Sprint Turnaround in Tact and 4 High Demand Stocks Round Out the Week

Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE:S) turnaround plan is still in progress for Sprint, who reported wider loss for Q2, but was able to convince smartphone subscribers to pay up for “unlimited data” service. iPhones were surprisingly popular at Sprint, who activated 1.5 million in the quarter, the same number as in the first quarter.

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) Investors fled the stock because they were unhappy with Facebook’s first financial report as a public company on Thursday, even as Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s chief executive, proclaimed its growth prospects to industry analysts. The investors’ illusion was clear during after-hours trading, and when the market opened on Friday, even more disappointing news was announces. Shortly before 11 a.m., the stock had dropped 14 percent, to slightly under $23 a share, a new low. This added to an 8 percent decline in regular trading on Thursday, even before the earnings announcement, on the chill from weak earnings related to social gaming creator Zynga, a major Facebook partner.

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Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC): Fidelity Investments are to begin a pricing service designed to make the roughly $800 billion market for securities lending more transparent, reports the Wall Street Journal citing sources. This move is predicted to face opposition from rival Wall Street firms.

Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK): Samsung Electronics Co. (SSNLF) sold 50.5 million smartphones worldwide during Q2, which outpaced Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), according to research firm StrategyAnalytics, reports Reuters. Samsung had 34.6 percent of the market, Apple was second since its share dropped 26 percent to 17.8 percent after selling 26 million iPhones in June’s quarter, and Nokia (NYSE:NOK) was third with a 7 percent market share.

General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) displayed an abundance of resilience in the face of much economic uncertainty. The company reported a quarterly profit of $3.11 billion last Friday. Although this was down from $3.69 billion last year, revenues increased 2 percent to $36.5 billion, driven by strong results from the industrial business. Shares added 56 cents to end at $20.56 Thursday, and have added nearly 3 percent since the results were released. An important test for GE in the future is whether or not it is able reclaim the 52-week high of $20.84 it set in late June. So far in 2012, the stock’s advance could be described as a steady grind higher, and shares have now risen 14.8 percent year-to-date. A few investors appear to be positioning for new highs. In fact, 106,000 calls and 43,000 puts traded on GE Thursday. August 21 calls are the most active; 32,700 traded, and the flow included a number of morning buyers paying 10 and 11 cents per contract. Aug 21 calls on GE are now 16 cents out of the money and expiring in three weeks. September 21 calls are the second-most active; over 19,000 contracts changed hands.

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