Online Trading News

  In May of 2005 Kerkorian’s company, Tracinda bought aproximatly 5% of (NYSE:GM) for around $31/share.  Before this Tracinda already owned 3.9% of the company and had paid around $26.33/share.  The company announced on Monday that it will sell approximately 2.5% of the company to a private investor for $33/share.  If Kerkorian can sell the rest of the shares at this price he will have made a tiday 13.9% gain on the GM deal, however upon receiving news of the sale the market price of GM dropped to just above $31/share positioning Tracinda to make a very un-Kerkorian gain.  Speculators have seen this as a sign that Kerkorian’s plans for a GM-Nisssan Merger failed and that he planned to sell off his shares for investments that he sees to be more lucrative such as (NYSE:MGM) and possibly other Vegas companies.

Phelps Dogde (NYSE:PD) is currently the world’s second largest copper mining company in the world.  The company taking buying out Phelps is Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold (NYSE:FCX), a company which also mines copper as well as gold and silver. The total price of the buyout is $25.9 billion, which will be paid in both stock and cash.  Shares of Phelps increased over 29% in response to the news from the previous close around $95 to todays price which has been trading just above $121.  Copper prices were slightly down today from about $.328 an ounce to todays price around $.324 an ounce.

Jinpan International(Amex:JST) is a company that builds insulation systems for high voltage wires in China. The company is new to US markets but today’s news seemed to hit a high note. Jinpan declared that the company’s 3rd quarter showed a profit of RMB 16.7 million($2.1 million) or $.32 per share. The company’s stock jumped from around $15 this morning to $18 on closing which provided a total increase of over 34%. This is especially exciting news for US investors who have increased their demand for foreign investments since 2001 and have shown increasing interest in infrastructure investments such as energy throughout the previous years.

Evergreen Energy (PACX:EEE) reported a net loss of $17.4 million or $0.22 per share for the 3rd quarter of 2006.  This was a dissapointment to investors and caused Evergreen’s stock to drop over 18% today.  The main reason for Evergreen’s recent losses has been the companies promotion of its K-Fuel(TM) process.  While Traditional coal burning creates toxins and pollutes the air.  Evergreen has used its K-Fuel process to reduce emissions and even remove toxins such as merucury.

Shares of Hudson Highland Group (Nasdaq:HHGP) rose over 28% today after announcing the company’s 3rd quarter results.  The quarter’s profits came in at $4.3 million or $0.17 per share.  This is significantly higher than 2005’s 3rd quarter which showed $1.2 million in profits or $0.05 per share.

Hudson Highland specializes in staffing.  The company finds employees for many specialty positions including executives.  The company also keeps and index, called the Hudson employment index, to measure how confident employees are in the labor markets.  In October this number increased to 101.4, compared with 100.5 a month earlier.  No doubt the increase in the labor market has helped the company find business.

Avistar, (AVSR) advanced 49% after announcing much better than expected earnings.  The company is based out of Redwood Shores, Ca and creates software that enables business’s to create and share video.  The past four quarters for this company were unprofitable.  The previous quarter Avistar reported a loss of over $3.7 million on revenues of just $1.75 million.  In contrast, the newly announced third quarter results showed the company with a profit of $1.82 million from revenues of $7.28 million.

Inside the midwest there are numerous lawn and garden companies. The largest without a doubt is John Deere (NASD: DE). John Deere announced that the company has sold $400 million in new debt. Traders were excited about the news today as John Deere gained 3.2% today. This put a nice cap on John Deere’s growth over the past twelve months, which is now approximately 50%. The company has a PE of 13.03, which puts it in a position to get picked up by value based investors.
Another company, which shouldn’t be overlooked is Toro (NYSE:TTC). Toro’s stock price has increased around 25% over the past twelve months. Yesterday Toro announced that Peter M. Ramstad had joined the company as vice president of business and strategic development. Toro stayed fairly even yesterday and gained 2.1% today. The company has a solid PE of 15.5.

Toro lawn mowers and John Deere lawn mowers compete directly in lawn and garden stores across the country. While John Deere has continued to emphasize it’s quality and brand name, Toro has grown by buying out Lawn Boy and developing new technologies such as its Personal Pace feature.

Star Scientific (Nasdaq:STSI) makes tobacco products and tobacco curing processes that reduce the amount of carcinogens in the final product.  The company recently announced that it had received a letter regarding its ongoing patent infringement case with R.J. Reynolds (Nasdaq:RAI).  Shares of Star rose over 27% today most likely due to the letter potentially having news that favors Star Scientific in the case.

Genta (Nasdaq:GNTA) is a biopharmaceutical company which researches DNA and RNA medicines with the goal of finding new ways to treat cancer and similar diseases.  The company recently announced that it will sell an additional 20 million shares on top of the 134 million shares that are currently outstanding.  Investors where not happy to hear this and Genta’s share price dropped over 27%.

Intergraph (Nasdaq: INGR) specializes in producing software which is excellent for various construction and geography projects. On Friday the company recieved a buyout offer to buy the company at an 18% premium. The offer came from a few investment groups, the biggest being Hellman & Friedman LLC and Texas Pacific Group. The offer also calls for current stockholders to recieve $44/share.