For traders with a more short-term time horizon, we have compiled a list of the S&P 1500 stocks that have the largest intraday high-low ranges (based on the average percent spread between the intraday high and low over the last fifty days). We then grouped the stocks based on whether they have a rising or falling 50-day moving average. Stocks highlighted in gray are new to the list this month.

For traders with a more short-term time horizon, we have compiled a list of the S&P 1500 stocks that have the largest intraday high-low ranges (based on the average percent spread between the intraday high and low over the last fifty days). We then grouped the stocks based on whether they have a rising or falling 50-day moving average. Stocks highlighted in gray are new to the list this month.

This month's most volatile stock is AIG, which has an average intraday range of 14.6%. A couple of years ago the stock was considered a conservative and safe investment. Today, it has become a daytrader's dream. As the market becomes more stable, we are also beginning to see an increase in the number of stocks with share prices in the double digits. While AIG's double digit share price is somewhat artificial given the 1:20 reverse split, seven other stocks with prices above $10 are also on the list.

So far so good.

As I said in yesterday’s post (and the weekend wrap-up), we were well-positioned for the drop - It’s just a question of finding a bottom now. It didn’t take very long as we found it at 9:46 when I sent out an Alert to Members saying: "Once again it’s a good time to sell the DIA $95 puts at $2 as the volume on this sell-off is not at all exciting so far. As long as the Dow holds 9,450 (now 9,475) it’s a good play." We had a couple of spikes below but, on the whole, 9,450 held like a champ and those puts hit our 20% target by the day’s end (some of our quicker traders even had a chance to double dip). That level and 1,010 on the S&P will be our critical tests today as well.

In this post is a fresh list of stocks to watch for the week of August 24, 2009. All of the stocks mentioned in this post are stocks which have broken out to the upside on unusually large volume. The table below shows the company, ticker, Friday's per share % increase, and Friday's volume increase (% increased compared to 50 day average).

Many of these stocks are up big on earnings announcements, therefore it may be a good idea to wait for some profit taking and purchase the stocks on weakness. The stock which is most attractive to me is Aeropostale (ARO). Below are some trade ideas which I may be using in the weeks to come. To learn more about the risks, pricing, calculations, strategies, and options in general click here.

F1Q10 Earnings Call

August 19, 2009; 8:30 am ET

• AIG CEO changes restructuring plan. New AIG (AIG) CEO Robert Benmosche is already making his presence felt in the company, calling off a planned sale of the insurer's investment advisory unit in order to "continue to build a world-class financial advisory business." The scrapped sale is an early sign that more significant changes may be in store for AIG's restructuring plans as Benmosche conducts a "strategic review" of the company. Shares -1.8% premarket (7:00 ET).
• Regulators pressured Citi on management. According to a confidential June agreement between Citigroup (C), the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the FDIC, Citigroup said it would consider replacing then-CFO Ned Kelly by October. Kelly resigned in July after less than four months on the job once he learned of the agreement. The arrangement between Citigroup and regulators emphasizes just how large a role authorities have played in Citigroup's management shake-up and contradicts the official account of the episode that had been presented by both sides. Shares -2.2% premarket (7:00 ET).
• Tax probe nets other European banks. As wealthy U.S. citizens embroiled in the UBS (UBS) tax probe join a tax-evasion amnesty program, authorities have received information on ten other Swiss and European banks where Americans held accounts, potentially opening new fronts in the IRS's investigation of tax crimes. Banks named in the disclosures, including Credit Suisse (CS), Julius Baer Holding and Union Bancaire Privee, haven't necessarily engaged in any wrongdoing. Meanwhile, the U.S. is building criminal cases against more than 150 of UBS' American clients, and that number is expected to grow.
• MSFT fights to keep selling Word. Microsoft filed to stay an injunction that could prevent the company from selling its core Word software, arguing the injunction would cause "irreparable harm." The permanent injunction was issued last week and barred Microsoft from selling recent versions of Word because it infringes on a patent held by technology firm i4i Inc. If upheld, Microsoft will have to significantly change a major upgrade to the software due to launch next year and will have to stop selling versions of Word 2003 and Word 2007.
• IMF: Global recovery begins. Olivier Blanchard, the IMF's chief economist, said the global economic recovery has begun but a sustainable recovery will require fundamental changes, including a U.S. shift towards more exports and an Asian shift towards more imports. Potential economic output may also remain depressed as "the crisis has left deep scars, which will affect both supply and demand for many years to come."
• HP calls tech spending bottom. Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) narrowly beat earnings expectations in its most recent quarter (see details below), but saw sales fall sharply in several key business areas, including PCs and printers. Looking forward, the company said it sees a "stabilized market" and that technology spending has already hit bottom.
• Macquarie buys asset manager. Continuing an industry trend of consolidation, Australian investment bank Macquarie Group agreed to buy U.S. asset manager Delaware Investments from Lincoln National Corp. (LNC) for $428M. The deal will raise Macquarie's total assets under management to over $300B.
• Mortgage apps rise. Mortgage applications rose 5.6% from last week, MBA said. The average interest rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell to 5.15% from 5.38%.
• Retail sales. Chain store sales fell 0.7% in the first two weeks of August, Redbook said, slightly worse than the -0.6% expected. According to ICSC, weekly sales were down 0.6% Y/Y and down 0.9% from the previous week as heavy discounts failed to increase sales.
• Housing starts miss consensus (.pdf). July Housing Starts came in at 581K vs. consensus of 605K. Permits were 560K vs. 577K. Starts were 1% lower than June's 587K (revised) and 37.7% lower than last July.
• Prices fall. July's Producer Price Index was -0.9% vs. consensus of -0.3% and +1.8% in June. Core PPI fell 0.1% vs. consensus of +0.1% and +0.5% in June. Core producer prices were down 6.8% from a year ago.

Earnings: Wednesday Before Open

• BJ's Wholesale Club (BJ): Q2 EPS of $0.64 beats by $0.02. Revenue of $2.6B (-5%) in-line. (PR)
• Deere & Co. (DE): FQ3 EPS of $0.99 beats by $0.42. Revenue of $5.3B (-25%) in-line. (PR)
• Yingli Green Energy (YGE): Q2 EPS of -$0.44 vs. consensus of $0.04 (may not be comparable). Revenue of $219.5M (-24%) vs. $213.5M. Shares -5% premarket (8:00 ET). (PR)

Earnings: Tuesday After Close

• Analog Devices (ADI): FQ3 EPS of $0.22 beats by $0.02. Revenue of $492M (-25%) vs. $480M. Sees Q4 EPS of $0.24-0.26 vs. $0.24 and Q4 revenue of $510M-530M vs. $498M. (PR)
• Hewlett-Packard (HPQ): FQ3 EPS of $0.91 beats by $0.01. Revenue of $27.5B (-2%) vs. $27.3B. Sees Q4 EPS of $1.12 vs. $1.07. Sees Q4 revenue up 8% sequentially and affirms full-year revenue guidance. Q3 services revenue up 93% to $8.5B due to EDS merger; enterprise storage/servers sales down 23% to $3.7B; software sales down 22% to $847M. Cash flow $3.9B and inventory down 10 days, to $5.9B. (PR)
• La-Z-Boy (LZB): FQ1 EPS of $0.05 beats by $0.10. Revenue of $263M (-18%) vs. $255M. (PR)
• Photronics (PLAB): FQ3 EPS of -$0.55 misses by $0.36. Revenue of $95M (-10%) vs. $88M. (PR)

Today's Markets

Asian markets closed down, with a heavy drop in China spooking European markets and U.S. futures.

For traders with a more short-term time horizon, we have compiled a list of the S&P 1500 stocks that have the largest intraday high-low ranges (based on the average percent spread between the intraday high and low over the last fifty days). We then grouped the stocks based on whether they have a rising or falling 50-day moving average (DMA). Stocks highlighted in gray are new to the list this month.

After the market's sideways correction from May through mid-July, the number of volatile stocks with falling moving averages has once again exceeded the list of stocks with rising moving averages. However, if the gains of the last week keep up, we're likely to see increases in the list of stocks with rising 50-DMAs in the coming weeks.

Q4 2009 Earnings Call

June 16, 2009 8:30 am ET

Sentiment

Volatility picked up following a round of disappointing economic data Monday. A report released before the bell showed manufacturing activity in the Northeast falling more than expected in June. To be specific, the NY Empire State Index fell to -9.41 in June, down from 4.55 in May and also below consensus estimates of -5.10.

Stock index futures had fallen into the red prior to manufacturing data after overseas equity markets slumped and commodities came under pressure. Crude oil is down $1.81 to $70.23 and gold gave up $12.10 to $928.60. The decline is weighing on many of the oil, metal and mining names. Alcoa (AA), for example, is down 6.5 percent and the biggest loser in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. 28 other Dow stocks are also lower (only AXP in the black) and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 210 points heading into the final hour of trading.

At the beginning of the year I made a list of picks and pans for the year which I planned to review at the end of each month. The purpose of this exercise was to provide ideas for your own research, some potential opportunities for 2009, as well as some companies I feel are best avoided. We're five months into the year now and there has been a lot of movement across the board.

Interestingly, had I owned real life positions in a number of these stocks, I would've most likely gotten out while the going was good. For instance, shares in Anadys Pharmaceuticals (ANDS) skyrocketed over 300% on positive clinical data before losing most of their gains a few months later following a poor earnings statement. A gain that large in the biotech arena would've been too much for me to resist and I would've been out of there right away! However, for the purpose of this exercise there will be no changing of picks, no matter what happens to the underlying companies.

The S&P 1500 is up 31.31% from its March 9th closing low, but interestingly, the average stock in the index is up 57.69%, so the unweighted averages are doing better than the weighted ones. Since the March 9th market low, 201 companies in the S&P 1500 (13.4%) are up more than 100%.

Below we highlight the 25 best performing S&P 1500 companies since March 9th. Of the top 25, fourteen come from the Consumer Discretionary sector, including the top five. Two "Tuesdays" rank first and second! Ruby Tuesday (RT) is up a whopping 689% since March 9th, while Tuesday Morning (TUES) is up 528%. DIN, SAH, and RUTH round out the top five.

Q3 2009 Earnings Call

February 18, 2009 8:30 am ET

Q2 2009 Earnings Call

November 19, 2008 8:30 am ET

For those wondering how the SEC's crackdown on naked short selling has worked, the answer so far is pretty good.   One of the tenets of the new rules was that brokers would be forced to close out trades where a counterparty failed to deliver securities on time.  Based on this plan, we sent out a list to our Bespoke Premium subscribers highlighting the stocks in the S&P 1500 that have been on the Regulation SHO list of fails to deliver for at least 100 days.  As shown by the list provided below, these stocks have averaged a return of over 6% since the time of the announcement.  Over that same period, the S&P 500 declined by 3.3%.

No one can argue that the SEC deserves every bit of criticism for fiddling while Wall Street burned.  However, it appears as though their recent actions, while not addressing the main issues that needed to be addressed, have had at least some impact.  On short selling in general, we believe that it is fine to short a stock if you think a company will likely go out of business.  What's not okay is to short something in order to make it go out of business.

click to enlarge

F1Q09 Earnings Call

August 20, 2008 8:30 am ET

• H-P takes Q3 in stride. Tech bellwether Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) posted FQ3 earnings and revenue that beat analyst estimates, and affirmed its FQ4 outlook, dismissing concerns slowing Europe spending and a rising U.S. dollar threaten its growth. "At the end of the day, for us the big deal is to execute - and we feel very good about our position in many markets," CEO Mark Hurd said on the earnings conference call. About 41% of H-P's sales are from Western Europe. Operating margin widened to 9% from 8.3%. Notebook sales jumped 26% despite Dell's (DELL) recent buckling down. Shares are up 2.2% Wednesday premarket.
• Goldman's bullish on Morgan Stanley, bearish on the rest. Goldman Sachs analyst William Tanona increased loss estimates for many of its peers, and warned the financial crisis is far from over. We believe a major recovery is still a few quarters away, as we anticipate additional asset sales and write-downs in coming quarters throughout the financial services sector." Tanona trimmed Q3 EPS estimates for Lehman (LEH) (from +$0.68 to -$2.75!), Morgan Stanley (MS), JPMorgan (JPM), Merrill Lynch (MER) and Citigroup (C). He suggests clients sell Citi, and buy Morgan Stanley (MS) - the strongest positioned broker.
After you finish reading Wall Street BreakfastSeeking Alpha's Market Currentswill keep you current all day long.
• Borrowing gets costlier for Freddie. Freddie Mac (FRE) managed to sell $3B in 5-year notes, but it had to pay 113 bps above the 5-year Treasury benchmark. Before the auction, the spread was 105 bps, and last week it was 96 bps - this despite an implicit government guarantee. Freddie and Fannie Mae (FNM) fell 5% and 2% Tuesday, as investors fretted a government bailout that could wipeout any remaining share value. The high interest rates the market is forcing them to pay just increases the pain - and the likelihood of their collapse.
• Debt rollover holds key to future of GSEs. The ultimate success or failure of Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) may hinge on their ability to repay $223B ($120B and $103B respectively) in bonds that is due by the end of Q3, Bloomberg says. Rolling over the debt "is the single most important factor to their ability to remain liquid," Credit Suisse's Moshe Orenbuch says. "So far they've been able to do that." A Treasury spokeswoman said this week Secretary Paulson has no plans to inject capital into the GSEs; Pimco's Bill Gross thinks he'll eat his words and sink about $30B into their preferred shares by the end of September.
• Lacker knocks GSE backstop. Richmond Fed president Jeffrey Lacker publicly criticized the Bush administration's backstopping of GSEs Fannie (FNM) and Freddie (FRE). "I would prefer to see them credibly and demonstrably privatized," Lacker said in a Bloomberg TV interview. Lacker also restated his position that the Fed should withdraw its monetary policy stimulus even "before we are completely certain that financial markets are as tranquil as we would like to see" or risk even more damaging inflation. Unlike former IMF chief economist Kenneth Rogoff, he doesn't think a big U.S. bank will fail.
• The Fed's Richard Fisher speaking Tuesday, said the expects economic growth to "decelerate to a snail's pace, if not completely grind to a halt" by year-end. The possible upside to anemic growth is moderating inflation, but Fisher says Fed officials "must remain poised to act if slowing growth fails to contain inflationary pressures." He warned against viewing the recent drop in commodity prices as a panacea for inflation.
• Mobile chip JV changes landscape. Ericsson (ERIC) and STMicro (STM) are combining their chip and mobile-apps businesses into a 50/50 fabless JV that will serve their existing customers, such as Nokia (NOK), Sony (SNE) Ericsson and Sharp. One analyst says Ericsson got a very good price ($1.1B), and thinks STM got the short end of the stick. A potential threat to TXN and/or QCOM.
• Wachovia dishes distressed debt. Wachovia (WB) is selling $40M in troubled loans to a joint venture led by LandCap Partners. Many of the loans, backed by collateralized houses, are in some form of distress due to delinquent payments or falling property prices. The deal will allow Wachovia to move the loans off its books and raise capital. The loans have a book value of $75-80M. Yet another sign that opportunistic investors are on the prowl for on-the-cheap debt.
• SEC to propose short-sales rules within weeks. In the next few weeks, the SEC plans to propose new rules aimed at restricting manipulative short sales of stocks. The new rules come after a temporary measure targeting naked short-selling expired earlier in the month and, unlike the earlier measure, will apply to short selling in all companies instead of just a select few. Details to follow...
• Intel goes turbo. Intel (INTC) is aggressively working to increase computing performance without raising power consumption and plans to include new "turbo" technology on an upcoming generation of chips, it said yesterday at a semi-yearly developers forum. The technology speeds up one core on a multi-core CPU, and compensates by powering down the others. An initial four-processor model for desktop computers is expected to go into production in Q4, with an eight-processor model due in the second half of 2009.
• VeriFone soars on rosy outlook. VeriFone (PAY) shares soared 34% in after-hours trading after the company forecast better-than-expected earnings for the next two quarters thanks to growth at its international operations. VeriFone now sees Q3 earnings of $0.34-0.35/share and Q4 earnings of $0.36-0.39/share; analysts had expected $0.29 and $0.31 respectively.
• Heelys rejects Skecher's second bid. Heelys (HLYS) rejected a second unsolicited takeover bid from Skechers (SKX), saying the $142.8M ($5.25/share) bid was still too low. Heelys chairman Gary Martin doesn't rule out the possibility of a deal, but says it would be premature to enter into discussions at this point. Heelys' share price was down $0.05 on Tuesday to $5.30. Skechers fell 4.9% to $18.56.
• Macau gamble looking risky. Casino stocks dropped in Tuesday trade after media reports China may further tighten visa restrictions to Macau - hurting its growing casino and hotel industry. LVS -10.6%. MGM -9.4%. WYNN -4.3%.
• The July Producer Price Index soared 1.2% vs. 0.6% consensus. Core PPI gained a hot 0.7% vs. 0.2% consensus. Year-over-year PPI stands at a screaming 9.8% and core PPI is 3.5%.
• July Housing Starts were 965,000, 5,000 above consensus. Much-watched permits came in at 937K, short of the 970K consensus. Prior numbers were 1,084K and 1,138K respectively.
• ICSC said retail sales were up 0.1% wk/wk and 2.4% from the same week last year. Falling gas prices helped prop up discretionary spending despite weaker traffic. Redbook said U.S. retail sales fell 2% in the first two weeks of August vs. July but rose 1.4% vs. a year ago.

Earnings: Wednesday Before Open

• BJ's Wholesale Club (BJ): Q2 EPS of $0.61 beats by $0.04. Revenue of $2.65B in-line. [PR]
• Mentor Graphics (MENT): Q2 EPS of -$0.02 beats by $0.10. Revenue of $182M vs. $175M. Shares +4.2%. [PR]

Earnings: Tuesday After Close

• Analog Devices (ADI): FQ3 EPS of $0.44 misses by $0.01. Revenue of $659M in-line. Sees FQ4 EPS of $0.44-0.46 vs. $0.46. Shares -2.5%. [PR]
• Hewlett-Packard (HPQ): FQ3 EPS of $0.86 beats by $0.03. Revenue of $28.03B vs. $27.41B. Sees FQ4 EPS of $1.01-1.03 vs. $1.00. Shares +2.8%. [PR]
• La-Z-Boy (LZB): FQ1 EPS of -$0.05 beats by $0.01. Revenue of $322M (-6.5%) vs. $317M. Shares +0.4%. [PR]
• Open Text (OTEX): FQ4 EPS of $0.63 beats by $0.05. Revenue of $200M vs. $191M. Shares +3.7%. [PR]
• TJX (TJX): Sees 2009 EPS of $2.30-2.35 vs. $2.30. Will sell Bob's stores to private-equity duo Versa Capital Management and Crystal Capital. [PR]
• Veriphone (PAY) sees FQ4 EPS of $0.36-0.39 vs. consensus of $0.21. Sees 2009 EPS of $1.35-1.55 vs. $1.01. Sees revenue of $260-268M vs. $230M. Shares +34.3% AH. [PR]

Today's Markets

• Asia markets closed mostly higher, fueled by Shanghai. Nikkei -0.1% to 12,852. Hang Seng +2.18% to 20,931. Shanghai +7.63% to 2,523. BSE Sensex +0.92% to 14,678.
• Europe bourses are up at midday. London +0.95%. Paris +0.55%. Frankfurt +0.42%.
• U.S. futures are higher at 7:10 AM. Dow +0.4%. S&P +0.28%. Nasdaq +0.42%. Crude +0.19% to $114.75. Gold +0.02% to $817.

Wednesday's Economic Calendar

• 7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
  10:35 EIA Petroleum Status Report
• Notable earnings before Wednesday's open: BJ, EV, MENT, ROST, STP
• Notable earnings after Wednesday's close: BYI, CRM, JDSU, LTD, PVH, SMTC, SNPS

Seeking Alpha editor Rachael Granby contributed to this post.

There is a commonly told myth that says that companies that pay a dividend misallocate funds that could be used to generate new revenue or grow the company. According to this myth the lack of growth in the company will keep the stock's price low over the short and long term. This is the most fascinating misconception that exists about dividend paying companies. The theory seemingly makes sense, yet after critical examination, the truth comes out.

The following is the performance of Dividend Achievers in the last year from August 8, 2007 until August 8, 2008. These stocks either hit a new low within the year and moved higher from there, or they have started the year at a low and continued upward. Keep in mind that the percentage change of these stocks does not include the annual dividend that would have been received over the same period of time and just looks at stock appreciation.