Microsoft, travel and thinness (updated)

7:48 am (Hawaii) Barnes & Noble is up 61% on Microsoft's play for the Nook tablet. I like visiting B&N locally, but as an investment, it's been a dud for years going back to the war with Amazon. Now BKS is at 22.14, off its high today of 26, after Microsoft's move. 

Whitney Tilson was on Fast Money. He went long BKS last week, says it was 87% short. That's incredible and explains the run today. He says BKS was much less a value play at 26, but is "very attractive" at 22. Total of $605 mil from Microsoft. 

Also surprised by the move in EXPE, up 7.3% on top of last week's gain. All three indices are in the red moderately, and EXPE is up almost 3 bucks to 43.26. 

ZAGG, one of the AAPL plays, is up 6.7% to 13.11. I had my eyes on this last week at 11.99 and 12.29 and opted to wait until today. So even with a down market, ZAGG is rising fast with earnings due Thursday. 

AMZN is up another 2.5% to 232.41. I sold this at 219 last week, and the P/E is outlandish. The questions about the company's accounting maneuvers are not holding this back, it seems. 

AAPL is down 2.5% to 587.92 after one of the New York newspapers blasted the company for its tax strategy. Legal, but chastised anyway. I still would like to see AAPL at 546 (Fibonacci retrace), and with big money chasing other trades, it still might happen. AAPL got down to 555 last week before spiking. 

Light volume overall. No catalyst in the near term. Just a cool morning and an opportunity to sip a beverage, get work done and wait patiently. That would not be Monster energy drink (MNST), though, which is up 10% on rumored buyout talks (Coca-Cola) worth as much as $15 billion.

Update 8:19 am Fib retrace for BKS (based on today's gain off Friday's close) is 21.29. It sold off early in the day off the humongous gain down to 21.75. This was a broke company with negative EPS before this deal. Watching but not touching.

MNST Fib retrace is at 76.56, which it has breached easily. It got down to 71.47 before moving back to its current level at 76+.

Update 11:05 am I liked ZAGG on Friday, but didn't enter because of weekend wackiness worries in the general market. I passed at 11.99. ZAGG, an Apple play, closed up 6% today in a down market. Earnings out on Thursday; anticipation is high. But this run-up might translate into a selloff on the news. Today, ZAGG's intraday high was 13.27. A Fib retrace would've been at 12.89, and sure enough, the stock pulled back to 12.90 mid-day. I entered a half position at 13.02 just before the close.

This comes with some risk, of course. ZAGG has made a massive move from 10.66 at the close last Tuesday. That's a gain of more than 24% to today's high. How much upside is left? If today's modest pullback was a breather and the market takes off tomorrow and/or Wednesday, it would probably be good for ZAGG and other earnings plays. But I don't view this is a long-term hold, though maybe I should. Closing no doors just yet.

Update 11:40 am More info on ZAGG.

P/E 20.68, forward P/E 12.77
Shares outstanding: 30.04M
Float: 21.93M
Short interest: 47.7% (of float)

Tie that together with the Apple relationship and it's no wonder this has been combustible. ZAGG hit a one-year high of 17.10 on Aug 15 last year, just nine days after it had dipped to 11.40. But that's not the one-year low; the low of 6.67 was on Dec 28. This is a radical stock. Question is when to get out, and that answer will be dictated by price action and trading discipline. In other words, a decision would be best determined by stop loss rather than panic and/or greed.

Cobwebs and scopes

8:40 am (Hawaii) Well that was a waste of half a morning. Getting up (or staying up) early this week caught up with me. I slept right through what turned out to be an interesting open. AAPL has been stagnant, now bordering on 601 and possibly lower. The big money is playing everywhere else. EXPE opened at 39.20 and ran to 43; it was at 32 at the closing bell yesterday. AMZN, which I bought at 220 and sold at 219 afterhours yesterday in a pure chickenshit move, opened at 224.83 and ran to 228.69. Now at 225.37 after selling off to 220.22. It just won't die or pull back below 220, though it closed yesterday at 195.99 (before earnings were released). Was it accounting deception that produced a $0.28 quarter (versus $0.07 expectation)? Not a worry at all, not to traders.

Still keeping a close eye on SWKS, CRUS and ZAGG. The latter reports on May 3, CRUS has a tasty P/E (still below 13) despite the run-up. PCLN is riding EXPE's coattail, up 3.4% today. Tough to hold anything into next week; I want a selloff day to get cheaper prices. ZAGG below 12 would be nice; it was at 11.82 earlier. While I slept. Now at 12.29, up 2.5%.

Even GVSC, which got pounded yesterday, is up 4.1% to 17.65. Thinly traded issues (403k so far today) are too annoying. Indices pared down in the past 30 minutes. Maybe I'll get the prices I like. Careful out there.

Update 9:11 am So how is it possible that Spain gets downgraded/degraded and the market blows it off completely (after an early swoon)? This shit doesn't disappear in the long term. For now though it's just a rowdy boy at the fair. Drunkard at the carnival. They kick him out and he's ignored until his return. But he will return. That's what makes a buy of ZAGG or PCLN (May 9 earnings) difficult on this day, Apr 27. Plenty can hit the market between now and then. ZAGG and PCLN could still explode then. But it may ride lower before that. Or more likely both will simply climb (like today) on anticipation and peak out by earnings day. 

Price action dictates. And if/when the market gets rattled by the usual May fear, there won't be much reprieve for those holding the bag. 

So all's good when it comes to Spain, right? For today, the answer's yes. 

If you think bankers tell the truth, see what Santander's CEO claimed today.