Volume Spike Investor » ETFC

E*TRADE Taken as a Punt So Far (ETFC)

247admin — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 12:52:17 +0000

E*TRADE Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: ETFC) is down on profit taking into a soft tape this morning. The online broker lost -$0.02 EPS vs -$0.03 estimates from Thomson Reuters; total customer assets rose; net operating interest income flat; loan loss provisions fell $24 million. Shares are trading down only about 0.5% at $1.81 on 700,000 shares as of 8:49 AM EST. This one had been up initially after the report but the soft tape and profit taking had this one down almost 2% earlier this morning. With an average volume of more than 39 million shares and some days with 100 million shares traded, this “volume spike” should maybe be considered a “volume whimper.”

JON OGG

Top Day Trader Alerts (NOVL, PALM, AIG, FNM, ETFC, FSLR, FUQI, TEVA)

247admin — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 13:01:56 +0000

Novell Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) is trading up as one of the more active stocks this morning. As we expected the company would have to do, it rejected the Elliott private equity takeover bid as ‘Inadequate.’ But the company said it is now exploring strategic alternatives and assess its options including a potential sale. At 8:50 AM EST we have shares up 4.8% at $5.91 on about 1 million shares pre-market. Keep in mind that shares traded as high as $6.15 after this first deal was announced.

Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) keeps dropping. No reports are in its favor and the bulk of reports from the weekend point to a miserable future. At 8:50 AM EST we have seen almost 800,000 shares trade hands and the stock is down 5.8% at $3.77… a new 52-week low, again.

American International Group, Inc. (NYSE: AIG) is trading lower on an SEC filing showing that AIG’s former CEO Hank Greenberg has sold $278 million worth of stock to UBS for an upfront payment in a forward delivery sales basis. Volume is thin but at 8:50 AM EST we have shares down 2.6% at $33.89.

Federal National Mortgage Association (NASDAQ: FNM) is lower on fears or hope of financial reform but the market itself is probably adding to the woes in trading. At 8:50 AM EST the volume is thin but shares are down 3.5% at $1.11.

E*TRADE Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: ETFC) has hired a new CEO after having the position vacant for months. It has named Steven Freiberg as CEO, person who had been with Citi for about 30 years; and the company is also proposing a 1 for 10 reverse stock split. UPDATE AT 9:38 AM EST: Shares are down almost 7% at $1.46 on over 14 million shares. At 9:50 AM EST shares were effectively unchanged at $1.57 on only about 2 million shares.

First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) is trading lower this moirning but not on news from the company. The WSJ reported last night an article called “First Solar Flies Too Close to the Sun” and that has a damper on shares. Volume is still thin but at 8:50 AM EST we have seen shares down 3% at $

Fuqi International, Inc. (NASDAQ: FUQI) is down 4.3% at $9.85 on close to 50,000 shares this morning. A class action suit was filed against the company, but its warning of an earnings miss and a restatement for undercounting expenses last week was enough that the problems here are deep.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (NASDAQ: TEVA) is putting in yet newer 52-week highs again this morning. This is after the $5 billion deal in Germany last week and the stock is not that active this morning but still impressive. At 8:50 AM EST we have shares up 0.8% at $63.55 on close to 25,000 shares.

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JON C. OGG

Merger Rumors & Chatter Drives Options (BG, MON, NWS, MWW, NUE, SCHN, CL, AMTD, ETFC)

247admin — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:21:41 +0000

Originally submitted at 2:00 PM EST…. Despite the markets trading a bit lower today there was a lot of call activity today based on takeover chatter in various sectors, as the bullish move in the markets coupled with a budding M&A market have speculators active. Early morning action was in Bunge (NYSE: BG), with Monsanto (NYSE: MON) rumored to be offering a $75 price tag, and 24,000 calls traded, a lot of new opening buyers with 50% of the action offer side, with the large players buying the out of the money January $70 calls in size.

Then a rumor that News Corp (NYSE: NWS) is looking to takeout Monster Worldwide (NYSE: MWW) at $23.50 per share hit, and today 43,800 calls have traded, 52% offer side buys with 100+ lots of November and December $15 calls being bought, 22X average call volume.

A rumor that Nucor Corporation (NYSE: NUE) has a $60 offer for Schnitzer Steel (NASDAQ: SCHN) never really gained any traction. Riverbed Technology (NASDAQ: RVBD) was also back in the M&A chatter as 9,700 calls traded, half the action offer side, with buyers in December $22.50 calls.

The most explosive action came late in the day as Colgate (NYSE: CL) shares spiked 4% higher and IV jumped 56% as a UK newspaper mentioned that a merger with Reckitt may be close. 37,500 calls traded with 57% offer side, also seeing some sizable chunks of November $85/$90 calls and December $85/$90 calls being bought in strength.

Later in the day came wod that Ameritrade (NASDAQ: AMTD) might be looking to buy E*TRADE Financial (NASDAQ: ETFC) also began to hit trading floors and call action jumped…. at least for a sub-$2.00 stock.

JOE KUNKLE, OptionsHawk.com

NOVEMBER 17, 2009

E*TRADE Back to Flat (ETFC)

247admin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:45:31 +0000

E*Trade Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: ETFC) was down after its earnings report last night but has recovered. The online brokerage firm posted a wider third-quarter loss due to charges over a debt exchange. Credit trends are continuing to improve and it added to Tier-1 capital. Shares were down about 3% last night but as of 8:42 AM EST we have seen over 1 million shares trade hands and the last print was back at flat at $1.57. UPDATE AT 10:40 AM EST: S-1 and S-2 both failed to hold and this opens the stock up for a wider trading band. Shares have used $1.45 as support once today and that was the same low as on SEPT 2, if that does not hold up then $1.39 or $1.40 is an old level to watch out for.

It is hard to use support and resistance for a $1.00+ stock, but we have S-1 at $1.53 and S-2 at 1.49; R-1 is $1.61 and R-2 is 1.66. Average volume here is 100 million shares, so the 1 million share pre-market activity may seem lackluster. Still, this is doing better than things looked last night. -JON OGG

Financial Junk Trades Higher (ETFC, CIT, AIG)

247admin — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:44:03 +0000

E*TRADE FINANCIAL Corporation (NASDAQ: ETFC) has no real news but did schedule its third quarter 2009 financial results release for after the close trading on Tuesday, October 27, 2009. As the markets are higher, traders are bidding up the low-priced or junky financial firms again. ETFC is up 1.8% at $1.75 on 350,000 shares as of 8:39 AM EST.

CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) is getting a bid this morning on no news. Shares are up 3.5% at $1.16 as of 8:39 AM EST on over 600,000 shares.

American International Group, Inc. (NYSE: AIG) was given a whopping ‘Neutral’ rating in new resumed coverage over at UBS this morning. Somehow, shares are up over 2% at $43.77 on almost 200,000 shares.

These moves are sentiment-driven rather than news driven.

JON OGG

E*TRADE Breaking Thru Resistance (ETFC)

247admin — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:32:01 +0000

E*TRADE Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: ETFC) is trading up another 4% pre-market. At 8:27 AM EST we have shares at $2.06 on almost 3 million shares pre-market. This appears to just be continued buying and turnaround interest after the two upgrades last week. More importantly, this gets ETFC back over $2.00 and it closed above that $1.94 to $1.97 resistance. If that buying surge continues, the next resistance is not until close to $2.20 on a longer-term basis. -JON OGG

E*TRADE Up At Schwab’s Expense (ETFC, SCHW)

247admin — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:22:00 +0000

E*TRADE Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: ETFC) is trading up best in show after Goldman Sachs raised its rating and downgraded Charles Schwab (NASDAQ: SCHW). ETFC was raised to Buy and SCHW was cut to sell. Goldman liked E*TRADE’s trading data for the month and noted that Schwab’s asset management and net interest income revenue will be under pressure for another year. At 8:18 AAM EST we have E*TRADE up over 8% at $1.84 on over 3.6 million shares. Schwab shares are down 2% at $17.37 but only on about 15,000 shares. We’d expect to see a pickup in volume of both. On E*TRADE there are two share prices to watch as resistance: shares had an intra-day high of $1.87 on Wednesday and $1.90 on Tuesday. -JON OGG

E*TRADE Upgrade Cheers (ETFC)

247admin — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:11:54 +0000

E*Trade Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: ETFC) is surging this morning after Citigroup upgraded the online brokerage firm. The stock was raised to BUY from HOLD and at 8:09 AM EST we have seen over 1.65 million shares trade hands. This trades about 60 to 70 million shares in a day so look for volume to considering spiking higher. The gain is 8% to $1.81. THis pop represents levels not seen since June for a very brief period and April-May before that. -JON OGG

Starbucks leads stocks percolating on analyst actions (SBUX, ETFC)

247admin — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:09:54 +0000

Starbucks Corp. (Nasdaq: SBUX) shares are up about 2% on fairly strong premarket volumes after analysts at Robert Baird upgraded the shares to an Outperform rating, raising their price target to $17 from $15. Analysts noted that industry traffic has improved over the past three months and that the company continues to make cost cuts.

E-Trade Financial (Nasdaq: ETFC) shares are up about 8% on strong early premarket volume after the stock was upgraded to an Outperform rating at FBR Capital, with a $2 stock target. Mortgage-related losses may remain a problem for the company, but analysts said the wost may be over for E-Trade, now that it has nearly $2 bln of new capital as of last week. — Mike Tarsala

Multi-Day Exponential Volume Alert Ahead: E*TRADE (ETFC)

247admin — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:30:07 +0000

E*TRADE Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: ETFC) is going to be on our “multi-day exponential volume alerts” watch list for at least the next four trading sessions. The company sold 435 million shares in a secondary offering at $1.10 per share, a 23% discount to yesterday’s close and a far cry lower than the $1.90 at the start of the week. We have seen more than 300 million shares trade hands with less than an hour to close, and that represents 10-times normal volume. With the share float getting expanded so much here, there are going to be many natural sellers and many sellers in the stock that might not have wanted to sell by choice. The question is if the new buyers start stepping in. E*TRADE should be placed on any trader’s watch list for exponential volume spikes for most of next week. -JON OGG