Watchlist for April 11, 2008

One of the last things I wrote last night was that I wouldn't put too much weight on the technical picture with the unpredictability of earnings season upon us. General Electric (GE) is proving my point this morning. They, who supposedly rarely miss their estimates without warning, surprised the with an earnings miss this morning. Back on April 1st I pointed out the strength in GE and asked if things (the economy) can really be so bad if GE's stock was showing such relative strength. Now that the stock is approaching its 2008 lows I guess I have to ask the opposite question.

On Today's Calendar:

10:00 -- Mich Sentiment-Prel.

More Calendars: U.S. Earnings | Conf. Calls | Surprises | IPO | Economic

Potential swing trades:

See one of the recent 'Chart Reading' posts for some potential swing candidates. Also be sure to check my typical swing trade entry & exit rules.

Potential day trades:

(From Briefing.com)

Gapping Down

In reaction to weak earnings/guidance: DLA -14.3%, PWER -12.7%, ACPW -11.6%, GE -10.2% (also downgraded at tier-1 firm following earnings and downgraded to Neutral at Credit Suisse), FDRY -8.5% (also downgraded to Sell at BWS Financial), STSA -8.0%, INTV -7.8%, ETFC -2.3%, DNA -1.9% (also downgraded to Mkt Weight at Weisel)... Select financial names showing weakness: CIT -6.9%, FMD -5.3%, PMI -4.9%, WB -2.2%, MS -2.1%, BAC -1.5%, WM -1.5% (Bloomberg reports Goldman Sachs cuts their 2008-10 ests for Washington Mutual), GS -1.4%, C -1.3% (Business Week discusses C in the Inside Wall Street section)... Select solar stocks trading lower: AKNS -6.2%, SOLF -3.9%, JASO -3.6%, ESLR -3.5%, SPWR -2.5%, FSLR -1.5%... Other news: FRNT -75.2% (files for Chapter 11), PCOP -11.1% (Leslie Browne resigns as President and Chief Executive Officer), NVT -5.6% (has dialogue with EU over Navteq, Kauppalehti reports - Bloomberg), SNDK -3.8% (Needham expects conservative 2Q08 guidance and lower full year guidance and Barron's Online discusses SNDK in Weekday Trader column), HLF -3.8% ("The Fraud Discovery Institute" is out with a list of the "Top Ten Red Flags of Fraud at Herbalife"), CSG -3.0% (Q1 confectionery underlying sales growth 7% - Forbes), SI -2.9% (German shares drop on General Electric report, led by Siemens - Bloomberg.com), TYC -2.8% (still checking), NVDA -2.3% (still checking), JAVA -2.0% (AGYS announces it has amended the original earn-out agreement payable to former shareholders of Innovativ Systems Design, a Sun Microsystems reseller), PRU -1.0% (designates shelf registration statement and files prospectus supplement to effect resales of its floating rate convertible senior notes due December 15, 2037)... Analyst downgrades: ZRAN -8.6% (downgraded to Underperform at Jefferies), INTV -7.1% (downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at First Analysis), IDA -3.8% (downgraded to Underwt at JPMorgan), JCI -3.2% (downgraded to Neutral at JPMorgan), STX -3.1% (downgraded to Neutral at tier 1 firm), GRMN -2.3% (downgraded to Perform at Oppenheimer), ANF -1.9% (downgraded to Neutral at JPMorgan), RRGB -1.5% (downgraded to Mkt Perform at Wachovia), SIRI -1.2% (initiated with Sell at Merrill).

Gapping Up

In reaction to strong earnings/guidance: CDIC +16.1%, PRLS +11.1%, EXAC +5.8%, PZN +5.1%, FAST +4.0%, SJR +2.8%, BSET +2.1%, CTCT +1.3%, IRIX +1.1%... M&A news: TZIX +18.8% (to be acquired by Apax Partners for $22/share)... Other news: ADLS +11.7% (announces that, based on a productive meeting with the FDA, it plans to submit a New Drug Application in the third quarter of 2008 for its novel once-a-day oral antibiotic; also upgraded to Buy at Lazard), CVTX +10.8% (CV Therapeutics and Astellas announce FDA approval for Lexiscan injection), PDLI +10.6% (declares a special cash dividend of $4.25 per share; announces plan to separate its biotechnology operations from its antibody humanization royalty assets), BNS +6.9% (WSJ reports NCC draws interest of Bank of Nova Scotia), DAL +6.2% (continued strength following report that Delta-Northwest merger may be announced next week; also upgraded to Outperform at Credit Suisse), CCJ +2.9% (continued speculation that China signals takeover interest), FTE +2.7% (says 'no current plans' for major share buyback - Thomson), NCC +2.1% (draws interest of Bank of Nova Scotia - WSJ), ANGO +1.6% (offers to purchase certain Diomed assets in the United States and United Kingdom; co to pay $11 mln for assets), BHI +1.5% (Cramer makes positive comments on MadMoney), HRB +1.5% (Director Richard Breeden buys 2 mln shares at $21.61-21.89), NWA +1.2% (continued strength following report that Delta-Northwest merger may be announced next week; also upgraded to Outperform at Credit Suisse)... Analyst upgrades: CNTF +2.1% (initiated with Buy at Roth), CLNE +1.3% (initiated with a Buy at Lazard), MHS +1.0% (upgraded to Outperform at Credit Suisse).