Stocks On The Move - May 18

Stocks Rise on Heavy Volumn:

• Sears Holdings Corporation. (SHLD): shares of Hoffman Estates, IL based retail chain owner of Kmart and Sears surged 12.97% or $17.89 to $155.85 per share as the company swung to first quarter profit of $180 million compared with $9 million loss a year ago on cost-cutting efforts. The stock was the fifth best performaer on Nasdaq of today with 13 million shares traded or seven times average volumn.
• BEA Systems Inc.(BEAS): shares of San Jose, CA based enterprise application infrastructure software WebLogic maker surged 12.39% or $1.47 to $13.33 per share on analyst upgrade after the company posted strong first quarter earning beating the Wall Street estimates on boosting sale of new software. The stock was the seventh leading gainer on Nasdaq today with 23.6 million shares traded, also the twelveth most traded stock on Nasdaq.

Stocks Drop on Heavy Volumn:

• Napster Inc. (NAPS): shares of Santa Clara, CA based online music service provider plunged 18.32% or 72 cents to $3.21 after the company issued first quarter warning despite reporting a narrower fourth-quarter loss. The stock was the fourth leading decliner on Nasdaq today with 5.16 million shares traded or five times average volumn.
• Titanium Metals Corp. (TIE): shares of Dallas, Texas based titanium melted products maker tumbled 14.86% or $5.41 to $30.99 per share on profit taking. Earlier this week the stock had a 2 for 1 split, the second split of the year. Since the beginning of this year the stock has gained as much as 100%. The stock was the biggest loser on NYSE today with 14.2 million shares traded, almost three times average volumn.