Morning Movers (CIE, ALU, LNKD, AMRS, XIDE)

The three major US equities indexes opened higher this morning as traders react to the failure of the proposed Greek debt swap deal. The DJIA is down about 103 points at about 12,787, the Nasdaq Composite is down nearly 21 points at about 2,907, and the S&P 500 is down about 10 points at around 1,342.

There are several stocks trading more heavily than usual this morning, and also experiencing large gains or drops in share prices. These include Cobalt International Energy Inc. (NYSE: CIE), Alcatel Lucent (NYSE: ALU), LinkedIn Corp. (NASDAQ: LNKD), Amyris Inc. (NASDAQ: AMRS), and Exide Technologies (NASDAQ: XIDE).

After the first half hour of trading this morning, Cobalt Int’l. Energy is up nearly 48% at $35.27 after posting a new 52-week high of $35.87 earlier. Volume is about already about 2.5x the daily average of about 1.5 million shares traded. The independent oil & gas producer reported significantly better-than-expected flows from a test well offshore of Angola.

Alcatel Lucent is up more than 14% at $2.22. Volume is already more than double the daily average of 1.7 million shares traded. The network communications company posted better-than-expected earnings results this morning. See our coverage here.

LinkedIn is up nearly 11% at $84.44. Volume is already more than double the daily average of about 1.8 million shares traded. The professional social network reported much better-than-expected earnings last night. More coverage here.

Amyris is down more than -27% at $7.11 after posting a new 52-week low of $7.07 earlier. Volume is about equal to the daily average of around 218,000 shares traded. The biofuel maker’s stock was downgraded following a negative outlook from the company for 2012..

Exide is down more than -22% at $3.10. Volume is already more than double the daily average of about 1.1 million shares traded. The battery maker missed revenue expectations and forecast lower earnings for the 2012 fiscal year.

Paul Ausick