SIRIUS XM Driven by BMW and Research (SIRI)

SIRIUS XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) is surging today on what seemed to be too much at first look.  The company signed a pact for BMW.  The pact calls for SIRIUS to be standard equipment on new radio-equipped Model Year 2011 R 1200 RT, K 1600 GT, and K 1600 GTL Touring Motorcycles.  It includes a one-year introductory subscription in MINIs. That alone is not really enough to drive SIRIUS XM up this much, but a published research note may be.

A published report in Forbes from Joan Lappin at Gramercy Capital (long the stock) calls it a call on the U.S. auto industry, and noted that it was working with Liberty the recent Howard Stern contract and NFL pact

The most interesting aspect of SIRIUS today is that the 8% gain takes it to $1.60.  That is one-cent under the 52-week high of $1.61.  SIRIUS XM also has seen 105 million shares trade hands by 3:30 PM EST against a full day’s average of about 56 million shares.  That is extremely impressive when you consider that today is a light volume day for most active stocks.

The move today is likely to have the chartists and momentum traders talking as we go into year-end.  Just be advised that trading volume in most issues is drying up as get into the holidays and many desks are lightly staffed as is now.

Lastly, how you can you not pay attention to SIRIUS XM CALL OPTION trading?  The JAN11 CALLS have seen more than 25,000 contracts today, followed by elevated volume elsewhere on the calendar.  One figure put all open call contract volume north of 90,000 contracts with elevated PUT volume as well.

SIRIUS shares closed out 2009 at $0.60, so the stock is currently up about 166% year-to-date.  Stay tuned.

JON C. OGG