Alcoa (AA) closed at $13.51. AA is expected to report Q1 EPS in early April. April put option implied volatility is at 42, July is at 41, and October is at 43; below its 26-week average 46, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Citigroup (C) closed at $3.89. C overall option implied volatility of 46 is below its 26-week average of 53, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Three stocks with IV rise on March 15; Boston Scientific (BSX) +18%, Bidu (BIDU) +4%, Caterpillar (CAT) +2% according to IVolatility.

Options Update is by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Record label EMI, which was purchased by Terra Firma Capital Corporation (TII) in 2007, was dealt a serious blow yesterday by the band Pink Floyd. The band filed a lawsuit against EMI because the record company started selling individual music tracks from Pink Floyd's two block buster albums, Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall online. The selling of individual music tracks is expressly forbid by the band's contract with the record label. Yesterday a judge affirmed that contract condition.

This turn of events comes not only as a serious blow to EMI, but as a gut wrenching twist in Terra Firma's continuing downward spiral. Terra Firma is currently engaged in a legal battle with Citigroup, Inc. (C) regarding its purchase of EMI at auction. Terra Firma has accused Citi of the use of "fraudulent measures" in completing that sale.

It looks like American International Group (AIG) has found another $15.5 billion. The insurance company is selling its American Life Insurance Co. division to MetLife (MET) for $6.8 billion in cash and $8.7 billion in equities. Approximately $9 billion from this sale will be used to repay funds provided by the Federal Reserve, totaling $182.3 billion. This follows the announcement of Prudential's $35.5 billion designs on AIG's Asian operations.

Robert Haines, analyst at CreditSights, tells Bloomberg News, "This is a sizeable transaction." He continues, "It demonstrates they're making some tangible progress on their plan to divest assets."

Imagine that you go to withdraw funds from your checking account, only to find that you must give your bank seven days prior notice of the action. Does that sound outlandish? This regulatory fine print has been made all too real for customers of Citibank (C).

In an informational snafu that got out of hand, Citibank notified its customers that it has the right, or the responsibility, to delay customers from retrieving their own money in certain rare instances. The misstep occurred when Citibank included this revelation on the statements of its customers nationwide.

The financial crisis, employment market and social media explosion have converged, providing a new level of clarity into what is happening in the world around us. Where was ground zero for this financial catastrophe? Well, according to the LinkedIn blog, five companies have shown the most action: Barclays (BCS), Credit Suisse (CS), Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM). Interestingly, Goldman Sachs (GS), among the biggest winners now that we're pulling out from the recession, didn't see as much play.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) wanted a piece of what could be the most interesting insurance IPO of the year, but it won't get a taste.

American International Group's (AIG) Asian life insurance unit, American International Association, is going to go public in Hong Kong for an estimated $10 billion, and JPMorgan isn't being allowed to play, insiders say, because of a sour relationship that stretches back to the September 2008 financial crisis. As a result, it will be the only major investment bank not being admitted to the party.

Analyst Upgrades

• Baird upgraded Air Products (APD) to outperform from neutral on valuation following the sell-off after the company's bid for Airgas (ARG). The firm has an $89 price target on shares.
• JPMorgan upgraded Peabody Energy (BTU) to overweight from neutral as it believes the company is well positioned for 2010. The firm has a $50 price target on shares.
• Jefferies raised Adobe (ADBE) to buy from hold and has a $40 target on the stock. The firm believes concerns over the future of Flash are overblown and that shares of Adobe are attractive. Additionally, the firm expects CS5 to have a "decent" product cycle.
• Dell (DELL) was upgraded to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.
• SXC Health Solutions (SXCI) was upgraded to buy from hold at ThinkEquity.
• Harman (HAR) was upgraded to neutral from underperform at Credit Suisse.

A rose is a rose is a rose. Thank you Gertrude Stein for that observation. But a bank is not a bank is not a bank. That's because not all banks are serving the same market, nor are they all offering the same loans. If you're going to invest in banks, be sure you understand who they're lending to and what kind of loans they have on the books.

The first group of banks is community banks. As you might guess, they serve specific communities, usually within a fairly narrow geographic region. They rely on that region for their deposits with which they'll make loans, and loan demand. In other words, they serve a well-defined community. They know all the neighbors, participate in the local activities, have a high profile, hopefully do good things for a community.

While we wait for details on the president's plan to break up the banks, I wonder why the banks can't decide to break themselves up?

Wouldn't it be so much better to break up themselves than wait for President Obama to do it for them? Investment banks specialize in mergers and acquisitions and the converse spin-offs. Mergers and acquisitions are big business for Wall Street and they happen all the time. In fact, that's how many of the banks got so big.