My Opinion? Pfizer Just Engineered An NYSE Halt In Its OWN Stock -- Primarily To Disrupt AZ's Trading

Pfizer just announced a lung cancer candidate is moving to Phase III. There is scarcely a snowball's chance in the River Styx that TODAY, such a move is worth $5 billion to consolidated Pfizer Q2 2014 results or prospects. Filing. . . is not approval. Period. [Proof? No immediate SEC Form 8-K -- just the pricing of a yawner of a debt deal.]

Pfizer is just. too. big. That much is certain. It's not material.

No, the Phase III announcement was not at that rather gargantuan level of materiality such that the NYSE would have required a halt. I promise you that -- well over two decades of experience, on that cha-cha. . . .

So, it almost certainly was elective, by Mr. Read. And the halt caused a dip in AstraZeneca's stock. This is on the hairy edge of the envelope, in terms of lawful takeover tactics -- even in a hostile deal in the US (no opinion expressed about UK law, here -- but I'd wager it is frowned upon). Now recall that Mr. Read hasn't officially gone hostile -- and this looks a bit like an artifice or scheme to manipulate AZ stock, by proxy. Just my opinion -- and almost certainly not capable of being set out with competent proof, in an SEC enforcement proceeding. . . but clearly a little dodgy, to my eye.

On the other hand, maybe late tonight, Pfizer will sweeten its bid materially. That would be halt-worthy, but the NYSE will be closed by then.

And that's the. . . erh, cricket way of handling such matters. Again, deep experience on hundreds of previously-closed or abandoned public deals, backs that up.

You've been warned -- Mr. Read is likely to play dirty pool -- sharp elbows, too -- from here on.