Month: February 2013

Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) looking to expand its hardware portfolio, announcing it will be buying Acme Packet for about $2 billion dollars. The offer is valued at $29.95 per Acme share, a 22 percent premium over its closing price on Friday.

By CountingPips.com

The latest weekly Commitments of Traders (COT) report, released on Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), showed that large futures speculators decreased their short bets against the US dollar following two straight weeks of worsening sentiment for the US dollar while euro positions improved for a third straight week.

Non-commercial large futures traders, including hedge funds and large International Monetary Market speculators, trimmed their short bets against the US dollar to a total of $8.86 billion as of Tuesday January 29th.

This follows a total short position of $13.26 billion that was registered on January 22nd and a total short position of $12.897 billion on January 15th, according to the CFTC’s COT data and trader position calculations by Reuters, which calculates the dollar positions against the euro, British pound, Japanese yen, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and the Swiss franc. The dollar has been in an overall short position against these currencies since December 4th 2012.

Individual Currencies Large Speculators Positions:

Counting up the individual currency contracts against the US dollar showed only an increase for the euro last week while the British pound sterling, Japanese yen, Australian dollar, New Zealand dollar, Swiss franc, Canadian dollar and the Mexican peso all had a declining number of contracts compared to the previous week.

EuroFX: Large currency speculator sentiment for the euro rose last week for a third consecutive week and remained at the best level since July of 2011. Euro positions rose to a long position of 27,472 contracts in data reported on January 29th after the previous week’s total of 21,381 net long contracts on January 22nd. Open interest was at 237,856 contracts from the previous week’s open interest of 216,059.

Euro positions continue to be at their best level since July 5th 2011 when long positions equaled 43,194 contracts and when the EUR/USD was trading at the 1.4456 spot level.

The COT report is published every Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and shows futures positions as of the previous Tuesday. It can be a useful tool for traders to gauge investor sentiment and to look for potential changes in the direction of a currency or commodity.

Each currency contract is a quote for that currency directly against the U.S. dollar, a net short amount of contracts means that more speculators are betting that currency to fall against the dollar and a net long position expect that currency to rise versus the dollar.

(The graphs overlay the forex spot closing price of each Tuesday when COT trader positions are reported for each corresponding spot currency pair.)

GBP: British pound sterling positions declined last week to fall for a second consecutive week. British pound speculative positions decreased to a total of 10,622 net long contracts on January 29th following a total of 17,938 net long contracts reported on January 22nd. Open interest was at 166,060 contracts from the previous week’s open interest of 160,820.

Pound sterling large speculator positions are at their lowest level since November 27th when positions equaled 10,270 long contracts.

JPY: Japanese yen speculative contracts declined last week after improving for six consecutive weeks. Japanese yen positions fell to a total of 71,246 net short contracts reported on January 29th following a total of 64,068 net short contracts on January 22nd. Open interest was at 219,635 contracts from the previous week’s open interest of 202,225.

Yen positions had plunged to the lowest level in years on December 11th with a total of 94,401 short positions and then climbed higher for the last six weeks before last week’s decline.

CHF: Swiss franc speculator positions fell last week to decrease for a second consecutive week. Speculator positions for the Swiss currency futures declined a total of 4,148 net long contracts on January 29th following a total of 6,384 net long contracts as of January 22nd. Open interest was at 38,618 contracts from the previous week’s open interest of 39,483.

Swiss franc large speculator positions, on January 15th, reached their best level since June 14, 2011 when net long positions equaled 13,287 contracts before falling the last two weeks.

CAD: Canadian dollar positions declined sharply last week to fall for a second consecutive week and to the lowest level in five months. Canadian dollar positions dropped to a total of 35,057 net long contracts as of January 29th following a total of 57,952 net long contracts that were reported for January 22nd. Open interest was at 144,927 contracts from the previous week’s open interest of 141,710.

Canadian dollar speculator positions are now at their lowest level since August 14th when long positions totaled 28,593 contracts.

AUD: The Australian dollar positions declined last week after rising for four straight weeks. Aussie speculative futures positions decreased to a total net amount of 85,296 long contracts on January 29th after totaling 97,011 net long contracts as of January 22nd. Open interest was at 183,507 contracts from the previous week’s open interest of 208,776.

Australian dollar contracts continue to remain at a large bullish level against the US dollar and a multi-year high level was reached on December 11th with a total of 103,376 long contracts.

NZD: New Zealand dollar speculator positions dipped last week after rising higher for five consecutive weeks. NZD contracts fell to a total of 21,816 net long contracts as of January 29th following a total of 23,532 net long contracts on January 22nd. Open interest was at 35,480 contracts from the previous week’s open interest of 37,179.

The New Zealand dollar speculator positions, on January 22nd, were just below the 2012 high level that was reached on December 11th with a total of 24,600 contracts.

MXN: Mexican peso speculative contracts dipped slightly again last week for a second week in a row. Peso positions edged lower to a total of 148,871 net long speculative positions as of January 29th following a total of 150,037 long contracts that were reported for January 22nd. Open interest was at 187,078 contracts from the previous week’s open interest of 189,952.

Peso speculative positions, on January 15th, reached their highest level since at least 2009 and eclipsed the highest level of 2012 which was 149,355 long contracts on December 24th.

Article by CountingPips.com – Forex News & Market Analysis

Further Reading on the COT Report: Moves by speculators don’t always foreshadow euro shifts

This fifth trading week of 2013 comes to a close with investors sending stocks to highs not seen since before the Great Recession. Hi.

Buffalo Wild Wings (AJG) was upgraded by Keybanc (KEY) to buy from hold as the firm believes that the stock is worth $85, while it currently trades at around $76. Shares are higher by about 3.4 percent.

As the saying goes, there are many possible reasons for an insider to sell a stock, but only one reason to buy — they expect to make money. So let’s look at two noteworthy recent insider buys.

Chubb (CB) was upgraded by Deutsche Bank (DB) to buy from hold with a price target of $90 as the stock is value priced relative to others in the sector. Shares are higher by about 4.2 percent.

Monsanto Company (MON) maintained its quarterly dividend of 37.5 cents per share. Investors of record on Friday, April 5th will be given a dividend of $0.38 per share on Friday, April 26th.

Chevron Corporation (CVX) today reported earnings of $7.2 billion, or $3.70 per share, for the fourth quarter of 2012, versus $5.1 billion, or $2.58 per share in the 2011 fourth quarter. Results in the 2012 period included a gain of $1.4 billion from an upstream asset exchange.