQ: UAUA) closed yesterday at $12.40 and the last trade at 9:03 AM EST [...]

Thermage, Inc. (Nasdaq: THRM) is seeing a sharp spike in trading volume this morning followed by a sharp gain in the stock.  The company announced that it has received a revised unsolicited, non-binding proposal from a third party for an alternative transaction to Thermage’s pending merger with Reliant Technologies, Inc.
The unsolicited and non-binding proposal calls [...]

PNC Financial Services (NYSE: PNC) has been one of the more insulated financial services firms during teh entire financial and market meltdown.  Even on a day where financial markets are growing concerned that Fannie and Freddie are going to be wiped out by the government bailout.  That being said, why is it that PNC has [...]

VeriFone Holdings Inc. (NYSE: PAY) is seeing a huge surge in pre-market trading.  As of 9:17 AM EST we have seen more than 400,000 shares trade hands and shares are up more than $4.00 at $18.80 on last look.  You can thank the company finally giving a positive outlook ahead of estimates, a cleaned-up accounting [...]

Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd. (NYSE: STP) is seeing a surge in both its price and its pre-market trading volume.  Shares are trading up over 4% at $38.90 at 8:40 AM EST on more than 130,000 shares pre-market after beating earnings and raising guidance.
Its new guidance for 2008 is $2.05 to $2.15 Billion in sales, [...]