Most Widely Traded 48 Hour Clock: EMC Gets Trashed

24/7 Wall St. has begun coverage of the 36 most widely traded stocks, eighteen each from the NYSE and the NASDAQ. Most of these stocks trade over 50 million shares a week. This new feature will highlight each of the 36 stocks at least every 48 hours giving investors fresh infomation and perspective on the companies whose shares are most likely to move the broader markets.

Stocks: (EMC)(RSAS)

EMC added insult to injury by saying it would miss its quarterly numbers . Since the company had confirmed its estimates on June 7, the information came as quite a surprise. Revenue will be $2.575 billion compared to the forecast of $2.66 billion and EPS will be a penny below target.

All of this could complicates the takeover of RSA Securities, whose board and investors now must ask themselve if they are hitching themselves to a problem.

The miss is a setback from CEO Joe Tucci. He had hoped to diversity the company beyond its core corporate data storage business. That strategy may now be in jeapordy.

The stock is now near its 52-week low, trading at $10.35 and RSA's stock still trades near its annual high at $27.21.

The market still assumes that someone will buy RSA, but it may no longer be EMC.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@gmail.com. He does not own securities in companies he writes about.