Stocks On the Move: Caterpillar Inc., Celgene Corporation, and IPC The Hospitalist Company Inc

U.S. stocks are in the black this afternoon, as Wall Street cheers solid blue-chip earnings. One of the leading Dow components at midday is big-cap construction concern Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT), and biopharmaceutical issue Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ:CELG) and inpatient care provider IPC The Hospitalist Company Inc (NASDAQ:IPCM) are also making notable moves. Here's a quick look at how CAT, CELG, and IPCM are faring on the charts today.

• CAT is 4.5% higher at $98.78, second only to 3M Co (NYSE:MMM) among blue chips, and helping prop the Dow to a 242-point lead. CAT traders are celebrating the company's stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings report, as well as an upwardly revised profit outlook for 2014. The shares of Caterpillar Inc. are now 9.2% higher year-to-date, though the equity has yet to enter triple-digit territory today, peaking at $99.94 earlier. In the options pits, short-term traders could be hitting the exits; the stock's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) sits at 2.22, indicating that puts more than double calls among options expiring within three months. Furthermore, this ratio stands higher than 88% of all other readings from the past year, implying that near-term traders have rarely been more put-skewed.


• CELG is up 6.2% to flirt with $100.66, and earlier touched a record high of $100.91 -- marking the stock's first foray north of the century mark. Bolstering the security was a stronger-than-expected third-quarter earnings report, as well as the company's announcement that it's finalizing plans for a Phase III trial of its Crohn's drug. Thanks to today's rally, Celgene Corporation boasts a year-to-date gain of 19.3%, which could intimidate short-term option bears; the equity's SOIR of 0.80 ranks in the 74th percentile of its annual range.


• IPCM is the worst performer on the Nasdaq, down 17% to linger near $39.05. What's more, the security touched a near-two-year low of $36.12 earlier in the session, as shareholders and analysts balk at the company's downwardly revised full-year outlook. No fewer than four brokerage firms have cut their price targets on IPC The Hospitalist Company Inc, and Wells Fargo downgraded the stock to "market perform" from "outperform." Not everyone is jeering today's swoon, though; short interest accounts for 12.3% of IPCM's total available float, representing more than 16 sessions' worth of pent-up buying demand, at the equity's average pace of trading.