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The symptoms of supposed swine flu are indistinguishable from regular flu or from the common cold. It does not cause death anymore often than the regular flu causes death.

Besides, only about 65 people in all of Asia (population over 3 billion people) have died from “Bird Flu” over the last seven years. That, in no way, qualifies as an epidemic. Yet U.S. President George W. Bush was talking of calling out the military and quarantining large numbers of people. The UK was discussing plans for mass graves anticipating that 320,000 people will die in Britain. Yet no person, either in the U.S. or in the U.K. has died from this supposed “Bird Flu”!

Carl Icahn has most recently been Amylin to sell itself and Eli Lilly has said that it is open to making acquisitions in general, plus has had a historical relationship with Carl Icahn. Lilly also has a relationship with Amylin, as it is a partner selling Amylin's key product Byetta and provides financial support to AMLN. This relationship is likely to deepen as Amylin seeks approval for a new and much improved once a week version of Byetta.

However, next week's proxy fight is not going to be easy for Ichan. The tactic might well be called "the banker made me do it" defense. Amylin has in place a "change of control" debt covenant that requires it to pay back an outstanding loan if investors buy a large stake in the company or elect a block of board members. Amylin says it would be forced to pay back a $125 million Bank of America loan if outsiders wrested control of its board, which in turn could force it to default on up to $900 million in debt. That could make Amylin unpalatable as a takeover target.

But, a near term sale could definitely boost the stock to 25. At 10/share, it's worth the bet.

As the industry is ripe for consolidation, a DELL/ACER combination is very likely and makes sense. Dell's revenue growth could a significant increase if it was to buy Acer for 15 to 20 percent premium. Additionally, consolidating could help the two companies score better pricing from component vendors and contract manufacturers, as well as cost savings in areas such as human resources. Also, Acer has a strong share of the portable computer market outside the United States, which would provide Dell with exposure to faster growth markets.

Those who bought the underlynig shares are now rewarded greatly as the stock has soared 35% in lesss than a month. And for those who wrote strike 5 and 6, as i recommended in my quantitative model, good for you.

As we get close to announcing the payroll numbers for the month of April, the market should shed some gains as investors anticipate the bad numbers. This market has not only rallied in the wake of bad economic indicators for the past 3 months, but has been climbing on very low volume.

Just because 2 executives of the company decided to take profits in the sum of 1.9 million, it doesn't mean that the selling will be a cascade affect, as Barrons suggested. After running to 27.45/share, the current value of 21.50 is fair.

The market is entering a period when less-than-terrible probably won't be good enough, when actual improvement in the economic numbers might be required. Bank shares are up enough -- and have started to tire enough -- that the "news" could provide an excuse or another shakeout in the sector. But existential dread has given way to a realization that most banks, with prodigious help, can convalesce and earn their way back to solvency.

Sold 5000 sh... at 20.18 and covered 50 May strike 19 calls at 2.55/contract for a gain of .40/share. Be advised that the calls still have 1.30/contract in intrinsic time value left. However, I sold becuase i feel WFC might retrace and test the 19 1-month support level. At 19, I'm not willing to own it.

I do have shares remaining hedged with the May strike 17.00 calls. Now, at 17, the shares are more attractive. All in all, bear in mind that the shares have nearly gone up 250% from the lows.