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Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) closed at $8.18. Oracle's (NASDAQ: ORCL) announced in April it was paying $9.50 in cash per share for JAVA. JAVA November option implied volatility is at 57, December is at 57, January is at 59, above its 21-week average of 19, according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement.

CBOE Volatility Index-VIX at 27.90; 10-day moving average is 22.77.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Today was one of those days where it felt like it would be an up-day and most traders were feeling good, but the last hour's trading came down so far so fast that traders had little feel whether we'd have an up or down session until right before the closing bell.

Oil inventories were not a huge surprise like the week before, but the data sent oil much higher and then a weak US dollar only added to oil price gains. Some may use the Beige Book as the reason for the sell-off, but it might be how little the government expects Wall Street executives to work for if they are a TARP bank.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 9,956.91 -84.57 (-0.84%)
S&P 500 1,081.36 -9.70 (-0.89%)
Nasdaq 2,150.73 -12.74 (-0.59%)

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The Street.com's Jim Cramer says that it's awful knowing that Galleon had every single nuance of the next Intel call.

The call. The edge. The inside scoop. At one point, you could have it. At one point, before Regulation Fair Disclosure (FD), persistence, hard work, going to meetings, doing everything you could to learn a company entitled you to a callback from the company. The rules were clear: If you got something that was material and non-public, you couldn't trade on it, you were frozen. But there were some blurred lines and the intensive research shops with great industry contacts could get an ever-so-slight heads up that could make a difference. Or you could go to a one-on-one where management might let slip something no one had, and you could have that momentary head start.

But Regulation FD ended all that. All the insider calls, the disclosure at one-on-ones, anything that smacked even of proprietary information. The rules were no longer voluntary. It wasn't a question of freezing. It was a question of talking. You couldn't talk to "them." Hedge funds could not talk one-on-one to anyone of authority at a company. The insider would face prosecution, do you weren't even supposed to try.

Raj Rajaratnam's life has just changed profoundly. The 52-year-old founder, fund manager, and partner at the Galleon Group has been accused of insider trading, conspiring with others (now named as defendants with him) to trade shares of Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Hilton (OTC: HLNQ), and Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA), among others. Rajaratnam generated $25 million in profits on these trades, but that's moot now.

Rajaratnam, who is #559 on the list of the world's richest people, with a net worth of $1.3 billion, now faces fines of up to $250,000 and from 5 to 20 years in prison. I doubt he'll be in the same slot on next year's list of billionaires.

Through aggressive M&A, Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) has expanded its software into areas like enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM) and middleware. But the fact remains that the company still has a tremendous franchise in the database market. And the nature of this market is awesome. For example, Oracle has recently implemented a 250 terabyte database for AT&T (NASDAQ: T) and one for 700 terabytes for Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO).

It certainly makes for a highly profitable business. In Oracle's fiscal Q1 report issued Wednesday, the company posted profits of $1.1 billion or 22 cents per share and operating cash flow of $3.7 billion.

Trading volume and news activity were both fairly impressive when you consider just how many traders and investors have headed for the hills or for the beach ahead of the Labor Day weekend. This morning's weak jobless claims did little to offer any great hope for Friday's unemployment and payrolls data. But less-bad retail data kept some positive sentiment alive. This was another one of those days where the overall bull or bear was a mystery figure until the close.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 9,343.47 +62.80 (0.68%)
S&P 500 1,003.16 +8.41 (0.85%)
Nasdaq 1,983.20 +16.13 (0.82%)

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On Thursday morning, European Union regulators announced the launch of an antitrust probe into U.S. software maker Oracle's (NASDAQ: ORCL) takeover of Sun Microsystems. The regulatory group believes that the deal could lead to higher prices and limited choice for database software. Approval from this group is considered the main stumbling block for the deal, which has cleared the Department of Justice in the United States.

The final decision has a deadline of 90 days, or January 19, 2009. By this date, the European Commission can decide to clear or to block the deal. More often than not, the Commission will force companies to make changes that would eliminate any concerns over antitrust regulations.

Today was a strong day from the start, but shares traded mixed throughout the day. There was an exceptionally high PPI, but this was interpreted as already being artificial because of commodity price changes. Earnings are starting to come in relentlessly and won't lighten up for the next three weeks.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 8,357.14 +25.46 (0.31%)
S&P 500 905.55 +4.50 (0.50%)
Nasdaq 1,798.91 +5.70 (0.32%)

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Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) announced in April the acquisition of Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) for $9.50. Sun Microsystems closed at $9.01. Oracle issued the following statement, attributable to Dan Wall, counsel to Oracle. "We've had a very good dialogue with the Department of Justice and we were almost able to resolve everything before the Second Request deadline. All that's left is one narrow issue about the way rights to Java are licensed that is never going to get in the way of the deal. I full expect that the investigation will end soon and not delay the closing of the deal this summer." JAVA August option implied volatility of 22 is near its 13-week average, according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price movement.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says Nasdaq is so strong it's downright eerie.

Tech can't be fought here. Because people are partying like it is 1999, when firms used $400 price targets for Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) (Cramer's Take) and Broadcom (NASDAQ: BRCM) (Cramer's Take) had all the wireless network answers and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) (Cramer's Take) had the audacity to think that it could control the music business.

We've seen it going on since the market bottom, the endless driving of tech higher and higher. We get the wireless bottom, thanks Nokia (NYSE: NOK) (Cramer's Take); the personal computer bottom, thanks Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) (Cramer's Take); the gadget bottom, thanks Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE: TSM) (Cramer's Take); the TV bottom, thanks Corning (NYSE: GLW) (Cramer's Take) and Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) (Cramer's Take); the software bottom, thanks to Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) (Cramer's Take) buying Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) (Cramer's Take) for its software and IBM (NYSE: IBM) (Cramer's Take) celebrating its software on its quarter; and the dot-com bottom represented by great earnings from Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) (Cramer's Take) and decent numbers from rejuvenated management teams at Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) (Cramer's Take) and eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) (Cramer's Take).

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says the good developments in the space got lost yesterday amid all the hubbub over banks.

We are so focused on the endless one-time gains at Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) (Cramer's Take) that made the quarter look better than it should that we forgot about some other obvious positives that were occurring right before our eyes. I am talking about tech, and tech mergers and tech earnings.

No, I am not minimizing the problems of the banks -- did anyone think that Ken Lewis would choose to show a loss if he had a chance, as the bears seemed to urge? I am saying that when you have both Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) (Cramer's Take) and IBM (NYSE: IBM) (Cramer's Take) interested in something that we thought was worth very little just a few weeks ago -- Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) (Cramer's Take) -- when you have Broadcom (NASDAQ: BRCM) (Cramer's Take) interested in buying Emulex (NYSE: ELX) (Cramer's Take) -- another left-for-dead tech company -- and when you have Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) (Cramer's Take) saying inventories are lean, mostly because of Asian demand, you are not getting a picture of despair.

Back in early 2007, KKR Private Equity Investors -- along with Citigroup (NYSE: C) -- invested $700 million in Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA). The investment structure was a convertible senior note (both firms split the investment).

And, just like many other private equity deals, KKR wrote down the investment -- by about $167 million. This was as of last year.

Well, in light of Oracle's (NASDAQ: ORCL) announced $7.4 billion buyout of Sun yesterday, there is a nice surprise for KKR. You see, according to the note agreement, KKR is entitled to get its investment repaid. In fact, this also includes payment of accrued interest, according to Reuters.

This was one of those "sell-the-news" trading days that many of the bears were expecting over the last two weeks. In fact, some bears might finally feel vindicated after weeks of being slapped silly. The European markets started lower and the U.S. followed suit. Credit concerns for banks getting worse ahead and what Uncle Sam will do with his stakes in the banks was just a part of it.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 7,841.73 -289.60 (-3.56%)
S&P 500 832.39 -37.21 (-4.28%)
Nasdaq 1,608.21 -64.86 (-3.88%)

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Today's announcement that Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) would acquire Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) for $7.4 billion worth of cash left me scratching my head. The rationale? Something that Oracle's president calls non-GAAP earnings. Does this mean that Oracle's first acquisition of a hardware company makes strategic sense? I don't know.

I am not sure what non-GAAP earnings are, but it sounds like it is a special kind of accounting meant to justify a deal that would not look good on a GAAP basis. Safra Catz, Oracle's president, estimates that on a non-GAAP basis, the deal will add $1.5 billion in "non-GAAP operating profit" in the first year and $2 billion to that new measure in future years.

Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) will be acquired by Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) for $9.50. JAVA May call option implied volatility of 118 was above its 26-week average of 89, according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement.

ORCL is recently down 80 cents to $18.20 in pre-open trading. ORCL April option implied volatility of 49 is near its 26-week average of 52, according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional movement.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com