Market Report -- In Play ()

September 16, 2009 12:39 PM ET

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Related topics: Movers

Rumor Roundup There have been a fewer number of rumors in the market so far today, but there are still a handful of stocks seeing a reaction to market chatter of some sort. While many rumors can circulate on a given day and the validity of some of these rumors can be questionable, the speculation often leads to increased volatility in the stocks that are the subject of the market chatter. Today the following stocks have been the subject of rumors: Speech software designer Nuance Comm (NUAN 14.65 +0.48) was rumored to be a potential takeover target of Microsoft (MSFT 25.13 -0.06). While one software company buying another software company makes sense, most purchases Microsoft makes are smaller private firms to keep the antitrust agencies off their back... A rumor that Vanda Pharma (VNDA 13.89 +0.07) could see takeover interest from Novartis AG (NVS 48.44 +0.64) led to strength in VNDA shares, which spiked ~$0.80 but has since given up a good portion of the gains. We note Novartis has been the frequently rumored to purchase other smaller names in the past, included Novavax (NVAX 5.15 -0.41) and Cubist Pharma (CBST 21.87 +0.46)... Another small biotech stock, AMAG Pharma (AMAG 41.99 +1.91), was rumored to be purchased by larger drug company Amgen (AMGN 59.39 +0.92). We note AMAG calls are seeing interest following the AMGN-for-AMAG rumor, with 4.3K total calls trading vs 570 puts. Additionally, the stock has a high short interest, sitting at 28% of the float... Lastly, a General Electric (GE 16.88 +0.88)-for-LDK Solar (LDK 9.80 +0.14) rumor circulated earlier in the day, but LDK has not seen much a reaction to this rumor.

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