Stocks to Watch

Stock Rating Analysis HOGS STRONGBUY Zhongpin is gaining higher expectations and its recent history of its earnings increases is significant. CF STRONGBUY The projected value for CF is still rising quickly even though past earnings have already improved significantly. ALJ BUY Alon has shown a remarkable increase in projected value recently, with the majority of analysts expecting higher than previously expected earnings. KFY BUY Korn Ferry has been gaining recognition from analysts as a good canditate for achieving higher than expected earnings along with higher overall projected valuation. PT STRONGBUY The long term projected growth rate for Portugal Telecom is rising, and this is happenening at a time when historical earnings have already increased significantly.

The global manufacturer and marketer of high-quality foods and simple meals, Campbell Soup Company (CPB – Analyst Report), have underlined a series of initiatives to enhance its supply chain efficiency and reduce overhead costs. Under its new restructuring plan, the company will make new investments, outsource and close some operations.

Campbell is expected to eliminate a total of approximately 770 positions across the organization by incurring total pre-tax costs of approximately $75.0 million. This represents about 4% of the company’s global workforce of 18,400. The company is planning to cut jobs by the end of July 2011. These initiatives are expected to generate annual pre-tax savings of approximately $60.0 million in fiscal 2012 and $70.0 million in fiscal 2014.

The company has planned to invest approximately $40.0 million over a period of 18-months to automate packing operation at its biscuit plant in Virginia, Australia.

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Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) are up 7.01% to $86.81 in after-hours trading today, moving up after the Federal Reserve raised debit card transaction fee caps to $0.21. Earlier in regular trading the stock closed 7.76% higher at $81.12, with volume up from daily average of 5.93 million to 32.46 million. The stock has a 52-week range of $64.90-$87.32. It is currently trading above its 50-day and 200-day moving averages.

Shares of Active Power Inc. (NASDAQ: ACPW) are up 2.12% to $2.41 in after-hours trading today, moving up after the company received PowerHouse order. Earlier in regular trading the small cap stock closed 5.60% lower at $2.36, with volume up from daily average of 1 million to 4.17 million. The stock has a 52-week range of $0.78-$3.03. It is currently trading above its 50-day and 200-day moving averages.

Shares of Globus Maritime Limited (NASDAQ: GLBS) are up 3.90% to $8 in after-hours trading today, moving up after the company announced the pricing of its follow-on public offering.

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Investors venturing into foreign mining companies must be vigilant in mid-2011. Increasingly, more governments are proposing to get a slice of the mining pie as corporate profits boom.

As markets continue higher for things like copper, gold, nickel, lead, zinc and other metals, more countries are violating contractual agreements and rewriting terms for foreigner investors.

Peru joins Tanzania, Chile, Australia and several others attacking mining company profits in the name of socialism amid a tremendous bull market in commodities since 2002.

On Wednesday, Tanzania joined Brazil this week debating a “super-profit tax” on miners to pay for local development programs. You’ve got to wonder if some or all of this potential “super-profit tax” money will go to the poor, unsuspecting population or to local officials’ foreign bank accounts. I’m sure mo

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Greece is the time, is the place, is the motion, Greece is the way we are feeling…

We reached back into our record collection and found the perfect song for the day as all eyes will be on Greece after the close.  The situation is dire over in Athens as the country awaits another vote on cost-cutting measures needed to avoid a default.  The news should hit Wall Street at 5am (EST) tomorrow morning and it will move the market on Wednesday. 

Of course, the bulls don’t seem bothered taking positions ahead of the news as they are having another solid day.  Better-than-expected economic news and a huge beat by Nike (NKE, $87.37, up $5.75) on their earnings have helped fuel today’s rally.

The Dow is currently up 113 points to 12,156 and has traded to a high of 12,167.  The S&P 500 is higher by 12 points to 1,292 while the Nasdaq is showing a 31 point pop and is at 2,719.  

We profiled some call and put options for Nike yesterday as a straddle trade that we said could do well if Nike makes a big move.  We also said the options were priced for a 7%-8% move in the stock and that is exactly what we got.

The July 82.50 calls (NKE110716C00082500, $5.50, up $2.50) and the July 82.50 puts (NKE110716P00082500, $0.60, down $2.20) would have cost $5.80 (or $580) to put on the trade.  As you can see, the calls have nearly doubled and have traded up to $5.90 while the puts took a major hit.    

We said if Nike trades above $88 or below $78 then the trade will make a profit.  At current prices

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With a weak open and strong close in the stock market, quite a few stocks made the Bullish Engulfing and Piercing Pattern scans. In particular, CIT Group (CIT) formed a bullish engulfing within a triangle pattern. A follow through breakout would confirm this bullish candlestick reversal.