Watchlist for December 20, 2005

Heads up — volume and volatility may be affected by the New York transit strike.

Potential swing trades:

See one of the recent ‘Chart Reading‘ posts for some potential swing candidates.

Potential day trades:

(From Briefing.com)

Gapping Down

SRLS -27% (auditor raises concerns), ALOY -54% (completes dELiA’s spinoff), SCMR -6.4% (Citigroup downgrades to Sell), CNCT -5.3% (guides lower), NABI -4.8% (closes European operations), ANGO -4.5% (reports NovQ), PRGS -4.3% (to acquire NEON; reports NovQ), NLY -3.2% (lowers dividend), WRES -2% (prices offering), HAIN -1.9% (prices offering), SNDK -1.9% (JMP Securities initiates with a Mkt Underperform and $38 tgt), TXU -1.4% (Jefferies downgrade), SIRI -1.4% (Insider selling at XM satellite and Sirius – Barron’s Online), NVS -1.1% (large shareholder to vote against CHIR deal).

Gapping Up

NEON +40% (to be acquired by PRGS), EWEB +22% (to sell its internet and telecom businesses), AMKR +13% (guides higher), ORCT +11% (WilTel to deploy CM-100), LEXG +7.8% (achieves two milestone payments from Genentech), EPIC +6% (First Albany upgrade), UARM +5.7% (CSFB initiates with $32 tgt), NXY +4.5% (announces significant discovery in Gulf of Mexico), EDS +3% (Lehman upgrade), AEY +2.9%, GMXR +2.8% (tgt raised to $53 at Ferris Baker), MWD +2.6% (reports NovQ), BHP +2.2%, CEE +2%, GOOG +1%… Under $3: ECGI +66% (reports SepQ), MEMY +21% (clinical data), CMGI +4.7% (launches online auction service).

Intraday Updates:

• 10:00 The market’s starting off mixed again. I’m waiting for a break of the first 30 minute range to get a better read on the action
• 11:30 Zzzz… It’s real slow today for me and I have data issues with CyberTrader. All of that equals a long lunch for me. Maybe the market will have some direction (other than sideways) when I get back…
• 1:16 Just saw this on Briefing — 12:47 Floor Talk: Expectations for the market during the Christmas/New Year period

  Not surprisingly, many of our contacts are taking a conservative approach this week ahead of the holiday weekend, basically playing small and not jeopardizing their gains for the year. Many of our contacts are taking Friday off, and it’s worth noting that the NYC transit strike doesn’t seem to be impacting trading to a noticable extent. Trading is expected be thin this week, and desks lightly staffed towards the end of the week, as usual. In terms of expectations for the Christmas selling season, traders we’ve spoken to call it a toss-up, and are taking a wait-and-see approach as opposed to making a big bet one way or the other. Traders are expecting increased volatility due to light volumes right before Christmas as well as the week after, and one contact tells us he’s making a point of sticking around next week in order to trade some of the extreme volatility you tend to see in the low-float, high-momentum names during this period.

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