Novellus is seeing strong call activity — even though its shares are trading lower as takeover rumors are circulating on the trading floors. More than 7,000 calls traded against 575 puts this morning, dwarfing the average December call volume of 810 contracts per day. Volume was also heavy in the NVLS shares themselves.   Read More

Jeff Auxier of Auxier Asset Management will tell you a time of trouble for good companies is a good time for investors to buy their shares. "For a long-term investor, it's a great opportunity to buy mis-appraised companies," he told CNBC.    Read More

Rafael Resendes of the Toreador Large Cap Value Fund sees the stock market changing from a momentum-driven market to a valuation-driven one. He names a number of stocks that he feels are very well positioned.   Read More

Traders were snapping up calls in Ciena as the networking company's shares jumped more than 18 percent yesterday.    Read More

The bulls outweigh the bears on options trading for Cisco Systems, a day before the networking company is to unveil new consumer products and initiatives at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.    Read More

Bob Doll has made a dozen predictions for the economy in 2009, and, along the way, revealed what sectors he especially likes in the new year.   Read More

Adobe Systems is up nearly 5 percent Tuesday — and continues to see call activity. The call buying began around a week ago, when we reported volume approaching four times the daily average for the maker of Photostop, Flash, and other popular software. Today, trading continued to surge...   Read More

The promise of an Obama stimulus package has raised hopes that the battered housing sector will soon stabilize. That's encouraged investors to buy home builder stocks — but Ivy Zelman of Zelman and Associates warns investors to be very selective.   Read More

Tatsuya Mizuno, director of corporates at Fitch Ratings, predicts that the global automobile industry will remain weak for another two to three years. But he sees one somewhat bright spot amid the sector gloom.   Read More

Options trading is active in three major casino stocks that have all seen large double-digit gains in the last few days.    Read More