Forest Products

• BP (NYSE:BP) is reportedly in talks to sell up to $12 billion in assets • Weyerhaeuser (NYSE:WY) declared a special $5.6 billion dividend, tied to its REIT conversion • AON (NYSE:AON) plans to purchase Hewitt (NYSE:HEW) for $4.9 billion, or $50.00 per share in cash • Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) added...

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) was upgraded by Janney Montgomery from “neutral” to “buy.” MSFT’s shares are up 0.08% to $24.29 in pre-market trading. Microsoft has a ROE is 41.83%. Janney Montgomery upgraded IDEX Corp (NYSE: IEX) to “buy” from “neutral.” IEX moved up 1.00% to close at $29.28 on Friday....

Cusick’s Corner Today’s report of an unexpected drop in May retail sales was balanced later by an unexpected increase in consumer sentiment. Today’s trading range was relatively tight, volume was light, but all major stock indices closed higher possibly due to some end-of-day short covering. The...

Greetings, OptionsHouse traders. I wanted to take the opportunity today to talk about one of OH’s most invaluable tools – the Risk Viewer. Whether the market is up or down, understanding your market exposure and Greeks-based risk is a key aspect of successful trading. PEAK6 Investments L.P.1, the...

Shares of Louisiana Pacific Corp. (NYSE: LPX) are higher on the session by 0.47%, currently trading $8.57. The stock has fallen sharply over the past month, but appears to have found support at the 200-day moving average. Put Volume is growing in the name today, but it appears to be mostly sales...

Options traders are made, not born. Even the most seasoned veterans who trade broken-wing butterfly spreads in their sleep started slowly with basic strategies such as long puts and covered calls (and they probably traded stock before that). Option trading can and should be a gradual learning...

At times, it’s hard to take a step back from all the excitement and make a rational decision, which might be the opposite of what the crowd is doing and thus seem like the wrong decision to make. The markets are an exceptional breeding ground for this type of “crowd” behavior.  Because the markets...

Cusick’s Corner The market has firmed up into the midday with the risk trade, equities, back in play (at least at this stage). There is an interesting convergence -- both the market and Gold are going up simultaneously. These typically are negatively correlated, so with both of these segments...

Shares of Louisiana Pacific Corp. (NYSE: LPX) are markedly higher at the opening today; currently shares are trading higher by 4.29% to $9.83 and call buyers are flooding the name with over 13,000 of the June $10 calls bought on the offer within the first ten minutes of trading. This action vastly...

Weyerhaeuser (NYSE: WY) is a grower, harvester and distributor of lumber around the world. WY is primarily focused on supplying lumber for many construction applications specifically, new home construction. WY, expected to lose money this quarter, will report earnings on April 29, 2010. The company...

Weyerhaeuser Co, (NYSE: WY), a forest products company, has been moving higher over the past 16 months and is currently trading just off of a 52-week high, which was set earlier in the session. The stock is up small on the day to $47.91. The company’s stock has strong ties to the housing market,...