Biostar Pharmaceuticals, inc. (NASDAQ: BSPM) is up 13% premarket to $3.14, relative to a 52-week range of $2.32-$5.52. The move comes after a promising sales update released by the company.

Huntington Bancshares Inc. (NASDAQ: HBAN) is up on heavy volume to $6.65, relative to a 52-week range of $3.60-$7.40. The company just announced a public offering of $920 million shares of stock.

Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ: NKTR) is down 11% to $12.50, relative to a 52-week range of $8.59-$16.06.

Ness Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: NSTC) is up more than 20% to $5.50, relative to a 52-week range of $4.12-$7.30. The jump comes after announcement that four separate companies are bidding to acquire it.

The PMI Group (PMI) Housing and mortgage markets hurt quarter. Falls to $22.80 from 52-week high of $51.46.

Washington Mutual (WM) Huge mortage company reports bad numbers. Shares drop to $30 from 52-week high of $46.38.

Gannett Co (GCI) Weak numbers at big newspaper company. Down to $41.43 from 52-week high of $63.50.

McClatchy (MNI) Another big newspaper company. Falls to $16.85 from 52-week high of $44.62.

Nektar Therapeutics (NKTR) Pfizer (PFE) quits partnership with this company. Shares drop to $6.66 from 52-week high of $17.47.

Popular (BPOP) Another bank in a bad banking market. Drops to $10.51 from 52-week high of $19.05.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Shares are trading down almost 15% at $6.90, well under the $7.59 lows of the last year.  This actually takes Nektar back to lows not seen since 2003.  The good news is that Nektar won’t be a biotech zombie and it has a partnered product portfolio comprising of Neulasta for neutropenia, PEGASY for Hepatitis-C, Somavert for Acromegaly, PEG-INTRON for Hepatitis-C, Macugen for age-related macular degeneration, Cimzia for Crohn’s disease, and MIRCERA for renal anemia.  It also has many other products in various trial stages.

The bad news is that this was one of the big hypes and big hopes for the company that at one point was being touted as a potential blockbuster drug (over $1 Billion in annual sales).  When the partnership first launched, Business Week had noted that inhaled insulin products could have worldwide sales of $4.8 Billion annually by 2010.  Even in late 2006 there were calls that Exubera wasn’t living up to expectations and some of the issue was blamed on the fact that physicians and patients had to be trained to use the device.  Another critical issue the cost factor, with Exubera being considered more costly than other diabetes treatments.

Analysts were not expecting Nektar to be profitable this year nor in 2008, but now you’ll likely see some strong downward revisions to forward numbers.  Without Pfizer selling this it looks like those losses are going to be worse.

Jon C. Ogg
October 18, 2007

The DJIA & S&P 500 Index may have put in new highs today, but as you know there are always a dingy group of little piggies putting in new 52-week lows.  Some companies are poorly run, and some are just victim of circumstance.  Maybe they can just all blame Friday the 13th.  Not all of these are definitely CLOSING on 52-week lows but some deserved the honorable mention.  Here are today’s little piggies:

(ACA) ACA CAPITAL HOLDINGS… Giving it up again, down 50% from Highs.  ACA provides financial guaranty insurance products to participants in the global credit derivative, structured finance capital, and municipal finance capital markets.  You think subprime or CDO blow-ups snuck into their pocketbook?

(AVAV) AEROVIRONMENT INC… Shares traded down another 2.4% and traded down into the ‘teens’ for the first time since its IPO in January.  No one realized that its flying re-con plane was needed to find stock buyers rather than enemy soldiers over the horizon.

(IDIX) IDENIX PHARMACEUTICALS… Whoops, FDA halts Hep-C trials. Ouch!

(KERX)    KERYX BIOPHARMA… no real news, just days and days of weakness.

(NKTR) NEKTAR THERAPEUTICS… no real news, just days of weakness.

(REDE) RED ENVELOPE… no real news, although for an ‘online of high-end gifts’ it is pretty shocking that I have yet to meet anyone who has bought from them online.

(STAA) STAAR SURGICAL… very thin volume, no news; not being run by stars?

(TRMP) TRUMP ENTERTAINMENT… The truth is that this DIDN’T CLOSE on a low, but it hit a new since coming public after the recapitalization in 2005 and deserves to be noted.  Hopefully The Donald won’t sue us for saying something negative like he has been known to do, but this stock has been a stinker.

(UBET) YOUBET.COM… You can bet it is hard to find bulls or bears in this name.

(WON) WESTWOOD ONE INC… This was down close to 15% at one point but managed to come all the way back on 4-times average volume to a 10-year ("TEN") after traders bought it back up after Citigroup downgraded it.

Jon C. Ogg
July 13, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Pulte Homes (PHM) More of the same. Drops to $23.28 from 52-week high of $35.56.

Lexmark (LXK) Jury finds that printer company’s patents were not violated in major litigation case. Printers must be worse off than home sales. Drops to $49.18 from 52-week high of $74.68.

US Energy Systems (USEY) Energy services provider may be headed toward bankruptcy. Drops to $1.25 from 62-week high of $6.95.

Inphonic (INPC) Analyst rating cut. Down to $4.80 from 52-week high of $14.49.

Nektar Therapeutics (NKTR) Inhaled-insulin treatment Exubera doing poorly. Drops to $9.27 from 52-week high of $17.47.

Douglas A. McIntyre