Daily Commentary from SIR Highlights the Following Stocks: Hewlett-Packard, General Electric, MedImmune, Symantec, American International Group.Business Editors CINCINNATI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 19, 2003 This daily report contains a brief commentary on the day's most notable activity and a table listing the most active calls and puts for the day. The Midday Options Update is published every day at SchaeffersResearch.com . For additional information about this report or to have it delivered to you via email everyday click on the following link: http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/addinfo . Today's Daily Commentary focuses on: Hewlett-Packard (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :HPQ), General Electric (NYSE:GE), MedImmune (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on :MEDI MEDI Marine Environmental Data Information Referral System ), Symantec (NASDAQ:SYMC SYMC Symantec Corporation (stock symbol) ), American International Group
American International Group, Inc. (AIG) (NYSE: AIG; TYO: 8685 ) is a major American insurance corporation based in New York City. (NYSE:AIG). The market has begun to backtrack slightly after this morning's strong start. Investors appear to be cheered by the positive news regarding housing starts. For the month of October, new home starts rose 2.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.96 million units - the highest level since January 1986. The Street had been expecting only 1.85 million units. The rest of the week looks light, with weekly initial jobless claims and October leading indicators on Thursday and the October treasury budget on Friday. Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) is up nearly three percent today ahead of its earnings report, which is due out after the close. The Street is currently forecasting a profit of 35 cents per share Cents per share The amount of a mutual fund's dividend or capital gains distributions that a shareholder will receive for each share owned. compared to its 24-cent profit for the same period a year ago. Blue chip General Electric (NYSE: GE) is also making waves this afternoon following news that it raised its quarterly dividend by five percent. The company also changed its 2004 earnings forecast to $1.55-1.65 per share. Analysts were anticipating a profit of $1.65 per share. What's more, the firm plans to sell its principal life and mortgage insurance operations in an initial public offering. In analyst action, MedImmune (NASDAQ:MEDI) was downgraded by at least two brokerage firms. One house cited a lack of clarity on the outlook for future sales of the firm's flu vaccine, FluMist, and a lack of confidence in management to create shareholder value. Meanwhile, Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC) was upgraded from "neutral" to "buy" while DoubleClick was boosted to a "buy" from a "sell" rating. At 12:28 p.m. eastern time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average Dow Jones Industrial Average The best known U.S. index of stocks. A price-weighted average of 30 actively traded blue-chip stocks, primarily industrials including stocks that trade on the New York Stock Exchange. (DJIA DJIA See Dow Jones Industrial Averager (DJIA). - 9657.5) is up 0.34 percent and the S&P 500 Index (SPX (Sequenced Packet EXchange) The transport layer protocol in the NetWare operating system. Similar to the TCP layer in TCP/IP, it ensures that the entire message arrives intact. SPX uses NetWare's IPX as its delivery mechanism. - 1038.03) is higher by 0.38 percent. The Nasdaq Composite (COMP - 1889.8) is up 0.43 percent. At 12:29 p.m. in the options pits, 1,087,710 calls and 850,072 puts traded for a composite put/call ratio across all five exchanges of 0.78. The CBOE CBOE See: Chicago Board Options Exchange CBOE See Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE). put/call ratio for equity options weighed in at 0.73. Topping our list of most-active calls this afternoon is insurance provider American International Group (NYSE: AIG). The stock has seen more than 13,000 contracts cross the tape at its November 60 strike. This volume could potentially prove to be the closure of a large position since November options are set to expire at the end of the week. Open interest for this option currently sits at roughly 24,500 contracts. Overall, options players have been overwhelmingly optimistic, with AIG's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio sitting at 0.71. This reading is lower than 88 percent of those taken over the past year. Wall Street is even enamored en·am·or tr.v. en·am·ored, en·am·or·ing, en·am·ors To inspire with love; captivate: was enamored of the beautiful dancer; were enamored with the charming island. of the shares, with 16 of the 23 analysts following AIG rating it a "buy" or better. Any downgrades could hinder the stock's attempts to rally higher. From a technical perspective, the equity has a rough road ahead of it. AIG is currently battling resistance at its declining 20-month moving average as it holds onto support at its 10-month moving average. The security has also broken down below its 10-week and 20-week trendlines. In fact, AIG has underperformed the SPX since November 2002. An unwinding of this optimistic sentiment could add more fuel to the stock's decline. Click the following link to see the Weekly Chart of AIG since May 2003 with 10-Week and 20-Week Moving Averages: http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/wire?ID=8912 . |
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