Today's stocks to watch include Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (ANF), EMC Corporation (EMC), and QUALCOMM, Inc/ (QCOM)
After yesterday's wild ride, U.S. stocks rocketed higher out of the gate. Among the equities in focus are fashion firm Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE:ANF), as well as IT concerns EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC) and QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM).
- Trendy fashion company ANF is up 14.1% at $19.71, after the company blew past earnings expectations. Before today, Abercrombie & Fitch Co. was down nearly 40% in 2015, and touched a post-recession low of $15.42 on Monday. A short-covering rally could propel the stock even higher, as a sizable 33% of ANF's float is sold short. This pessimism was echoed in the options pits yesterday, as ANF saw puts cross at five times their normal rate ahead of the earnings report.
- According to a report on Re/code, EMC's board of directors is "taking a second and closer look at a proposal under which it would be acquired by VMware." EMC Corporation is a majority owner of VMware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW). Technically, EMC has walked off the veritable ledge along with the broader equities market, and yesterday hit a new two-year low of $22.66. Today, however, the stock is up 5.4% at $23.88. Short-term options players are more call-heavy than usual toward EMC, as the firm's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.38 is lower than 90% of the readings taken in the past 52 weeks.
- QCOM is up 3.5% at $55.78, after announcing that it has agreed to sell its UK L-Band spectrum to Vodafone Group PLC (ADR) (NYSE:VOD) and Hutchison 3G UK Ltd in two separate deals. QUALCOMM, Inc. is also just off a new three-year low, touching $52.59 on Monday. As such, the stock entered today's session with a 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) of 15 -- well into oversold territory.
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