Today's stocks to watch include Reynolds American, Inc. (RAI), Novavax, Inc. (NVAX), and Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO)
U.S. benchmarks are modestly higher this morning, bouncing back from yesterday's sell-off. Today's equities in focus are cigarette company Reynolds American, Inc. (NYSE:RAI), vaccine maker Novavax, Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX), and Internet giant Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO).
- RAI is 1.5% higher at $44.05 this morning, and just tagged a record peak of $44.44, after news surfaced that it will sell its non-U.S. Natural American Spirit tobacco business to Japan Tobacco Inc for $5 billion. The deal between Japan Tobacco and Reynolds American, Inc. will need regulatory approval and should close in early 2016. Technically, shares of RAI have added nearly 38% in 2015, cruising along support from their 10-week moving average. While RAI has racked up steady gains, option players remain skeptical. At last check, the equity's 10-day put/call volume ratio on the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) of 0.72 is higher than 77% of the readings taken during the past 52 weeks. An exodus of option bears could help push the stock higher.
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