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

PRICE/VOLUME SURGE: Yahoo! (YHOO, MSFT, NWS, TWX)

247admin — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:53:42 +0000

Ok, you have to to be getting just as miserably sick and tired of Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) as we are. Yahoo! shares are on the run in pre-market trading on word that Microsoft (reported by WSJ) has spoken with News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) and Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) and others on a way to close the merger. We have the full details at 247wallst.com.

If these companies are going to do something, we’d like to ask them to please make it sooner rather than later. Covering this has become as tedious as can be. We’d also like to remind Steve Ballmer that if he will just wait a year he’ll be able to get that business for a song since Jerry Yang has fallen on such a long sword.

Yahoo! stock is up 8% at $21.88 on more than 2.3 million shares as of 8:54 AM EST this morning. Microsoft shares are up 0.5% at $27.01.

Jon Ogg

July 2, 2008

Volume Spike Investor » NWS

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

PRICE/VOLUME SURGE: Yahoo! (YHOO, MSFT, NWS, TWX)