A daily feature available on SchaeffersResearch.com is “Options Update.” Every day, we’ll give a brief recap of some of the hottest news topics and focus on one stock that is the center of some heavy option trading. The focus of today’s feature is Pfizer.
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It appears that a light volume and completely barren news day is going to be spiced up a bit with DowWatch ‘05. Maybe I should have patented that before one of the financial networks pirates it from me. . . oh well, it’s only good until the closing bell today. No doubt, traders will be glued to their tickers to see if the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) will be able to finish the year in positive territory. Should the Dow not break above the Mendoza line, this will be the first yearly loss posted by the venerable index since 2002. Investors seem to be a bit spooked by the inversion in the Treasury yield curve, and the lack of economic news and corporate data surely make it seem that a negative finish to the year is a definite possibility.

According to Goldman Sachs, Nielsen/NetRatings, and Harris Interactive, online spending in the United States increased 30 percent between October 29 and December 23. The study showed that shoppers spent the most on clothing, $5.3 billion, which was an increase of 42 percent from last year. Spending on consumer electronics increased 109 percent from last year, coming in at $4.8 billion. Books, toys, and video games were also among the top categories, according to the survey.

In the world of crude, the big news comes from ConocoPhillips (COP: View sentiment for COPsentiment, chart, options) , Marathon Oil (MRO: View sentiment for MROsentiment, chart, options) , and Amerada Hess (AHC: View sentiment for AHCsentiment, chart, options) . This triumvirate announced that it had reached an agreement to resume former oil and gas production operations in the Waha concessions of Libya, bringing a 19-year absence to an end. Libyan National Oil Corp. will hold 59.16 percent of the venture, COP and MRO will both hold 16.33 percent, and AHC will have 8.16 percent. Oil started the day off slow, dropping below the $60 level, but prices regained strength and finished the day at $61.04 per barrel. Black gold finished the year with a gain greater than 40 percent. One year ago, the crude contract closed at $41.24 per barrel.

And Then There Were Three

Chinese security, Guangdong Development Bank, announced that it has narrowed down the potential bidders to take a stake in it to three. Tops on that list is a consortium led by Citigroup ( C: View sentiment for Csentiment, chart, options) , according to local magazine Caijing. The report stated that the final three bids were detailed by Guangdong’s deputy secretary general, who is a member of the team working on the local bank’s restructuring. An official in the provincial government’s financial department noted that all media reports about the deal are speculation until an official announcement is issued. Caijing’s report noted that C’s new bid accounts for an 85-percent stake in Guangdong Development Bank.

New Year, New Slogans

AT&T (T: View sentiment for Tsentiment, chart, options) , now the largest phone company in the United States, announced that it will reflect its “way of pledging to all of our customers . . . that AT&T’s passion to invent and SBC’s drive to deliver have come together to deliver what matters most in their lives” by changing its slogan to “Your World. Delivered.” The first new ads from T will be seen on various New Year’s Eve TV broadcasts and during the Cotton Bowl (Roll Tide!), of which it is a sponsor. T’s new ads will appear in magazines, newspapers, on Internet sites, and billboards.

Intel (INTC: View sentiment for INTCsentiment, chart, options) also announced a slogan change to “Leap ahead.” The company also announced that it would overhaul its corporate and product branding. INTC will no longer use its ubiquitous “dropped-e” icon or its “Intel Inside” logo, but it is keeping the related marketing program. On a side note, that “dropped-e” was created more than 30 years ago by INTC’s founders. Furthermore, INTC announced that it is reducing its reliance on the Pentium microprocessor brand. On The Wall Street Journal’s website, it reported that INTC will now use a new brand, Core, for a low-powered chip that will succeed the Pentium M chip, which is used in notebook computers. We will need to wait until next week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to see INTC’s “new identity.”

RTI’s VoiP POV

The New York Post reported today that Rates Technology Inc. (RTI) has decided to sue Google (GOOG: View sentiment for GOOGsentiment, chart, options) for patent infringement over the Voice-over-IP (VoiP) technology patents that Google Talk uses. Reportedly, RTI will seek up to $5 billion in damages based on royalties that have accrued over the trial. RTI also has suits against Alcatel ( ALA: View sentiment for ALAsentiment, chart, options) , Vonage, and Cablevision Systems (CVC: View sentiment for CVCsentiment, chart, options) along with cases that have been settled against Microsoft (MSFT: View sentiment for MSFTsentiment, chart, options) and Lucent (LU: View sentiment for LUsentiment, chart, options) . A spokesman for GOOG told the Post that the lawsuit was “without merit.”