After the first half hour of trading this morning, RAM Energy is up nearly 57% at $1.73 Volume is approaching 2 million shares. The independent oil & gas company has today relisted on the NASDAQ and has also announced a $550 million investment from a private equity firm headed by the former chairman and CEO of Petrohawk.

WCA is up nearly 30% at $6.38, after posting a new 52-week high of $6.43. Volume is already more than 40x the daily average. The non-hazardous waste processor has approved a cash buyout offer for $526 million ($6.50/share) from a private investment fund.

Akamai is up more than 15% at $30.75. Volume is already about 75% of the daily average. The internet technology company has agreed to acquire cloud-based software company Cotendo for $268 million in cash.

American Greetings is down nearly -20% at $13.63 after posting a new 52-week low of $13.06. Volume is already more than double the daily average. The greeting card company missed earnings estimates this morning.

ARCA biopharma is down nearly -23% at $1.04 after posting a new 52-week low of $0.79. Volume is already about double the daily average. The biopharmaceutical firm announced a private placement of $1.75 million in stock and warrants.

Vivus is down more than -15% at $8.80. Volume is already nearly double the daily average. The biopharmaceutical firm announced that its weight-loss drug Qnexa led to a higher rate of birth defects in children whose mothers were taking the drug during pregnancy.

Also Read: Top Ten Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades

Paul Ausick

After the first half hour of trading this morning, Oracle is down nearly -13% at $25.42. Volume is heavy, with 22.3 million shares already traded, compared with a daily average of 31 million. The business software company reported weak earnings after markets closed last night. See more coverage here.

Teradata is down more than -12.5% at $44.15. Volume is heavy, with nearly half the average daily volume of 1.9 million shares already traded this morning. The data warehousing software maker’s stock was downgraded from ‘outperform’ to ‘perform’ at Oppenheimer.

Commercefirst is up more than 80% at $6.24. Volume is 4x the daily average, but trading in this stock is always very light. The Maryland bank holding company is being acquired by Sandy Spring Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ: SASR) for $24.5 million in stock and cash, or about $13.50/share.

China Ming Yang Wind Power is up more than 15% at $1.58. Volume is already greater than the daily average of about 230,000 shares traded. The Chinese wind turbine maker has announced that it will continue share and ADS repurchases under its $50 million buyback program.

Research in Motion is up about 7.5% at $13.46. Volume has already nearly equaled the daily average of 22 million shares traded. The smartphone maker is getting a boost on reports that at least two offers for the company did not materialize. Apparently this is interpreted to mean that RIM is under consideration as a takeover target — and that’s good news for shareholders.

Paul Ausick

All you have to do is look at the exchange-traded funds and closed-end which track the emerging markets and the BRIC nations (and those surrounding the BRICs).  Ugly is not quite the right description and we will explain more after showing just how bad the carnage is.  Greece is no emerging market, but it is on the path to default faster than emerging markets used to default.

The ETFs for the broad emerging markets is not a good signal for their equity markets.  The revolutions of early 2011 did not help, nor did the food inflation, but the economic slowing is taking a hit here left and right.  iShares MSCI Emerging Markets Index (NYSE: EEM) closed down 2.1% at $34.36 and the 52-week trading range is $34.29 to $50.43 (52-week low was Monday).  Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock ETF (NYSE: VWO) closed down 1.75% at $35.20 and the 52-week trading range is $35.13 to $50.92 (52-week low was Monday). 

We have included the most active ETF chart on each from Stockcharts.com at the end of this report.  The data on the BRICs is almost shocking…

BRAZIL

Brazil may have energy independence and the Olympics headed its way, but the implosion there has been massive.  The BOVESPA lost 2.9% of its value on Monday and let’s just say that its high-flyers are now grounded due to more than just weather.  It seems that minerals and forestry are not going to generate cash, just like it missed out on royalties from the term “Brazilian” in personal grooming. 

iShares MSCI Brazil Index (NYSE: EWZ) closed down 2.1% at $50.89 and the 52-week trading range is $50.71 to $81.77 (52-week low was Monday).  Market Vectors Brazil Small-Cap ETF (NYSE: BRF) closed down 3.15% at $37.96 and the 52-week trading range is $37.73 to $63.78 (52-week low was Monday).  iShares MSCI Chile Investable Market Index (NYSE: ECH) closed down 3.8% at $51.16 and the 52-week trading range is $50.92 to $80.38 (52-week low was Monday).  Aberdeen Chile Fund, Inc. (NYSE: CH) closed down 4.9%  at $13.45 and the 52-week trading range is $13.37 to $26.56 (52-week low was Monday).

The thresholds will lower the broad market decline percentage triggers, shorten the duration of the trading halts, and also change the reference index.  The existing market-wide circuit breakers were originally adopted in October 1988 and have only been triggered on one day in 1997.

The basic proposals are as follows:

• Lower the market decline percentage thresholds from 10%, 20%, and 30% down to new levels of 7%, 13%, and 20% from the prior day’s closing price.
• The duration of the trading halts that do not close the market for the day would go from 30 minutes, 60 minutes, or 120 minutes down to 15 minutes.
• Rather than six time periods, the only two relevant trigger time periods would be before 3:25 P.P. and on or after 3:25 P.M. 
• The new proposal would strip the Dow Jones Industrial Average as the reference index and would change to the S&P 500 Index as the pricing reference.

Normally, we might not support changes of this magnitude.  Our concern is that the Flash Crash of 2010 was damaging enough that some measures needed to be reviewed.  More importantly than that, some estimate that trading machines, the computer to computer trading, now accounts for up to 75% of the trading in the liquid stocks out there.  That figure varies wildly depending upon the day, but all you have to do is read what we wrote about the dangers of  nanonsecond trading.  

Imagine if the machines actually dumped 1 billion trades upon the market in one second.  A stretch, yes.  Theoretically possible, yes.  If you do not trust our notion on this matter, remember this: a survey on Wall Street noted that high-frequency trading (HFT) is mostly bad for everyone except the HFTs themselves.

A public comment period will take place but here are the full proposals from the SEC site.

JON C. OGG

The high-premium deal sounds great on the surface, particularly considering that Global Industries has seen its shares slide so much from the energy peak of recent years.  The problem is that this is going to leave many longer-term shareholders facing forced losses.  Some holders are likely to demand a higher price.

The deal is expected to close in early 2012 if shareholder approval comes.  The deal brings Global’s 14 vessels and important geographic positions in the Gulf of Mexico, AsiaPacific, and in the Middle East.

Where trouble is going to arise is that the 52-week trading range is $3.09 to $10.23.  Even the 55% premium at $8.00 is going to leave at least some shareholders in the lurch.  If you go back to the energy cycle peak of 2007 into 2008, the price was much higher above $15, then above $20, and then above $25 at the true peak.  Global was also a $15 and $20 stock in the early part of last decade and even in the 1990s.  No dividend has been paid to holders in that entire time either.

Realistically, there may not be one-penny more to pay above $8.00.  It may be an incredibly fair and generous offer.  Still, some shareholders get caught as being “long and wrong” and that will almost certainly have been the case for some investors.

This is an obvious case where some are going to want more.  Whether or not they can get it is another issue.  Global shares are currently up 51% at $7.78 and there has been a whopping 36 million shares in less than two hours of trading.

JON C. OGG

Among the 30 most active stocks and ETFs none was high than more than 6%. That advance was by ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP). The energy giant will spin off its refining unit early next year. As a one-time event, the shares are not likely to move again after today.

JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) was higher by 3% which stunned some traders because its earnings outperformed almost all expectations. Its second-quarter profit rose 13% to $1.27 a share. The market does not believe that the JPM success will spread to any other large money center banks. Analysts who cover these firms expect trading and investment banking revenue to be weak. Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) traded flat on strong volume at $10.21.

Technology shares were fundamentally unmoved as the market awaits Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) earnings. Recent data on slow PC sales have weighed on Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) and Microsoft (NASDAQ : MSFT) both of which traded only marginally higher.

The only active company with shares trading lower was Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) which was off .2% to $19.93. There was not reason for its activity.

Even News Corp (NYSE: NWS) the shares of which have been buffeted by share buybacks, a newspaper scandal in the UK, and a cancellation of its BSkyB buyout, traded .5% to $16.51. So, even what has been the most roiled part of the market is calm

Douglas A. McIntyre

High Frequency Trading, what is called HFT on Wall Street, is a mystery to most investors.  Its aim is to make money from market inefficiencies via programs that analyze data and which make automated trading decisions that can last for fractions of a second or which can last for a fraction of day.  Any market from currencies, to stocks, to futures and options, and other financial instruments can have heavy amounts of HFT influence.

HFT has been a target of Main Street and Washington D.C. for an obvious reason.  HFT often excludes Joe Public, leaving the typical investor at a huge disadvantage against the professionals.  That’s not the entire story, however. Some successful independent active traders use many tools and tricks of HFT.  If the claims are real, those who can afford it will be able to trade stocks, currencies and other electronic market securities in less than one-billionth of a second.

Yes, under 1/1,000,000,000… This is under the nanosecond barrier and that is what has been claimed by an outfit called Fixnetix.

Demonstrations of the technology are taking place this week at the SIFMA Financial Services Technology Expo 2011 in New York.  The company has announced its iX-eCute, a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) microchip for “ultra-low latency trading” that is called “the world’s fastest trading appliance for the financial markets.”  It says that customers are now seeing latencies as low as 740 nanoseconds through the stack, or wire-to-wire.

The company also noted that this is not just for speed but also for regulatory use.  It claims that 20+ pre-risk checks take less than 100 nano seconds.

Fixnetix claims that iX-eCute has no detrimental impact on trading performance with the necessary risk controls as it enforces pre-market risks at nano-second time frames yet still prevents trade latency.  It noted that ” Unlike other solutions, the iX-eCute microchip has near zero impact on latency for governing the required checks directed by the recent SEC Rule 15c3-5 and anticipated declarations from other regulatory governing bodies.”

F5 reported a strong quarter as did Intel.

Among the shares that have been hurt the most are those of homebuilders. S&P recently predicted that home prices will drop another 7% to 10% in 2011. Home sales and housing starts have been poor while foreclosures remain high. PulteGroup (NYSE PHM) fell 10% this last week and D.R. Horton (NYSE: DHI) was down 7%.  PulteGroup is also on the declines for the month to date and year to date.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Vical (NASDAQ: VICL) down 14% on late stage drug trial failure.

ARM Holdings (ARMH) up 7% on buyout rumors.

Sirius XM (NASDAQ: SIRI) is up 2% on positive analyst calls.

NetFlix (NASDAQ: NFLX) is up 3% on an expanded relationship with NBC.

Tibco (NASDAQ: TIBX) is up 6% on strong earnings and takeover rumors.

The Finish Line (NASDAQ: FINL) is down 11% on bad earnings.

Douglas A. McIntyre