Top Day Trader Alerts (AA, BIDU, GOOG, BP, HEW, SNDK, VVUS, WMT, WY)

Many stocks are on the move for day traders and active traders this Monday morning ahead of earnings season.  Today’s top alerts are in Alcoa, Inc. (NYSE: AA), Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), BP plc (NYSE: BP), Hewitt Associates Inc. (NYSE: HEW), SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK), VIVUS, Inc. (NASDAQ: VVUS), Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT), and Weyerhaeuser Company (NYSE: WY).

Alcoa, Inc. (NYSE: AA) is up almost 1% at $11.04 this morning ahead of earnings after the close. This will mark the start of earnings season today.

Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) is probably feeling lucky that shares are hardly down and that they did not get too hard last week.  China confirmed that it renewed the license for Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) to operate in China.  Baidu is down 0.5% at $70.88 and Google is up 0.5% at $469.75.

BP plc (NYSE: BP) is up on word that may be able to capture all of the oil in the next week or so and on word that it is in talks with Apache Corp. (NYSE: APA) on selling some assets for as much as $10 billion.  Shares were higher earlier in the U.K., but the stock’s ADRs are trading up 3.2% at $35.14 this morning.

Hewitt Associates Inc. (NYSE: HEW) is surging on word that Aon (AON) has agreed to buy the HR consulting and outsourcing firm in a cash and stock deal valued at $4.9 billion.  Shares are up 32% at $46.75.

SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK) is trading up on an analyst upgrade this morning with shares up over 2% at $43.82 on fairly strong volume of over 30,000 pre-market shares.

VIVUS, Inc. (NASDAQ: VVUS) is going to be one to watch for stock and options ahead of this week’s Qnexa FDA panel review.  Options are calling for a huge move in the stock.  Shares are down marginally this morning, but that is after a 21% gain last week.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) is firm on a Barron’s article from the weekend noting that it almost can’t go lower with extremely low multiples and having underperformed peers.  It also noted a target north of $60 from Citigroup in the article.  Shares are up only 0.75%% at $49.77, a gain that seems lower than most “Barron’s effect” pieces.

Weyerhaeuser Company (NYSE: WY) is surging on news that it declared a special dividend of $5.6 billion as part of its plan to convert to a REIT by distributing its earnings and profits to shareholders.  Shares are up almost 8% at $38.70 this morning.

JON C. OGG