Among the biggest winners in Monday’s early trading are Century Aluminum (Nasdaq: CENX), United Micro (NYSE: UMC) and Perfect World (Nasdaq: PWRD). Top Percentage Gainers — Monday, June 21, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Gain 52-Week High 52-Week Low Century Aluminum (Nasdaq: CENX) $11.18 +11.4% $18.77 $4.70 Perfect World (Nasdaq: PWRD) $26.00 +8.5% $50.49 $21.49 United Micro (NYSE: UMC) $3.30 +6.1% $4.24 $2.31 *Table includes companies with minimum market capitalizations of $200 million and three month trading volumes of at least 100,000… Read More

Among the biggest winners in Monday’s early trading are Century Aluminum (Nasdaq: CENX), United Micro (NYSE: UMC) and Perfect World (Nasdaq: PWRD). Top Percentage Gainers — Monday, June 21, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Gain 52-Week High 52-Week Low Century Aluminum (Nasdaq: CENX) $11.18 +11.4% $18.77 $4.70 Perfect World (Nasdaq: PWRD) $26.00 +8.5% $50.49 $21.49 United Micro (NYSE: UMC) $3.30 +6.1% $4.24 $2.31 *Table includes companies with minimum market capitalizations of $200 million and three month trading volumes of at least 100,000 shares. All percentage returns are listed as of 1:50AM Eastern Standard Time. Click on ticker symbols for up-to-the-minute price quotes and percentage gain data. Aluminum Stocks love a Stronger Yuan A wide range of aluminum and steel stocks are rallying this morning, led by a +11% gain for Century Aluminum (Nasdaq: CENX). Many of these firms, such as Alcoa (NYSE: AA), POSCO (NYSE: PKX) or U.S. Steel (NYSE: X) have struggled to raise prices while Chinese rivals flooded the market with lower cost products. Read More

The oil industry is in the midst of dealing with one of the largest spills in history. The consequences could be dire for firms focused on offshore drilling, with a current six-month moratorium on drilling in the United States and a slew of new regulations and safety procedures being prepared… Read More

With the market oscillating between down and flat for the year, an old friend of mine, Tom, asked the other day why I was so chipper about the market. He had just received his 401(k) statement and was very disappointed. “I’m up,” I told him. “I’m way… Read More

The word “bankruptcy” is anathema to most investors. Holding shares of a company in this position means investors are likely to be wiped out. Sometimes, however, a bankruptcy can be exactly the right thing for both the company and investors, if handled properly. Read More

Among the biggest losers in Friday’s early trading are Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods (NYSE: WBD) and HCP (NYSE: HCP). Top Percentage Losers — Friday, June 18, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Loss 52-Week High 52-Week Low Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods (NYSE: WBD) $19.67 -8.9% $78.57 $12.33 HCP (NYSE: HCP) $32.74 -4.7% $34.50 $19.65 *Table includes companies with minimum market capitalizations of $200 million and three month trading volumes of at least 100,000 shares. All percentage returns are listed as of… Read More

Among the biggest losers in Friday’s early trading are Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods (NYSE: WBD) and HCP (NYSE: HCP). Top Percentage Losers — Friday, June 18, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Loss 52-Week High 52-Week Low Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods (NYSE: WBD) $19.67 -8.9% $78.57 $12.33 HCP (NYSE: HCP) $32.74 -4.7% $34.50 $19.65 *Table includes companies with minimum market capitalizations of $200 million and three month trading volumes of at least 100,000 shares. All percentage returns are listed as of 1:48PM Eastern Standard Time. Click on ticker symbols for up-to-the-minute price quotes and percentage gain data. Russian Dairy Jilted for Another Pharmacy companies CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS) and Walgreens (NYSE: WAG) kissed and made up last night. But that doesn’t seem to be the fate awaiting the dairy and baby food companies Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods (NYSE: WBD) and Danone. #-ad_banner-#The French company Danone owns an 18% stake in Russia’s WBD. But this week Danone announced a merger with one of WBD’s competitors, Unimilk. Read More

I apologize for the brevity of today’s article, but I have a long drive ahead of me. Most of you probably think I’m just a research fanatic that locks himself in the office for hours on end… well, you’re right. But fact is, I grew up on… Read More

Among the biggest winners in early Friday trading are Covanta (NYSE: CVA), SMART Modular Technologies (Nasdaq: SMOD) and Walgreens (NYSE: WAG). Top Percentage Gainers — Friday, June 18, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Gain 52-Week High 52-Week Low Covanta (NYSE: CVA) $18.15 +8.2% $19.69 $14.43 SMART Modular Tech. (Nasdaq: SMOD) $6.86 +5.5% $8.75 $2.10 Walgreens (NYSE: WAG) $34.02 +3.9% $40.69 $27.89 *Table includes companies with minimum market capitalizations of $200 million and three month trading volumes of at least 100,000 shares. All… Read More

Among the biggest winners in early Friday trading are Covanta (NYSE: CVA), SMART Modular Technologies (Nasdaq: SMOD) and Walgreens (NYSE: WAG). Top Percentage Gainers — Friday, June 18, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Gain 52-Week High 52-Week Low Covanta (NYSE: CVA) $18.15 +8.2% $19.69 $14.43 SMART Modular Tech. (Nasdaq: SMOD) $6.86 +5.5% $8.75 $2.10 Walgreens (NYSE: WAG) $34.02 +3.9% $40.69 $27.89 *Table includes companies with minimum market capitalizations of $200 million and three month trading volumes of at least 100,000 shares. All percentage returns are listed as of 12:03PM Eastern Standard Time. Click on ticker symbols for up-to-the-minute price quotes and percentage gain data. Trash-to-Cash Announcement Cheers Shareholders Last night, energy-from-waste company Covanta Holding Corporation (NYSE: CVA) announced it would issue a special cash dividend of $1.50 per share. It also increased the company’s authorization to buy back up to $150 million in common shares. These bountiful gifts were well received, pushing CVA’s share price up +8.2% in early morning trading. Covanta operates about 60… Read More

Stock analysts have taken their fair share of criticism in recent years. Some so-called experts are consistently off-the-mark and issue earnings projections that seem to be little more than guesstimates. Others simply follow the herd and are reluctant to raise… Read More

In the hunt for stocks, equity investors often turn to mechanical things like screeners to help guide them. They set various criteria such as earnings growth or market cap and blindly follow the answers that get spit out. There’s nothing wrong with this approach,… Read More