Buzz Stocks: BlackBerry, City National, and Logitech

U.S. equities appear ready to rally, after the European Central Bank (ECB) unveiled a larger-than-expected quantitative easing plan. In company news, today's stocks to watch include Passport parent BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY), financial firm City National Corp (NYSE:CYN), and hardware maker Logitech International SA (USA) (NASDAQ:LOGI).

• Despite both companies previously denying a potential takeover, Samsung is reportedly still in hot pursuit of BBRY. As such, shares of the latter are pointed more than 5% higher ahead of the bell. Technically speaking, BlackBerry Ltd has had a nice run of late, rallying 9.1% from its Dec. 19 intraday low of $9.10 to perch at $9.93, and touching a fresh annual high of $12.63 last week on the first round of buyout rumors. There's plenty of sideline cash available to help the stock's upward trek, too. Nearly one-quarter of BBRY's float is sold short, which would take approximately eight sessions to repurchase, at the equity's average daily trading level.


• Ahead of tonight's earnings report, CYN is up 18% in electronic trading on news that Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE:RY) has agreed to buy the company for roughly $5.4 billion. "City National serves high-net-worth and commercial-client segments in select high-growth markets, and represents a unique opportunity to complement and enhance our existing U.S. businesses," RY CEO David McKay said in a statement. This buyout-related bounce in City National Corp shares is a change of pace for a stock that's lost 8% year-over-year to sit at $74.57. Not surprisingly, the brokerage bunch has blazed a bearish path toward the equity, doling out 13 "hold" or worse ratings, versus just one "buy."


• Finally, LOGI reported better-than-expected earnings last night, and upped its profit outlook for 2015. On the charts, the stock has advanced almost 5% so far this year to rest at $14.09. If this technical trend continues, Logitech International SA (USA) could explode. With 12.1% of the equity's float dedicated to short interest, a capitulation by the bears could help push LOGI higher.