STOCKS NEWS US-Life Tech strangle suggests rangebound shares

Stocks on the move Real-time Equity news U.S. stock market report 1050 ET 03Nov2009 Life Tech strangle suggests rangebound move ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Shares of life sciences tools maker Life Technologies Corp edged down 3 cents to $47.55 in morning trade. Its option volume was six times the average daily turnover after a so-called strangle sale was initiated, said independent options trader Steve Smith. An investor sells a strangle which entails a call and a put with the same expiration date and different but both out-of-the-money strikes, expecting no significant move in the underlying stock. Smith noted the December $45/$50 strangle traded 4,900 times on each side of the trade in an opening sale for a $2.50 net credit. The stock has enjoyed a steady climb for the past 10 months gaining some 110 percent from the start of the year. Selling the strangle would be a bet that shares would be between $45 and $50 over the next month, Smith said. Reuters Messaging: [e-mail] 1043 EST 03Nov2009-Cablevision shares up after earnings beat ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Shares in New York operator cable Cablevision Systems Corp rose 3.7 percent to $24.13 after the company posted better-than-expected quarterly profit, fueled by increases in Internet and phone subscribers and advertising revenue. The company said its profit rose to $98.9 million, or 33 cents a share. Last year it earned $30.9 million, or 11 cents per share. For more on this story see Reuters Messaging:rm://[e-mail] 1032 EST 03Nov2009-Factory orders up 0.9 pct in September ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ New orders received by U.S. factories rose a stronger-than-expected 0.9 percent in September, while inventories continued to shrink, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday in a report suggesting manufacturing activity is feeding the economic recovery. It was the fifth month out of six that orders rose, the department said. They dropped an unrevised 0.8 percent in August. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected orders to increase 0.8 percent. For details, see Reuters Messaging: [e-mail] 1024 EST 03Nov2009-RTI Metals shares slump on loss, Dreamliner delay ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Shares in RTI International Metals Inc slumped 13 percent to $18.27 on Tuesday as the titanium producer swung to a third-quarter loss, hurt by one-time charges, a drop in shipments and lower prices. The fall helped drag the Dow Jones U.S. nonferrous metals index down 0.7 percent. The company said it does not see a pick-up in demand until the end of 2010 and said it continues to be affected by production delays for Boeing's 787 Dreamliner, to which it is scheduled to supply titanium seat tracks. For more details see The S&P 500 lost 0.4 percent. 1006 EST 03Nov2009-Royal Caribbean Cruises down as prices squeezed ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Shares of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd fell 5 percent to $20.06 as the world's second largest cruise operator posted a 44 percent drop in net income and projected a slight fourth-quarter loss on Tuesday, citing weak pricing for its cruises in a sign discretionary spending is still weak. For more on this story see Reuters Messaging:rm://[e-mail] 0945 EST 03Nov2009-Markets open lower as European banks weigh ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ U.S. markets opened lower on Tuesday, as concerns over European banks outweighed a deal by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway to buy railroad company Burlington Northern. For details, see The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.3 percent to 9,758.15 while the S&P 500 lost 0.3 percent to 1,039.56 and the Nasdaq was off 0.5 percent to 2,039.12. Reuters Messaging: [e-mail] 0905 EST 03Nov2009-Spectrum rises after comments on CMS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Shares of Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc rose in premarket trading on Tuesday, after the company said the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services finalized a policy ruling to allow reimbursement for the company's cancer drug, Zevalin, effective Jan. 1, 2010. For details, see The stock gained 6.6 percent to $4.55 before the bell. Reuters Messaging: [e-mail] 0834 EST 03Nov2009-BofA-ML upgrades AvalonBay to "neutral" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bank of America-Merrill Lynch on Tuesday upgraded AvalonBay Communities Inc to "neutral" from "underperform," expecting the company to recover faster than other markets when the market picks up. Nearly 60 percent of the apartment builder's revenue exposure is to markets like New York City metro, DC and Boston and these markets will likely recover faster due to job growth, it said. For details, see The stock closed Monday at $68.84. Reuters Messaging: [e-mail] Keywords: MARKETS STOCKSNEWS COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved.

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