Among the major movers at around noon today are The McClatchy Co. (NYSE: MNI), Coinstar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSTR), Cybex International Inc. (NASDAQ: CYBI), NeurogesX Inc. (NASDAQ: NGSX), and Standard Pacific Corp. (NYSE: SPF).

Shares of McClatchy are up about 25% at $2.79. About 2.4 million shares have been traded so far today, compared with a 3-month daily average of about 1.2 million shares traded. The newspaper company reported stronger-than-expected earnings today. More coverage here.

Coinstar is up nearly 19% at $59.95 after posting a new 52-week high of $60.81 earlier. More than 10 million shares have traded this morning, compared with a 3-month daily average of around 1.1 million. The video rental company will join with Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) to offer a streaming video service to compete with Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) and others. We have more coverage here and here.

Cybex is up nearly 22% at $1.45 after posting a new 52-week high of $1.55 earlier. About 242,000 shares have traded this morning, compared with a 3-month daily average of less than 40,000. The sporting goods firm has settled a product liability suit for $19.5 million.

NeurogesX is down nearly -23% at $0.89. About 1.8 million shares have traded by mid-day, compared with a daily average of about 220,000. The pharmaceuticals firm has received a query from the Food and Drug Administration regarding the efficacy of its pain-relief patch.

Standard Pacific shares are up more than 13% at $4.59 after posting a new 52-week high of $4.85 earlier today. More than 9 million shares have already traded this morning, compared with a 3-month daily average of about about 2 million shares. The homebuilder posted good earnings today and reported that orders are up 8% in January.

Paul Ausick

The company has received 24 reports of incidents involving thetreadmill unexpectedly increasing speed, including six reports ofconsumers falling. Three of those incidents resulted in minor injuries.  This has also come at a price on its stock, and the company’s shareholders probably don’t want any more financial injury on top of product injury.

The recall involves the Cybex treadmill models 445T, 455T, 530T, 450T,500T, 515T, and 520T, which are black and gray with rectangularuprights. The 530T style treadmill is 81 inches long by 32 inches wide.The 445T style treadmill is 72 inches long by 32 inches wide. Thetreadmills have a display panel on a console as wide as the treadmill.

These models were sold at Cybex International and at Cybex dealersnationwide starting in January 2001 through September 2008 for between$5,500.00 and $7,000.00 per treadmill.

The good news here is that it does not appear that this recall requiresthe machines to be sent back in.  That would have been disastrous forthe company.  The shipping on these machines back and forth would havecome at a significant cost to the company even if it had productliability and recall insurance.  It says at the CPSC site to unplug andstop using the recalled treadmills and that consumers should contactCybex to receive a free replacement fuse. If requested, a Cybextechnician can install the fuse free of charge. Cybex is directlycontacting known purchasers.

have you ever been thrown off of a treadmill?  I have, and trust mewhen I tell you that it hurts.  Unfortunately my incident was becauseof my feet being too slow for the speed I set the machine too and I gottired and tripped before I slowed the speed down.  Even with thisrecall and the warning, that was my fault.

This news did come at a price today.  Shares were down almost 12% at$1.85 after 12:45 PM EST.  Fortunately this won’t come at too high of aprice for the company other than a PR issue that competitors will tryto use against it.

The company’s share price has traded in a range of $1.50 to $5.22 overthe last 52-weeks, but the stock has never really recouped its lossesfrom when this was a $10 to $15 stock back in the early to mid-1990′s.

Jon C. Ogg
October 29, 2008