Category: Stock Option Investment Advice

For many years AMD was more of a nuisance than competition for Intel (INTC), but in recent years AMD has provided some pretty good competition for Intel. AMD recently warned it would not meet its projected revenue for the first quarter of 2007, mostly a result of Intel putting significant pressure on AMD’s profit margins. AMD recently acquired graphics and chipset semiconductor maker ATI hoping to gain a competitive edge over Intel through integration of the two company’s products, but positive results from the merger will take time to come to fruition, so AMD’s short term prospects are looking pretty grim.

In a previous article, “Texas Utilities (TXU) Merger & Jim Cramer: Opportunity in Coal”, we analyzed the private equity acquisition of Texas Utilities and some of the potential ramifications of the deal. As part of the deal, Texas Utilities (TXU) will forgo building 11 new coal fired electric power plants. Another potential fallout from this deal is an increase in the demand for other sources of electrical energy, natural gas in particular. Electric energy consumption is not decreasing, so the electrical energy, which was to be generated by the 11 scuttled TXU coal fired power plants, has to come from someplace, and one potential avenue could be from natural gas.

It used to be you could walk into any Starbucks and it would be the same. The smooth sounds of Nora Jones or Nat King Cole and the warm call of the handsome leather sofas. The attractive baristas and the girl studying biochemistry also make you feel a little giddy inside. But nowadays you’re likely to have the experience interrupted by a tinny voice over a loudspeaker blaring, “Customer needs assistance in Sporting Goods” and the mood is broken.

The PowerOptions weblog identified several successful trades for the option expiration month of February. Below is a table showing three successful trades we identified.

Jim Cramer in an online interview gave broad indications about the sectors he feels are cooling down and the sectors with momentum.Overall, Cramer stated he felt the market was cooling down momentarily, “What I see is we have these periodic ends of momentum. There is way too much money running the country to allow this to happen for very long. I see profit taking emanating initially from the real estate investment trusts.”

The Pantry (PTRY), a convenience store chain in the southeastern United States, produced a penny of profit in first-quarter earnings announced yesterday. However, the Pantry maintains its long-term goals remains intact.

The Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) rolled out Windows Vista at retailers in 70 countries today, delivering a PC operating system reported to better manage digital media and to increase security.

Many stock investors are down on steel at present. But there is a growing number of analysts who feel the sector may be ready to rebound. In this article we will look at what some analysts are saying and at two attractive option trades. The buzz generally focuses on two key companies: US Steel (X) and AK Steel (AKS).

In the blog article, “Wal-Mart (WMT) – Generic Drugs – Options Investing”, we analyzed the generic drug industry in light of Wal-Mart’s (WMT) introduction of $4 generic drugs. In our article, “Generic Drug Investing Returns +1.3% in Nov.”, we showed the profitability of the strategy, and in article, “Generic Drug Investing Returns +2.2% in Dec 06”, we selected covered calls positions for January of 2007 and all of the positions were fully profitable returning a very nice average return of +4.6%.

In a press release dated January 8, 2007, Nexen (NXY) announced a major oil field prospect in the North Sea commenced production. The stock is experiencing heavy trading today at 128% of its average volume. The stock has advanced 3.5% today and over 10% in the last week. Nexen’s stock is approaching the 52-week highs it saw in the spring of 2006.