Quadruple Witching, Stocks Erratic, Tech Strong

  • December 18, 2009
  • David Goodboy

An erratic session on the heels of quadruple witching expiration of options and futures contracts. The Nasdaq was a notable exception soaring higher on Oracle and Research in Motion’s stellar results. The U.S. dollar continued its push higher due to macro economic safety concerns. The DJIA added +20.63 to 10328.89, the Nasdaq jumped +31.64 to 2211.69 and the S&P 500 climbed +6.39 to 1102.47.

Darden Restaurants
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PowerRating): Popular chains Olive Garden and Red Lobster owner climbed 7.27% or $2.38 to $35.13/share after announcing an advance in second quarter profits.

Interstate Hotels & Resorts
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PowerRating): Exploded higher by 74.02% or 94 cents to $2.21/share after agreeing to be bought out.

Nike
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PowerRating): Climbed 1.85% or $1.17 to $64.42/share upon revealing its profits fell less than expected.

Airvana
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PowerRating): Soared 21.63% or $1.35 to $7.59/share after it agreed to be acquired by a SAC Capital backed group.

Oil added 67 cents to $73.32, gold moved higher by $4.60 to $1112.00 and the VIX index fell 3.69% to 21.68.

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Market Snapshot

Dow

 +20.63 10328.89

NASDAQ

 +31.64 2211.69

S&P 500

 +6.39 1102.47

Economic
News

Core PPI (Nov): Consensus: 0.2%, Prior: -0.6%

PPI (Nov): Consensus: 0.8%, Prior: 0.3%

Empire Manufacturing (Dec): Consensus: 24.00, Prior: 23.51

Net Long-Term TIC Flows (Oct): Consensus: $42.3B, Prior: $40.7B

Capacity Utlization (Nov): Consensus: 71.1%, Prior: 70.7%

Industrial Production (Nov): Consensus: 0.5%, Prior: 0.1%

Building Permits (Nov): Consensus: 570K, Prior: 552K

Housing Starts (Nov): Consensus: 578K, Prior: 529K

CPI (Nov): Consensus: 0.4, Prior: 0.2%

Core CPI (Nov): Consensus: 0.1%, Prior: 0.3%

Crude Inventories (12/11): Consensus: NA, Prior: -3.82M

FOMC Rate Decision (12/16): Consensus: 0.25%, Prior: 0.25%

Initial Claims (12/12): Consensus: 465K, Prior: 474K

Continuing Claims (12/5): Consensus: 5170K, Prior: 5157K

Leading Indicators (Nov): Consensus: 0.7%, Prior: 0.3%

Philadelphia Fed (Dec): Consensus: 16.0, Prior: 16.7