Specialized Consumer Services

Shares of Sotheby’s (NYSE: BID) are higher on the session by 2.53%, currently trading at $27.73. The stock has been moving largely lower over the past three months, off from recent highs near $39.00. Options traders are buying calls on the name today. The August $30 call was purchased 2,200 times...

Cusick’s Corner Tech, NASDAQ continues to be under pressure and is lagging the other two major indices -- S&P and RUT. Tech needs to start to challenge that 2300 level on the NAZ Composite. The latter two indices may have confirmed a bounce in the 10 week retracement, clustering at key levels...

TeleNav Inc (NASDAQ: TNAV) dipped 22.90% to $6.87 in the pre-market session. TNAV’s Q4 results fell short of expectations. Acme Packet Inc (NASDAQ: APKT) lost 13.55% to $28 in the pre-market session. APKT has issued weaker-than-expected revenue projections for 2010. Coinstar Inc (NASDAQ: CSTR) fell...

Some of the stocks that may grab investor focus are: Late Thursday, First Solar Inc (NASDAQ: FSLR) posted its Q2 net income at $1.84 per share, down from $2.11 per share in the year-ago period. The analysts expected the company to earn $1.61 per share. However, the company reduced its revenue...

Among the stocks that are falling in the after hours trading session are Teradyne (NYSE: TER), Acme Packet (NASDAQ: APKT), and Coinstar (NASDAQ: CSTR). It is not clear what is going on in Teradyne (TER). The stock was a huge gainer in the regular market session (+8.42%) after reporting earnings...

After the closing bell on Thursday, Coinstar (NASDAQ: CSTR) reported its Q2 earnings. The company said that income from continuing operations was $12.8 million or diluted earnings per share of $0.39, compared with $10.5 million, or $0.35, in the second quarter of 2009. This compared with analysts'...

Speaking of bipolar - F5 Networks (FFIV) is up 11% off its earnings report and Netflix (NFLX) is down 9% as of this typing.  We cut back positions in both yesterday since the gambling mentality around earnings reports is not our cup of tea.  I thought both reports were quite good; the only issue...

New Years Resolutions in summer? What better time to look at your resolutions than half way through the year. Have you followed through with any of yours? For me, I haven't done much in the way of my exercise resolution. I guess I better get on it, since I have less than six months left. At the...

Shares of Sotheby’s (NYSE: BID) are lower on the session by 7.44%, currently trading at $24.51. The stock has been moving largely lower over the past three months, off from recent highs near $39.00. Options traders are buying calls on the name today, betting that the stock may be at a bottom. The...

Cusick’s Corner The magnitude of yesterday’s move was impressive, but we need to see more follow through over the coming days and weeks to really see if this bull has legs. Into the Midday the markets have been waffling around breakeven and we could be seeing a stock pickers market. Last week I...

Shares of H&R Block Inc. (NYSE: HRB) are lower on the session by 7.04%, currently trading at $14.40. The stock has been trading largely lower over the past six months, but is cratering even further this morning on news that its CEO has resigned. Options traders are betting that the stock...

H&R Block (NYSE: HRB) has announced that Russ Smyth is resigning as CEO with immediate effect. Former interim CEO Alan Bennett will take over from Smyth as President and CEO of the company. In his note to clients, analyst Bill Carcache of Macquarie Securities termed Smyth’s resignation is a “...

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- CHANGE IN RATINGS Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE: APC) rated new Buy at Pritchard Capital. $72 price target. Company has a strong portfolio of domestic onshore assets. CR Bard (NYSE: BCR) upgraded at Morgan Joseph from Hold to Buy. $97 price target. Company's buyback program...

Skilled Healthcare Group Inc (NYSE: SKH) was downgraded by Jefferies from “buy” to “hold.” SKH’s shares closed at $1.52 yesterday. Skilled Healthcare Group’s earnings may tumble 489.25% this year. Oppenheimer downgraded Nanometrics Incorporated (NASDAQ: NANO) from “outperform” to “perform.” NANO’s...

Shares of Sotheby’s (NYSE: BID) are higher on the session by 3.78%, currently trading at $23.34. The stock has been trading lower over the past few weeks, breaking down through the 50-day and 200-day moving averages along the way. Options traders are picking up some puts today. The July $22.50...