Business

Weston, Nov 20 (FlowTrades.com) – The majority of stocks fell for the week, with only the Dow posting a gain after surging to new highs on better than expected economic news overseas and a pledge by the APEC to maintain economic stimulus measures. The Dollar rebounded from a 15-month low against the euro, sending . Read More --

D.R. Horton (NYSE: DHI) had a really bad trading session today in which it lost 15.35%. The home builder's foundations were shaken after it posted bad earnings report. It had a huge volume of $35.88M in comparison to its average volume of $8.37M.

Seahawk Drilling, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAWK) declined 14.35% to $22.57. It had a volume of $1.21M.

Novavax, Inc. (NASDAQ: NVAX) fell 13% at $3.28 after announcement that a price for its public offering of 6.8 million common shares is $3.30 each.

After moving sideways for a while Ruth's Hospitality Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: RUTH) dropped 12.04% to $2.41. RUTH had a volume of $2.23M and its market capitalization is $58.26.

Investors reacted badly on the ADC Telecommunications' (NASDAQ: ADCT) earnings report. ADC Telecommunications (ADCT) posted a loss of 20 cents per share and its stock fell 10.99% to $5.91.

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) posted disappointing results and dropped 9.96%. DELL also dragged down other stocks in the tech sector.

Today’s tickers: WFC, IYT, RYL, YHOO, XLE, MU, ADCT, KBH, DELL, NE & GPS

WFC - Wells Fargo & Co. – Shares of the financial holding company surrendered 1.5% today to stand at $27.88. One investor initiated a sold straddle on WFC in the April 2010 contract. The trader sold 10,000 calls at the April 32 strike for 1.59 apiece in conjunction with the sale of 10,000 now in-the-money puts at the same strike for 5.81 each. The gross premium on the transaction amounts to 7.40 per contract. The investor will retain the full premium if shares settle at $32.00 by expiration. The premium received acts as a buffer against losses in the event that shares swing in either direction away from the $32.00-level. However, the trader will accumulate losses if shares breach the upper breakeven price of $39.40, or if shares decline beneath the lower breakeven point at $24.60, by expiration in April.

IYT - iShares Dow Jones Transportation Average Index ETF – The exchange-traded fund, which measures the performance of the transportation sector of the U.S. equity market, appeared on our ‘hot by options volume’ market scanner this afternoon after one investor initiated a bearish put play. Shares of the fund moved 0.5% lower to $70.53 during the session. The trader established a put spread by purchasing 5,000 puts at the December 70 strike for 1.80 each, and by selling the same number of puts at the lower December 65 strike for 40 cents apiece. The net cost of the trade amounts to 1.40 per contract and provides downside protection beneath the breakeven price of $68.60 down to $65.00 through December’s expiration.

RYL - The Ryland Group, Inc. – Shares of homebuilder and mortgage-finance company, Ryland Group, declined nearly 4% this afternoon to stand at $18.86. Investors exchanging options on the stock today spread pessimistic sentiment through to expiration December. Traders sold 10,000 calls at the December 19 strike for an average premium of 1.10 apiece. The full 1.10 premium pocketed by investors is retained in full as long as shares of RYL remain below $19.00 through expiration day. Call-sellers do not seem to expect that shares of Ryland will recover before the start of 2010.

YHOO - Yahoo!, Inc. – We observed two different option strategies in play on Yahoo this afternoon. A large-volume sold strangle in the January 2011 contract suggests shares are likely to remain stagnant through expiration. The transaction involved the sale…

Dell reported third-quarter profits on Thursday that were down 54 percent from this time last year, though the company said it was encouraged by a slight uptick in sales from the prior quarter.

Dell's net income for the three months to Oct. 30 was $337 million, or $0.17 per share, down from $727 million, or $0.37 a share, in the same quarter last year, the company said. Revenue declined 15 percent to $12.9 billion.

Dell and Juniper Networks this week reached an OEM agreement that will let Dell offer Juniper products to datacenter customers under its PowerConnect brand.

Dell's growth plans focus on pairing its hardware and IT services offerings rather than on increasing PC unit shipments, a company executive said Wednesday, dismissing rival Acer's rise past Dell in PC sales.

Acer overtook Dell as the world's second-largest computer vendor during the third quarter, as the PC market showed signs of coming back to life, IDC said on Wednesday.

Global PC shipments grew 2.3 percent from the same quarter a year earlier, to 78.1 million units. It was the first quarter this year in which PC shipments have grown, IDC said.