Positive Market Open

Morning News of Note:

• CBS: A CBS Deal With Katie Couric May Be Near CBS's long courtship of Katie Couric has moved close to a conclusion. A deal to recruit her away from NBC's "Today" show and into the nightly anchor chair at CBS News may be completed as early as this week, people close to the negotiations said yesterday. While Ms. Couric is under contract to NBC though the end of May and, under the terms of her current deal, cannot have any formal talks with CBS or another network until the beginning of that month, NBC executives decided in recent days to permit Ms. Couric's representatives to discuss outside offers for her future services (Full Story) NY Times
• NTLI: Virgin Mobile Accepts $1.67 Billion Offer From NTL NTL Inc., Britain's biggest cable- television provider, agreed to buy Richard Branson's Virgin Mobile Holdings Plc for a sweetened 962 million-pound ($1.67 billion) offer, adding wireless-phone services to its Internet and television networks. Virgin Mobile shareholders will get 372 pence cash per share as part of a raised bid, Hook, England-based NTL said in a statement today. (Full Story) Bloomberg
• DRAM contract prices: Digitimes reports sources at DRAM makers estimate that DRAM contract prices will drop in the range of 2% in the first half of April as demand for DDR2 still remains strong. The weak pricing of DDR2 is reflected only in the spot market while DDR2 demand from OEMs is growing. Nanya Technology was cited by the Chinese-language Economic Daily News in predicting March revenues may hit NT$5 billion (US$154 million). Powerchip Semiconductor Corporation was quoted by the paper as stating that DRAM prices should rebound in June
• US Treasuries: AP citing a Hong Kong newspaper on Tuesday which quoted Cheng Siwei, a vice chairman of China's parliament, as saying that China should stop buying U.S. Treasuries and take steps to reduce its holdings in those bonds. Siwei said China should instead increase imports from the United States. Currency traders said report caused some players to sell the dollar, prompting the currency to pull back from earlier gains. The dollar was trading at 117.68 yen Tuesday afternoon in Tokyo, up 0.03 yen from late Monday in New York.
• Mad Money Summary: Cramer opened his show discussing baseball card company Topps (TOPP), which he believes is very undervalued. He sees the stock easily being worth $10 to $11. Cramer then recommended Iconix Brand Group (ICON), the brand management company whose brands include Joe Boxer and Bongo. Iconix also recently acquired Mudd and Mossimo, a move the Street approved. Cramer then recommended First Data (FDC), the company that owns Western Union. Western Union controls 15% of the world's remittances, which made the company $1.3B in earnings last year. In the Lightning Round, Cramer was bullish on Vasco Data (VDSI), Cytyc (CYTC), Penn National (PENN), Procter & Gamble (PG), Bed Bath and Beyond (BBBY), Rite Aid (RAD), Dow Chemical (DOW) and Marvell Tech (MRVL), and was bearish on Nasdaq Stock Market (NDAQ), Amylin Pharmaceuticals (AMLN), Avon (AVP), Doral Financial (DRL), ViroPharma (VPHM) and Benetton Group (BNG)

Market Comments: The market has a nice bid under it in the early trading. Oil is down slightly, while the yield on the 10-yr. is also down to 4.85%.

The CBOE put/call has hit 1.57 this morning, which is an extremely elevated level. This indicates that investors are rushing to hedge themselves at the first sign of weakness. This behavior could keep any correction small and frustrating for the bears.

Tech stocks are starting to pick up a little. STX and MOT are back above their 50-day, GOOG is back to flirting with the $400 level, and stocks like WFR and RACK look like they might never pull back again in my lifetime.

long GOOG