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Thursday Market Rap: MOT, PALM, INTU, JNJ & MO

Posted Mar 22nd 2007 5:45PM by Kevin KerstenKevin Kersten RSS Feed
Filed under: After the bell, Major movement, Motorola (MOT), Johnson and Johnson (JNJ), Altria Group (MO), Palm Inc (PALM), Options

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The markets seesawed today in the sideways movement, ending the day mostly flat. More importantly, though, we saw markets maintain most of yesterday's gains and even though oil prices moved 3% higher with May futures contracts gaining $2.10 to close up at $61.71 a barrel.

The NYSE had volume of 3 billion shares with 1,672 shares advancing while 1,595 declined for a loss of 3.91 points to close at 9,313.82. On the NASDAQ, 1.8 billion shares traded; 1,575 advanced and 1,451 declined for a loss of 4.18 to 2,451.74.

Stocks moving today included: Palm Inc. (NASDAQ:PALM), which crashed $1.71 (-9%) to $17.74 on earnings. Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) declined $2.46 (-8%) to $27.54 on weak sales growth. Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT) disconnected about $1.24 (-7%) from its stock price to $17.50 on lowered forecasts. Adams Respiratory Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ARXT) jumped $4.70 (15%) to $35.54 on a patent settlement.


There were 4.3 million calls and 4.3 million puts for an evenly balanced put/call ratio of 1.0. With Motorola cutting forecasts and warning of a loss for the quarter, we had a lot of put activity on the stock today. Just yesterday it saw very heavy call activity. Motorola Inc. saw volume on the April 17.50 puts (MOTPW) of 64,000 contracts; the April 20 puts (MOTPD) moved 26,000 options. Even the LEAPS had activity with the January '08 17.50 puts (WMAMW) moving 34,000 options trading. Other stocks that saw high activity include Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) on the April 70 puts (JNJPN) with over 25,000 options trading. Altria Group (NYSE:MO) experienced heavy volume on the June 75 puts (MORO) with over 25,000 options trading.

Kevin Kersten is an analyst with InvestorsObserver. DISCLOSURE NOTE: Mr. Kersten owns and/or controls diversified portfolios of long and short stock and option positions that may include holdings in companies he writes about.

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