We have seen some unusual options trading today.  As you would expect, some is around today’s 4:00 PM close  with today being options expiration date.  But some bets are way out into 2011 and we have some around merger rumors.  All have links with full details on the options trading analys ... Read more

Here is some national data on home buyer financing in October. This is from a survey by Campbell Communications (excerpted with permission) released today. Source: October Trends in Existing Home Sales, a presentation from Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance Monthly Survey on Real Estate Market Condi ... Read more

Earnings season has mostly wound down, but as always there are at least some major companies reporting earnings.  Some are actually market-movers as well and it is a short week with earnings out only Monday and Tuesday, with a few on Wednesday.  On deck are Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ), Tys ... Read more

Baker Hughes, Inc. (NYSE: BHI) has released its data on the weekly rig counts and most are up. We are watching the key ETF products react via the Oil Services HOLDRs (NYSE: OIH), the Ultra Oil & Gas ProShares (NYSE: DIG), the United States Oil (NYSE: USO) ETF and the iPath S&P GSCI Crude Oil ... Read more

From Paul Krugman writing in the NY Times: The Big Squander During the bubble years, many financial companies created the illusion of financial soundness by buying credit-default swaps from A.I.G. — basically, insurance policies in which A.I.G. promised to make up the difference if borrowers def ... Read more

The Treasury Department will auction off some of the stock warrants it received in exchange for bailout assistance. Over the next month, Treasury will use a "modified Dutch auction" system to unload it warrant positions in JP Morgan Chase & Co., Capital One Financial Corp., and TCF Finan ... Read more

In 1932, according to John T. Flynn, there were no federal "subsidies to farmers, … handouts to the indigent, [or] support [for] schools." The federal government did not "build hospitals [or] provide medical care."[1] And though it did undertake national defense, it did so much more cheaply than A ... Read more

From the BLS: Regional and State Employment and Unemployment Summary Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia recorded over-the-month unemployment rate increases, 13 states registered rate decreases, and 8 states had no rate change, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over t ... Read more

Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) has sort of already fallen from grace despite all the hype behind the Palm Pre.  Throw in that Pixi too.  Discounting is trumping what may be weaker sales.  It turns out that Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) is offering the Palm Pre for Sprint for a mere $79.99.  Sprint Nextel ... Read more

Updated throughout the day. GE (NYSE:GE) and Vivendi are at odds over the NBCU valuation  (FT) IBM (NYSE:IBM) is taking advantage of the delay in the Sun (NASDAQ:JAVA) deal to be bought by Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL)  (TheStreet) The joint venture between Rio Tinto (NYSE:RTP) and BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP ... Read more