Buzz Stocks: Tesla, Hewlett-Packard, Amicus Therapeutics

The major market indexes appear ready to take a breather following yesterday's huge win. In company news, today's stocks to watch include electric automaker Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), hardware heavyweight Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ), and biopharmaceutical issue Amicus Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:FOLD).

• TSLA will now be able to sell its electric vehicles directly to customers in the state of New Jersey, after a bill was signed into law yesterday by Governor Chris Christie. This represents a dramatic turnaround from last year, when the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission banned direct car sales, requiring them to be sold through dealerships. Shares of Tesla Motors Inc could also use a turnaround, as they've dropped 9.8% year-to-date to rest at $200.71. Traders at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) have responded by buying puts over calls at a faster-than-usual pace. TSLA's 10-day put/call volume ratio across these exchanges is 1.10, in the 87th percentile of its annual range. In other news, the company is expected to hold a press conference this morning that will "end range anxiety" for Model S owners.


• HPQ upped its quarterly dividend by 10%, to 17.6 cents from 16 cents. However, the decision will not impact the firm's previously announced dividend, payable on Wednesday, April 1. Turning to the charts, Hewlett-Packard Company has had a rough go of it in 2015, losing 17.7% to sit at $33.03, and touching a year-to-date low of $31.51 just one week ago. However, option bulls have kept the faith. HPQ's 10-day ISE/CBOE/PHLX call/put volume ratio of 2.73 ranks in the 86th percentile of its 52-week range. Echoing that preference for calls over puts is the stock's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.43, which sits at an annual low. In other words, call open interest outweighs put open interest by an extreme margin, when looking at options with a shelf-life of three months or less.


• Finally, FOLD is poised to soar 34% out of the gate, after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) agreed to reconsider the company's Fabry disease treatment, migalastat, for marketing approval, based on recent trial results. The application is expected to be submitted in the second half of the year. On a related note, Amicus Therapeutics, Inc. said it plans to file papers in Europe for approval of the same drug sometime during the second quarter. Technically speaking, a boost in the shares this morning would be more of the same, considering they've roughly quadrupled in value over the past year to sit at $9.35. As such, the brokerage bunch is already on FOLD's bullish bandwagon, as 100% of covering analysts have doled out "strong buy" recommendations.