The unofficial closing bells put the DJIA down nearly 204points to 12,759.15 (-1.57%), the NASDAQ fell more than 40 points (-1.36%) to 2,910.32, and the S&P 500 fell -1.54% or nearly 21 points to 1,343.36.

There were several analyst upgrades and downgrades today, including Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) started as ‘buy’ at Nomura; Yandex N.V. (NASDAQ: YNDX) started as ‘neutral’ at UBS; lululemon athletica inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) cut to ‘hold’ at Argus; Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) cut to ‘market perform’ at Bernstein; and Annaly Capital Management Inc. (NYSE: NLY) cut to ‘market perform’ at Wells Fargo.

Earnings reports since markets closed last night have led to some price changes as of the last half hour of trading today: Black Diamond Inc. (NASDAQ: BDE) is down -2.1% at $8.74; Fuel Tech Inc. (NASDAQ: FTEK) is up 0.18% at $5.61; Halcon Resources Corp. (NASDAQ: HK) is down -4.6% at $10.27; Verifone Systems, Inc. (NYSE: PAY) is up 7.5% at $50.03; Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. (NYSE: DKS) is up 2.7% at $46.79 after posting a new 52-week high of $47.42 earlier today; Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: IRDM) is up 10.8% at $8.20; Stage Stores Inc. (NYSE: SSI) is down -4.6% at $13.69; and Vail Resorts Inc. (NYSE: MTN) is up 4.7% at $43.43.

Other standouts from today include the following stocks:

Vermillion Inc. (NASDAQ: VRML) is up more than 111% at $2.81. The medical device maker received a code-change approval from the American Medical Association that incorporates one of the company’s devices. More coverage here.

Encore Bancshares Inc. (NASDAQ: EBTX) is up more than 35% at $20.23 after posting a new 52-week high of $20.61 earlier this morning. The bank holding company has been acquired by privately held Cadence Bancorp for about $250 million ($20.62/share).

XOMA Corp. (NASDAQ: XOMA) is up about 30% at $1.89. The biopharmaceutical firm has announced pricing on a share offer of around 29.7 million shares and warrants.

Oncothyreon Inc. (NASDAQ: ONTY) is down nearly -41% at $4.98. The biopharma company reported a significant fourth-quarter EPS miss this morning, along with available cash that will keep the company in operation for about another 12 months.

Zeltiq Aesthetics Inc. (NASDAQ: ZLTQ) is down more than -32% at $7.50 after posting a new 52-week low of $7.46 earlier. The medical technology company posted a dismal fourth-quarter earnings report this morning.

Stay tuned for Wednesday. We have noted the following events on the schedule (all times Eastern):

• 7:00 a.m. – Mortgage Bankers Association purchase applications
• 7:30 a.m. – Challenger Gray & Christmas job-cut report
• 8:15 a.m. – ADP employment report
• 8:30 a.m. – Non-farm business productivity and unit labor costs report
• 10:30 a.m. – EIA weekly petroleum status report
• 3:00 p.m. – Consumer credit

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Paul Ausick

Among the major movers at around noon today are Vermillion Inc. (NASDAQ: VRML), Harvest Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: HNR), Encore Bancshares Inc. (NASDAQ: EBTX), Oncothyreon Inc. (NASDAQ: ONTY), and Zeltiq Aesthetics Inc. (NASDAQ: ZLTQ).

Vermillion is up about 71% at $2.27. Volume is already more than 30x the daily average of about 117,000 shares traded. The medical device maker received a code-change approval from the American Medical Association that incorporates one of the company’s devices.

Encore Bancshares is up more than 35% at $20.20 after posting a new 52-week high of $20.61 earlier this morning. Volume is more than 30x the daily average of just 14,000 shares traded. The bank holding company has been acquired by privately held Cadence Bancorp for about $250 million ($20.62/share).

Harvest Natural Resources is up more than 28% at $8.02. Volume is already almost 6x the daily average of about 490,000 shares traded. The independent oil & gas company has reported production growth at its Venezuelan fields and that it has begun discussions for a sale of its Venezuelan assets.

Oncothyreon is down -39% at $5.13. Volume is already nearly 10x the daily average of around 1 million shares traded. The biopharma company reported a significant fourth-quarter EPS miss this morning, along with available cash that will keep the company in operation for about another 12 months.

Zeltiq is down more than -28% at $7.96 after posting a new 52-week low of $7.51 earlier. Volume is already about 8x the daily average of around 185,000 shares traded. The medical technology company posted a dismal fourth-quarter earnings report this morning.

Paul Ausick

There are several stocks trading more heavily than usual this morning, and also experiencing large gains or drops in share prices. These include the Vermillion Inc. (NASDAQ: VRML), Harvest Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: HNR), XOMA Corp. (NASDAQ: XOMA), Oncothyreon Inc. (NASDAQ: ONTY), and Zeltiq Aesthetics Inc. (NASDAQ: ZLTQ).

Vermillion is up about 45% at $4.13. Volume is already nearly 10x the daily average of about 117,000 shares traded. The medical device maker received a code-change approval from the American Medical Association that incorporates one of the company’s devices.

Harvest Natural Resources is up nearly 31% at $8.19. Volume is already nearly double the daily average of about 490,000 shares traded. The independent oil & gas company has reported production growth at its Venezuelan fields and that it has begun discussions for a sale of its Venezuelan assets.

XOMA is up about 31% at $1.90. Volume is already about 15x the daily average of around 350,000 shares traded. The biopharmaceutical firm has announced pricing on a share offer of around 29.7 million shares and warrants.

Oncothyreon is down nearly -35% at $5.49. Volume is already about about 6x the daily average of around 1 million shares traded. The biopharma company reported a significant fourth-quarter EPS miss this morning..

Zeltiq is down about -31% at $7.65 after posting a new 52-week low of $7.55 earlier. Volume is already about 4x the daily average of around 185,000 shares traded. The medical technology company posted a dismal fourth-quarter earnings report this morning.

Paul Ausick

If you are just seeking an earnings calendar, we highlighted about sixteen of the top earnings with detailed previews we were planning to watch on Monday and Tuesday.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) may still be somewhat in question but there are two things to watch.  The NASDAQ 100 rebalance will be behind it and there are rumors that a new slate of iMacs will be released early this week.  Shares closed at $350.13 on Friday, making that all but one day with a $350+ closing price this last week.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A; BRK-B) may be in focus a bit still on Monday after the annual shareholder meeting.  The conglomerate disclosed that natural disasters cut its net income in more than half for the first quarter, and we would note that many of those Japan claims may carry over into Q2 and/or beyond.  Buffett said Sokol violated trading ethics and that this was a blow, but he also admitted that mistakes were made by himself in monitoring the situation.  Buffett is expected to give a Monday interview on CNBC, and then hopefully the world will move on past the company.

BJ’s Wholesale Club Inc. (NYSE: BJ) was up last week on word that Apollo was looking at making an acquisition offer.  This company has been in play for some time now and sadly it is getting to the point that a buyer will have to have continued confidence in the economy for years ahead to justify it (at least by our conservative models).  If no additional news is out on this matter on Monday, we would expect to see some of that move from $48 to $51 have to come back in a bit.

Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C) closed at $4.59 this week against a 52-week range of $3.53 to $5.15.  This week will mark its last week as a $4 or $5 stock, hopefully forever…. As for its upcoming reverse stock split, Citi gave dates of “effective after the close of trading” on May 6, 2011 and will begin trading split-adjusted at the opening of trading on May 9, 2011.

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) and General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) have GM earnings but we first get to see April vehicle sales data on Tuesday.  This can influence the sector, although some of the data may be mostly known now that Ford has reported earnings.

Gen-Probe Inc. (NASDAQ: GPRO) was higher on Friday based on reports that it hired Morgan Stanley to find a buyer.  The AIDS and West Nile drug maker rose over 4% to $82.92 on Friday, but this trades around 35-times this year’s earnings estimates and about 30-times next year’s estimates with a market cap around $4 billion today.

The deal was led by Cowen & Co. and the co-manager is Wedbush PacGrow Life Sciences.  If the underwriters exercise the overallotment option, the proceeds would be another $6 million gross.

The company plans to use the proceeds for general corporate purposes and to fund the development of PX-866 and and ONT-10,  Its PX-866 is called a PI-3 Pan-isoform irreversible Kinase inhibitor, and its and ONT-10 is called a proprietary follow-on vaccine to Stimuvax that is already in a Phase III pivotal trial as a vaccine non-small cell lung cancer under partnership with Merck KGaA.

Oncothyreon’s market cap at Thursday’s close, without considering the impact of this secondary offering, was almost $150 million.  Shares closed at $4.94 on Thursday and the 52-week trading range is $2.20 to $5.27. 

The company has decided to use the recent strength of the last five days to bolster its capital.  Shares rose on a Rodman & Renshaw upgrade and early in April it initiated a Phase II trial of its PI-3 Kinase Inhibitor PX-866 in patients with glioblastoma.  At the end of March this was just a $3.87 stock.  The December 31, 2010 balance sheet showed almost $29 million in cash and short-term securities. 

This is one of those cases where it was smart of the company to bolster its books after a big share run and one where the stock has just hit 52-week highs.  The problem is that these offerings of this magnitude tend to drill the newest shareholders in the door, and that irks those holders. 

Shares are taking it right on the chin so far in early Friday trading.   At 8:20 AM EST shares are down about 15% at $4.18.  Average volume is only about 200,000 shares and there has not been a 1 million shares day December 22, 2010 and then since October 2010.  Today is likely to be far more active based upon the discount of the secondary offering and based upon the share count.

JON C. OGG

First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) is trading higher after Credit Suisse upgraded the solar player to Outperform from Neutral and gave it a $150 target price.  Shares are up 4.4% at $124.02 this morning.

Fannie & Freddie are at it again…. Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) is down another 14% at $0.48 on active volume and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) is trading down 13% at $0.65 on slightly less volume.  This is after large price drops yesterday based upon the FHFA requesting delisting from the NYSE.

Neurocrine Biosciences Inc. (NASDAQ: NBIX) is trading up 4.3% at $5.60 after it and Boehringer announced a pact to develop diabetes drug that is a small molecule GPR119 agonist for the treatment of Type II diabetes and other indications.  That is after the Abbott deal yesterday.

Discovery Laboratories Inc. (NASDAQ: DSCO) is down 15% after a common stock and warrant offering was proposed a day after it received financing from Kingsbridge Capital.

Oncothyreon Inc (NASDAQ: ONTY) is up 20% at $4.35 after the company announced that Merck-Serono is resuming the Stimuvax clinical program in lung cancer.

NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) is trading up after Jim Cramer gave the company a Buy signal last night on CNBC’s MAD MONEY.  Shares closed at $11.77 and are up about 3.1% at $12.14 this morning on more than 50,000 shares.

You can join our free daily email distribution list to hear more about dividend trends, analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader and active trader alerts, news on Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

JON C. OGG

Sponsor: 5 best investments for 2010 – The next nine months represent a bold new era for investors.

Today’s movers are different because we have included some device companies.  Normally we would not, except these in some cases are the key movers in medial and health-related stocks and also may compete against traditional drugs.  We have included the news, the share move, relative performance and valuation data, and added in additional market color where applicable.

Accuray Incorporated (NASDAQ: ARAY) is a call we have not seen the full report on, but we are told that Soleil Securities had downgraded the stock to “Sell” from “Hold” and that the price target was cut from $6 to $4.  Accuray is technically not a drug nor a biotech company, but the company has the CyberKnife system.  Shares are down 7.9% at $6.62 on 580,000 shares; average volume is over 300,000 shares and the 52-week range is $4.72 to $8.35.

Beckman Coulter, Inc. (NYSE: BEC) makes and sells biomedical testing instrument systems, tests, and supplies for clinical laboratories.  After the close on Monday it disclosed that it sent a notice to customers who use its AccuTnI troponin test kits on the UniCel DxI immunoassay system alerting that these DxI customers to a positive bias in troponin results obtained on the DxI system when compared with troponin results obtained on its Access system using the same test kits. It is recommending the  discontinued use of troponin test kits on DxI if an alternative methodology was available.  Shares are down 7.7% at $63.80 on 3.2 million shares; the average volume is about 500,000 shares and the 52-week range is $47.53 to $71.57.

Biosante Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: BPAX) is up after it announced additional positive Leukemia vaccine results and unveiled its second FDA Orphan Drug Designation.  Full Details are here on that one.  Shares are up 6.9% at $1.86 on 1.8 million shares.  The average volume is only about 600,000 shares and the 52-week range is $1.14 to $2.70.

Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTIC) is seeing a surprise trading bounce after yesterday’s roughly 50% haircut after an FDA Panel unanimously rejected its Pixantrone to fight non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.  Shares are up a whopping 30% at $0.61 on over 68 million shares.  This is surprising after yesterday’s news, but that is what makes a market.

Chelsea Therapeutics International Ltd. (NASDAQ: CHTP) is trading higher after Needham initiated the stock with a Buy rating in new coverage this morning.  Shares are up 8% at $4,05 on 445,000 shares; the average volume is only about 355,000 shares and the 52-week range is $1.44 to $7.51.

Dynavax Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: DVAX) is trading higher after the company reported positive findings from safety analysis of HEPLISAV.  The results showed that its hepatitis B vaccine was as safe as Glaxo’s vaccine.  Shares are up 12.6% at $1.43 on 750,000 shares.  Average volume is only about 322,000 shares and the 52-week range is $0.60 to $3.35.  Keep in mind that the market cap is only $59.2 million here.

Nabi Biopharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: NABI) is a bit of a head-scratcher if you follow share buybacks and dividends.  The company announced a $61 million share repurchase program versus a $300+ million market cap.  Shares are down 0.3% at $6.17 on about 250,000 shares.  Again, the buyback here is not the norm. To date, Nabi said that it has repurchased 13.9 million shares of common stock for a total cost of $54.1 million under a program which has been around since 2007.

Oncothyreon Inc. (NASDAQ: ONTY) is getting crushed after it announced the temporary suspension of Stimuvax clinical trials by Merck Serono for Stimuvax… due to suspected unexpected serious adverse reaction in a patient with multiple myeloma. Shares had been halted earlier on the news and the stock gapped way down.  Shares opened at $3.25 and had been almost down by half in pre-market indications.  Shares are down 22% at $3.71 and we have seen over ten-times normal volume based upon the three-month average.

Sequenom Inc. (NASDAQ: SQNM) is seeing a huge recovery based upon an analyst upgrade. The troubled Down’s Syndrome test company was raised to Buy from Hold at Lazard in research coverage this morning.  Shares are up a whopping 14% at $6.31 and there has been over 14.5 million shares traded today.

Somaxon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: SOMX) is very active, again.  The company announced last night that will sell up to 4,000,000 shares of its common stock a public secondary offering.  Frankly, this is a good capital raise, should be no surprise based upon the company’s small balance sheet and the need to secure a marketing and development partner for Silenore as a sleep-aid after last week’s FDA approval.  Traders first endorsed this as a positive.  Shares are up almost 3% at $8.55 on 4.55 million shares.  Usually shares sell off on secondary announcements, but the traders believe this is a good capital raise and will allow it to negotiate for a partner for Silenor from a position of strength rather than one of need.

World Heart Corporation    (NASDAQ: WHRT) is soaring today.  The company is a device play for hearts rather than a drug or biological implantation.  But the move from the implantable ventricular assist devices  (VADs) and the University of Utah Hospital successfully implanted its first Levacor Ventricular Assist Device is making this one of the market’s top percentage gainers today.  World Heart is up 33% at $2.70 on 870,000 shares.  Average volume is only about 13,000 shares and the 52-week range is $1.70 to $8.63.  The market cap here is only $35.9 million, and that is after the pop.

You can join our free daily email distribution list to hear more about dividend trends, analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader and active trader alerts, news on Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.

JON C. OGG

Somaxon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: SOMX), Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARNA), and OXiGENE, Inc. (NASDAQ: OXGN) have all filed this week with the SEC for the resale of securities by secondary offering and private placement buyers in recent weeks.

You can read the full story with details on each offering over at BioHealthInvestor.com.

And imagine this… it is only Wednesday.

-The 24/7 Wall St. Team

Savient Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SVNT) is among the worst performers on disappointing FDA action on its gout treatment.

Huron Consulting Group Inc. (NASDAQ: HURN) is the worst performer on earnings restatements and management being replaced.

Repros Therapeutics (NASDAQ: RPRX) is down sharply by over 50% after stopping trials on patient safety.

eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) is up over 4% after getting the barron’s cover story.

Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) is up over 4% on higher earnings growth.

Oncothyreon Inc. (NASDAQ: ONTY) is up big on lung cancer study data.

The 24/7 Wall St. Team

Shares have hardly reacted to the news, and are flat today at $2.78 on somewhat light trading for a very thin volume stock. The 52-week range is $1.47 to $8.82.

You can join our open email distribution list to hear about special financings, secondary offerings, IPO’s, M&A, and more previews for other special situations in various stages.

Rachel Lopez
April 9, 2008