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

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