Oil prices, down most of the session, have come back off their lows to trade slightly negative. Nymex futures are still in the $108 per barrel range after hitting a 9-month high of 109 last week. The worry with rising prices is that it will dampen consumer spending.
The big event out of Europe today will be the LTRO. The ECB is expected to announce the results of its second three-year LTRO. The once they conducted in December had more than 500 banks tap the ECB to the tune of 489 billion Euros.
The flood of liquidity has been credited with staving off a disaster in the financial sector. The worries of a funding crunch similar to 2008 were avoided with the influx of cash.
On the economic data calendar, the big news this morning is the Durable Goods miss. Expectations were for -1%. Instead it printed a -4%. This is the lowest level since January 2009.
On the corporate front, Priceline.com Inc. is enjoying its run after it posted better than expected earnings. The stock is currently up nearly 7% in pre-market trading.
The Case Shiller Home index is slated for release at 9am EST. Consumer confidence numbers and the Richmond’s Fed regional activity index are both slated for 10am EST.
Stocks to watch today include pSividia Corp. (NASDAQ:PSDV), Alimera Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:ALIM), JA Solar Holdings Co., Ltd. (NASDAQ:JASO), Zagg Inc. (NASDAQ:ZAGG), BioDelivery Sciences International, Inc. (NASDAQ:BDSI), Priceline.com Inc. (NASDAQ:PCLN) and Human Genome Sciences (NASDAQ:HGSI).
pSivida Corp. (NASDAQ:PSDV) is up 34.88% in pre market trading at $2.90. pSivida announced positive outcome to European Decentralized Procedure for approval of Iluvien for the treatment of Chronic Diabetic Macular Edema. PSDV trades about 75 thousand shares a day on average and has a market cap of 44.72 million.
Alimera Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALIM) is up 75.76% in pre market trading at $3.95. ALIM trades 256 thousand shares a day on average. Alimera, a licensee of pSivida, also went up today on the positive news for Iluvien. The company has a market cap of 72.60 million.
JA Solar Holdings, Co., Ltd. (NASDAQ:JASO) is up 9.68% in pre market trading at $2.04. JASO shares are heading higher this morning after the company announced preliminary unaudited shipment results for the fourth quarter. JA Solar expects shipments in the fourth quarter to be between 390MW to 410MW, beating their previous guidance of 310MW to 330MW. The company has a market cap of 306.26 million.
Zagg Inc. (NASDAQ:ZAGG) is up 11.03% in pre market trading at $11.17. ZAGG trades 1.2 million shares a day on average. ZAGG shares are rallying this morning after announcing fourth quarter results and an upbeat growth outlook for 2012. Zagg earned $0.27 per share in the fourth quarter, beating estimates of $0.20. Revenue rose 131% to $67.5 million. The company has a market cap of 298.13 million.
BioDelivery Sciences International (NASDAQ:BDSI) is up 8.11% in pre market trading at $2.40. BDSI shares are heading higher after the company announced that it has reached agreement with the FDA on the development program for BEM. BDSI trades 332 thousand shares a day on average. The company has a market cap of 65.63 million.
Priceline.com Inc. (NASDAQ:PCLN) is up 6.79% in pre market trading at $631.96. PCLN has traded 47 thousand shares so far this morning and trades 828 thousand shares a day on average. Price line announced earnings yesterday and reported net profit of $4.41 per share. Excluding items, profit came in at $5.37 per share, beating estimates of $5.05 per share. The company has a market cap of 29.45 billion.
Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:HGSI) is up 2.38% in pre market trading at $8.60. HGSI trades a little over 7 million shares a day on average. HGSI shares are up slightly after posting a smaller loss in the fourth quarter. The company has a market cap of 1.67 billion.
About Danny Fisher
