It's been a volatile day for stocks, with the Dow exploring a 282-point range on both sides of breakeven, but lower at last check. Among individual names making notable moves are semiconductor stock Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU), financial giant Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS), and biotech Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:MACK). Here's a quick look at how shares of MU, GS, and MACK are trading today.
Micron stock is hot yet again, last seen trading up 8.7% at $59.35, tapping another 17-year high of $61.17 earlier in the session. Today's bull gap comes after a price-target hike at Nomura to $100 -- almost double its previous target, and the highest on the Street. The brokerage firm sees a number of positives in the future for the stock, including expectations for a dividend increase at the company's investor day in May. MU shares were trading around $25 at this time last year, and have gained 47% in just the past month. The equity is technically overbought, going by its 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) of 80, but sector tailwinds could make it hard to bet against Micron.
Goldman Sachs stock is trading up 1.1% at $273.86 -- the best Dow stock so far -- after the company may have hinted David Solomon will be its new CEO by announcing fellow co-Chief Operating Officer Harvey Schwartz is leaving the bank. In fact, GS shares earlier touched a record high of $275.31, gaining well north of 23% in the past six months alone.
Call traders have certainly jumped aboard, judging by data from the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX). Goldman's 10-day call/put volume ratio is 2.23 across those exchanges, ranking in the 84th annual percentile.
Wall Street is clearly unimpressed with Merrimack's business update, which revealed plans to include the number of participants in the company's non-small cell lung cancer study. A price-target cut from $12 to $15 are also putting pressure on MACK shares, which are trading down 10% at $10.42 -- continuing the weak price action they've displayed for over a year. This underperformance has drawn the attention of short sellers, who control 13.5% of the total float. Going by average daily volumes, it would take these short sellers more than three weeks to cover their positions.