Schaeffer's Daily Market Blog Features Shuffle Master, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Celgene, Cephalon, and Dollar General.

CINCINNATI -- Among the stocks featured in the February 27 edition of Schaeffer's Market Blog are Shuffle Master (NASDAQ:SHFL), Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX), Celgene (NASDAQ:CELG), Cephalon (NASDAQ:CEPH), and Dollar General (NYSE:DG). Schaeffer's Market Blog is just one of the many free market commentaries written everyday at www.SchaeffersResearch.com - the home of Bernie Schaeffer and Schaeffer's Investment Research. The Market Blog is written throughout every trading day by Schaeffer's financial analysts and traders. They are quick insights to the day's most notable market activity from an options perspective. For additional information about this report or to have it delivered to you free via email every day click on the following link. http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/redirect.aspx?CODE=PROB12M&PAGE=1 .

Schaeffer's Market Blog for Monday, February 27, 2006:

Below are just a few of today's Market Blog entries. Click here to read all of today's Market Blog. http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/redirect.aspx?CODE=PROB1C&PAGE=1 .

9:51 AM Schaeffer's Radio

Good morning. Just a reminder that some of our material is available in audio form at http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/commentary/podcasts/.

1:15 PM Shuffle Master Benefits From Brokerage Comments

According to Hoovers, Shuffle Master (NASDAQ:SHFL) has sold or leased more than 15,000 of its single- and multi-deck automatic card shuffling devices, which help increase casino security and efficiency. The company also develops table games with names like Let It Ride, Three Card Poker, Fortune Pai Gow Poker, Royal Match 21, and Casino War. About 3,200 of its table games can be found with the company's card shufflers at more than 600 casinos worldwide. The stock is one of the Nasdaq's biggest gainers today. It's up more than seven percent on several positive comments from brokerage firms. Bank of America (BAC) upgraded its rating on the stock to "buy" from "neutral" based on its belief that new, bigger-ticket products (electronic table game platforms, chip sorters) should provide growth as legacy businesses (shufflers, table game content) mature. BAC also said SHFL is the best way to play the rapid growth in table game capacity in Macau. Deutsche Bank (DB) reinstated its "buy" rating and said it likes SHFL's longer-term outlook (augmented by recent acquisitions) and remains comfortable with the company's business model and revenue mix. Finally, Prudential (PRU) visited southeast Asia and it believes there should be dramatically more gaming supply in Macau than they anticipated. They think this should be a major opportunity for suppliers such as SHFL.

3:15 PM Biotech Makes More New Highs

Biotech continues to do just great. We've been bullish biotech a while now here at Schaeffer's and fortunately we've been right. Turning to the stocks - surprise, surprise, the AMEX Biotechnology Index (BTK) is up nearly two percent to another multi-year high. For some ideas in this red-hot area - check out Vertex Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VRTX), Celgene (NASDAQ:CELG), and Cephalon (NASDAQ:CEPH).

4:07 PM Dollar General Sees Heavy Call Volume

Retailer Dollar General (NYSE:DG) is making an attempt to rally after falling to its lowest level in 20 months early in January. From its intraday low of 16.47 on January 30 to today's close of 17.63, DG is up seven percent. This came as long-term support at 17 helped the stock bounce. On Friday, someone made a bet that the rally will continue. We saw 7,530 contracts of the stock's April 17.50 call (DG DW) cross the tape Friday. Two trades totaling 7,500 contracts went off in the early afternoon at 0.55 and 0.60, closer to the ask price at the time of those trades. This indicates the trades were purchases. Open interest at the option strike jumped exactly 7,530 contracts, meaning the trades were the initiation of new bullish long call positions. DG was up 1.3 percent today to 17.63.

The above are just a few of today's Daily Market Blog entries. Click here to read all of today's Daily Market Blog. http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/redirect.aspx?CODE=PROB1C&PAGE=1 .

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Schaeffer's Investment Research, founded by Bernie Schaeffer in 1981, is a financial information and trading resources company. It publishes Bernie Schaeffer's Option Advisor, the nation's leading options subscription newsletter. The firm's contrarian approach focuses on stocks with technical and fundamental trends that run counter to investor expectations. The firm's website, http://www.SchaeffersResearch.com , is recognized as one of the leading information sources for stock and options traders and was cited as the top options website by both Forbes and Barron's. Click here for more details about Schaeffer's trading methodology: http://www.SchaeffersResearch.com/method .