Two You Want, One You Don't: DRL, CIGX, and CRDC Under the Microscope

Though the overall market may be settling in for a sleepy end to the year (despite today's big pop), not every stock is gearing up for a boring finish. Cardica, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRDC), Star Scientific, Inc. (NASDAQ:CIGX), and Doral Financial Corp. (NYSE:DRL) may be surprisingly trade-worthy between now and the new year.... though not necessarily bullishly. Take a look.

Star Scientific, Inc. had a smidgen of a chance at pulling itself up by the bootstraps and fighting its way out of a narrowing trading range. It just couldn't do it though. Instead, CIGX has fallen under the lower edge of that triangle pattern (orange) on Thursday, and has been unable to crawl back above it since then.

To its credit, the stock is up today - CIGX is higher by 1.7%. It was up yesterday too. But, it's a tepid effort, and shares have been closing at the lower end of the daily range of late. Today's acting like it will be the same. Also note that the breakdown on Thursday was on higher volume, while the bullish efforts in the meantime have been on low volume. Star Scientific may just be too far technically gone to salvage.

Doral Financial Corp., on the other hand, is starting to see better days after a miserable ten-week stretch during which time it slumped from $1.34 to a low of $0.56 last week. That slide also dragged DRL to a point where it was less than 50% of the value of the 200-day moving average line (green)... an extreme reading for any stock, but also one that doesn't persist for very long.

Sure enough, DRL is bouncing back with a vengeance. It's gained 24% in the past three days, and as of today has crossed back above the 20-day moving average line - a key indication that at least the short-term tide has turned. It's also worth noting that Doral Financial has made this rebound effort on much greater volume than we were seeing near the end of the pullback. This looks to be the real (trade-worthy) deal.

Finally, though Cardica, Inc. has been unimpressive the last few days, there's actually a lot more progress being made here than may be obvious with just a quick glance. To really appreciate how far this chart's come - and how big the opportunity is now - a longer-term look at CRDC is required.

First and foremost, a long-standing resistance line (purple) has been snapped. There was also a horizontal support/resistance line (orange) at $2.21 that has also been broken. More than that though, notice how CRDC has been consolidating in the $2.00 to $2.40 range lately, buying time for the 20-day and 50-day moving averages (blue and purple) have crossed above the 100-day average line (gray) ... for the first time since March. The slow pace of the recovery effort this time around [as opposed to a one-shot bullish jolt] is a healthy foundation that Cardica can actually use to start a long-term upward move. Just give it some time  to tap all the potential.