Option Trends: Alcatel Lucent, Gilead Sciences, and Vringo
Speculative investors are taking sides on telecom concern Alcatel Lucent SA (NYSE:ALU - 1.05), biotech stock Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:GILD - 69.63), and mobile software developer Vringo, Inc. (NYSEAMEX:VRNG - 5.25), according to volume data from the major options exchanges. Calls have been gaining traction on ALU and VRNG, while option players prefer puts on GILD. Heres a closer look at the latest trends in the options pits for these three hot stocks.
First up, traders on the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) have bought to open 1,493 calls on ALU during the past five sessions, compared to only two puts. From a broader view, the stock has racked up a 10-day call/put volume ratio of 14.56 on the CBOE, International Securities Exchange (ISE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX). In other words, traders currently prefer bullish bets over bearish on ALU by a wide margin.
In fact, ALUs 50-day ISE/CBOE/PHLX call/put volume ratio of 24.77 arrives in the 92nd percentile of its annual range, as speculators have rarely purchased calls over puts at a faster pace during the past year.
Of course, with ALU trading just north of $1 per share, its not surprising to see a general lack of interest in put options. The stock is down more than 60% year-over-year, and is pinned below resistance at its 10-week and 20-week moving averages.
As for GILD, speculators on the ISE have bought to open 4,622 puts during the past five days, easily outstripping the 605 calls bought to open. Now, the stocks 10-day ISE/CBOE/PHLX put/call volume ratio registers at 1.80, in the 87th annual percentile -- revealing a healthier-than-usual appetite for bearishly oriented options.
On the other hand, analysts have taken a bullish view of GILD. In addition to a Bernstein upgrade earlier this week, the stock on Wednesday scored a price-target hike to $80 from $65 at UBS. Technically speaking, the stock has surged more than 71% so far this year -- which means its possible that some put buyers are actually GILD shareholders looking to protect their paper profits.
Turning to VRNG, call options have emerged as the clear favorite over the past week. During this time frame, speculators on the ISE and CBOE have bought to open 12,846 calls, compared to only 472 puts. In other words, traders have scooped up more than 27 calls for every put. Likewise, the securitys 10-day ISE/CBOE/PHLX call/put volume ratio checks in at a similarly skewed 18.35.
In todays trading, VRNG is living up to bullish expectations with a bounce of more than 20%. Earlier, the shares tapped a fresh record high of $5.55, bolstered by a favorable court decision in its patent spat with Google (GOOG).
Here are some additional articles of interest:
- Amazon, Microsoft, Apple: The Buzz on the Products That Will Make or Break the Worlds Biggest Companies
- Las Vegas Sands Swarmed by Short-Term Skeptics
INFOGRAPHIC: Trends that are Reshaping the Legal Industry
Employment of lawyers is expected to grow 10 percent from 2010 to 2020, about as fast as the average of all occupations. Competition for jobs should continue to be strong because more students are graduating from law school each year than there are jobs available. This statistic alone is transforming the way lawyers operate.
In 2011 of the 43706 graduates only 36974 gained employments. In 2020, its predicted that of 43979 graduates only 27639 will be employed. The number of law graduates over the years has been increasing continuouslyit has already increased 5-fold from 9,638 in 1963, to 44,004 in 2010. Main trends which are reshaping Legal industry include globalization, and alternative legal service providers, virtual law firms providing virtual legal assistants and legal process outsourcing.
While most midsize and large law firms have structured themselves to offer a broad range of services, a growing number of lawyers are setting up boutique for law practices. These new firms are choosing to focus the work of the entire firm on one area of the law than try to maintain the general practice culture of big law firms. This enables them to market their entire firm bas being made of specialists in their chosen area of law.
Infographic by: Telassistant
5 trends you might soon see at the grocery store
GRAND RAPIDS, MI Before new products make it to store shelves, they are previewed at Spartan Stores annual fresh food products conference.
The one-day event at DeVos Place draws 900, many representing independent grocery stores from across Michigan and northern Indiana and Ohio, who get to sample products from nearly 300 vendors before placing orders. The Byron Township grocer operates 97 supermarkets statewide under the banner of Family Fare, DW Fresh Market, VGs and Glens Market, as well as supplies more than 350 independent grocery stores.
The market is exploding with new products and strategies catering to consumers, needs for convenience, value, nutrition and health, said Alan Hartline, Spartan Stores executive vice-president of merchandising and marketing.
On Thursday, Hartline gave MLive a tour of the displays and his predictions of the five top trends shoppers will see in the grocery store in the next year.
1. Floral. If you have something that has eye-appeal, it has buy-appeal, said Hartline, who added customers will have more choices in the floral department as stores begin offering more seasonal floral arrangements year-around. We are seeing consumers willing to spend more in discretionary categories like florals. Prices will range from $4.99 to $12.99.
2. Cupcakes. From cupcake cakes to gourmet cupcakes to build-your-own cupcakes, consumers will have lots of options when it comes to both little and big cakes. Its about indulging and entertaining with family, said Hartline, of the expanded personalized bakery items. Bakery - from artisan breads to gourmet cakes - was front and center at the conference. Last year, the focus was on the deli and an endless assortment of cheese.
3. Seafood. A growing trend in retail is the seafood roadshow, when an assortment of fresh seafood from lobster to tuna steaks is brought in for a sales event that lasts a few days. Superior Seafood is seeing more requests from retailers for its roadshow, says the Grand Rapids supplier to Spartan Stores. For seafood, youve got to grab and get (customers) attention, said Dan Meyers, Superior Seafoods roadshow coordinator. He thinks one of the reasons consumers line up for roadshow events is because of the variety of fresh seafood choices.
4. Home Meal Replacement. Spartan Stores is responding to the demand for prepared foods by introducing new seasonal items including a Waldorf salad, Cranberry and Wild Rice salad, Ambrosia fruit salad and Beef Pot Pies, which will be available in the deli sections this fall. The dishes are made without preservatives, said Matt Moore, who runs the grocers central kitchen.
5. Locally-grown produce. Spartan Stores highlighted locally-grown with its Michigans Best campaign that continues to generate letters and calls to the grocer filled with praise for helping the states economy. Fresh is important to customers, said Hartline. The focus means that E. Miedema Sons is growing more food that is consumed locally. The turnaround for the for the Byron Township farm - that grows sweet corn, cabbage and an assortment of hard squash - can be a few hours from harvest to warehouse. Im glad to see people paying attention to where they are buying their food, said Steve Haaksma, the farms sales manager.
RELATED: How Spartan Stores helped the makers of Charleys Chips and Monicas Cookies become local favorites
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QBs galore among early draft trends
Fantasy football owners love to see what others are doing in drafts, which is why an early look at ESPNs average live draft results can be a fruitful experience. Yes, you can actually draft right now on ESPN.com, but even if youre going to wait a few weeks, periodically checking out the trends in average draft position (ADP) gives an idea which players are seeing their value rise and fall. Perhaps you really like Michael Vick and want to select him in the second round. Well, according to ADP, you dont need to act that soon.
Its early, of course, and as of this writing we do not have seven-day adjustments to the ADP, but perhaps thats a good thing. This is the ground floor, so to speak, and I was curious whether the current results reflected ESPNs rankings (or mine) and how they might be differing, but also I wanted to check out some early draft trends. So far I have noticed the following:
People sure love their quarterbacks: ESPN ranks Green Bay Packers signal-caller Aaron Rodgers fourth overall, and Ive got him fifth, but the only player going ahead of him in ADP is Houston Texans running back Arian Foster. In fact, Tom Brady and Drew Brees are each up one spot from our rankings, and Matthew Stafford moves from 13th to 11th. Cam Newton goes from 23rd to 15th! I understand the need to secure a top quarterback early, as opposed to in recent seasons, but it certainly appears that owners dont want to take any chances.
To see Erics take on early draft trends, you must be an ESPN Insider.
West Nile virus reported in 17 states
Kelly George,
Atlanta Healthy Trends Examiner
Kelly George is an Emmy award winning journalist, with an in-depth knowledge of the health and fitness industry. She has participated in several half-marathons, a triathlon and has been a certified aerobics instructor. Kelly strives to incorporate health into all aspects of life, whether its...
Data Outlook Supportive of Kiwi, but will Risk Trends Allow?
Fundamental Forecast for New Zealand Dollar: Neutral
- New Zealand Dollar Outlook Hinges on RBNZ Policy
- NZD Techs Point Higher, Eying July Highs JPY Range Holds
- US Dollar Tumble Points to Bigger Decline
The New Zealand Dollar had a strong week, pushing out its strongest three-day rally to end the week, up against all the majors save the Euro, which it finished a mere 0.02 percent lower against. Against the Japanese Yen and the US Dollar, the Kiwi was the strongest, appreciating by 1.20 percent each. And while the NZDUSD is sitting at its highest level since May 3, we remain cautious on the Kiwis outlook: the New Zealand Dollar has traded very closely to risk trends the past several weeks, that it is likely to be volatile in either direction; misunderstood words fueled it up this week, and some clarity could pull the Kiwi right back down. Because of this uncertainty, despite a largely supportive economic docket, we are taking a neutral stance on the New Zealand Dollar for the five days ahead.
While the docket is thin once again (now that the Reserve Bank of New Zealand rate decision is in the past), the data trend is expected to be positive overall, which boosts the domestic fundamental outlook despite exogenous headwinds. Thus, while we dont find that the data should be exceptionally market moving, if positive, it should raise the floor on any Kiwi declines in the week ahead.
There are two releases of note on the calendar. On Sunday, Building Permits for June will be released, which should show growth of +7.3%. While this barely recoups the losses from the -7.1% contraction in May, it does represent a welcomed rebound after Building Permits peaked in March for the year. Overall, Building Permits are up +4.2% for the year, and if the figure due Sunday meets expectations, they will have increased by +11.8% in 2012 with half a year still to go (this is bullish for the Kiwi). On Tuesday, the NBNZ Business Confidence reading for July is due, and while no reading is expected, we do expect an uptick. We believe stronger than expected growth data from New Zealand as well as Australia (New Zealands largest trading partner) alongside a supportive Reserve Bank of New Zealand should keep confidence boosted. Junes reading was the lowest of the year, and the lowest since March 2011, and we are hard pressed to think Business Confidence will fall to its lowest levels right after the early-2011 earthquakes.
Still, concerns globally are what are going to drive the Kiwi in the coming days, as aside from the inflation reading; theres nothing else worth paying attention to on the docket for New Zealand, specifically. Mainly, Euro-zone concerns will be driving the New Zealand Dollar.
To wit: On February 6, Moodys Investors Service said that the New Zealand economy was among the most exposed to the crisis, further noting that its banking system (along with Australias and Koreas) is more vulnerable to the first-round impact of a further worsening of the euro area crisis than other systems in Asia Pacific. Indeed, since mid-March, when the Euro-zone crisis started reheating, New Zealand 5-year CDS have climbed over 27 percent, from 65.98 to 84.16 at the time of writing today. This is still much improved from its peak this year, when it climbed as high as 109.00 in early-June. Nonetheless, when Euro-zone issues come back weve seen leaders attempts to stabilize markets fail in October and November 2011, late-February and early-March 2012, and then again after the Spanish bailout in June 2012 the New Zealand Dollar will be most exposed. Because of these concerns, we believe they balance out the bullish undertones to the New Zealand data due this week, and thus we maintain a neutral but hopeful bias for the New Zealand Dollar in the days ahead. CV
8 Trends in the New American Economy and One Sector to Watch
The way people buy products is changing. eCommerce and mobile commerce are growing rapidly -- far faster than traditional store-based retail. In this New American Economy, the rules are different. No one can predict what is going to happen from here, but the rise of the New American Economy is introducing existential risk to some of the largest retailers and huge new opportunities for branded manufacturers throughout the world.
Here are eight trends that promise still more change and challenge to the existing business models:
o The ubiquity of orders. Orders can be placed online for any product, at any store, by anyone, from anywhere, at any time. This strains even the most advanced supply chains. It costs 30-40x more per unit to move a single item to a consumer than a pallet/case of items to a storefront. An order to replace a torn David Ortiz Boston Red Sox jersey Size S can be placed from the sidelines during the game and will be at your doorstep tomorrow.
o Customers expect next day delivery. Sellers compete on accuracy, quality, assortment, and timeliness. Simply, if a company cannot deliver an accurate order, competitively priced, to the customer within one day, they will lose that order to a company that can.
o A store is no longer a store. When a customer buys (yes, buys) something in a store, there is no guarantee that the store made the sale. If a consumer can find the product for a lower cost via their smartphone they will buy it elsewhere. Storefronts are showrooms and fitting rooms as much as they are stores.
o Brands matter more now than ever. If all retailers are selling the same items (Tommy Hilfiger, Michael Kors, Diane von Furstenberg, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan) then the real winners are the brands themselves. The retailer will be forced to compete on price with other retailers... an unfortunate outcome considering that premium-branded products are their most profitable. The brands do not want price competition on their products, anyway. Recently Adidas pulled its products from Amazon/eBay to maintain better control of their pricing.
o Social Commerce has created a Real-Time Feedback Loop. If a consumer wants to hear about the latest customer experience around a brand, retailer or product, a simple search of Twitter and YouTube will yield pages and pages of customers experiences, in real time, both good AND bad AND awful. For example, conduct a search on Google for United Breaks Guitars and read the story!
o Shipping costs only make sense with a large enough basket. Adding shipping and handling costs to an order requires that the profit (aka. gross margin) on that order be sufficient to cover these costs. Any company that sells items that cost $1.95 on average better be able to efficiently package many items in the same box. The world learned this lesson in 1999, with WebVan.com and Pets.com. Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. Not every product category is good business for mobile and/or Internet.
o Robots are driving productivity improvements. With specialized robots from companies such as iRobot, Kiva Systems, Heartland, and Symbotic, productivity is rising. While improving working conditions, robots also provide three huge advantages: lower cost, better accuracy, and higher throughput.
o Amazon and Apple continue to lead. With purchases of a robot company (Kiva Systems) and 76 new Internet domains, plus an increased focus on fashion and the in-store Price Check App, Amazon continues to lead the economy with a unique and powerful vision to create the go-to shopping destination for everything. Apple continues to deliver profoundly disruptive products and generate revenue growth and profits that are unprecedented. With $1B in free cash flow each week, Apple defies the norms of valuation metrics and explores a range of possible markets to conquer.
During the California Gold Rush, there were many fortunes made and lost, but one of the more enduring successes was Levi-Strauss, a clothier to all miners. Levis never had to worry about which miners were going to discover gold. In the New American Economy, these trends all converge around advanced fulfillment capabilities. Amazon has invested in its fulfillment capability for just that reason. The Levi-Strauss-like opportunity of today is in Fulfillment or, more specifically, Robotic Fulfillment.
All the Latest Trends on the Catwalk Found in the Home Too, Say Todd Doors
LONDON, July 27, 2012 -- /PRNewswire/ --
A Pattern Found Between Prints in Fashion and Interior Design
The world of fashion and interior design, should rightly sit side by side. #xA0;Their shared interests - of decorating and transforming object or subject- have mutual interests, influences, inspirations and references. When it comes to the wardrobe and the home, nothing is uniform and one dimensional.
Todd Doors, who supply interior and exterior doors, has established the connection between catwalk fashion trends and their connection to home interiors. Those eclectic creations in design, prints, patterns and colours, can work together to assemble the most stunning room or outfit.
Most recently, Art Deco-inspired glam was at the height of hot fashion. The 20s, Gatsby-infused gowns and embellished dresses, from feathers to beads, glittered and sashayed down the catwalk. In turn, era-heavy geometric- patterned prints were seen on linen and wallpaper along with metallic finishes reminiscent of glossy 20s-era styles.
It works through the trends. The spring obsession with blinding and brilliant colour trickled down to interior design. Pastel and candy pinks, greens, blues and lemon yellows found their way onto internal doors, for a vibrant, kitsch effect.
In-vogue patterns and prints too, found on dresses for spring and summer seasons have been become feature walls for the home. The 50s floral tradition is a popular print and creates a sense of pretty nostalgia on tablecloths and bed linen, from feminine, Victoriana florals, to out-and-loud wild blooms. This is extended to animal print too - upholstery has branched out to include leopard and zebra print.
Textures and accessories arent to be overlooked either. As the seasons change, so do the fabrics. Warmer, thicker and altogether cosier will be high on the decor agenda for autumn and winter, with brass, frames, velvets and thicker curtains creating a nest-like setting.
Just like the catwalk, the home is a prime platform for showcasing the latest trends.
For more on the home, visit http://www.todddoors.com.
SOURCE Todd Doors
Big Data Analytics Trends: SAS CEO Jim Goodnight
Big Data Analytics Trends: SAS CEO Jim Goodnight
Fresh IDC figures show that the analytics market is booming, but whats behind the demand and how does it relate to big data? SAS co-founder Goodnight offers his take in this video interview.