Top Money Investor

As rumors of Fidel Castro's death flare, remember: the people of #Cuba need freedom, which requires dismantling of whole totalitarian regime

2012-01-02T17:24:00.000-08:00

Some American @CNN reporters say the death of Fidel Castro is another unfounded rumor and there is still no official word about itAs rumors of Fidel Castro's death flare, remember: the people of #Cuba need freedom, which requires dismantling of whole totalitarian regime this rumor is all over twitter !Los que admiráis a Fidel Castro desde un IPad de 700 pavos no tenéis credibilidad ninguna. Dicho queda

geopolitical news out of Iran along with the perce

2012-01-01T08:39:00.000-08:00

Crude oil bulls get a Christmas gift from our friends in Iran, but will it hold? Oil closed above $100 a barrel for the first time in nearly two weeks on geopolitical news out of Iran along with the perce of oil shortige

top gold buys (CSTR) (PSA) (PVH) (PVR) (DG) (DGI) Ratings, Price Targets

2011-11-28T08:22:00.000-08:00

Coinstar (CSTR), Public Storage (PSA), Phillips-Van Heusen (PVH), Penn Virginia (PVR), Dollar General (DG) and DigitalGlobe Inc. (DGI) ratings and price targets.

RBC Capital raised its price target on Public Storage (PSA) from $124.00 to $126.00. They have a “Sector Perform” rating on the company.

Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) reiterated its “Equal Weight” on Phillips-Van Heusen (PVH).

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) initiated coverage on Penn Virginia (PVR). They placed a “Buy” rating on the company.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) upgraded Coinstar (CSTR) from a “Neutral” rating to an “Overweight” rating. They have a price target of $50.00 on the company.

Morgan Stanley reiterated its “Equal Weight” rating on Dollar General (DG).

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) lowered its price target on
DigitalGlobe Inc. (DGI) to $26.00.

hot stock picks

2010-12-21T13:19:00.000-08:00

BAC, C, CSCO, DELL, EEM, F, GE, HBAN, INTC, IWM, JPM, LVS, MATK, MGM, MOT, MSFT, MU, PFE, Q, S, SIRI, SPY, UNG, WFC, XLF

Penny Stocks to watch this Fall

2010-10-18T05:44:00.000-07:00

Penny Stocks to Watch - 10/18/2010

Penny Stock Trading
How To Make Big Bucks With Penny Stocks

YRCW-YRC Worldwide Inc.

DSCO-Discovery Laboratories Inc.

HEB-Hemispherx Biopharma, Inc.

LVLT-Level 3 Communications Inc.

CPST-Capstone Turbine Corp.

RAS-RAIT Financial Trust

CTZN-Citizens First Bancorp Inc.

RPC-Radient Pharmaceuticals Corporation

INUV-Inuvo, Inc.

DPTR-Delta Petroleum Corp.

CAPS-Orthologic Corp.

LEI-Lucas Energy, Inc.

JSDA-Jones Soda Co.

BPAZ-BioSante Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

SMTX-SMTC Corp.
How To Make Big Bucks With Penny Stocks
ARWR-Arrowhead Research Corp.

SUPR-Superior Bancorp.

HSWI-HSW International, Inc.

GSX-Gasco Energy Inc.

NENG-Network Engines Inc.

MERX-Merix Corp.

XRM-Xerium Technologies Inc.

LXRX-Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, In

SIRI-SIRIUS XM Radio Inc.

COIN-Converted Organics Inc

RPRX-Repros Therapeutics Inc.

CVM-CEL-SCI Corp.

ABK-Ambac Financial Group, Inc.

ETFC-E*TRADE Financial Corporation

BBI-Blockbuster Inc.

RNN-Rexahn Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

SSN-Samson Oil & Gas Limited

AEN-Adeona Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

PEIX-Pacific Ethanol, Inc.

SNSS-Sunesis Pharmaceuticals Inc.

DSCO-Discovery Laboratories Inc.

HEB-Hemispherx Biopharma, Inc.

LVLT-Level 3 Communications Inc.

CPST-Capstone Turbine Corp.

TBUS-DRI Corporation

SBCF-Seacoast Banking Corp. of Florida

SLP-Simulations Plus Inc.

PEIX-Pacific Ethanol, Inc.

QTWW-Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide Inc.

DEAR-Dearborn Bancorp Inc.

RTK-Rentech, Inc.

SNSS-Sunesis Pharmaceuticals Inc.

ABK-Ambac Financial Group, Inc.

HEB-Hemispherx Biopharma, Inc.

IRSN-Irvine Sensors Corp.

GNVC-GenVec Inc.

NEXM-NexMed Inc.

CHIO-China INSOnline Corp.

BGP-Borders Group, Inc.

CDII-China Direct Industries, Inc.

ABCW-Anchor BanCorp Wisconsin, Inc.

CTBK-City Bank

FTK-Flotek Industries Inc.

CPRX-Catalyst Pharmaceutical Partners Inc.

LTS-Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services Inc.

JOEZ-Joe's Jeans Inc.
The Penny Stock Trading System - Palm
AKRX-Akorn Inc.

DPTR- Delta Petroleum Corp.

ANX-Adventrx Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

VG-Vonage Holdings Corporation

How To Make Big Bucks With Penny Stocks

OTC Pink Sheets Stocks to Watch - 10/18/2010

THE GUIDE FOR PENNY STOCK INVESTING
WDRP.PK- Wanderport Corp.

WAMUQ.PK- Washington Mutual Inc.

MTLQQ.PK- Motors Liquidation Company.

CHTL.OB- China Tel Group Inc.

USOG.PK- United States Oil & Gas Corp.

SNWT.OB San West, Inc.

NVLT.OB- Novelos Therapeutics, Inc.
Penny Stock Trading
AENY.OB- Americas Energy Company.

GETA.OB- Genta Incorporated

JY JayHawk Energy, Inc. (JYHW.OB)

GDHI.PK- Golden Dragon Holdings, Inc

BGOI.OB- Bonanza Oil & Gas, Inc.

CBAI.OB- Cord Blood America Inc.

BIEL.PK- BioElectronics Corporation

POSC.OB- Positron Corp.

ACTC.OB- Advanced Cell Technology Inc.

MTLQQ.PK-Motors Liquidation Company

LTUM.OB- Lithium Corporation

MDCE.OB- Medical Care Technologies, Inc

WDRP.PK- Wanderport Corp.

PWRM.OB-Power 3 Medical Products Inc.

QASP.PK-Quasar Aerospace Industries, Inc.

SNWT.OB-San West, Inc.

SGTI.OB-Shengtai Pharmaceutical Inc.

TADF.OB-Tactical Air Defense Services Inc

AXCG.PK- Avenue Exchange Corp.

VRML.PK-Vermillion, Inc.

YASH.OB-Yasheng Eco-Trade Corporation.

GGWPQ-. General Growth Properties Inc.

NXTH.OB-NXT Nutritionals Holdings, Inc.

ISPI-OB- InfoSpi, Inc.

CRWG.OB- CrowdGather, Inc.

LTUM.OB-Lithium Corporation.

PEPR.OB- Pepper Rock Resources Corp.

SKGO.PK- SkyBridge Technology Group, Inc.

ADAC.OB-ADAMA TECHNOLOGIES

SEWC.PK-Sew Cal Logo Inc.

NACF.PK-National Clean Fuels Inc.

INGB.OB-International Building Technologies Group, Inc.

BIEL.PK-BioElectronics Corporation

ESPH.OB-Ecosphere Technologies, Inc.

CHTL.OB-China Tel Group Inc.

VSTNQ.PK-Visteon Corp.
Penny Stock Trading

Buy Soft Drinks Industry (HEK, DPS, COKE, FIZZ, JSDA) ?

2010-10-04T06:05:00.000-07:00

Below are the top five companies in the Soft Drinks industry as measured by the price to book ratio. Often companies with the lowest ratio present the greatest value to investors.

Heckmann (NYSE:HEK) has a price to book ratio of 1.4x based on a current price of $3.92 and a book value per share of $2.77.

Dr Pepper Snapple (NYSE:DPS) has a price to book ratio of 3x based on a current price of $35.11 and a book value per share of $11.82.

Coca-Cola Bottling Co Consolidated (NASDAQ:COKE) has a price to book ratio of 3.7x based on a current price of $52.94 and a book value per share of $14.36.

National Beverage (NASDAQ:FIZZ) has a price to book ratio of 4.2x based on a current price of $14.12 and a book value per share of $3.33.

Jones Soda (NASDAQ:JSDA) has a price to book ratio of 5.1x based on a current price of $1.35 and a book value per share of $0.26.

SmarTrend is bearish on shares of HEK and our subscribers were alerted to Sell on March 30, 2010 at $5.57. The stock has fallen 29.6% since the alert was issued

Sales of U.S. new homes rose in June more than forecast up 23% .....

2010-07-26T07:23:00.000-07:00

Sales of U.S. new homes rose in June more than forecast following an unprecedented collapse the prior month, a signal the worst of the slump triggered by the end of a government tax credit is over.

Purchases increased 24 percent from May to an annual pace of 330,000, figures from the Commerce Department showed today in Washington. The rate was the second-lowest in data going back to 1963 after May’s downwardly revised 267,000 pace.

The lowest mortgage rates on record may help underpin demand, stabilizing the industry that triggered the worst recession since the 1930s. Even so, increasing foreclosures are swelling the number of unsold existing homes, putting pressure on prices and keeping buyers on the sidelines as unemployment hovers near 10 percent and the economy cools.

“We’ll probably reach an equilibrium level over the next couple of months and I wouldn’t be surprised if we slog along the bottom,” Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Pierpont Securities LLC in Stamford, Connecticut, said before the report. “Until we get a more definitive turn in growth, in particular employment, housing demand is going to remain very soft.”

Stocks extended prior gains following the report. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 0.6 percent to 1,108.8 at 10:04 a.m. in New York. The S&P Supercomposite Homebuilder Index climbed 1.9 percent.

Exceeds Forecast

Economists forecast sales would rise 3.3 percent to an annual pace of 310,000, according to the median of 73 projections in a Bloomberg News survey. Estimates ranged from 260,000 to 360,000. The government had initially estimated May sales at a 300,000 rate.

The median price decreased 0.6 percent from June 2009 to $213,400.

Purchases increased in three of four regions, led by a 46 percent jump in the Northeast and a 33 [percent surge in the South, the largest area. Demand dropped 6.6 percent in the West to a record low 57,000 pace.

The supply of homes at the current sales rate fell to 7.6 months’ worth from 9.6 months in May. There were 210,000 new houses on the market at the end of June, the fewest since 1968.

To become eligible for a federal incentive worth up to $8,000, buyers had to sign contracts by April 30 and close deals by the end of last month. The surge in demand prior to the April deadline prompted the government this month to extend the closing deadline until Sept. 30 to ensure buyers had enough time to complete transactions.

Exiting Homes

Purchases of previously-owned homes, which are tabulated when a contract closes, fell a less-than-forecast 5.1 percent in June, sustained by a backlog of deals waiting to settle, figures from the National Association of Realtors showed last week.

New home sales are calculated when a contract is signed. The drop in sales in May came after demand reached an almost two-year high the prior month, according to last month’s Commerce Department data.

Builder shares have dropped this year as the housing outlook dimmed. The Standard & Poor’s Supercomposite Homebuilder Index, which includes Toll Brothers Inc. and Lennar Corp., has fallen 5.4 percent from Dec. 31 through July 23, while the S&P 500 Index is down 1.1 percent.

With the deadline for signing a contract now past, it will be up to advances in the labor market to support home sales. Private U.S. companies added 83,000 jobs in June, fewer than economists had forecast, and initial jobless claims have averaged 449,700 this month, a sign firings remain elevated.

Mounting Foreclosures

Another challenge to new home sales is the rising tide of foreclosures. Home seizures jumped 38 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, RealtyTrac Inc. said last week, putting lenders on pace to claim more than 1 million properties this year.

NVR Inc., based in Reston, Virginia, said last week the original June 30 closing deadline to qualify for the tax incentive resulted in a “surge in settlement activity” in the second quarter, with closings jumping 63 percent from the same time a year earlier. New orders fell six percent in the second quarter to 2,559 units.

Homebuilders turned more pessimistic this month, with the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo confidence index dropping to 14, the lowest level since April 2009, according to data released last week.

by: C. Schliserman

Tony Hayward's departure from his job as BP's, steps down ?

2010-07-25T11:24:00.000-07:00

Tony Hayward's departure from his job as BP's chief executive will be at the center of the agenda when the company's board of directors meets Monday night, according to a source close to the company.

The board is meeting in advance of Tuesday's release of quarterly results, and the directors will weigh how best to confront or defuse criticism as the company unveils its best estimates of massive losses arising from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Hayward, a geologist who has spent his entire career at BP, recognizes that he has become "a liability going forward" and is ready to step down, the source close to the company said. The source asked for anonymity because the company has not yet announced its intentions.

Hayward has come under sharp criticism from members of Congress, President Obama and many investment analysts for events leading up to the exploration well blowout. Some of his comments about the spill have been called insensitive to gulf coast residents.

Moreover, the company has struggled to stop not only the flow of oil but the flow of bad publicity, from complaints about the speed of payment of claims to gulf residents to doctoring photographs on its Web site. Some analysts say Hayward's exit would be a statement that someone is taking full responsibility.

One of the front-runners to succeed Hayward would be Robert Dudley, a Mississippi native who joined BP from Amoco after the two companies merged in 1998. Dudley, who was just put in charge of leading gulf coast cleanup efforts, would be the first American to run the company originally known as British Petroleum.

Another source who spoke on condition of anonymity said that other top executives might also be ousted, but the source close to the company said that decision would be left to the new chief executive.

Among the executives whose positions are widely considered to be tenuous are Andy Inglis, the Houston-based head of global exploration and production who is also leading the relief well effort; Doug Suttles, the chief operating officer who has played a prominent public role in addressing questions about BP's response to claims and cleanup issues; Lamar McKay, the president of BP America who had no responsibility for the exploration well but who has been given the unenviable task of defending the company before Congress.

Additional ousters could come of less prominent people further down the chain of command who might have made improper decisions about the design of the exploration well.

BP's oil spill is all messed up & could be much worse ?

2010-07-17T05:15:00.000-07:00

Found a grat artical on BP ......
T. -Westra

Sunday, July 17, 2010

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill has been with us nearly three months, and the news just isn't getting better. Even when there's hope of a cleanup, an accident sends us back nearly to square one. The American public is incensed, the finger-pointing refuses to end, the U.S.-British "special relationship" is straining, an offshore moratorium is declared but overruled, and even as the blown-out gulf well was sealed Thursday, anxiety lingered about whether the cap would hold. It's a mess in every sense of the word.

But this could be far worse. Imagine if BP were a state-owned oil company. Instead of reasoning with an incompetent chief executive, we'd be reasoning with a protectionist prime minister. Regarding BP, this is a thought experiment. But there are plenty of state-owned companies drilling in U.S. waters and abroad. The next oil spill could be more than just an economic and environmental crisis. It could be a diplomatic one.

As it is, the BP spill has caused tension between the United States and Britain. President Obama has been accused by British media and officials of xenophobia, waging a campaign of hate, and general "Brit-bashing." British Prime Minister David Cameron, meanwhile, has been criticized for not taking a stronger stance in favor of BP. At a time when some are saying the "special relationship" is over, a tiff over BP isn't exactly what the friendship needs.

Humor me and picture what would happen if BP were owned by the British government. We would be facing a situation in which a foreign government would be directly responsible for the ever-worsening spill on our domestic shores. The United States and Britain have had arguments before, and the nationalistic vitriol coming from both sides would be 10 times worse as issues of blame, recovery costs, national pride, domestic security, and economic competition are endlessly debated between leaders, economists, and cable pundits.

That's still the rosy scenario, because at least Britain is an ally. There are plenty of countries that are not, and they happen to own their oil companies -- Venezuela, China, Iran, and Russia being among the biggest. These petroleum-rich countries are placing more importance on their nationalized oil companies as a way to ensure a steady supply to guard against growing domestic demand and changing market conditions.

The oil industry is dominated by state-owned companies. Multinationals might have more name recognition with the public -- ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, BP, Chevron -- but they have full access to 6 percent of worldwide oil reserves. Eighty-eight percent of reserves are held by national oil companies, which also represent the majority of worldwide production. (It's unknown the percentage of oil that state-owned companies get from outside their countries' shores.) Companies such as Aramco, Petrobras, Sinopec and Pemex aren't household names, but they will be as oil becomes scarcer and they can throw around their weight even more due to their dominance of existing oil reserves.

We're already seeing potential hotspots, and the United States isn't the only country that should be worried. Chevron and Rosneft (owned by the Russian government) will begin drilling in the Shatsky Ridge of the Black Sea at the end of 2011. The Black Sea is bordered by Russia, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine -- countries that, to put it lightly, don't always get along. Any substantial accident would be seen as a Russian oil company contaminating its oft-slighted neighbors. Cue the international crisis.

More potential trouble could happen in the South China Sea, where China-owned CNOOC continues to expand its operations. As many as 10 countries surround the South China Sea, and its importance as a major shipping zone and an area of ecological diversity cannot be overstated. It is already a geopolitical hotspot, and any disaster caused by a state-owned company might unravel any diplomatic progress being made.

Even the Gulf of Mexico might see trouble again. Brazil's Petrobras drills in the gulf, and has been ramping up its operations in the area for several years. Brazil has relatively good relations with its neighbors in the Americas, but a Deepwater Horizon-style disaster could significantly change the political dynamics of the region.

It doesn't have to be a blown offshore platform that changes everything. Accidents can happen at any point in the supply chain. A recent death at the Port Arthur, Tex., refinery (owned by Shell and Aramco) highlights the potential for more tension. A substantially destructive accident at any step of the oil extraction, refining or transportation process could stain relations as well.

If we can be sure of one thing in the aftermath of the BP spill, it's that it won't be the last. Countries have not used the BP oil spill to stop offshore development: Deepwater production is anticipated to increase by two-thirds within five years, and state-owned oil companies in general are poised to continue their strong growth.

Strides in renewable energy aren't happening quickly enough to substantially reduce global demand of oil. That oil isn't plentiful enough to be extracted as easily anymore, meaning companies are using more and more potentially dangerous methods to get at it. As BP has shown, danger can only be averted for so long.

Thoughts ? Are you buying BP stock ?

STOCKS THAT HIT THERE 52 WEEK HIGH AND LOW ....

2010-06-07T05:18:00.000-07:00

ABTL autobytel.com, Inc.
ARWR Arrowhead
AVXL Anavex Life Sciences Corp.
CRM Salesforce.com, Inc.
EMIS Emisphere Technologies, Inc.
MIL Millipore Corp.
PANL Universal Display Corp.
QSFT Quest Software, Inc.
RCMT RCM Technologies, Inc.
TIII TII Industries, Inc.
VMW VMware Inc.
VNV Viacom Inc.
XEC Cimarex Energy Co.

New 52-Week Low -Friday

AEO American Eagle Outfitters, Inc.
ACUR Acura Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
AEXP American Exploration Corp.
ALVR Alvarion Ltd.
AMAR Amarillo Biosciences
AMPL Ampal-American Israel Corp.
AMRI Albany Molecular Research, Inc.
ARYX ARYx Therapeutics Inc.
ATTD Attitude Drinks Inc.
BDSI BioDelivery Sciences Intl, Inc.
BKBO BakBone Software Inc.
BSX Boston Scientific Corp.
CF CF Industries Holdings, Inc
CADX Cadence Pharmaceuticals Inc.
CASB Cascade Financial Corp.
CLMS Calamos Asset Management Inc.
CMED China Medical Technologies Inc.
COCO Corinthian Colleges, Inc.
CRYP CryptoLogic Ltd.
CWCO Consolidated Water Co. Ltd.
DRYS Dry Ships Inc.
DWSN Dawson Geophysical Co.
ECOL US Ecology Inc.
EEFT Euronet Services, Inc.
EFIR EGPI Firecreek, Inc.
ELCR Electric Car Co., Inc.
ENG ENGlobal Corp.
ERII Energy Recovery Inc.
ESLR Evergreen Solar, Inc.
EURX Eurand N.V.
FFNW First Financial Northwest, Inc.
FORM FormFactor Inc.
GILD Gilead Sciences, Inc.
ICFI ICF International Inc.
IESC Integrated Electrical Services, Inc.
IFXY INFRAX Systems Inc.
INFN Infinera Corp.
INOD Innodata Corp.
KRNY Kearny Financial Corp.
LABL Multi-Color Corp.
LACO Lakes Gaming, Inc.
LIME Lime Energy Co.
LTON Linktone Ltd.
MEMS Memsic Inc.
NCEN Nacel Energy Corp.
NUBL NuMobile, Inc.
NVGN Novogen Ltd.
NWPX Northwest Pipe Co.
OPTR Optimer Pharmaceuticals Inc.
PBCT Peoples Bank
PNSN Penson Worldwide Inc.
RPRX Repros Therapeutics .
SHOR ShoreTel, Inc.
SIXFQ Six Flags, Inc.
SMTB Smithtown Bancorp Inc.
SOEN Solar Enertech Corp.
SRDX SurModics, Inc.
TRCR Transcend Services, Inc.
VITA Orthovita Inc.
VIVO Meridian Bioscience Inc.

BP CEO Tony Hayward sold shares weeks before oil spill ? Buy Boycott BP Bumper Sticker

2010-06-06T14:53:00.000-07:00

Tony Hayward cashed in about a third of his holding in the company one month before a well on the Deepwater Horizon rig burst, causing an environmental disaster.

Mr Hayward, whose pay package is £4 million a year, then paid off the mortgage on his family’s mansion in Kent, which is estimated to be valued at more than £1.2 million.

There is no suggestion that he acted improperly or had prior knowledge that the company was to face the biggest setback in its history.
His decision, however, means he avoided losing more than £423,000 when BP’s share price plunged after the oil spill began six weeks ago.
Since he disposed of 223,288 shares on March 17, the company’s share price has fallen by 30 per cent. About £40 billion has been wiped off its total value. The fall has caused pain not just for BP shareholders, but also for millions of company pension funds and small investors who have money held in tracker funds.
The spill, which has still not been stemmed, has caused a serious environmental crisis and is estimated to cost BP up to £40 billion to clean up.
There was growing confidence yesterday that a new cap placed over the well was stemming the oil flow. An estimated three million litres a day had been pouring into the sea off the coast of Louisiana since the April 20 explosion, damaging marine life.
The crisis has enraged US politicians, with President Obama yesterday forced to cancel a trip to Indonesia amid a row over the White House’s response.
Mr Hayward, whose position is thought to be under threat, risked further fury by continuing plans to pay out a dividend to investors next month. Boycott BP Bumper Sticker - British Polluters Oil Spill Decal - Environmental

J. Swaie - R. Winett

Futures jump: S&P 52.3 pts, Dow 400 pts, Nasdaq 81.25 US STOCKS-Futures soar after euro zone rescue plan

2010-05-10T05:20:00.000-07:00

* Global leaders agree to $1 trillion emergency package

* Futures indicate S&P 500 could open up 4 pct

* Futures jump: S&P 52.3 pts, Dow 400 pts, Nasdaq 81.25

* For up-to-the-minute market news see [STXNEWS/US]

NEW YORK, May 10 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures soared on Monday, and the S&P 500 could open 4 percent higher, after global leaders agreed to a $1 trillion emergency rescue package that sent the euro and European stocks surging.

* The package pledged 500 billion euros ($670 billion) in loans and loan guarantees to euro-zone countries, plus about 250 billion euros from the International Monetary Fund. The package is on the same scale as the $700 billion bailout launched by the United States to stave off the credit crisis. For details, see

* Also, the U.S. Federal Reserve reopened currency swap lines with several central banks in hopes of assuring markets of dollar liquidity, and the European Central Bank said it would buy government debt to steady investor nerves. A number of European central banks said they had already started. [ID:nLDE649051]

* S&P 500 futures SPc1 rose 52.3 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures DJc1 shot up 400 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures NDc1 gained 81.25 points.

* In Europe, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of top shares advanced 6.5 percent, rebounding from its biggest weekly drop in nearly 18 months.

* The heads of leading U.S. stock market operators were called to Washington for an emergency meeting on Monday to address whether they needed to add levers to their trading systems to halt sudden plunges in individual stocks, according to a source.

* The meeting comes on the heels of last week's dramatic intraday plunge in U.S. markets that has continued to perplex investors and regulators.

* In equities news, Boeing Co (BA.N) is on track to deliver its first 787 Dreamliner, which will compete with Airbus's (EAD.PA) A380 jet, a Boeing official said Saturday.

* Stocks turned negative for the year on Friday on fears of another credit crisis stemming from Greece's souring finances and lingering questions about what triggered last week's sudden plunge.

Weekly CEO Sells stocks .....

2010-05-02T16:46:00.000-07:00

Altera Corp. (ALTR): President and CEO John Daane sold 1,500,000 Shares
President and CEO of Altera Corp. (ALTR) John Daane sold 1,500,000 shares on 04/22/2010 at an average price of $26.08. Altera Corporation designs, manufactures, and markets programmable logic devices and associated development tools, focusing on ease of use, lower risk, and fast time-to-market. Altera Corp. has a market cap of $7.61 billion; its shares were traded at around $25.36 with a P/E ratio of 21.3 and P/S ratio of 6.4. The dividend yield of Altera Corp. stocks is 0.7%.

On April 20, Altera Corporation announced first quarter sales of $402.3 million, up 10 percent from the fourth quarter of 2009 and up 52 percent from the first quarter of 2009. New product sales increased 29 percent sequentially. First quarter net income was $153.2 million, $0.50 per diluted share, compared with net income of $103.0 million, $0.34 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of 2009 and $44.0 million, $0.15 per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2009.

President and CEO John Daane sold 1,700,000 shares of ALTR stock in April, March and December. Acting CFO & CAO James Callas sold 2,729 shares of ALTR stock on 12/07/2009 at the average price of 22.08, the price of the stock has increased by 14.86% since. Sr. VP Business Dvlpmnt Lance Lissner sold 157,201 shares of ALTR stock in April. Sr VP & GM Penang Operation Jordan Plofsky sold 20,000 shares of ALTR stock on 04/14/2010 at the average price of 26, the price of the stock has decreased by 2.46% since.

Citigroup Inc. (C): CEO, Institutional Clients Grp John P Havens sold 597,177 Shares

CEO, Institutional Clients Grp of Citigroup Inc. (C) John P Havens sold 597,177 shares on 04/26/2010 at an average price of $4.68. Citigroup Inc, a financial services company, has some two hundred million customer accounts and does business in more than hundred countries, providing consumers, corporations, governments, and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, and wealth management. Citigroup Inc. has a market cap of $124.44 billion; its shares were traded at around $4.37 with and P/S ratio of 1.2.

On April 19, Citigroup Inc. reported first quarter 2010 net income of $4.4 billion or $0.15 per diluted share, and revenues of $25.4 billion.

CEO, Institutional Clients Grp John P Havens sold 597,177 shares of C stock on 04/26/2010 at the average price of 4.68, the price of the stock has decreased by 6.62% since. Director Judith Rodin sold 1,855 shares of C stock on 01/21/2010 at the average price of 3.34, the price of the stock has increased by 30.84% since.

Marriott International Inc. (MAR): Chairman & CEO, 10% Owner J W Jr Marriott sold 350,000 Shares
Chairman & CEO, 10% Owner of Marriott International Inc. (MAR) J W Jr Marriott sold 350,000 shares on 04/26/2010 at an average price of $37.86. Marriott International, Inc. operates and franchises hotels under the Marriott, JW Marriott, The Ritz-Carlton, Renaissance, Residence Inn, Courtyard, TownePlace Suites, Fairfield Inn, SpringHill Suites and Ramada International brand names; develops and operates vacation ownership resorts under the Marriott Vacation Club International, Horizons, The Ritz-Carlton Club and Marriott Grand Residence Club brands; operates Marriott Executive Apartments; provides furnished corporate housing through its Marriott ExecuStay division; and operates conference centers. Marriott International Inc. has a market cap of $13.18 billion; its shares were traded at around $36.76 with a P/E ratio of 40 and P/S ratio of 1.3. The dividend yield of Marriott International Inc. stocks is 0.4%.

On April 22, Marriott International, Inc. reported first quarter 2010 results, exceeding its revenue per available room and diluted earnings per share (EPS) expectations. Net income was $83 million in the first quarter of 2010 compared to a reported net loss of $23 million in the year-ago quarter. Reported diluted EPS was $0.22 in the first quarter of 2010 compared to reported diluted losses per share of $0.06 in the first quarter of 2009.

Chairman & CEO, 10% Owner J W Jr Marriott sold 546, 350 shares of MAR stock in April and March. 13D Group Owning more than 10% David S Marriott, 10% Owner Richard E Marriott, 13D Group Owning more than 10% John W Marriott III, Pres/COO Ritz Carlton Hotel Co Simon Cooper, and Vice Chairman of the Company William Joseph Shaw together sold 505,582 shares of MAR stock in April and March.

Omnicom Group Inc. (OMC): Chmn/CEO Omnicom Media Group Daryl Simm sold 258,334 Shares
Chmn/CEO Omnicom Media Group of Omnicom Group Inc. (OMC) Daryl Simm sold 258,334 shares on 04/22/2010 at an average price of $42.19. Omnicom Group Inc. provides corporate communications services to clients worldwide on a global, pan-regional, national and local basis. Omnicom Group Inc. has a market cap of $13.24 billion; its shares were traded at around $42.66 with a P/E ratio of 16.7 and P/S ratio of 1.1. The dividend yield of Omnicom Group Inc. stocks is 2%. Omnicom Group Inc. had an annual average earning growth of 18.2% over the past 10 years. GuruFocus rated Omnicom Group Inc. the business predictability rank of 3-star.

On April 20, Omnicom Group Inc. announced that its net income for the first quarter of 2010 decreased 0.7% to $163.4 million from $164.5 million in the first quarter of 2009. Omnicom's diluted net income per common share in the first quarter of 2010 decreased 1.9% to $0.52 per share from $0.53 per share in the first quarter of 2009.

Chmn/CEO Omnicom Media Group Daryl Simm, President & CEO TBWA Worldwide Thomas Carroll, and President & CEO DDB Worldwide Charles E Brymer together sold378,334 shares of OMC stock in March and April.

COLLECTIVE BRANDS (PSS): Chairman, CEO and President Matthew E Rubel sold 230,300 Shares
Chairman, CEO and President of COLLECTIVE BRANDS (PSS) Matthew E Rubel sold 230,300 shares on 04/27/2010 at an average price of $26.22. Payless ShoeSource, Inc. is a family footwear retailer in the Western Hemisphere, dedicated to democratizing fashion and design in footwear and accessories and inspiring fun, fashion possibilities for the family at a great value. Collective Brands has a market cap of $1.52 billion; its shares were traded at around $23.45 with a P/E ratio of 17.9 and P/S ratio of 0.5.

On Mar 09, Collective Brands, Inc. reported financial results for its 2009 fourth quarter and fiscal year ended January 30, 2010. The fourth quarter 2009 net loss attributable to Collective Brands, Inc. was $10.9 million, or $0.17 per diluted share, compared to a net loss of $144.0 million, or $2.28 per share, in the fourth quarter of 2008. Taking adjustments(1) into account, the fourth quarter 2009 net loss attributable to Collective Brands, Inc. was $11.6 million, or $0.18 per diluted share, driven by significant gross margin expansion. This compares to a fourth quarter 2008 net loss of $38.1 million, or $0.60 per share.

Chairman, CEO and President Matthew E Rubel sold 230,300 shares of PSS stock on 04/27/2010 at the average price of 26.22, the price of the stock has decreased by 10.56% since. Senior Vice President Michael J Massey sold 20,400 shares of PSS stock on 03/10/2010 at the average price of 22.27, the price of the stock has increased by 5.3% since.

Breaking News: SEC Charges Goldman Sachs with Fraud on Subprime Mortgages, Says Goldman Misstated, Omitted Key Facts (story developing) GS down 10 % /Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (Public, NYSE:GS)

2010-04-16T07:55:00.000-07:00

Breaking News: SEC Charges Goldman Sachs with Fraud on Subprime Mortgages, Says Goldman Misstated, Omitted Key Facts (story developing) SEC charges Goldman Sachs with civil fraud in structuring and marketing of CDOs tied to subprime mortgages.and one of its vice presidents for defrauding investors by misstating and omitting key facts about a financial product related to subprime mortgages. The SEC alleges that Goldman Sachs structured and marketed a collateralized debt obligation that hinged on the performance of subprime residential mortgage-backed securities. However, it failed to disclose the role that a major hedge fund, Paulson & Co., played in the portfolio selection process as well as the fact that the hedge fund had taken a short position against the CDO. "Goldman wrongly permitted a client that was betting against the mortgage market to heavily influence which mortgage securities to include in an investment portfolio, while telling other investors that the securities were selected by an independent, objective third party," said Robert Khuzami, director of the division of enforcement, in a statement.
Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
(Public, NYSE:GS)

Jim Cramer Buy List ...

2010-04-15T07:40:00.000-07:00

Buy:

Carrizo Oil & Gas (CRZO)
Baltic Trading (BALT)
Intel (INTC)
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ)
SanDisk (SNDK)
Western Digital (WDC)
Apple (AAPL)
Scotts Miracle-Gro (SMG)
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)
Anadarko Petroleum (APC)
Costco (COST)
Imax (IMAX)
ARM Holdings (ARMH)
Yahoo! (YHOO)
Exelon (EXC)
Murphy Oil (MUR)

Sell:
Merck (MRK)

Twitter will make money by advertisements ?

2010-04-13T07:03:00.000-07:00

Twitter set to make money through advertisements

Best BUY Co., Inc.
BBY.N
$44.76
-0.33-0.73%
1:40pm GMT

Starbucks Corporation
SBUX.O
$24.36
-0.13-0.53%
1:40pm GMT

* Co. to unveil "Promoted Tweets"

Stocks | Media | Cyclical Consumer Goods | Technology

* New ad programme targets 2-10 pct of users

* Starbucks, Best Buy will run ads -- NY Times

(Adds analyst comments)

April 13 (Reuters) - Popular microblogging site Twitter is all set to unveil its advertisement model on Tuesday, which would mark its first step towards allaying concerns about its revenue generating potential.

The advertising programme known as "Promoted Tweets" will be rolled out to two to 10 percent of users via search on Twitter.com beginning Tuesday, company spokesperson Sean Garrett told Reuters.

Promoted Tweets are ordinary tweets that businesses and organizations want to highlight to a wider group of users, Garrett said.

"Users will start to see tweets promoted by our partner advertisers called out at the top of some Twitter.com search results pages," he added.

Several companies will run ads, including Best Buy (BBY.N), Virgin America and Starbucks (SBUX.O), the New York Times said on its website.

The 2-1/2-year-old Internet start-up's short text messages or "tweets" have become a global social phenomenon and the service is used by millions of people every day.

"Twitter has great potential as a marketing and advertising channel with opportunities to create viral buzz around a product or service," said Eden Zoller, analyst at technology research firm Ovum.

"The flip side of Twitter's immediacy is that if advertising messages are not very carefully positioned users can hit back at brands and in real time, and brands will have little control over this."

Twitter, a privately held company, does not report earnings, but its website says: "While our business model is in a research phase, we spend more money than we make." (Reporting by Shrutika Verma in Bangalore, Alexei Oreskovic in San Francisco and Georgina Prodhan in London; editing by Simon Jessop)

10 Small-Cap Funds going higher in 2010

2010-04-12T13:27:00.000-07:00

10 Small-Cap Funds Surging in 2010

Heartland is one of those fund companies that quietly chalks up good results without much fanfare. The Milwaukee-based company, led by managers like Bill Nasgovitz, searches for stocks that are out of favor, lightly covered by analysts and trade at deep discounts. It’s a strategy that has worked well for the firm over the long haul.

That is evidenced by the $1 billion (assets) Heartland Value Plus fund (HRVIX). The fund stayed in the top 2% of its Morningstar category during the trailing three- and five-year time periods, and, over the last decade, it has averaged an annual return of 11%. All the while, it has kept turnover relatively low and taxes to a minimum.

The Heartland fund made the cut this week on a list we compiled of top-performing small-cap funds. Morningstar tracks 2,092 small-cap funds and share classes. We narrowed that universe by looking for funds that had performance track records over the trailing three- and five-year time periods that put them in the top third of their peer group. In addition, we looked for funds that didn’t levy a sales load and charged decent annual fees, or less than 1.5%. We were eventually left with 10 funds.

Back in February, we first called attention to the early 2010 returns of this category by highlighting small-cap value funds. Since then, the group has continued to do well. According to Morningstar, the average small-cap fund is up 11% this year. Only consumer discretionary, real estate and financial-sector funds have performed better in 2010.

Still, it’s important to note the risks with small caps — stocks we define as having market caps below $2 billion. Trading in these stocks can be volatile, and, as investors go down the market-cap spectrum, the stocks also become vulnerable to manipulation as liquidity issues pop up. Small companies can also have trouble getting access to capital to help them grow. When that funding disappears so, too, does the support for the stock price.

Of course, every company starts out as a small firm. Investors follow these stocks because they think they may stumble across the next Google (GOOG: 572.73, +6.51, +1.14%) or Microsoft (MSFT: 30.32, -0.02, -0.06%). Small caps can be acquisition targets for larger competitors, allowing shareholders to realize sizable gains when the deal is done at a premium. In addition, traditional value investors will say research shows that small caps and stocks trading at a discount offer the best returns over the long term.

We would suggest using several criteria when picking a fund in this space. Ideally, you want a fund that has a proven, long-term track record of picking out good small-company stocks. Although there is no strong correlation between returns and manager tenure, we would also suggest looking for fund managers who have been investing in small caps for many years, as their extended time on the job may help you sleep easier at night.

The criteria: The funds on our list are part of Morningstar’s “small” equity box category. They are open to new money, require a minimum investment under $5,000 and charge an annual expense ratio less than 1.5%. In addition, they had track records over the trailing three- and five-year time periods that put them in the top 33% of their peer group. As usual, we did not include funds that charge a sales load.

Small-Cap Funds on a Run

Boots & Coots up on Halliburton bid , (WELL), will be bought by ( HAL ) Halliburton

2010-04-12T05:40:00.000-07:00

Boots & Coots up on Halliburton bid

(WEL 2.97, +0.62, +26.38%) rose 22% in premarket trade after Halliburton /quotes/comstock/13*!hal/quotes/nls/hal (HAL 31.57, -0.09, -0.28%) said it will buy the firm for $3 a share, or $1.73 in cash and the rest in Halliburton stock.

Mining Stocks to buy and good Leverage

2010-04-11T10:39:00.000-07:00

Dow 11,000 ??

2010-04-05T07:15:00.001-07:00

U.S. stocks up at the start on jobs data

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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks opened slightly ahead on Monday after a jobs report that heightened expectations of an economic rebound. The Labor Department on Friday said employers hired 162,000 workers in March. The Dow Jones Industrial Average /quotes/comstock/10w!i:dji/delayed (INDU 10,964, +37.26, +0.34%) rose 3.93 points to 10,931. The S&P 500 Index /quotes/comstock/21z!i1:in\x (SPX 1,185, +6.55, +0.56%) climbed 1.26 points to 1,179.36. The Nasdaq Composite Index /quotes/comstock/10y!i:comp (COMP 2,422, +19.45, +0.81%) gained 2.32 points to 2,404.9.

Barack Obama Offers Health Plan Before Summit And Policies to Contain Cost and Ensure Fiscal Sustainability ?

2010-02-22T07:25:00.000-08:00

American families would get increased tax credits to make their health care more affordable under a health-care plan released Monday by President Barack Obama. Obama's plan, released ahead of Thursday's bipartisan meeting at the White House, would also create a new agency to oversee insurance premiums; assess new taxes on unearned income; boost subsidies for working-class families; and reduce the deficit by $100 billion over 10 years.he President’s Proposal puts American families and small business owners in control of their own health care.

Over the past year the House and the Senate have been working on an effort to provide health insurance reform that lowers costs, guarantees choices, and enhances quality health care for all Americans. Building on that year-long effort, the President has now put forth a proposal that incorporates the work the House and the Senate have done and adds additional ideas from Republican members of Congress. The President has long said he is open to any good ideas for reforming our health care system, and he looks forward to discussing ideas for further improvements from Republicans and Democrats at an open, bipartisan meeting on Thursday.

The proposal will make health care more affordable, make health insurers more accountable, expand health coverage to all Americans, and make the health system sustainable, stabilizing family budgets, the Federal budget, and the economy:

* It makes insurance more affordable by providing the largest middle class tax cut for health care in history, reducing premium costs for tens of millions of families and small business owners who are priced out of coverage today. This helps over 31 million Americans afford health care who do not get it today – and makes coverage more affordable for many more.
* It sets up a new competitive health insurance market giving tens of millions of Americans the exact same insurance choices that members of Congress will have.
* It brings greater accountability to health care by laying out commonsense rules of the road to keep premiums down and prevent insurance industry abuses and denial of care.
* It will end discrimination against Americans with pre-existing conditions.
* It puts our budget and economy on a more stable path by reducing the deficit by $100 billion over the next ten years – and about $1 trillion over the second decade – by cutting government overspending and reining in waste, fraud and abuse.

It puts our budget and economy on a more stable path by reducing the deficit by $100 billion over the next ten years -- and more than $1 trillion over the second decade -- by cutting government overspending and reining in waste, fraud and abuse.
Key Provisions in the President’s Proposal:

The President’s Proposal builds off of the legislation that passed the Senate and improves on it by bridging key differences between the House and the Senate as well as by incorporating Republican provisions that strengthen the proposal.

One key improvement, for example, is eliminating the Nebraska FMAP provision and providing significant additional Federal financing to all States for the expansion of Medicaid. For America’s seniors, the proposal completely closes the Medicare prescription drug “donut hole” coverage gap. It strengthens the Senate bill’s provisions that make insurance affordable for individuals and families, while also strengthening the provisions to fight fraud, waste, and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid to save taxpayer dollars. The threshold for the excise tax on the most expensive health plans will be raised from $23,000 for a family plan to $27,500 and will start in 2018 for all such plans. And another important idea included is improving insurance protections for consumers and creating a new Health Insurance Rate Authority to review and rein in unreasonable rate increases and other unfair practices of insurance plans. Improve Medicare Advantage Payments.

Medicare currently overpays private plans by 14 percent on average to provide the same benefits as the traditional program – and much more in some areas of the country. The Medicare Advantage program has also done little to reward quality. Moreover, plans have gamed the payment system in ways drive up the public cost of the program. All of this is why Medicare Advantage has become a very profitable line of business for some of the nation’s largest health insurers. The Senate bill creates a bidding model for payment rates and phases in changes to limit potential disruptions for beneficiaries. The House proposal phases payments down based on local fee-for-service costs.

The President’s Proposal represents a compromise between the House and Senate bills, blending elements of both bills, while providing greater certainty of cost savings by linking to current fee-for-service costs. Specifically, the President’s Proposal creates a set of benchmark payments at different percentages of the current average fee-for-service costs in an area. It phases these benchmarks in gradually in order to avoid disruption to beneficiaries, taking into account the relative payments to fee-for-service costs in an area. It provides bonuses for quality and enrollee satisfaction. It adjusts rebates of savings between the benchmark payment and actual plan bid to take into account the transition as well as a plan’s quality rating: plans with low quality scores receive lower rebates (i.e., can keep less of any savings they generate). Finally, the President’s Proposal requires a payment adjustment for unjustified coding patterns in Medicare Advantage plans that have raised payments more rapidly than the evidence of their enrollees’ health status and costs suggests is warranted, based on actuarial analysis. This is the primary source of additional savings compared to the Senate proposal.
Delay and Reform the High-Cost Plan Excise Tax.

Part of the reason for high and rising insurance costs is that insurers have little incentive to lower their premiums. The Senate bill includes a tax on high-cost health insurance plans. CBO has estimated that this policy will reduce premiums as well as contribute to long-run deficit reduction. The President’s Proposal changes the effective date of the Senate policy from 2013 to 2018 to provide additional transition time for high-cost plans to become more efficient. It also raises the amount of premiums that are exempt from the assessment from $8,500 for singles to $10,200 and from $23,000 for families to $27,500 and indexes these amounts for subsequent years at general inflation plus 1 percent. To the degree that health costs rise unexpectedly quickly between now and 2018, the initial threshold would be adjusted upwards automatically. To ensure that the tax affects firms equitably, the President’s Proposal reforms it by including an adjustment for firms whose health costs are higher due to the age or gender of their workers, and by no longer counting dental and vision benefits as potentially taxable benefits. The President’s Proposal maintains the Senate bill’s permanent adjustment in favor of high-risk occupations such as “first responders.”
Broaden the Medicare Hospital Insurance (HI) Tax Base for High-Income Taxpayers.

Under current law, people who earn a salary pay the Medicare HI tax on their earned income, but those who have substantial unearned income do not, raising issues of fairness. The House bill includes a 5.4% surcharge on high-income households to improve the fairness of the tax system and to support health reform. The Senate bill includes an increase in the HI tax for high-income households for similar reasons, an increase of 0.9% on earnings above a specific threshold for a total employee assessment of 2.35% on these amounts. The President’s Proposal adopts the Senate bill approach and adds a 2.9 percent assessment (equal to the combined employer and employee share of the existing HI tax) on income from interest, dividends, annuities, royalties and rents, other than such income which is derived in the ordinary course of a trade or business which is not a passive activity (e.g., income from active participation in S corporations) on taxpayers with respect to income above $200,000 for singles and $250,000 for married couples filing jointly. The additional revenues from the tax on earned income would be credited to the HI trust fund and the revenues from the tax on unearned income would be credited to the Supplemental Medical Insurance (SMI) trust fund.
Increase in Fees on Brand Name Pharmaceuticals.

As more Americans gain health insurance, more will be able to pay for prescription drugs. Moreover, the President’s plan closes the Medicare “donut hole,” ensuring that seniors do not skip or cut back on needed prescriptions. Both policies will result in new revenue for the pharmaceutical industry. The President’s Proposal increases the revenue from the assessment on this industry which is $23 billion in the Senate bill by $10 billion over 10 years. It also delays the implementation of these fees by one year, until 2011, and makes changes to facilitate administration by the IRS.
Close Tax Loopholes.

Adopts two House proposals to close tax loopholes: (1) Current law provides a tax credit for the production of cellulosic biofuels. The credit was designed to promote the production and use of renewable fuels. Certain liquid byproducts derived from processing paper or pulp (known as “black liquor” when derived from the kraft process) were not intended to be covered by this credit. The President’s Proposal adopts the House bill’s policy to clarify that they are not eligible for the tax credit. (2) The President’s Proposal helps prevent unjustified tax shelters by clarifying the circumstances under which transactions have “economic substance” (as opposed to being undertaken solely to obtain tax benefits) and raises the penalties for transactions that lack economic substance. In so doing, it adopts the House’s policy, with minor technical changes.Increase Tax Credits for Health Insurance Premiums

Health insurance today often costs too much and covers too little. Lack of affordability leads people to delay care, skip care, rack up large medical bills, or become uninsured. The House and Senate health insurance bills lower premiums through increased competition, oversight, and new accountability standards set by insurance exchanges. The bills also provide tax credits and reduced cost sharing for families with modest income. The President’s Proposal improves the affordability of health care by increasing the tax credits for families. Relative to the Senate bill, the President’s Proposal lowers premiums for families with income below $44,000 and above $66,000. Relative to the House bill, the proposal makes premiums less expensive for families with income between roughly $55,000 and $88,000.
Proposal Tax Credits

The President’s Proposal also improves the cost sharing assistance for individuals and families relative to the Senate bill. Families with income below $55,000 will get extra assistance; the additional funding to insurers will cover between 73 and 94% of their health care costs. It provides the same cost-sharing assistance as the Senate bill for higher-income families and the same assistance as the House bill for families with income from $77,000 to $88,000.
Reduced Cost Sharing
Close the Medicare Prescription Drug “Donut Hole”.

The Medicare drug benefit provides vital help to seniors who take prescription drugs, but under current law, it leaves many beneficiaries without assistance when they need it most. Medicare stops paying for prescriptions after the plan and beneficiary have spent $2,830 on prescription drugs, and only starts paying again after out-of-pocket spending hits $4,550. This “donut hole” leaves seniors paying the full cost of expensive medicines, causing many to skip doses or not fill prescriptions at all – harming their health and raising other types of health costs. The Senate bill provides a 50% discount for certain drugs in the donut hole. The House bill fully phases out the donut hole over 10 years. Both bills raise the dollar amount before the donut hole begins by $500 in 2010.

Relative to the Senate bill, the President’s Proposal fills the “donut hole” entirely. It begins by replacing the $500 increase in the initial coverage limit with a $250 rebate to Medicare beneficiaries who hit the donut hole in 2010. It also closes the donut hole completely by phasing down the coinsurance so it is the standard 25% by 2020 throughout the coverage gap.
Invest in Community Health Centers.

Community health centers play a critical role in providing quality care in underserved areas. About 1,250 centers provide care to 20 million people, with an emphasis on preventive and primary care. The Senate bill increases funding to these centers for services by $7 billion and for construction by $1.5 billion over 5 years. The House bill provides $12 billion over the same 5 years. Bridging the difference, the President’s Proposal invests $11 billion in these centers.
Strengthen Oversight of Insurance Premium Increases.

Both the House and Senate bills include significant reforms to make insurance fair, accessible, and affordable to all people, regardless of pre-existing conditions. One essential policy is “rate review” meaning that health insurers must submit their proposed premium increases to the State authority or Secretary for review. The President’s Proposal strengthens this policy by ensuring that, if a rate increase is unreasonable and unjustified, health insurers must lower premiums, provide rebates, or take other actions to make premiums affordable. A new Health Insurance Rate Authority will be created to provide needed oversight at the Federal level and help States determine how rate review will be enforced and monitor insurance market behavior.
Extend Consumer Protections against Health Insurer Practices.

The Senate bill includes a “grandfather” policy that allows people who like their current coverage, to keep it. The President’s Proposal adds certain important consumer protections to these “grandfathered” plans. Within months of legislation being enacted, it requires plans to cover adult dependents up to age 26, prohibits rescissions, mandates that plans have a stronger appeals process, and requires State insurance authorities to conduct annual rate review, backed up by the oversight of the HHS Secretary. When the exchanges begin in 2014, the President’s Proposal adds new protections that prohibit all annual and lifetime limits, ban pre-existing condition exclusions, and prohibit discrimination in favor of highly compensated individuals. Beginning in 2018, the President’s Proposal requires “grandfathered” plans to cover proven preventive services with no cost sharing.
Improve Individual Responsibility.

All Americans should have affordable health insurance coverage. This helps everyone, both insured and uninsured, by reducing cost shifting, where people with insurance end up covering the inevitable health care costs of the uninsured, and making possible robust health insurance reforms that will curb insurance company abuses and increase the security and stability of health insurance for all Americans. The House and Senate bills require individuals who have affordable options but who choose to remain uninsured to make a payment to offset the cost of care they will inevitably need. The House bill’s payment is a percentage of income. The Senate sets the payment as a flat dollar amount or percentage of income, whichever is higher (although not higher than the lowest premium in the area). Both the House and Senate bill provide a low-income exemption, for those individuals with incomes below the tax filing threshold (House) or below the poverty threshold (Senate).The Senate also includes a “hardship” exemption for people who cannot afford insurance, included in the President’s Proposal. It protects those who would face premiums of more than 8 percent of their income from having to pay any assessment and they can purchase a low-cost catastrophic plan in the exchange if they choose.

The President’s Proposal adopts the Senate approach but lowers the flat dollar assessments, and raises the percent of income assessment that individuals pay if they choose not to become insured. Specifically, it lowers the flat dollar amounts from $495 to $325 in 2015 and $750 to $695 in 2016. Subsequent years are indexed to $695 rather than $750, so the flat dollar amounts in later years are lower than the Senate bill as well. The President’s Proposal raises the percent of income that is an alternative payment amount from 0.5 to 1.0% in 2014, 1.0 to 2.0% in 2015, and 2.0 to 2.5% for 2016 and subsequent years – the same percent of income as in the House bill, which makes the assessment more progressive. For ease of administration, the President’s Proposal changes the payment exemption from the Senate policy (individuals with income below the poverty threshold) to individuals with income below the tax filing threshold (the House policy). In other words, a married couple with income below $18,700 will not have to pay the assessment. The President’s Proposal also adopts the Senate’s “hardship” exemption.
Strengthen Employer Responsibility.

Businesses are strained by the current health insurance system. Health costs eat into their ability to hire workers, invest in and expand their businesses, and compete locally and globally. Like individuals, larger employers should share in the responsibility for finding the solution. Under the Senate bill, there is no mandate for employers to provide health insurance. But as a matter of fairness, the Senate bill requires large employers (i.e., those with more than 50 workers) to make payments only if taxpayers are supporting the health insurance for their workers. The assessment on the employer is $3,000 per full-time worker obtaining tax credits in the exchange if that employer’s coverage is unaffordable, or $750 per full-time worker if the employer has a worker obtaining tax credits in the exchange but doesn’t offer coverage in the first place. The House bill requires a payroll tax for insurers that do not offer health insurance that meets minimum standards. The tax is 8% generally and phases in for employers with annual payrolls from $500,000 to $750,000; according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the assessment for a firm with average wages of $40,000 would be $3,200 per worker.

Under the President’s Proposal, small businesses will receive $40 billion in tax credits to support coverage for their workers beginning this year. Consistent with the Senate bill, small businesses with fewer than 50 workers would be exempt from any employer responsibility policies.

The President’s Proposal is consistent with the Senate bill in that it does not impose a mandate on employers to offer or provide health insurance, but does require them to help defray the cost if taxpayers are footing the bill for their workers. The President’s Proposal improves the transition to the employer responsibility policy for employers with 50 or more workers by subtracting out the first 30 workers from the payment calculation (e.g., a firm with 51 workers that does not offer coverage will pay an amount equal to 51 minus 30, or 21 times the applicable per employee payment amount). It changes the applicable payment amount for firms with more than 50 employees that do not offer coverage to $2,000 – an amount that is one-third less than the average House assessment for a typical firm and less than half of the average employer contribution to health insurance in 2009. It applies the same firm-size threshold across the board to all industries. It fully eliminates the assessment for workers in a waiting period, while maintaining the 90-day limit on the length of any waiting period beginning in 2014.

You can"t be sirius ? Sirius is up 75% in 2010 ! ( SIRI ) $$

2010-02-18T08:14:00.000-08:00

This was a top penny stock to buy ..@ http://madmoneyfund.blogspot.com/2009/12/top-penny-stocks-for-2010.html
is the 4th best-performing stock year-to-date in this segment of the market. It has risen 75.00% since the beginning of this year. Its price percentage change is 556.25% for the last 52 weeks. After languishing in near-penny-stock territory for the last year, Sirius XM Radio stock hit the dollar menu on Wednesday, topping out at $1.05 a share. Investors who bought their stock a year ago when it sold for less than 20 cents are probably cheering. Sirius hasn’t seen the plus size of one buck since September of 2008.
The prevailing opinion on Wall Street seems to be that investors think Sirius XM has finally gotten its financial affairs in order, along with adding a net of 257,000 listeners–more than expected–in the fourth quarter of 2009.
There also seems to be a growing confidence that, despite all the recent hoopla, Howard Stern will sign a new contract with Sirius. I don’t really understand how that’s a strong sign of strength for Sirius, although I guess it can be seen as a indicator of stability. If Sirius has to cough up another $300 million to keep Stern I really wonder if it will really be worth it. Even given Stern’s recent headlines over his claimed invitation to join American Idol, I doubt he has the magnetism to draw a significant number of new listeners. At best, Sirius can hope to hold onto the current crop of die-hard Stern fans.
But, then again, getting the stock price over $1 is only a relative achievement. Although the increase will likely help the company avoid a reverse stock split. Sirius’ viability will depend on how costly it is to retain Stern and how well it can continue to add listeners, despite very few new receivers being announced at last month’s CES.

Marriott International Reports Fourth Quarter Results !

2010-02-11T09:54:00.000-08:00

Marriott International Reports Fourth Quarter Results

February 11, 2010

The following information was released to the media today

Marriott International today reported fourth quarter and full year 2009 results.

FOURTH QUARTER 2009 RESULTS

Fourth quarter 2009 adjusted income from continuing operations attributable to Marriott totaled $118 million, a 2 percent decline over the year-ago quarter, and adjusted diluted earnings per share (“EPS”) from continuing operations attributable to Marriott shareholders totaled $0.32, down 3 percent. On October 8, 2009, the company forecasted fourth quarter adjusted diluted EPS of $0.20 to $0.23.

Reported income from continuing operations attributable to Marriott was $106 million in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared to a reported loss from continuing operations attributable to Marriott of $10 million in the year-ago quarter. Reported diluted EPS from continuing operations attributable to Marriott shareholders was $0.28 in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared to reported diluted losses per share from continuing operations attributable to Marriott shareholders of $0.03 in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Adjusted results for the 2009 fourth quarter exclude $19 million pretax ($12 million after-tax and $0.03 per diluted share) of restructuring costs and other charges. Restructuring charges totaled $7 million pretax and included severance and facilities exit costs. Other charges totaled $12 million pretax and primarily included $11 million of charges against lodging assets and $3 million of reserves for Timeshare contract cancellations, offset by the $2 million favorable impact of the revaluation of Timeshare note residuals. Of the total restructuring costs and other charges in the fourth quarter, cash payments are expected to be $6 million. See the table on page A-15 of the accompanying schedules for the detail of these charges and their placement on the Consolidated Statements of Income.

Adjusted results for the 2008 fourth quarter exclude $192 million pretax ($124 million after-tax and $0.35 per diluted share) of restructuring costs and other charges, $152 million of which were non-cash, as well as $7 million of charges ($0.02 per diluted share) in the provision for income taxes.

J.W. Marriott, Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of Marriott International, said, “While the global business climate remained difficult, fourth quarter results exceeded our expectations. We grew our system, reduced total debt, and continued to improve efficiencies worldwide.

“In the fourth quarter, leisure travelers responded to aggressive marketing campaigns and special offers and, even adjusting for easier year-over-year comparisons, business travel showed signs of improvement, particularly in international markets. With solid cost controls, we translated the stronger-than-expected occupancy to better-than-expected incentive fee revenue. Demand for timeshare intervals improved modestly from third quarter levels which, combined with a successful note sale and reductions in investment spending, allowed the timeshare business to generate over $150 million of cash flow after investing activities for full year 2009.

“We are pleased that we remain an investment grade company. For the full year, we reduced investment spending by two-thirds and we were able to lower total debt by nearly $800 million.

“We opened over 38,000 rooms during 2009 and we’re thrilled to have two new exciting brands, EDITION and the Autograph Collection, opening their first hotels in 2010 with more expected to come. Our global development pipeline totals nearly 100,000 rooms. Our efforts have positioned us quite well for future earnings growth.”

Revenue per available room (REVPAR) for the company’s worldwide comparable company-operated properties declined 12.2 percent (12.4 percent using constant dollars) in the 2009 fourth quarter and REVPAR for the company’s worldwide comparable systemwide properties declined 12.3 percent (12.5 percent using constant dollars).

Outside North America, the fourth quarter included the months from September to December in both years. International comparable company-operated REVPAR declined 11.1 percent (11.7 percent using constant dollars), including an 11.6 percent decline in average daily rate (12.2 percent using constant dollars) in the fourth quarter of 2009.

In North America, comparable company-operated REVPAR declined 13.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009. REVPAR at the company’s comparable company-operated North American full-service and luxury hotels (including Marriott Hotels & Resorts, The Ritz-Carlton and Renaissance Hotels & Resorts) was down 11.8 percent with an 11.0 percent decline in average daily rate.

Marriott’s 2009 fiscal year ended on January 1, 2010 and included 52 weeks compared to 53 weeks in fiscal 2008. Similarly, the fourth quarter ended on January 1, 2010 and included 16 weeks compared to 17 weeks in the 2008 fiscal quarter. Key lodging statistics are included in the schedules accompanying the press release beginning on page A-7. While fiscal fourth quarter REVPAR statistics for North America are included, they are not comparable due to differences in the length and seasonality of the reporting periods. As a result, the company has also provided North American and worldwide REVPAR statistics adjusted for the shift in the fiscal calendar.

On a calendar quarter basis, which includes the months of October, November and December, North American comparable company-operated REVPAR declined 10.7 percent while worldwide comparable company-operated REVPAR declined 10.1 percent (10.8 percent using constant dollars).

Marriott added 65 new properties (10,626 rooms) to its worldwide lodging portfolio in the 2009 fourth quarter, including 45 limited-service hotels in North America. Seven properties (1,635 rooms) exited the system during the quarter. Rooms converted from competitor hotels accounted for nearly 18 percent of gross room additions during the quarter. At year-end, the company’s lodging group encompassed 3,420 properties and timeshare resorts for a total of over 595,000 rooms.

The company’s worldwide pipeline of hotels under construction, awaiting conversion or approved for development totaled nearly 100,000 rooms at year-end. Nearly 35 percent of these development pipeline rooms are Marriott, Ritz-Carlton, Renaissance, EDITION or Autograph rooms, of which nearly 75 percent are located outside North America.

Reported results for the 2009 fourth quarter, the adjusted results and the associated reconciliations are shown on pages A-1, A-13, A-15, and A-19 of the accompanying schedules. The following paragraphs reflect adjusted results where indicated.

MARRIOTT REVENUES totaled approximately $3.4 billion in the 2009 fourth quarter compared to $3.8 billion for the fourth quarter of 2008. Base management and franchise fees declined 12 percent to $282 million reflecting lower REVPAR, offset in part by fees from new hotels. Fourth quarter incentive management fees declined 28 percent to $59 million. The percentage of company-managed hotels earning incentive management fees decreased to 22 percent in the 2009 fourth quarter compared to 39 percent in the year-ago quarter. Approximately 70 percent of incentive management fees came from hotels outside North America in the 2009 quarter compared to 55 percent in the 2008 quarter.

Worldwide comparable company-operated house profit margins declined 260 basis points in the fourth quarter reflecting the weak REVPAR environment, offset in part by significant cost reductions from productivity improvements, lower management wages and procurement savings through volume discounts and compliance. House profit margins for comparable company-operated properties outside North America declined 100 basis points and North American comparable company-operated house profit margins declined 360 basis points from the year-ago quarter.

Owned, leased, corporate housing and other revenue, net of direct expenses, declined $23 million in the 2009 fourth quarter, to $22 million, primarily reflecting the impact of lower operating results in owned and leased hotels and lower termination fees and other income, partially offset by an increase in branding fee revenue.

Fourth quarter adjusted Timeshare segment contract sales declined 7 percent to $203 million excluding a $28 million allowance for fractional and residential contract cancellations recorded in the quarter. In the prior year’s quarter, adjusted Timeshare segment contract sales totaled $218 million excluding a $115 million allowance for contract cancellations.

In the fourth quarter, adjusted timeshare sales and services revenue declined 3 percent to $375 million and, net of expenses, totaled $72 million for the quarter, a $62 million increase from the 2008 adjusted fourth quarter. Development revenue, net of expense, benefited from higher closing efficiency and cost savings. Financing revenue, net of expense, increased largely as a result of a $38 million note sale gain recorded in the fourth quarter of 2009, compared to the absence of a note sale in the fourth quarter of 2008, and cost savings, partially offset by lower interest income.

Adjusted Timeshare segment results, which includes Timeshare sales and services revenue, net of direct expenses, as well as base management fees, equity earnings, gains and other income, noncontrolling interest and general, administrative and other expenses associated with the timeshare business, totaled $62 million in the 2009 fourth quarter compared to a loss of $2 million in the prior year quarter.

ADJUSTED GENERAL, ADMINISTRATIVE and OTHER expenses for the 2009 fourth quarter declined 13 percent to $207 million, compared to $238 million in the year-ago quarter. The 2009 fourth quarter benefited from cost savings throughout the organization, as well as $3 million in foreign exchange gains and the $3 million reversal of a loan loss reserve partially offset by $12 million of accruals and reserves related to the performance of 12 hotels and $8 million of lower capitalized development costs. The 2009 quarter also included a $21 million unfavorable impact associated with deferred compensation compared to the 2008 quarter (offset by a similar decrease in the provision for taxes). Excluding the impact of deferred compensation, adjusted general administrative and other expenses declined 20 percent in the fourth quarter, as shown on page A-19 of the accompanying schedules.

GAINS AND OTHER INCOME totaled $4 million and included a $3 million gain on the sale of investments and $1 million of net gains on the sale of real estate. The prior year’s fourth quarter adjusted gains and other income totaled $28 million and included a $28 million gain on the extinguishment of debt and $7 million of gains on the sale of real estate offset by a $4 million loss on the sale of an investment and $3 million unfavorable impact of preferred returns from joint venture investments and other income.

INTEREST EXPENSE decreased $16 million in the fourth quarter primarily due to lower interest rates and lower debt balances.

ADJUSTED EQUITY IN (LOSSES) EARNINGS totaled a $10 million loss in the quarter compared to $5 million in earnings in the year-ago quarter. The $15 million decline reflected lower operating results in two joint ventures.

ADJUSTED INCOME TAXES

The adjusted provision for taxes in the fourth quarter of 2009 reflected a $21 million favorable impact associated with deferred compensation (offset by a similar unfavorable impact in general, administrative and other expenses) compared with the 2008 fourth quarter.

FULL YEAR 2009 RESULTS

For the full year 2009, adjusted income from continuing operations attributable to Marriott totaled $342 million, a decline of 38 percent, and adjusted diluted EPS from continuing operations attributable to Marriott shareholders was $0.93, a decline of 38 percent.

The reported loss from continuing operations attributable to Marriott was $346 million for full year 2009 compared to reported income from continuing operations attributable to Marriott of $359 million a year ago. Reported diluted losses per share from continuing operations attributable to Marriott was $0.97 for 2009 compared to reported diluted EPS from continuing operations attributable to Marriott of $0.97 for 2008.

Adjusted income from continuing operations attributable to Marriott and adjusted diluted EPS from continuing operations attributable to Marriott shareholders for 2009 exclude the $213 million pretax ($130 million after-tax and $0.37 per diluted share) restructuring costs and other charges, $182 million of which were non-cash, as well as $752 million pretax ($502 million after-tax and $1.41 per diluted share) of primarily non-cash Timeshare impairment charges. See the table on pages A-15 and A-16 of the accompanying schedules for the detail of these charges and their placement on the Consolidated Statements of Income. Adjusted results for full year 2009 also exclude the $56 million ($0.16 per diluted share) impact of non-cash charges in the provision for income taxes.

Adjusted income from continuing operations attributable to Marriott and adjusted diluted EPS from continuing operations attributable to Marriott shareholders for 2008 exclude the $192 million pretax ($124 million after-tax and $0.33 per diluted share) restructuring costs and other charges. Adjusted results for full year 2008 also exclude the $72 million ($0.19 per diluted share) impact of charges, $67 million of which were non-cash, included in the tax provision.

REVPAR for the company’s worldwide comparable company-operated properties declined 20.0 percent (18.3 percent using constant dollars) in 2009. REVPAR for the company’s worldwide comparable systemwide properties declined 18.4 percent (17.3 percent using constant dollars) in 2009.

International comparable company-operated REVPAR for 2009 declined 23.5 percent (18.0 percent using constant dollars), including a 17.8 percent decline in average daily rate (11.9 percent using constant dollars).

In North America, comparable company-operated REVPAR declined 18.5 percent in 2009. REVPAR at the company’s comparable company-operated North American full-service and luxury hotels (including Marriott Hotels & Resorts, The Ritz-Carlton and Renaissance Hotels & Resorts) was down 17.8 percent with an average daily rate decline of 12.2 percent.

Reported results for full year 2009, the adjusted results and the associated reconciliations are shown on pages A-2, A-14, A-15, A-16, and A-19 of the accompanying schedules. The following paragraphs reflect adjusted results where indicated.

MARRIOTT REVENUES totaled $10.9 billion in 2009 compared to $12.9 billion in 2008. Total fees in 2009 were $1,084 million, a decrease of 22 percent from the prior year. Base management and franchise fees declined $156 million in 2009, reflecting the decline in worldwide REVPAR offset in part by unit growth across the system. Incentive management fees declined 50 percent reflecting lower property-level margins due to worldwide REVPAR declines, partially offset by strong cost controls. For full year 2009, 25 percent of company-operated hotels earned incentive management fees compared to 56 percent in the prior year. Approximately two-thirds of incentive management fees came from hotels outside North America in 2009 compared to 49 percent in 2008.

Owned, leased, corporate housing and other revenue, net of direct expenses, totaled $68 million in 2009 compared to $137 million in 2008. Results were primarily impacted by lower operating results at owned and leased properties, the conversion of some owned properties to management agreements, and lower termination fees, partially offset by higher branding fees and a transaction cancellation fee.

Reflecting weak demand, adjusted Timeshare segment contract sales in 2009 declined 37 percent to $748 million, excluding allowances for anticipated contract cancellations of $83 million in 2009 and $115 million in 2008.

Adjusted Timeshare sales and services revenue declined 23 percent to $1,147 million in 2009 and adjusted Timeshare sales and services revenue, net of direct expenses, totaled $106 million in 2009, a decrease of 28 percent. Development revenue, net of expense, declined in 2009 reflecting soft demand, partially offset by favorable reportability and reduced marketing and sales costs. Services revenue, net of expense, also declined largely reflecting lower rental revenues and higher carry costs on unsold units. Financing revenue, net of expense, increased in 2009 reflecting a $9 million increase in note sale gains and cost savings, partially offset by lower interest income. Timeshare direct expenses in 2008 included a $22 million impairment charge at a fractional and residential joint venture project referred to below.

Adjusted Timeshare segment results, which includes timeshare sales and services revenue, net of direct expenses, as well as base management fees, equity earnings, gains and other income, noncontrolling interest and general, administrative and other expenses associated with the timeshare business, totaled $87 million in 2009 compared to $121 million in the prior year. The segment results for 2008 reflected a net $10 million pretax impairment charge for a fractional and residential consolidated joint venture project, adjusting the carrying value of the real estate to its estimated fair market value. The $10 million charge in 2008 included a $22 million negative adjustment in timeshare direct expenses partially offset by a $12 million pretax ($8 million after-tax) benefit associated with the joint venture partner’s share, which is reflected in net losses attributable to noncontrolling interest, net of tax.

The Timeshare segment also generated over $150 million of pretax cash flow in 2009.

ADJUSTED GENERAL, ADMINISTRATIVE and OTHER expenses decreased $127 million to $622 million in 2009 reflecting cost savings and lower incentive compensation, partially offset by the $43 million unfavorable impact associated with deferred compensation compared to 2008 (offset by a similar decrease in the provision for taxes) and $12 million of accruals and reserves related to the performance of 12 hotels. Excluding the impact of deferred compensation, adjusted general, administrative and other expenses declined 22 percent in 2009, as shown on page A-19 of the accompanying schedules.

GAINS AND OTHER INCOME totaled $31 million in 2009 and included a $21 million gain on the extinguishment of debt, net gains of $10 million from the sale of real estate, a $3 million gain on the sale of investments and $2 million of preferred returns from joint venture investments, partially offset by a $5 million impairment charge on an investment. Adjusted gains and other income of $47 million in 2008 included gains of $14 million from the sale of real estate, a $28 million gain on the extinguishment of debt, $6 million of preferred returns from several joint venture investments and other income and $3 million of gains on the sale of the company’s interests in two joint ventures, partially offset by a $4 million loss on the sale of an investment.

INTEREST EXPENSE declined 28 percent in 2009 partially due to lower interest rates, repayment of debt and the repurchase of Senior Notes.

ADJUSTED EQUITY IN (LOSSES) EARNINGS totaled a $27 million loss in 2009 compared to $31 million of earnings in 2008. Losses in 2009 primarily reflected losses in five joint ventures and the impairment of one investment. Earnings in 2008 primarily reflected a $15 million gain on the sale of a joint venture’s assets, insurance proceeds of $5 million received through a joint venture and $11 million of earnings from joint ventures.

ADJUSTED INCOME TAXES

The adjusted provision for taxes reflected a $43 million favorable impact associated with deferred compensation (offset by a similar unfavorable impact in general, administrative and other expenses) compared to 2008.

NET LOSSES ATTRIBUTABLE TO NONCONTROLLING INTERESTS, NET OF TAX decreased $8 million in 2009 to $7 million. The decrease largely reflected the adjustment of the carrying value of a fractional and residential project in 2008. Since the project is a consolidated joint venture, the partner’s share of the adjustment was an $8 million after-tax benefit to noncontrolling interests in 2008.

ADJUSTED EBITDA

Adjusted EBITDA totaled $898 million in 2009, a 31 percent decline from 2008 adjusted EBITDA of $1,298 million.

BALANCE SHEET

At year-end 2009, total debt was $2,298 million and cash balances totaled $115 million, compared to $3,095 million in debt and $134 million of cash at year-end 2008. The company repurchased $119 million of its Senior Notes in 2009. At year-end 2009, Marriott had borrowings of $425 million under its $2.4 billion bank revolver.

COMMON STOCK

Weighted average fully diluted shares outstanding used to calculate adjusted diluted earnings per share amounts totaled 372.2 million in the 2009 fourth quarter compared to 363.1 million in the year-ago quarter.

On November 5, 2009, the Board of Directors declared a stock dividend payable on December 3, 2009, to shareholders of record on November 19, 2009. For periods prior to the stock dividend, all share and per share data in our financial statements have been retroactively adjusted to reflect the stock dividend.

On February 4, 2010, the Board of Directors declared the issuance of a $0.04 per share cash dividend payable on April 9, 2010 to shareholders of record on February 19, 2010.

The remaining share repurchase authorization, as of January 1, 2010, totaled 21.3 million shares. No share repurchases are planned for 2010.

IMPACT OF ACCOUNTING CHANGES

The company adopted ASU Nos. 2009-16 and 2009-17 (formerly referred to as FAS 166 and 167) at the beginning of 2010, which requires consolidating previously sold Timeshare notes and will impact the ongoing accounting for those notes. With the consolidation of the existing portfolio of sold loans on the first day of 2010, the company expects assets to increase by approximately $1,010 million, liabilities to increase by approximately $1,115 million, and shareholders’ equity to decline by approximately $105 million. No change in cash flow from the business is anticipated as a result of the accounting changes. Adjusted pretax earnings for fiscal 2009 would have been $1 million lower had the accounting change occurred at the beginning of 2009. See the tables on page A-22, A-23, A-24, A-25 and A-26 of the accompanying schedules for 2009 quarterly and full year Timeshare segment results adjusted as if the accounting changes had been made on the first day of fiscal 2009.

OUTLOOK

While Marriott typically provides a range of guidance for future performance, the current global economic and financial climate continues to make predictions very difficult. Therefore, the company is unable to give guidance. Instead, the company is providing the following assumptions for the 2010 first quarter and full year which it is using for internal planning purposes.

FIRST QUARTER 2010

For the first quarter, the company assumes worldwide comparable systemwide hotel REVPAR declines 5 to 7 percent on a constant dollar basis. For North American comparable systemwide hotels, the company assumes REVPAR declines of 7 to 8 percent and for comparable systemwide hotels outside North America, REVPAR could decline 2 to 3 percent on a constant dollar basis.

Given these REVPAR assumptions, total fee revenue could be $235 million to $245 million. Owned, leased, corporate housing and other revenue, net of direct expenses, could total approximately $5 million.

In the 2010 first quarter, the company assumes Timeshare contract sales total $165 million to $175 million and Timeshare sales and services revenue, net of direct expenses, total approximately $35 million to $45 million including the impact of ASU Nos. 2009-16 and 2009-17. With these assumptions, Timeshare segment results for the first quarter could total $30 million to $40 million.

The company anticipates that general, administrative and other expenses could total about $130 million to $140 million in the first quarter 2010, roughly flat from the adjusted 2009 first quarter amount. The company also assumes net interest expense of approximately $40 million in the quarter, reflecting the impact of ASU Nos. 2009-16 and 2009-17, as well as continued debt reduction.

Based upon the above assumptions and a 36.5 percent tax rate, diluted EPS from continuing operations attributable to Marriott shareholders for the 2010 first quarter could total $0.15 to $0.21.

FULL YEAR 2010

For full year 2010, the company expects hotel occupancies to improve, although the pace of such improvement is difficult to predict. The company continues to expect that both domestic and international comparable systemwide REVPAR comparisons to the prior year will turn positive sometime in 2010. For worldwide comparable systemwide hotels, the company assumes full year 2010 REVPAR will be down 2 percent to up 2 percent on a constant dollar basis with performance strengthening over the year. North American comparable systemwide REVPAR could be flat to down 3 percent in 2010, while REVPAR at comparable systemwide hotels outside North America could be flat to up 5 percent.

The company expects to open 25,000 to 30,000 rooms in 2010 as most hotels expected to open are already under construction or undergoing conversion from other brands. Given these assumptions, full year 2010 fee revenue could total $1,080 million to $1,120 million. The company expects that incentive management fees in 2010 would largely derive from international markets. Owned, leased, corporate housing and other, net of direct expense, could total $65 million to $70 million. The company continues to estimate that, on a full-year basis, one point of worldwide systemwide REVPAR impacts total fees by approximately $10 million to $15 million pretax and owned, leased, corporate housing and other revenue, net of direct expense, by roughly $4 million pretax.

For its timeshare business, the company assumes 2010 timeshare contract sales could be slightly higher than 2009 levels. Including the impact of the accounting changes under this scenario Timeshare sales and services revenue, net of direct expenses, could total $170 million to $180 million. Timeshare segment results for 2010 could total $145 million to $155 million and the segment’s net cash flow could total $175 million to $200 million.

The company expects its 2010 general, administrative and other expenses to total $635 million to $645 million reflecting modest salary increases and assumes interest expense to total $165 million to $170 million for the full year.

While the company cannot forecast results with any certainty, based upon the above assumptions, EBITDA could total $910 million to $970 million and diluted EPS from continuing operations for 2010 could total $0.82 to $0.94. Assuming the investment spending levels below, adjusted total debt, net of cash, could decline $400 million to $500 million by year end 2010.

The company expects investment spending in 2010 will total approximately $500 million, including capital expenditures totaling $150 million to $200 million, of which maintenance capital spending could total $50 million. Investment spending will also include new mezzanine financing and mortgage loans, contract acquisition costs, and equity and other investments. The investment in net timeshare development is not included above as the company expects cost of goods sold in the timeshare business will exceed timeshare inventory spending in 2010.

Sports illustrated Swimsuit issue 2010 !

2010-02-10T06:04:00.000-08:00

Scope out Brooklyn Decker’s smoking hot cover for The 2010 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit which was revealed Monday night on The Late Show with David Letterman as a Times Square billboard.
The 22-year-old blonde beauty tweeted, “I cried three times because family flew in to surprise me! The issue is amazing, glowing, fun, the girls are happy… it’s not over-the-top, the girls and editors should be so proud! THANK YOU ALL!!!”
Brooklyn’s husband, tennis champ Andy R. chimed in, , “So happy/proud of my wife… the new cover for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue!!!! Unreal… so excited!!!!!!!!!!”

Google - Is running a super bowl ad , in the 3rd quarter ?

2010-02-07T11:07:00.000-08:00

Is Google Running a Super Bowl Ad?

By HELFT

Over the weekend, the tech blogosphere was abuzz over the expectation that Google, a company that build its brand almost entirely through word of mouth, was going to air an ad during the Super Bowl. John Battelle, the author of The Search, the 2005 book about Google, wrote on his blog that “Google plans to hit the branded advertising big leagues this Sunday,” citing an unnamed source.
Sometime later, Eric Schmidt, the chief executive of Google, posted the following message on Twitter: “Can’t wait to watch the Superbowl tomorrow. Be sure to watch the ads in the 3rd quarter (someone said ‘Hell has indeed frozen over.’)”
No official word from Google yet, and a Google spokesman did not immediately respond to an e-mail request for comment.
A Super Bowl ad would be quite a departure for Google. The company, which makes more money from advertising than any media company in the world, is hardly traditional when it comes to its own advertising. The company spends plenty on online advertising. But most of those ads are the kind of utilitarian ads intended to get people to click on a link to learn about a specific product or service, like its AdWords advertising system, its digital maps or its new Nexus One mobile phone. Google has also dipped its toes in television advertising, with a series of clips promoting the Chrome browser.
But the company, which famously says that ads are information, has shunned brand messages. Perhaps now that Google is ramping up its own display advertising business, it feels that it needs to be a player in brand advertising as well.
It is not clear what ad Google may air. Mr. Battelle said it will be one of the “search stories” ads that the company created last year and has been showing online. That ad, which has already had plenty of spoofs, including this one poking fun at Tiger Woods, was produced by Google in-house mini-agency. Others speculate it may be an ad for the Nexus One.
There are no indications that the Super Bowl ad, if it airs, will be the beginning of a broader marketing campaign..

USA Housing sales ,drop 16.7% !

2010-01-25T08:05:00.000-08:00

Sales of U.S. existing homes plunged 16.7% in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.45 million from 6.54 million in November as a popular tax credit was set to expire, a national real estate trade group estimated Monday.
The 16.7% percentage decline from November to December was the largest on record, dating back to 1968, the National Association of Realtors reported.
The decline was larger than the 11% drop to 5.80 million that was expected by economists surveyed by MarketWatch. Read our complete economic calendar and consensus forecast.

News Hub: Largest Real Estate Deal Goes Bust

Tishman Speyer's deal for Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, which was the biggest real estate deal at the time, may end up in bankruptcy, the News Hub panel reports.

Sales in December were up 15% compared with December 2008. Read the full report on the NAR website.
The median sales price rose to $178,300 in December, up 1.5% compared with a year earlier. It's the first year-over-year increase in prices since August 2007.
For all of 2009, sales rose 4.9% to 5.16 million compared with 2008. The median price fell 12.5% in 2009.
"The market is going through a period of swings driven by the tax credit," said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the real estate lobbying group. "We're likely to have another surge in the spring."
"Job creation is the key to a continued recovery in the second half of the year," Yun said, adding he believed there was some sustainable momentum in the market. December's sales pace was up 11% compared with June's.

Sales had surged about 40% from June to November in response to the federal tax credit for first-time buyers, which was set to expire on Nov. 30. As it happened, the tax credit was extended until June 2010 and expanded to cover repeat buyers.
But buyers didn't know the credit would be extended when they were shopping for homes in October. In order to close in December, they would have had to sign a sales contract by early November at the latest. Existing-home sales are recorded at the closing.
First-time buyers accounted for 43% of sales in December, down from 51% in November.
Inventories of unsold homes on the market dropped 6.6% to 3.29 million, the lowest since March 2006. The inventory figures are not seasonally adjusted. Inventories usually fall about 8% this time of year.

Trading conditions are going to be choppy the next few months !

2010-01-24T18:21:00.000-08:00

After calm trading conditions and fairly narrow trading ranges since the start of the year, currency markets are bracing for more-volatile market moves this week that may overshadow the Federal Reserve's rate-setting meeting.
With the Fed widely expected to leave rates near zero and make few if any changes to its post-meeting statement, events abroad and in the domestic political arena will keep currency investors on their toes. These events include any further steps by China to rein in lending, another round of credit jitters in the nations that use the euro, developments in U.S. bank-overhaul plans, as well as the delay in the Senate's vote to reconfirm Ben Bernanke as Fed chairman.

Last week, volatility jumped: The dollar touched the strongest level against the euro since July before giving back some ground. The yen, the biggest beneficiary in the recent flight-to-safety environment, rallied to a one-month high against the greenback.
"Until Feb. 16, when the [European Union] issues their assessment of the Greek budget, there's going to be a lot of volatility," said Ihab Salib, who oversees more than $3 billion as head of international fixed-income at Federated Investments Inc. in Pittsburgh. He doesn't expect that the euro will "necessarily" weaken, but volatility will "definitely" be high.
The Chicago Board Options Exchange's volatility index, or VIX, a proxy for investor sentiment, spiked Thursday to the highest level in a month, to as high as 21.93.
"We had been on a downward trending path in terms of the VIX and G7 currency volatility," said Camilla Sutton, currency strategist at Scotia Capital in Toronto. "A recent spike up in both reflects that markets are no longer content that prices are going to stay in these ranges that we've been in, and that the path of prices on the horizon will be more volatile."
The J.P. Morgan G-7 volatility index rebounded to 12.15 Friday, after slumping to 11.5 on Jan. 14, the lowest since September 2008. An increase in volatility reduces the appeal of carry trades, when investors borrow cheap money in low-yielding currencies to fund purchases of riskier assets, as price swings may erode profits from those bets on interest-rate differential.
"As volatility rises and risk aversion comes back to the markets, carry trades come under pressure as investors get quite nervous," Ms. Sutton said.
Late Friday in New York, the euro had strengthened to $1.4139 from $1.4094 late Thursday. The dollar weakened to 89.87 yen from 90.41 yen, while the euro moved to 127.07 yen from 127.42 yen. The U.K. pound weakened to $1.6114 from $1.6199. The dollar weakened to 1.0414 Swiss francs from 1.0421 francs.
All eyes now will be on the Federal Open Market Committee's interest-rate decision and statement, due out Wednesday at around 2:15 p.m. Eastern time The expectations are that rates will be left unchanged and there will be no change announced in the Fed's asset-purchase program, scheduled to end in March.
"The likelihood is for the Fed's statement to be very similar to the previous one," said Dale Thomas, head of currencies in London at Insight Investment Management, which oversees about $32.2 billion. "I don't think what the Fed says, unless they make massive changes, is going to make any difference whatsoever."
The prospect of China tightening its policy and the euro malaise will continue to dominate sentiment in currency markets, Mr. Thomas said.
Meanwhile, the cost of insuring Greece's debt against default rose to a record Friday amid worries about the country's large budget deficits. Greek authorities said they plan to sell dollar-denominated debt to help shore up finances.

Apple tablet to debut in 2010 ?

2010-01-04T06:22:00.000-08:00

by A. Hesseldahl

provided by yahoo.com

If its engineers hew to recent history, Apple's tablet computer may look nothing like what the prognosticators foresee.

The speculative madness surrounding Apple's rumored tablet computer has finally reached its frothy peak.

More from BusinessWeek.com:

• Five Ways Apple's Tablet May Change the World

• New Gear from Apple and Verizon Wireless?

• Apple: Finding Even More Uses for iTunes

Tech's chattering classes are obsessed with the unconfirmed product, which Apple (AAPL) may announce at an event in January, or February, or March, depending on which set of reports you adhere to. Apple, not surprisingly, is mum.

The hunger for information—and misguided speculation—reminds me of the mistaken prognosticating about the iPhone before its introduction three years ago. It may be time to step back and realize that Apple may uncork a product so surprising that the company again leaves the tech industry scrambling to catch up to its products' smooth operation and sleek design.

Documented facts about the tablet are few. This much we do know: In November 2008, Apple took control of the trademark name TabletMac from a company called Axiotron, which converts MacBook laptops into tablet computers running Apple's Mac OS X.

Wild Imaginings

In April, BusinessWeek talked with people who had seen prototypes of a device they called a media pad as well as a small iPhone, described as "iPhone lite" by the person who saw it.

Then there's outside speculation. In November the Taiwanese Web site Digitimes, often regarded as a solid source of information regarding the plans of Taiwan's electronic manufacturing sector, reported that the Apple tablet had been delayed until the second half of 2010 because of the price to build its display.

On Dec. 24, New York Times blogger Nick Bilton quoted two people—one an unnamed source, the other a former Apple employee—dropping tantalizing clues. Jobs is "very happy" with the machine, and users will be "very surprised at how you interact with the new tablet," the Times wrote. About the same time, the Financial Times reported that Apple plans to reveal the new device at an event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco on Jan. 26.

Missing the Mark on the iPhone

It's important to take reports like these with an appropriate helping of salt. Apple holds numerous trademarks it doesn't actively use; ever hear of MacTel, Vingle, or Drypod? In addition, Apple's top-secret labs in Cupertino, Calif., have probably developed numerous tablet prototypes, some of which may be used to show potential partners but that don't represent a finished product. And leakers have a tendency to exaggerate what they know, or invent from whole cloth.

A similar speculative frenzy surrounded the January 2007 iPhone launch. Looking back at Apple rumor site postings in the months leading up to its debut, I noticed how far off the mark many were about the iPhone's looks, Apple's partners, and who the carrier would be who could resell it. For example, enthusiasts' home-made design drawings that emerged on rumor sites showed a phone that sported a navigation wheel similar to the iPod's. Others imagined the iPhone would have a slide-out keyboard.

Few saw the potential for a touch-sensitive display, which eventually became the signature design element of the iPhone and iPod touch.

Consider the fevered imaginings endemic to Apple. The company engenders such strong reactions from its customers that users tend to "project the known upon the unknown," says Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at market researcher Interpret. That's why so many observers took the well-understood iPod and grafted a phone onto it when imagining Apple's iPhone plans.

A Larger Screen?

Apple's tablet may revolve around a larger touch-sensitive screen than the iPhone's, which could be central to its design and control. I've speculated about it myself in a past column. The iPod touch is so useful an Internet device that I keep one handy on my bedside table. It would make a lot of sense for Apple to market a device with a larger screen—say, 7 in. to 10 in. diagonally—that runs applications downloaded from the iTunes app store, wouldn't it?

Writers and tech pundits think so. But we're not Apple engineers and designers. What seems from the outside to be a logical progression may seem merely simplistic to the folks at Apple's 1 Infinite Loop headquarters. Their job isn't so much to think about the next logical step on a path as to set a divergent course for what people are likely to want for years to come.

Apple may throw everyone a curve ball here. Imagine an Apple tablet about the size of a 11-in. spiral notebook with an iPhone-like touch screen. How about the ability for the machine to recognize voice commands and dictation of text? A built-in video camera and maybe a mini-projector for meetings would be nice. And if the reports of Apple's discussion to land print media content in the iTunes store are true, how about an easy-on-the-eyes display for reading electronic magazines and books?

Embracing Two Worlds

A more fundamental question is whether Apple's tablet will more closely resemble an iPhone or a Mac. It will be fascinating to see how whatever emerges straddles those two worlds.

We use PCs and laptops to get things done when we're stationary; we use mobile devices to stay informed and complete small tasks when we're out and about. This device, it seems, will either have to incorporate both paradigms or have to create one of its own.

My bet? There will be a product from Apple reasonably described as a tablet, and Apple will reveal it during the first quarter of 2010. That's not going too far out on a limb. As the iPhone enters its third year, Apple needs something new to sell to keep delighting its customers, inspiring envy among its competitors, and increasing its sales.

Google or Baidu in China or USA ?

2009-12-28T10:22:00.000-08:00

Google v. Baidu: Which company will win China?

Posted by S. N. Mehta,

The Chinese company dominates online searches in its home market, but Google's ambitions go well beyond Googling.

At first glance one might readily declare "game over" in the China online search war. Beijing-based Baidu (BIDU) dominates: According to Jennifer Li, Baidu's chief financial officer, Baidu's market share for search in China was about 77% in the third quarter, up from 75.6% in the second quarter.

Google (GOOG), she says, lost share in China, dropping to 17% in the third quarter, from about 19% in the second quarter.

And Baidu is trying to extend its search dominance on mobile phones, an area where Google has done well in China, thanks to a search deal with China Mobile, the nation's largest carrier. In October Baidu announced a deal to provide mobile search to customers of China Unicom's (CHU) 3G services, and it also is testing a mobile app that features Baidu's some most popular online tools, including a message board service.

Surprisingly, Google's struggles in China have little to do with the quality of its search results in Chinese.

Tech analaysts in China have said Google has done a good job understanding the nuances of the Chinese language. (Google hasn't fared as well in Russia, where rival Yandex dominates thanks, in part, to its ability to accommodate the peculiarities of the Russian language.) Some users also say Google delivers a better search experience: Baidu had been criticized for mixing ads and organic search results on the same confusing page.

Baidu benefits from incumbent status (it formed in 2000, while Google China didn't get going until 2006 –after Google sold a modest share in Baidu) and, its executives say, a set of tools that help Chinese users get information – not just search results. A tool called Baidu Post Bar it a bit like a social-networking application that allows users to tap other folks online for advice or comments as they are searching for, say, the best appliance to buy.

But no one, least of all Baidu executives, assumes Google is content with its position in China today. "We don't underestimate their technology or their ability," says Baidu CFO Li.

And while Baidu, for now, seems content to focus on search (CEO Robin Li likes to point out that the company's other services – maps, mail, Baidu Post – all help enhance the search experience) Google's ambitions in China go well beyond traditional online advertising and search. The company is widely believed to be looking for multiple ways to introduce its Android mobile operating platform in China, and recent reports suggest it may look to open an Android application marketplace in China.

For now, though, Google must live with its second-banana status in China. According to various Chinese news outlets (we can't find the original document online in English) Google China issued a news release listing the most popular searches in China in 2008. The most searched term among Google users in mainland China? Baidu.

Predictions 2010: Stocks, Jobs, Inflation & More ! D. Kneale Articale CNBC ( GE,C,GS, )

2009-12-25T11:50:00.000-08:00

Stolen Without a Gun: Confessions from Inside History's Biggest Accounting Fraud - The Collapse of MCI WorldCom [STOLEN W/O A GUN]

By: Dennis Kneale

CNBC Media & Technology Editor

A funny thing happened on the way to Armageddon.

One year ago, the world braced for total economic collapse. We writhed in shock and fear in the wake of Bear Stearns-Lehman Brothers-AIG-Merrill Lynch-Wachovia-Countrywide et al.

The experts declared, "Game Over". The Wall Street model was dead and profits would take years to recover; the consumer was exhausted; credit markets were frozen: and the economy would languish for years to come. As for mergers & acquisitions and hedge funds and the private equity business: fuhgeddaboudit.

They were, all of them, just wrong, wrong, wrong. Our economy is healing more quickly than legions of pixel pundits ever believed possible. I’m sorry to gloat, guys, but while many so preached doom a year ago, I was sellin’ the hope.

Last November, I posted nine predictions for the new year, most of them in the searching-for-hope category. One year later, by my reckoning, I was right, more or less, on eight out of nine (see below). Now that I’m feeling a little cocky, here's my big-picture predictions for 2010.

1. Stocks.

The Dow 30 will have another volatile year, dipping below 10,000 a time or two before closing year-end at 11,650.

2. Economy.

We won’t have a second-dip recession; instead GDP will surprise the experts again by growing 3.0 percent or better for the full year.

3. Job Market.

Growth returns by the start of the second half of the year and a robust spring-back in hiring will startle the doubters.

4. Inflation.

Inflation smation. It will run below 2.0 percent for most of the year.

5. General Electric.

GE [GE 15.44 0.03 (+0.19%) ] will spin out or sell off a few huge businesses to focus mainly on heavy-metal infrastructure for the developing world. Goodbye light bulbs and, maybe, medical-imaging; hello, partial-stake spin or IPO for GE Capital. (GE, of course, is the parent company of CNBC and CNBC.com ... for now)

6. Citigroup.

Citigroup [C 3.35 0.06 (+1.82%) ] will cease to exist. Breakup artists will descend to chop it and sell off the pieces.

7. Goldman Sachs.

Wall Street powerhouse Goldman [GS 163.97 0.34 (+0.21%) ] will pump out even higher net income in 2010 than it did in 2009, and move early to buy out the preferred stake it sold to Warren Buffett at the height of the Great Meltdown of late ’08.

Current DateTime: 11:25:50 25 Dec 2009

LinksList Documentid: 34134938

Autos: Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad

Consumers: Forever Frugal

Markets: Uncertain For Sure

Media: Content (And Consumers) King

Real Estate: Still On The Mend

Sports: Less Luxury, More 3-D

Tech: Go Microsoft, Goodbye Twitter

The Big Picture: Big (Positive) Surprises

8. Health Care.

Obamacare will stall on a revolt by middle-class taxpayers, once they realize this trillion-dollar entitlement would also cover 15 million illegal aliens.

9. Obama.

The president will suffer a setback in the mid-term elections. The Democrats will lose seats in both the House and Senate. The good news—this will force Bam back to the middle, and that would help the markets.

10. Taxes.

The Dems’ mid-term spanking and a still-mending economy will force Obama to leave in place a couple of the Bush tax cuts that otherwise expire at the end of 2010. My bet—the lower rates on capital gains and dividends

8 Great Stocks for 2010 - Kiplinger.com

2009-12-25T11:32:00.003-08:00

8 Great Stocks for 2010 - Kiplinger.com

Posted using ShareThis

8 Great Stocks for 2010 - Kiplinger.com

2009-12-25T11:32:00.001-08:00

8 Great Stocks for 2010 - Kiplinger.com

Posted using ShareThis

sales in homes go higher in 2010 & Nov. 2009 ??

2009-12-22T11:24:00.000-08:00

Bloomberg) -- Sales of existing U.S. homes in November rose to the highest level in almost three years as first-time buyers rushed to take advantage of a government tax credit and lower prices.

Purchases increased 7.4 percent to a 6.54 million annual rate, exceeding the highest estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, figures from the National Association of Realtors showed today in Washington. Another report showed the economy grew a less-than-forecast 2.2 percent in the third quarter as companies cut stockpiles, pointing to manufacturing gains at the start of 2010.

The housing market is getting a boost from efforts by the government and Federal Reserve to stabilize the industry at the center of the worst recession since the 1930s. Improved consumer spending combined with record decreases in inventories will promote production, which may keep the world’s largest economy growing into 2010.

The economy is “rebounding again pretty much across the board,” said Steven Wieting, managing director of economic and market analysis at Citigroup Global Markets Inc. in New York. “We will see somewhat stronger growth,” he said, adding “it’s not going to be one of these dramatic recoveries.”

Stocks rose and Treasury securities fell after the reports. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index added 0.4 percent to 1,118.79 at 1:28 p.m. in New York, and the S&P Homebuilder Supercomposite Index was up 3.8 percent. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 3.74 percent from 3.68 percent late yesterday.

Slower Expansion

The economy grew at a 2.2 percent annual rate in the third quarter, down from a prior estimate of 2.8 percent, revised figures from the Commerce Department showed today. Companies curbed spending and cut inventories at an even faster pace, leading to a slower pace of expansion.

Existing home sales were projected to rise to a 6.25 million annual rate, according to the median forecast of 69 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. Estimates ranged from 5.2 million to 6.5 million. The NAR revised October’s reading down to a 6.09 million pace from an initially reported 6.1 million rate.

First-time buyers accounted for 51 percent of sales last month, and 71 percent of the houses sold cost less than $250,000, the report from the real-estate agents’ group showed. The figures indicate the government’s tax credit helped boost demand.

Mortgage Rates

Fed debt purchases are helping keep mortgage rates close to record lows, while President Barack Obama’s Nov. 7 extension and expansion of the tax credit through April may provide short-term impetus to sales and construction.

The central bank last week signaled it would keep lending rates low for “an extended period” to foster growth. The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage was 4.94 percent last week and has averaged 4.85 percent since the end of October, according to Freddie Mac.

“Housing is on a solid footing through to the spring markets,” said Derek Holt, an economist at Scotia Capital Inc. in Toronto, who forecast a rise to 6.5 million units. “But once foreclosed, unlisted homes go back on the market and homebuyers’ incentives come off, we’re looking at a weaker back half of next year.”

Purchases of existing homes rose 44 percent in November compared with a year earlier, the biggest increase on record. The median price was $172,600, down 4.3 percent from November 2008. The figure is influenced by the mix of sales and the drop reflects the growing proportion of lower-priced houses.

Home Prices

A report from the Federal Housing Finance Agency in Washington showed home prices fell 1.9 percent in October from a year earlier. The group’s U.S. housing index is down 10.8 percent from the April 2007 peak.

The number of previously owned unsold homes on the market fell 1.3 percent to 3.52 million. At the current sales pace, it would take 6.5 months to sell those houses compared with 7 months at the end of October. The ratio is the lowest since December 2006.

The share of homes sold as foreclosures or otherwise distressed properties was 33 percent, said Lawrence Yun, the agents group’s chief economist.

“The tax credit had the intended impact of drawing buyers in and lowering inventory,” Yun said in a news conference. “An estimated 2 million buyers have taken advantage of the credit.”

Single-Family Sales

The report showed sales of existing single-family homes rose 8.5 percent to an annual rate of 5.77 million. Sales of condos and co-ops were unchanged at a 770,000 rate.

Toll Brothers Inc., the largest U.S. luxury-home builder, projected deliveries may fall by as much as 33 percent in the 12 months through October 2010, and the average selling price may drop as low as $540,000.

“We believe it may take some time for Americans to regain confidence in our economy, their job status and the benefits of home ownership,” Robert Toll, chief executive officer at Toll Brothers, said in a Dec. 3 statement. “We anticipate a gradual recovery in housing, similar to the one that occurred in the early 1990s.”

B. Wilis

Is The Fed Raising Interest Rates in 2010 ?

2009-12-07T05:51:00.000-08:00

Ideas that the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates next year sent U.S. stock index futures lower Monday ahead of a speech from the Fed's chairman.

S&P 500 futures fell 4.3 points to 1,103.80 and Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 7.25 points to 1,787.75. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 38 points.

U.S. stocks closed higher Friday after news that just 11,000 nonfarm payroll jobs were lost in November--the smallest rate of job destruction in nearly two years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 22 points, the Nasdaq Composite added 21 points and the S&P 500 climbed 6 points.

Gains were tempered by the dollar's rally on growing expectations of rate hikes from the U.S. Federal Reserve, which at the moment has interest rates at near-zero levels.

"The very strong inverse relationship over the past 18 months between the dollar and risk assets will be the most interesting thing to watch in 2010 if the greenback finally bottoms," said Jim Reid, a strategist at Deutsche Bank. "It's still a big 'if' but Friday was fascinating in that the market ended higher after the dollar rally but only via some extreme intra-day moves across different assets."

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will have a chance to address that issue in a speech due for delivery at noon Eastern.

Ahead of Bernanke, the dollar rose against the euro but fell vs. the Japanese yen, which some analysts say is the currency that may become the target of the new carry trade. A carry trade is when traders borrow in a low-yielding currency to reinvest elsewhere.

Gold futures continued their slide, losing $28 an ounce. Oil futures also dropped and traded below the $75 a barrel level.

Citi (C) will be in the spotlight as Kuwait sold a $4.1 billion stake in the New York lender, while the Financial Times reported that Citi is hoping to convince U.S. authorities to allow it to repay $20 billion of bailout funds.

Akamai Technologies (AKAM) on Monday lifted its fourth-quarter revenue and earnings guidance, saying trading in the first two months of the quarter have exceeded its expectations. The Internet services company lifted its guidance for fourth-quarter adjusted earnings to a range of 42 cents to 43 cents a share, from a range of 39 cents to 41 cents a share.

Analysts had been expecting adjusted earnings of 40 cents a share on revenue of $221.9 million

Bank pay also will be in the spotlight as Britain is reportedly weighing new measures to tax bonuses, while five senior executives told American International Group (AIG) that they'll quit if compensation was cut significantly by a U.S. pay czar, The Wall Street Journal reported.

In Asia, resource stocks struggled but the Nikkei 225 advanced 1.5% in Tokyo after the biggest weekly drop in the yen in ten years.

The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 fell 0.7%.

By W. Watts, AskNewswires@dowjones.com

Black friday web traffic !

2009-11-30T05:48:00.000-08:00

Amazon.com (AMZN) was the most trafficked retail Web site on Black Friday for the second straight year, according to Experian Hitwise.

Here is the Hitwise list of the top 20 most trafficked retail sites on Black Friday, with their share of traffic among the top 500 retail sites:

Amazon.com (AMZN), 13.55%
Walmart (WMT), 11.18%
Target (TGT), 5.65%
Best Buy (BBY), 4.62%
Sears (SHLD), 2.95%
JC Penney (JCP), 2.53%
Toys R Us, 2.47%
Kohl’s (KSS), 1.94%
Kmart, 1.90%
Dell (DELL), 1.62%
Macy’s, 1.52%
Overstock.com (OSTK), 1.49%
QVC.com, 1.27%
Home Depot (HD), 1.12%
Lowe’s (LOW), 1.10%
Apple (AAPL), 1.08%
Staples (SPLS), 0.99%
Old Navy, 0.98%
GameStop (GME), 0.95%
Fandango (CMCSA), 0.92%

X Mas - holiday shopping has some gem & some coal in your shopping stockings ?

2009-11-28T15:32:00.000-08:00

Early shopping tally: Some gems, some coal
Store sales up only slightly from last year, according to tracking firm. But signs of strength seen at some merchants, in West and online.

) -- Although malls around the country reported a rush of shoppers and filled parking lots throughout Black Friday, total sales for the day only saw a slight - and not a robust - improvement over last year.
Retailers registered about $10.66 billion in sales Friday, up 0.5% from a year ago, according to a report Saturday from sales and traffic tracking firm ShopperTrak.
Regionally, the firm said year-over-year Black Friday sales rose 4.7% in the West, increased 1.3% in the Midwest, edged up 0.6% in the South, but declined 4.9% in the Northeast, where there was rain in many sections.
"With Black Friday's performance it looks like November will be a positive month for retailers compared to last year, which is an encouraging sign," ShopperTrak co-founder Bill Martin said in the report.
"Friday's relatively strong performance isn't always a bellwether for the entire season, but we believe the 1.6% increase we originally predicted for the holiday season remains intact," he added.
The firm said it did not yet have data on how many consumers hit stores on Black Friday, even as retailers opened their doors early again Saturday in their continuing effort to lure customers.
Taubman Centers -- which operates such malls as the Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, Ill., and the Stamford Town Center in Connecticut -- said a majority of its centers reported year-over-year sales increases Friday, with steady traffic into the evening hours.
"The hot categories throughout the evening included apparel, electronics, shoes and boots, and bath and beauty predominantly," said Karen Mac Donald, Taubman's communications director, in an e-mail.
J.C. Penney said Saturday that sales were strong at stores across the country on Black Friday. Top sellers included gemstone and gold jewelry, luggage sets, women's cashmere-blend pea coats and a device that projects TV images onto a blank wall.
Sales with a click
It was a stronger picture for Internet retailing. The average online order on Black Friday rose 35% from last year, to $170.19, according to online retail analyst Coremetrics -- an indication that people may be looking to buy gifts after a year of economic woes.
"The healthy jump in the average amount of money people are willing to spend online this year suggests consumers have adjusted their shopping patterns to the reality of the economic downturn," said John Squire, chief strategy officer, Coremetrics, in a statement. "They're thriftier, they're savvier and every one of them wants to be the best bargain hunter out there."
While people spent more online, Coremetrics said they were spending less time browsing, indicating that they know what they want, and how much they want to pay for it.
Online shopping will garner more attention Monday -- the so-called Cyber Monday -- when many Americans will take advantage of computers at work to shop for gifts.
Although Black Friday seemed to be missing the usual mayhem associated with it, the good news for merchants was that shoppers eagerly spent money on toys, cashmere sweaters, Snuggie blankets and gadgets at juicy discounts .
"What I've noticed so far is that [consumer] traffic is on par with last year, but people are buying more," said Marshal Cohen, chief retail analyst with market research firm NPD Group.
"They are going into stores with the pure intention of spending money. They have their stores, products and prices all picked out," he said.
The National Retail Federation (NRF) is expected to release its report Sunday estimating how much shoppers spent over the Black Friday weekend and where they shopped.
Compared to previous years, Cohen said the Black Friday atmosphere appeared to "be more tame."
Wal-Mart, which saw Black Friday 2008 tainted by the death of a temporary worker in a shopper stampede in Valley Stream, N.Y., said the day passed without much incident -- although a.store in Upland, Calif., was forced to shut its doors after shoppers got a bit too rowdy.
"We've heard of a few scuffles among customers, but overall it has been a very safe event," a Wal-Mart spokesman said.
"Look, retailers have been educating consumers for days before Black Friday on what their deals are going to be and on what items," said Cohen. "That's partly why we're not seeing the frenziness."
Power tools and Snuggies selling out
Sears (SHLD, Fortune 500) spokesman Tom Aiello said he thought Black Friday crowds outside its stores were "a little bit more than last year."
The department store chain reported an average of 300 to 400 shoppers lined up for its 4 a.m. opening Friday.
The top sellers at Sears included a Craftsman drill set for $39.99, down from its original price of $79.99, as well as home-related goods such as luggage, comforters and the Snuggie blanket.
"Snuggies are selling fast for $9.99 at out Kmart stores," Aiello said. "And our layaway section is jammed. People are buying the special deals and putting them on layaway."
Jim Fielding, president of Disney Store Worldwide, said Black Friday was a big day for his company's 205 U.S. retail stores. He said hot sellers were toddler dolls, classic dolls, Buzz and Woody action figures from "Toy Story" and $10 plush toys.
"I would say that shoppers are focused on value," said Fielding. "But you could find value at $10 or at $50."
This year, more retailers opened their stores at midnight instead of the typical 5 a.m. Black Friday openings.
Fielding said the extra pre-dawn hours of business worked for Disney stores. "We're able to better manage the demand and spread [customer] traffic throughout the day," he said. "This may not become the norm for Black Friday for all retailers, but I think we will continue to be committed to it for the foreseeable future."
Elsewhere, Zhu Zhu, the electronic pet hamster, was flying off shelves at Toys R Us and emerged as the frontrunner for this year's must-have toy. (Black Friday shoppers hear the call of Zhu Zhu)
Toys R Us, the nation's leading specialty toy retailer, opened its stores at midnight on Thanksgiving. CEO Gerald Storch told CNNMoney.com that about 1,000 people lined up on average at his company's stores.
In addition to Zhu Zhu, Storch said other hot sellers included Princess Tiana dolls, from the new Disney (DIS, Fortune 500) animated movie "The Princess and the Frog," as well as video games and crafts products such as the Paperoni 3-D picture set.The retailer has been aggressive in price cutting this season as it does battle with discounters Wal-Mart and Target. "History has shown that economic downturns are a great time for those who are aggressive, so we're very aggressive this year," Storch said.
Tough challenge for merchants
The day after Thanksgiving is dubbed "Black Friday" because it traditionally marks the day of the year when retailers finally move out of the red, indicating losses, and into the black, representing profits.
But despite the hype surrounding Black Friday as the "unofficial" start to holiday gift shopping, it's not the busiest shopping day of the year. That day invariably is the Saturday before Christmas, which is Dec. 19 this year.
Still, for retailers, November and December are crucial sales months because the combined period can account for half, or more, of their sales and profits for the full year.
Although retailers know that they're facing an uphill battle to grow sales amid a tepid spending environment, the hope is that this year's holiday season will at least be an improvement from the previous year.
The NRF expects holiday sales to decline 1% versus a 3.4% drop in holiday sales the previous year.
The group maintains that even though many Americans have had a year to adjust to the recession, continued job losses and stagnant income growth are forcing many consumers to restrain their shopping impulses and shop only for necessities.
Overall, more bargain hunters are expected to hit stores on Black Friday and the weekend. The total is expected to be about 134 million, up from 128 million a year ago, according to the NRF.
"More shoppers will come out today than a year ago," said Britt Beemer, a retail industry expert and chairman of America's Research Group. "But consumers are so concerned about money that if and when the deals are gone, so are they."
-- CNNMoney.com staff writers David Ellis and Aaron Smith

Dubai debt fears hit world markets hard - dollar slide hit world stock markets hard

2009-11-26T07:09:00.000-08:00

World stock markets fell sharply Thursday as investors fretted over the debt problems at Dubai World, a government investment company, and the continued fall in the dollar.

AP - A Tokyo money dealer looks at a memo as the U.S. dollar is traded at 86.64 yen on ...
Markets are usually relatively quiet when Wall Street is closed for a holiday, as it is Thursday for Thanksgiving Day -- not so today.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 116.65 points, or 2.2 percent, at 5,248.16, having been out of action earlier for over three hours because of technical problems.

Germany's DAX fell 129.45 points, or 2.2 percent, to 5,673.57 while the CAC-40 in France was 85.17 points, or 2.2 percent, lower at 3,723.99.

Earlier in Asia, the Shanghai index tanked 119.19 points, or 3.6 percent, to close at 3,170.98, its biggest one-day fall since August 31, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 1.8 percent to 22,210.41.

Sentiment in stocks has been dented by the news that Dubai World, which is thought to have debts totaling around $60 billion, has asked creditors if it can postpone its forthcoming payments until May. That has stoked fears of a potential default and contagion around the global financial system, particularly in emerging markets.

"Certainly the Dubai debt debacle and the uncertainty that it has created has had a severe knock on effect," said David Buik, markets analyst at BGC Partners.

Investors were also keeping a close eye on developments in the currency markets as the dollar slid to a new 14-year low of 86.27 yen, while the euro pushed up to a fresh 15-month high of $1.5141. By mid afternoon London time, the dollar had recouped some ground and was trading at 86.72 yen, down 0.7 percent on the day, while the euro was 0.6 percent lower at $1.5046.

The continued appreciation in the value of the yen continues to dent Japanese stocks as investors worry that the rising currency will have a detrimental effect on the country's exports. Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average fell 58.40 points, or 0.6 percent, to 9,383.24.

Kit Juckes, chief economist at ECU Group, said the developments in Dubai and in the currency markets are related as the fall in risk appetite has pushed money into government bonds and into safe haven currencies such as the Swiss franc and the yen.

This, he said, is "testing the tolerance of central banks to see their currencies cause further damage to their economies."

Already there has been unconfirmed talk in the markets that the Swiss National Bank has intervened to buy dollars to prevent the export-sapping appreciation of the Swiss franc.

Meanwhile, Japanese Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii tried to assure the market he was closely monitoring the situation and would "take appropriate steps if foreign exchange rates move abnormally." But that did little to ease investor worries.

Across all markets, there is a growing awareness that investors may use the upcoming year-end to lock-in whatever profits have been made over the last 12 months.

Gold, one of the biggest high-flyers over the last few months, continued to rise as it garnered renewed support from its safe haven status. It hit a new record high of $1,196.8 an ounce, before falling back modestly. By mid afternoon London time, gold was down 0.1 percent at $1,186.30 an ounce.

Oil also fell alongside stocks -- the two have traded alongside each other for much of this year. Benchmark crude for January delivery was down 92 cents, or 1.1 percent, at $77.04 a barrel. On Wednesday, it rose $1.94.

Gm to repay us government billions of dollers back ??

2009-11-16T07:11:00.000-08:00

General Motors will announce later today plans to repay the U.S. government some $6.7 billion in loans ahead of its initial due date of July 2015. The payments are expected to begin as early as next month, with $1 billion paid each quarter until the full sum is paid -- although that doesn't cover the total $50 billion the taxpayers have "invested" in the automaker after it declared bankruptcy earlier this year.

However, as the Washington Post points out, the amount the government will get back from GM depends on the value of the General's stock. With $6.7 billion in debt, $2.1 billion preferred stock and a 61 percent stake in the automaker, the $50 billion total is a long way off from being paid in full. And when GM reports its financial results tomorrow, it's not expected to show a profit, although the overall picture could be slightly better than anticipated.

[Sources: Washington Post, Detroit New

does 3-Niaspan tops Zetia in new setback for Merck drug?

2009-11-16T05:23:00.000-08:00

* Niaspan leads to reduction in artery wall thickness

* No meaningful change seen with Zetia

* 5 times as many serious adverse events seen with Zetia

* Journal editorials cite several limitations of study (Adds analyst comment, AHA comment on Zetia safety)

By Bill Berkrot and Ransdell Pierson

ORLANDO, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Abbott Laboratories' (ABT.N) Niaspan appeared to be more effective and safer than Merck & Co's (MRK.N) Zetia as a supplementary cholesterol treatment to statins, according to a small study that is likely to further tarnish Merck's damaged cholesterol franchise.

The damage, however, may be limited by the limitations of the study itself, which included data from just 208 patients and was criticized in a major medical journal.

"Niacin is the clear winner and led to very clear reductions in the amount of atherosclerosis that patients had," Alan Taylor, the study's lead investigator who will present the data on Monday at the American Heart Association scientific meeting in Orlando, Florida, said in an interview on Sunday.

Atherosclerosis, which occurs when there is a build-up of dangerous plaque in the arteries, can lead to heart attacks.

Two earlier studies had led to questions about the value and effectiveness of Zetia and a related Merck drug, Vytorin, after which sales of the medicines plunged, although it remains a $4 billion a year franchise.

"This trial doesn't quite put the nail in the coffin for ezetimibe, but it pushes it way down on the list of medications for cholesterol-lowering therapy," Anthony DeMaria, editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, said in a statement, using the chemical name for Zetia.

Jon LeCroy, an analyst with Hapoalim Securities, said the study could have a sharp negative effect on Merck's cholesterol franchise.

"This is a huge negative because the excess heart attacks raise significant concern, and front-page headlines will cause worried patients to call their doctors," LeCroy said. He speculated U.S. sales of Zetia and Vytorin could fall another 10-15 percent on the news.

The study tested the effect on carotid artery wall thickness of adding either Niaspan, a long-acting niacin that raises good HDL cholesterol, or Zetia, which lowers bad LDL levels. It involved patients who had heart disease or high risk of heart disease whose LDL was already at target levels from taking statins -- the first-line treatment for high cholesterol -- but who had low HDL levels.

Increases in thickness of the artery wall could be an indicator of build-up of dangerous plaque that causes atherosclerosis, while a decrease could indicate regression of the disease.

The 14-month, 363-subject study sought to determine whether a patient on statins in need of additional therapy would benefit more from further driving LDL down or raising HDL. "This is a question that clinicians are faced with every single day," Taylor explained
Even though the study was halted early, with 14-month data available for only 208 patients, "Niaspan turned out to be clearly superior to ezetimibe," Taylor said.

Niaspan patients had an average reduction in carotid artery wall thickness -- known as intima-media thickness -- of 0.014 millimeters compared with no real change in the Zetia group.

DIFFERENCE IN ADVERSE EVENTS

Perhaps of more concern was the five times difference in major adverse events, defined as heart attack, death from heart disease, need for artery-clearing procedures or hospitalization for acute coronary syndrome, although the numbers were small.

There were nine major adverse events in the Zetia group of patients, or 5 percent, compared with two with Niaspan, or 1 percent.

Taylor recommended that doctors refrain from using Zetia in patients until data becomes available that shows it definitively prevents heart attacks and strokes. Merck is currently conducting a large study it hopes will prove just that.

AHA spokesman and former president Robert Eckel said the independent safety monitoring board for the large Merck study "has not seen any safety signal surface." Therefore, Eckel said, "I see no reason to be concerned about using Zetia for LDL lowering."

"The American Heart Association is driven by science, and at this time there is no evidence the drug does harm," he said.

But Taylor said, "To assume that a drug is OK just because LDL goes down is no longer an assumption you can make."

A pair of editorials in the New England Journal of Medicine, however, questioned Taylor's study and its conclusions.

"Unfortunately, the premature termination of the trial, the small number of patients studied and the limited duration of follow-up preclude us from conclusively declaring niacin the adjunctive agent of choice," one editorial concluded, adding that the result "does not necessarily merit changes in our lipid-lowering guidelines at this time."

A second editorial said not including data from all 363 patients was a missed opportunity to enhance the study's precision.

Despite the study's "several limitations," it said "the primary results are likely to be correct, although the magnitude of the difference between the treatment arms may be overestimated."

But Merck research chief Peter Kim defended his company's drug, calling Taylor's study, "scientifically inadequate."

"It would be inappropriate in my opinion for physicians to be taking (this) data and making any changes in their clinical practice with regard to these drugs. It would not be good for public health," Kim said. (Editing by Leslie Adler)

Stocks Rally higher , jobs lost , less than expected

2009-11-05T13:09:00.001-08:00

Stocks continued rallying just before the closing bell on Thursday, with the Dow dancing on both sides of 10,000 once again, after investors digested better-than-expected jobless claims data and productivity numbers reached a six-year high.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which surged over 200 points earlier to top the five-figure mark, was recently up 189 points, or 2%, at 9,991. The S&P 500 gained 18 points, or 1.7%, at 1064, and the Nasdaq was up 45 points, or 2.2%, to 2101.
Initial claims for unemployment benefits fell to its lowest since January. First-time claims fell by 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted 512,000 last week vs. a consensus forecast of 522,000. That's also down from the prior week's revised 532,000. Continuing claims fell to 5.75 million from a revised 5.82 million.
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Boosting markets further were macro figures showing nonfarm productivity grew by an annual rate of 9.5% in the third quarter vs. consensus estimates at 6.5%.
"In these numbers today, we have those that are focused on long-term fundamentals and those that are focused on the short-term trading opportunity both looking for a positive day," says Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist for Cantor Fitzgerald.
In the afternoon, all stocks on the Dow were in positive territory. But Cisco(CSCO Quote), which was adding 3% today following an earnings beat, helped boost the markets. The tech bellwether reported adjusted earnings at 36 cents a share vs. a consensus estimate of 31 cents. In an earnings call, CEO John Chambers gave a hopeful, but cautious, assessment about the economic recovery that had Wall Street cheering.
"John Chambers was successful in calling the bottom last quarter in his markets," says Art Hogan, chief market analyst for Jeffries. "This quarter, he was much more upbeat, not just about the bottom markets but about the middle markets."
Tech stocks were rising in kind, with the NYSE Arca Tech 100 Index adding 2.1% in the afternoon. IBM(IBM Quote) was up 1.2%. Chipmaker Intel(INTC Quote) was ticking higher by 1.8%.
On Friday morning, employment data will again be in focus, as the markets await highly anticipated nonfarm payroll and unemployment rate figures. Analysts anticipate the rate will move higher to 9.9% from 9.8% in September, with 175,000 jobs slashed. With initial claims and ADP figures already in the books, one expert says investors are gaining confidence about what's in store.
"I think part of the selloff from yesterday was about lingering concerns," adds Pado. "So to get some numbers this morning that are supportive of where you had your projections is important."
"Anything over 200,000 [job cuts] isn't going to sit well with people," adds Kenny Landgraf, President of Kenjol Capital Management, speaking of Friday's jobs figures. "It's going to be a volatile day."
CVS Caremark(CVS Quote) was the S&P's biggest decliner, down 21%. Though it beat forecasts in posting earnings at 65 cents a share, the drugstore concern lost billions worth in contracts in its pharmacy benefits segment.
The S&P Retail Index was up 1.5% after a mix of same-store sales numbers came in, highlighted by high-end operators like Nordstrom(JWN Quote) and Saks(SKS Quote) topping expectations.
In other earnings news, Toyota(TM Quote) surprised with a second-quarter profit, while Time Warner Cable(TWC Quote) reported net income of 76 cents a share. Analysts were expecting 75 cents.
Overseas, the Bank of England maintained its key interest rate at 0.5%. After a slide before the announcement, stocks in Europe turned positive. The FTSE in London grew 0.4%, while the DAX in Frankfurt added 0.7%. In Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.6%, as Japan's Nikkei fell 1.3%.
Crude oil slid 78 cents to settle at $79.62 a barrel. Gold gained $2 to settle at $1,089.30 an ounce.

CIT Group warns it still might face bankruptcy even if amended debt exchange is completed

2009-10-19T06:03:00.000-07:00

Struggling lender CIT Group is warning that it might still file for bankruptcy even if it completes a revised debt restructuring plan, according to a regulatory filing Monday.

The New York-based lender to small and midsize businesses is trying to slash its near-term debt burden.

On Friday, it sweetened the restructured exchange offer to current bondholders as it tries to ensure the offer's success. The revised offer gives bondholders a better interest rate and shorter maturities on new debt.

The revised offer would also give the government a 5.4 percent stake in the lender, up from a proposed 2.4 percent under the original plan. The government provided CIT Group $2.3 billion in loans last fall amid the peak of the credit crisis.

Jamba Juice Promotion , will this help the stock go higher ?

2009-09-14T04:00:00.000-07:00

Looking to get back to its roots in local communities, only now with year-round food options, Jamba Juice will invest $30 million this fall in a “Feel Good Moments” promotional campaign that will be conducted out-of-home and online.The chain, best known for its smoothies, will distribute 30 million “Feel Good Bucks” through street teams, direct mail, brand partners and online. Recipients must bring their Bucks into Jamba Juice shops to learn the value, which ranges from $1 to $10,000. The Bucks are good for $1 to $25 off food purchases and larger cash prizes. The promotion runs Oct. 5 through Jan. 4.The ad spend is a significant change from last year when Jamba spent just $1.5 million in measured media, according to Nielsen Co. That figure does not include Internet advertising.Through a sweepstakes element, three people will win a self-designed Feel Good Moment, such as a Hawaiian vacation or the repayment of a school loan-—pretty much anything within legal limits, $10,000 and reason. (Checking the value of a Buck is free, but to receive the cash or prize, the patron must make a purchase.)The 730-store chain will send its Bananaman mascot out as a “Feel Good Ambassador” to high-traffic locations in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. In addition to distributing the Bucks, he will do good deeds, such as give First Class airline ticket upgrades and fill up people’s gas tanks. Those who don’t run into Bananaman or get a mailer can print a Feel Good Buck through an app at the brand’s Facebook page.“The backdrop is America’s not feeling so great these days and Jamba Juice is a brand that brings people together and refreshes them,” said James White, president/CEO. “We’re trying to translate that in-store experience outside our stores” at a time when people are screaming for more value.Additionally, the company’s mission is to be “America’s healthiest QSR” while taking the seasonality out of our business to improve year-round sales. Jamba Juice added oatmeal last winter and now has wraps and food fare at about 300 locations.The Emeryville, Calif.-based Jamba Juice was one of the country’s rising chains in the mid-’90s with a very parochial marketing plan—most marketing occurred within a two- to three-mile radius of each location—but it has struggled a bit as it has switched to a media strategy that is national in scope. The return to a more local strategy is intentional. The company also hopes to reverse its owned/franchised ratio, which is about 70 to 30. Recent growth has been in opening franchises at colleges, airports and other nontraditional outlets. Jamba Juice’s better-for-you message will tie in to the promotion through in-store signage and other collateral. “Part of feeling good is about doing things that are good for your body,” said Kim Larson, vp-marketing. “That is one of our core messages-—being healthy and active feels good.”Social networking is also becoming a key communication tool. While Jamba Juice’s Facebook fan page was started by a team member rather than its marketing or public relations department, it has grown from about 65,000 members at the beginning of this year to 309,000 today. The page gets about 3,000 new fans a week. “Facebook will be a primary place for us to showcase the Feel Good Moments as well as show our mission,” Larson said. “We try to keep this community interested.”

will Ford post 1st monthly sales increase in years ?

2009-08-02T13:50:00.000-07:00

Surging demand from the U.S. government's "cash for clunkers" program has helped lift Ford Motor Co. to its first monthly increase in two years, the company's top sales analyst said Sunday.
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July sales results mark the first year-over-year gain for Ford since November 2007 and apparently the first uptick by any of the six biggest carmakers since last August, George Pipas said.
He declined to disclose a specific total before sales results are officially reported on Monday. Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford sold a total of 161,071 vehicles in July 2008, down 15 percent from a year earlier.
The increase further testifies to the successful reception of the government rebate program, which President Barack Obama signed into law June 24 as part of a broad $106 billion spending bill.
"We were having a good month -- and Ford's been having some good months lately -- but the (clunkers) program really put us over the top for sure," Pipas said in a telephone interview.
The government's Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS) was designed to get old, polluting vehicles off the road and scrapped while helping car dealers emerge from the recession. Owners of gas-guzzlers could receive rebates of $3,500 or $4,500 toward the purchase of a new fuel-efficient car. The program proved wildly popular and led to the sale of 250,000 new vehicles in just days.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Sunday he expects the current $1 billion pool, which had been expected to last until November, to be exhausted by the end of this weekend. The House on Friday approved an additional $2 billion, shifting funds from a renewable energy loan program, and the Obama administration is pressing the Senate to go along before its summer vacation begins at week's end. If the Senate does not approve the additional funding, the progam will have to be suspended.
Improved sales at Ford and elsewhere may be another sign that the economy has either bottomed out or is nearing a bottom. The government reported Friday that the economy shrank at a pace of just 1 percent in the second quarter, better than analysts anticipated and much better than the 6.4 percent decline seen in the first three months of the year, which marked the steepest slide in nearly 30 years.
Pipas said the July sales increase is "some indication that consumers are getting their feet on the ground again. ... I think it indicates that maybe the worst is behind us, sales-wise."
The July sales also make it the ninth month in the last 10 that Ford has posted a gain in market share, he said.
Pipas said that is evidence of the success of the company's new products -- the Fusion and the Fusion hybrid, the Escape, the redesigned Focus, the Mercury Mariner and the Mercury Milan -- all of them among its most fuel-efficient vehicles.

Was the U.S. Recession Worst Since Great Depression, Revised Data Show

2009-08-02T10:19:00.000-07:00

Aug. 1 (Bloomberg) -- The first 12 months of the U.S. recession saw the economy shrink more than twice as much as previously estimated, reflecting even bigger declines in consumer spending and housing, revised figures showed.
The world’s largest economy contracted 1.9 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007 to the last three months of 2008, compared with the 0.8 percent drop previously on the books, the Commerce Department said yesterday in Washington. Gross domestic product has shrunk 3.9 percent in the past year, the report said, indicating the worst slump since the Great Depression.
Updated statistics also showed that Americans earned more over the last 10 years and socked away a larger share of that cash in savings. The report signals the process of repairing tattered balance sheets following the biggest drop in household wealth on record may be further along than anticipated.
“The current downturn beginning in 2008 is more pronounced,” Steven Landefeld, director of the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, said in a press briefing this week. The revisions were in line with past experience in which initial figures tended to underestimate the severity of contractions during their early stages, he said.
Consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the economy, decreased 1.8 percent in last year’s fourth quarter from the same period in 2007, exceeding the prior estimate of a 1.5 percent drop. Purchases also began sinking sooner than previously projected, registering their first decline at the start of 2008 rather than in the second half.
Treasuries, Stocks
Treasuries gained after the GDP report, while stocks closed little changed. Benchmark 10-year note yields dropped to 3.48 percent by the close in New York, from 3.61 percent late the day before. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Stock Index closed at 987.48.
Residential construction fell 21 percent during the period, almost 2 percentage points more than previously reported, aggravating what was already the worst slump since the Great Depression.
The Commerce Department also reported yesterday that the economy contracted at a 1 percent annual rate from April through June after shrinking at a 6.4 percent pace in the first quarter, the most since 1982. The decline in the first three months of the year was previously reported as 5.5 percent.
Recession’s Start
The National Bureau of Economic Research, the arbiter of U.S. business cycles, last year determined the recession started in December 2007. The private group is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
Yesterday’s updates are part of comprehensive revisions that take place about every five years and are more extensive than the changes announced at this time each year. Figures as far back as 1929 can be revised.
Over the most recent period, the third quarter of 2008 underwent one of the biggest changes, going from a 0.5 percent decrease in GDP to a 2.7 percent drop. The new reading better illustrates the effect the September collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. had on the economy and credit markets.
The deeper deterioration last year underscores why Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and his colleagues at the central bank cut the benchmark rate to a record low and extended credit to non-banks for the first time since the 1930s.
The new GDP data also help explain why the unemployment rate shot up 2.3 percentage points last year, the biggest annual jump since 1982.
2001 Recession Milder
The revisions showed that the 2001 recession was less severe than originally estimated, reflecting a smaller decline in business investment. The economy actually grew 0.1 percent from the fourth quarter of 2000 to the third quarter of 2001, erasing the 0.2 percent drop previously reported.
Personal income was revised up over the last decade, after the government boosted its adjustments for the underreporting and non-reporting of income using more recent data from the Internal Revenue Service. The increases in the most recent years reflect gains from rents, interest and proprietors’ income. The government changed the way it accounts for natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina, eliminating much of the prior volatility in income calculations.
Higher incomes and less spending translated into bigger savings. The savings rate for 2008 was revised up to 2.7 percent from 1.8 percent. The rate shot up to 5.2 percent in the second quarter, the highest level since 1998.
The government revised corporate profits down for 2006-2008 and up for 2004 and 2005.
Finally, Commerce shifted food services, which include meals purchased at restaurants or served in schools, out of the food category. As a result, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge -- which tracks consumer spending and excludes food and fuel -- was pushed up by 0.2 percentage point for the three-year period from 2006 to 2008.
The costs of meals away from home are not as volatile as fresh food, the government said, and therefore services should be included in the measure commonly known as the core index.

Unemployment numbers increased or decreased in june & July?

2009-07-17T12:55:00.000-07:00

June’s unemployment numbers increased in D.C., Maryland and Virginia.

Maryland’s unemployment rate reached 7.3 percent in June, up from 7.2 percent in May, D.C. posted a 10.9 percent rate, up from 10.7 percent, and Virginia had a 7.2 rate, up from 7.1 percent.

Fifteen states and the District of Columbia are now saddled with double-digit unemployment rates, according to a report released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Michigan has far and away the worst jobless rate of any state, 15.2 percent as of June, the latest month for which figures are available. It's the first state to surpass 15 percent since West Virginia in 1984.

Three other states are above 12 percent: Rhode Island (12.4 percent), Oregon (12.2 percent) and South Carolina (12.1 percent).

North Dakota not only has the nation's smallest jobless rate, but it's also the only state below 5 percent, with an unemployment rate of 4.2 percent.

Here are the June unemployment rates from lowest to highest:

• North Dakota, 4.2 percent

• Nebraska, 5.0 percent

• South Dakota, 5.1 percent

• Utah, 5.7 percent

• Wyoming, 5.9 percent

• Iowa, 6.2 percent

• Oklahoma, 6.3 percent

• Montana, 6.4 percent

• Louisiana, 6.8 percent

• New Hampshire, 6.8 percent

• New Mexico, 6.8 percent

• Kansas, 7.0 percent

• Vermont, 7.1 percent

Johnson & Johnson's ( JNJ ) Earnings report good or bad ?

2009-07-14T08:41:00.000-07:00

Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ) second-quarter profit declined nearly 4%, with sales hurt by unfavorable currency rates, generic competition for prescription drugs and tighter consumer spending.

Analysts and investors knew it would be a difficult quarter for the New Brunswick, N.J., maker of Tylenol and Band-Aid, but the results turned out better than Wall Street expected, helped by cost cuts and higher sales of some products. And J&J reiterated its full-year profit forecast despite incurring costs from recent acquisitions.

J&J shares rose 62 cents, or 1%, to $58.34 Tuesday morning.

"This was one of the most challenging quarters for year-over-year comparisons in our history," J&J Chief Financial Officer Dominic Caruso told analysts on a conference call. But he said the company was financially strong and well-positioned for long-term profitable growth.

Analysts said the upside came from cost controls, less harmful currency rates than expected, and higher-than-expected sales of some products, including the blockbuster drug Remicade for arthritis and other conditions. Leerink Swann analyst Rick Wise said results reflected "a very strong operational quarter."

J&J reported second-quarter net income of $3.2 billion, or $1.15 a share, compared with $3.3 billion, or $1.17 a share, a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected J&J to post second-quarter earnings of $1.11 a share.

Second-quarter sales declined 7.4% to $15.24 billion from $16.45 billion, but exceeded the Thomson estimate by about $200 million. The relatively stronger U.S. dollar accounted for 6 percentage points of the decline. J&J's U.S. sales dropped 6.7% while non-U.S. sales declined 8%.

J&J's pharmaceutical unit lost its status as the company's biggest, slipping below the medical-device and diagnostics unit for the first time in recent memory. Pharmaceutical sales dropped 13% to $5.5 billion, with U.S. sales declining 16.4% and non-U.S. sales down 8.7%. The pharma division was hurt by J&J's loss of market exclusivity for two of its top sellers, the antipsychotic Risperdal, whose sales dropped 66%, and epilepsy and migraine treatment Topamax, with sales down 73%.

Combined sales of anti-anemia drugs Procrit and Eprex declined 11.5% to $577 million, continuing a two-year trend of weakness sparked by safety concerns.

Another top J&J drug, however, had a rebound. The Remicade treatment for rheumatoid arthritis saw second-quarter sales rise 24% to $1.1 billion. Sales growth had slipped to just 3% for the first quarter, amid signs that high-priced biologics were feeling the pinch of tighter spending by patients. The second quarter's big gain could be a good sign for other biologics such as Abbott Laboratories' (ABT) Humira and Enbrel from Wyeth (WYE) and Amgen Inc. (AMGN). Schering-Plough Corp. (SGP) markets Remicade outside the U.S.

The device unit's sales dropped 3.1% to $5.89 billion. The DePuy division of the device unit, which makes joint-reconstruction and other products, had roughly flat sales of $1.3 billion. The Ethicon surgical-products unit saw sales rise 2.1% to $1.04 billion. Increased competition continued to hurt sales of J&J's drug-eluting stents.

J&J's consumer unit sales fell 4.5% to $3.85 billion. Sales dropped for baby care, oral care and skin-care products. But sales increased for wound care products.

Caruso said the weak economy continued to take a bite out of sales of J&J products that require consumers to pay out of pocket, including contact lenses to diabetes test strips.

J&J hopes an economic recovery and new pharmaceutical products will help it return to solid sales and earnings growth in future years. The company has had a flurry of new drug applications - with some approvals but other applications still pending.

And J&J continues to try to beef up its drug pipeline. This month, J&J has agreed to pay $1.5 billion for a minority stake in Elan Corp. (ELN) and control of Elan's rights to experimental Alzheimer's-disease drugs, and it closed its $1 billion acquisition of Cougar Biotechnology Inc., which is developing cancer drugs.

why did Bankruptcy court judge approve GM sale ?

2009-07-06T08:01:00.000-07:00

A U.S. bankruptcy court judge has approved the sale of most of General Motors Corp.’s assets to a successor company.
Judge Robert Gerber of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on Sunday night approved the sale to NGMCO Inc., an entity funded by the U.S. Treasury Department. NGMCO will change its name to General Motors Co. and continue to operate under GM’s corporate and sub-brands, GM (NYSE: GM) said in a Monday release.
The company said the approval marks another step toward the launch of a new GM. The new company will acquire GM’s strongest operations and have a competitive operating cost structure, GM said in the release, partly because of recent agreements with the United Auto Workers and Canadian Auto Workers unions.
The new company’s common stock will be owned by:
• The Treasury Department — 60.8 percent
• UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust — 17.5 percent
• Canadian and Ontario governments — 11.7 percent
• The old GM — 10 percent
In addition to this ownership mix, the old GM and the UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust will hold warrants exercisable for 15 percent and 2.5 percent of the interests in the new GM, respectively.
The new GM will be based in Detroit and led by Fritz Henderson as CEO and Edward Whitacre Jr. as chairman.
“This has been an especially challenging period, and we’ve had to make very difficult decisions to address some of the issues that have plagued our business for decades. Now it’s our responsibility to fix this business and place the company on a clear path to success without delay,” Henderson said in the release.
The new GM will have lower leverage and a stronger balance sheet, the release said. That will enable it to reduce its risk, operate profitably at much lower sales volume and reinvest in the key areas of advanced technology and product development, the release said.
Gerber’s order includes a four-day stay before the sale can close. GM said it expects the sale to close in the near future.
The current GM will change its name to Motors Liquidation Co. Its retained assets will be wound down or sold, and a new board will oversee that process and the company’s liquidation under the court’s supervision.

Michael Jackson Rushed to Los Angeles Hospital for Cardiac Arrest Michael Jackson Dead ?

2009-06-25T15:00:00.000-07:00

has been rushed to a Los Angeles hospital, police confirmed to FOX News Thursday.

The legendary singer, 50, reportedly went into cardiac arrest and had to receive CPR in the ambulance, according to a report from TMZ.

Joe Jackson, his father, told multiple news sources that his son is not doing well.

According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, paramedics responded to a 911 call at around 12:26 p.m. PDT. He was reportedly not breathing at the time of their arrival.

A rep for Jackson was unavailable for comment.

Obama Health Care speech !

2009-06-15T12:13:00.000-07:00

took his health care overhaul proposal to one of its more skeptical audiences, telling doctors at the American Medical Association conference in Chicago that the United States is “not a nation that accepts nearly 46 million uninsured men, women and children.”

Mr. Obama’s much-anticipated address appeared carefully calibrated to woo doctors to support — or at least, to not actively oppose — his sweeping health proposals. He also sought to reassure doctors who are skittish about his proposal for a government-run insurance plan as one option from which consumers could choose.
“I understand that you are concerned that today’s Medicare rates will be applied broadly in a way that means our cost savings are coming off your backs,” Mr. Obama said, in the keynote address at the A.M.A. annual meeting. “These are legitimate concerns, but ones, I believe, that can be overcome.”
Mr. Obama’s quick trip to Chicago to try to sell doctors on his health proposal is part of a wider White House effort to push what is a central tenet of Mr. Obama’s domestic policy program. He called health reform central to the American economy, and promised that he could enact his ambitious plan without burdening the budget deficit.
While he did not provide many specifics, Mr. Obama said that he wants to look into “a range of ideas” about how to put patient safety first, let doctors focus on practicing medicine, and encourage broader use of evidence-based guidelines for care. “That’s how we can scale back the excessive defensive medicine reinforcing our current system of more treatment rather than better care.”
Mr. Obama did not commit to specific limits on malpractice lawsuits, saying that would be unfair to patients. But he sought to address the concerns of many doctors who complain that malpractice litigation is part of the reason why health costs have soared.
At times, Mr. Obama struck a professorial note, lecturing Americans to stop smoking — without referencing his own battles to break the habit — and to seek mammograms and colon-cancer screening. Health care reform, he said, means going for a run, going to the gym, and staying away from video games. It also, he said, means laying off junk food.
“That’s a lesson Michelle and I have tried to instill in our daughters with the White House vegetable garden that Michelle planted,” Mr. Obama said.
He maintained his line that Americans will still be able to choose their own doctors. In fact, throughout much of his speech, he sought to empathize with doctors, and criticized a system which he said has created incentives to run more expensive tests than necessary and pushes doctors to see more patients in an effort to make more money.
“That is not why you became doctors,” Mr. Obama said. “That is not why you put in all those hours in the anatomy suite or the O.R. That is not what brings you back to a patient’s bedside to check in or make you call a loved one to say it’ll be fine. You did not enter this profession to be beancounters and paper-pushers.”
Mr. Obama drew cheers from his audience when he said, “I recognize that it will be hard to make some of these changes if doctors feel like they are constantly looking over their shoulder for fear of lawsuits.”
But it remains to be seen how far he will be willing to go on the malpractice issue. On Capitol Hill, Democrats drafting health legislation have so far shown little appetite for taking on the liability issue.
Mr. Obama’s ideas on health reform are facing mounting criticism — not only from the A.M.A. and from Republicans, who don’t like the public insurance program, but also from the hospital industry, which doesn’t like a proposal Mr. Obama announced on Saturday to pay for his health care overhaul in part by cutting certain hospital reimbursements.
In Washington, Representative Eric Cantor, a Republican from Virginia and the minority whip, issued a statement before Mr. Obama had completed his speech in Chicago.
“Democrats are touting a government-run health care option that creates an unlevel playing field leading to the destruction of the private market, reducing choice and putting Washington bureaucrats in charge of family health care decisions,” Mr. Cantor said. He added that “it’s time for the administration to end the happy talk and get down to the difficult decisions ahead.”

NYtimes.com

Market Highlights !

2009-06-15T10:37:00.000-07:00

Pros Say: Markets Set for Another Pullback
By: JeeYeon Park
Stocks opened lower on Monday after a key manufacturing barometer showed factories continue to suffer in the slumping economy. The New York Empire Manufacturing Index slumped 9.41 points in May, indicating difficult times in the sector and presenting a headwind for economic growth. And IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said that the worst may be yet to come for the global economic crisis. Read and listen to what the experts had to say…
Markets Set for Another Pullback
The move to the upside over the last week or so has been caused more by a lack of selling pressure, said Dodge Dorland, CIO of Landor Capital Management. “If selling pressure comes back into the market, the demand for buying stocks now is rather weak relative to what it's been, and so we're setup for a pullback," he said.
Doll: Market May Pause but Will End Year Higher
Markets Are Still Contracting
The economy has averted a depression, but it is still shrinking and the stock market has got carried away with all these green shoot discussions, said Juerg Zingg of Q Investments. “There’s nothing like a rebound here—markets have taken too much optimism as a result we expect market correction,” he said.
Art Cashin: The S&P's 'Break' Point Now
Investors Too Nervous to do Anything
According to Barclays Wealth and The Economist Intelligence Unit's latest report, high net-worth investors across the globe say they are seeing significant investment opportunities in the current markets, but most are still too nervous to take the plunge.
Yoshikami: The Next Menace — Stagflation
Airline Industry to Recover in 2010
"I'm very much a believer in the long-term positive dynamics for the aviation industry," said Dave Cote of Honeywell.
Scott Carson of Boeing Commercial Airplanes said "it feels like we've seen the bottom of the freight market. It feels like we're bouncing off the bottom of the passenger market." Both Cote and Carson said that the industry could recover in 2010.
Complete Paris Air Show Coverage
Obama’s Health Care Plan ‘Totally Unrealistic’
David Walker of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation says escalating health care costs represent the single largest driver of the country’s debt. He criticized Obama’s current health care reform proposals. “[Obama’s] pledge to not raise taxes on people who are making less than $250,000 was totally unrealistic…We need toward move to universal coverage, but we need to focus on basic and essential coverage,” he said.
Obama Wants New Cuts in Federal Health Spending

Ride"s Closed ? Six Flags Declares Bankruptcy

2009-06-14T06:40:00.000-07:00

Amusement park operator Six Flags declared bankruptcy yesterday but says that it will keep its parks open, at least for now. According to the Washington Post, the company is carrying $2.4 billion in debt. Despite the fact that Six Flags reported 25 million visitors and posted record revenues in 2008, the debt is simply unsustainable, the Associated Press reports.

Yesterday, Obama proposed an additional $313 billion in cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and other programs in order to pay for health care reforms that could cost about $1 trillion over the next 10 years, Reuters reports. "I know some question whether we can afford to act this year," the president said, "But the unmistakable truth is that it would be irresponsible to not act."

Two of the nation's most influential bank regulators are at it again, reports the New York Times. John Dugan, comptroller of the currency, is reportedly feuding with Sheila Bair, head of the FDIC. Dugan has lambasted a proposal to impose harsh insurance fees on banks, which he views as unfair to the largest banks (which he regulates). Bair responded in defense of small banks, charging that the big banks should take the blame for the financial collapse.

Financial leaders from the G8 have offered their most optimistic evaluation of the global crisis yet, the Washington Post reports. They called for an "exit strategy" from stimulus policies that have been instituted to bolster the economy. But not everything is fixed yet, says U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. He called on international banking regulators to devise better ways to "quickly resolve failures of cross-border financial firms."

Television's digital switchover has gone relatively well so far, the Wall Street Journal reports. Though a record 317,000 calls poured into a national call center set up by the Federal Communications Commission Friday from consumers who had trouble to setting up converter boxes, most issues have been quickly resolved.

The Los Angeles Lakers may win the NBA Championship, but some city officials are saying that they might not be able to host a victory parade. The parade could cost more than $1 million, and the city is already squeezed financially, thanks to a deep budget deficit, which might require job cuts, Reuters reports. "We can't afford to cover the costs," City Councilwoman Jan Perry told the Los Angeles Times. She asked, "How could we make a decision about people's jobs and then sponsor the parade?"

Jamba Juice Delivers on New Licensing Strategy With Addition of Oregon Ice Cream and Think Wow Toys as New Licensing Alliances

2009-05-21T07:05:00.000-07:00

Jamba Juice Delivers on New Licensing Strategy With Addition of Oregon Ice Cream and Think Wow Toys as New Licensing Alliances

buy the stock now its going higher again !!

Stress Test SNL Style - Geithner Cold Open & Weekend Headlines

2009-05-11T06:34:00.001-07:00

Jones Soda Launches Two Innovative Ad Campaigns With Zooppa

2009-05-04T07:32:00.000-07:00

Jones Soda Launches Two Innovative Ad Campaigns With Zooppa

10 REASONS THE MARKET IS IN TROUBLE ?

2009-04-21T06:53:00.000-07:00

10 reasons the market is in trouble:

The Sunday paper costs more than New York Times stock
The Citi ATM fee costs more than Citi stock
The paper that a mortgage is written on costs more than Freddie Mac stock
A subscription to Sirius Satellite radio would cost more than Sirius stock
A gallon of gas costs more than Ford stock
One ride costs more than Six Flags stock
A bottle of soda costs more than Jones Soda stock
A 5 minute long distance phone call costs more than Vonage stock
A 5 stick pack of gum costs more than Rite-Aid stock
The strawberries in a smoothie cost more than Jamba Juice

Bank of America beats profit !

2009-04-20T04:54:00.000-07:00

Some Good News for Bank of America

Anxious shareholders got a bit of good news Monday from Bank of America, which reported that its first-quarter net income more than tripled.

The bank said its profit rose to $4.2 billion in the first quarter, from $1.2 billion a year earlier, as it posted revenue of $36 billion. It also reported diluted earnings per share of 44 cents, compared with analysts expectations of about 4 cents a share. It added $6.4 billion to its loan-loss reserves.

“The fact that we were able to post strong, positive net income for the quarter is extremely welcome news in this environment,” Kenneth D. Lewis, the bank’s chairman and chief executive said in a statement. “It shows the power of our diversified business model as well as the ability of our associates to execute.”

“However, we understand that we continue to face extremely difficult challenges primarily from deteriorating credit quality driven by weakness in the economy and growing unemployment,” Mr. Lewis said.

Despite the reports, the news might not have come in time to save Mr. Lewis’s from angry shareholders.

For more than 70 years, through good times and bad, the Eliasberg family stood by their bank. Their tiny lender grew up to become part of what is now Bank of America — tying the family’s fortunes to that of the nation’s largest bank.

But now Richard Eliasberg, whose father helped found Baltimore National Bank, in 1933, says he is losing faith in Bank of America, and in Mr. Lewis.

Like a growing number of shareholders, Mr. Eliasberg is alarmed by the daunting challenges confronting Bank of America. Mr. Lewis, the chairman and chief executive, is under growing pressure, both from within and without, to turn things around fast.

“For the first time, I’m disappointed,” said Mr. Eliasberg, speaking before the earnings release. He owns a substantial number of Bank of America shares for an individual, though he has sold a third of his shares in the last year.

But Mr. Lewis, who built Bank of America into an industry behemoth by making a string of acquisitions, still has much to prove. Many of his investors are growing restive, and they are unlikely to be quieted by one quarter’s results.

Indeed, Mr. Lewis seems to be losing the support of an important constituency: Scores of longtime shareholders like Mr. Eliasberg, who have ties to Bank of America through businesses the bank and its predecessor acquired over the decades.

Of particular concern is Mr. Lewis’s latest conquest, Merrill Lynch. Bank of America shareholders signed off on the acquisition in early December, only to discover that gaping losses at Merrill would force Bank of America to seek assistance from the government for a second time. Some investors are suing, claiming that Mr. Lewis failed to fully disclose the risks of the deal.

Bank of America said Monday that “the Merrill Lynch integration is on track and expected to meet targeted cost savings” and that Merrill had contributed $3 billion to its net income. It also said the integration of Countrywide Financial, the mortgage lender it bought last year, “is on track. Cost savings from the acquisition are ahead of schedule.”

The bank also said it had added to reserves across “most” consumer portfolios and on commercial portfolios. Its nonperforming assets rose to $25.7 billion from $18.2 billion at the end of 2008, and from $7.8 billion on March 31, 2008.

Many worry that Bank of America’s board is too cozy with Mr. Lewis. Some are campaigning to push him out.

On Friday, two investor advisory firms issued reports recommending that shareholders vote to remove Mr. Lewis from the board. The bank’s proxy is in circulation in anticipation of what is likely to be a contentious annual meeting on April 29 in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Bank of America is based.

The reports, issued by the RiskMetrics Group and Glass, Lewis and Company, carry a lot of weight because some institutional shareholders follow the groups’ recommendations without exception.

A Bank of America spokesman said Friday that the company was disappointed with the conclusions of the reports, including an initiative to strip Mr.

Lewis of his chairmanship and another that would unseat him altogether. The spokesman also said that the bank believed that it had acted appropriately in its disclosures about the merger with Merrill.

Angry shareholders are not the only problem confronting Mr. Lewis. Bank of America is also awaiting the results of “stress tests” that federal regulators are administering to large banks. While Mr. Lewis has said his bank has sufficient capital, many analysts believe it will need to raise money. The bank also faces an inquiry into the Merrill merger by the New York attorney general.

Inside Bank of America, there is resentment over the Merrill acquisition.

Bank employees are also among the largest voices among individual stockholders.

Still, outside shareholders have been the most vocal. The Finger family, based in Texas, set up a Web site campaign bacproxyvote.com and broadcast television commercials urging shareholders to vote against Mr. Lewis. The family sold its Houston-based bank, Charter Bancshares, to Bank of America’s predecessor in 1996, and say they now control about 1.1 million shares.

The bank has tried to engage the Fingers, sending executives and a board member by corporate jet to visit the family three times in Texas.

The Fingers’ story line is familiar to others who became part of the Bank of America family tree. In the last few decades, the bank was cobbled together out of more than 50 financial companies, mostly local banks. The oldest was Massachusetts Bank, founded in 1784, which was absorbed through the company’s acquisition of FleetBoston Financial.

Another family, the Spanglers, controlled about 32 million shares as of spring of 2008, many of which were acquired when they sold their Bank of North Carolina to Bank of America’s predecessor, NationsBank, in the early 1980s. Assuming the family did not sell their stock, they would have lost more than $1 billion in the last year.

The Spanglers have not actively expressed a public opinion on the state of the company, though one member of the family stepped down from the bank’s board because she had reached retirement age.

The acquisitions were not only on the Bank of America side. Many of the companies that the bank acquired had built themselves up over the years in a similar fashion.

Tom Sharkey Jr., for instance, owns shares of the bank because his family sold its 100-year-old insurance business to FleetBoston in 2001, and then Fleet was acquired by Bank of America in 2004. Now, Mr. Sharkey says, he and several family members in New Jersey have lost significant wealth because of the bank’s “catastrophically bad mistakes.”

Some people, of course, support Mr. Lewis. The CtW Investment Group, which represents pension funds, is leading a campaign against Mr. Lewis, but the organization has received e-mail messages from people who believe the current management is good, according to a spokesman for the group.

“Please give Ken Lewis a chance,” wrote Luis F. Valenzuela, a shareholder who supported the bank in one of the e-mail messages provided by CtW to The New York Times. “He will prove you guys wrong. Don’t make the mistake of looking dumb.”

Mr. Valenzuela said in an e-mail message that he was a student in Arizona and that the bank’s past dividend helped him afford his education. Another person, Ivan Rudnitsky, wrote to CtW to say that the bank’s combination with Merrill has strong long-term value, which is the argument that the bank’s management gives for its actions. Mr. Rudnitsky did not reply to an e-mail inquiry.

Charles Elson, a professor at the University of Delaware, was given most of his tens of thousands of Bank of America shares by his father more than 30 years ago. Back then, the stock he owned was in Citizens & Southern Bank of Georgia, based in Atlanta, where he grew up.

“It was always a strong bank and a strong investment — something we’d never sell,” said Mr. Elson, whose father was on the board of the Atlanta bank before it was taken over in 1991 by a predecessor of Bank of America.

Mr. Elson, who teaches courses on corporate governance, has been concerned about the structure of Bank of America’s board since the late 1990s. He said he had once contacted the company about his concerns — to no avail.

“I knew it was there, the problems with corporate governance,” Mr. Elson said. “The biggest mistake I made was I did not sell. Put it this way: had I known this 40 years ago, I would have invested in something else.”

SectorWatch.biz Issues MarketStats on Beverage Companies ATTD, DPS, JSDA, KO, PEP, HANS

2009-04-17T10:14:00.000-07:00

SectorWatch.biz Issues MarketStats on Beverage Companies ATTD, DPS, JSDA, KO, PEP, HANS

First Hispanic-Owned Hotel Opens in Washington, D.C.

2009-04-11T05:50:00.000-07:00

First Hispanic-Owned Hotel Opens in Washington, D.C.

Why did Dylan Ratigan leave CNBC ?

2009-03-30T07:29:00.000-07:00

Dylan Ratigan is no longer listed at host of CNBC's "Fast Money" nor is his picture on the Fast Money web page.

Dylan hosted the show Thursday March 26th and was gone on Friday March 27th with Melissa Lee as the fill-in host.

From TVNewser:
"More details are emerging about the abrupt departure of Dylan Ratigan from CNBC. We just got off the phone with CNBC spokesperson Brian Steel who says, "Dylan has told us he is leaving effective today."

In what was a mutual decision, Steel tells TVNewser, "Due to the serious economic times in which we live, we made a decision that it would be a distraction for Dylan to host 'Fast Money' today."

My Theory why Dylan left without a goodbye to his audience

Dylan Ratigan may have gotten too close to the truth with
this radio interview
where he compared the people making money at the major investment banks to the crooks at Enron. He gives very clear details how "people" sold insurance for faulty investment products, kept the fees for the policies but had insufficient reserves to pay the claims most anyone with a brain should have expected given they were making loans to people who we knew could not pay them back once rates adjusted up or housing prices fell.Marketwatch media columnist Jon Friedman writes Monday about the departure of “Fast Money” anchor Dylan Ratigan from CNBC based on an interview he had with Ratigan on Sunday.

Friedman writes, “On Sunday, 36-year-old Ratigan stressed three points:

“1) He had and continues to have great affection for CNBC, despite what some blogs say, 2) his goal is to communicate his concern for America’s financial mess and, 3) he hasn’t already arranged to jump to another TV network.

“‘I’m leaving CNBC in order to pursue this story with the broadest possible footprint,’ he said.

“He added: ‘People are going to jump to a conclusion that this is about CNBC. It’s not — it’s about me.
Dylan Ratigan, the host of CNBC's "Fast Money," had just stepped out of his apartment in lower Manhattan on Sunday afternoon when a stranger stopped him. Recognizing Ratigan immediately, the man cut short a cell phone conversation and extended his hand.
"Go get 'em!" he told Ratigan, who in turn smiled politely at his new friend, made some small talk and moved on.
"Ever since this started," he told me with a self-deprecating grin, "people think I'm some kind of (bleeping) Che Guevara!"
By "this," Ratigan was referring to the barrage of speculation that he will leave CNBC after five years. His contract with CNBC, a unit of General Electric (GE:General Electric Company
News , chart , profile , more
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10:31am 03/30/2009

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GE 10.08, -0.70, -6.5%) , will expire on March 31. Many media blogs suggest that he will wind up working for another TV network. Walt Disney's ABC (DIS:Walt Disney Company
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10:31am 03/30/2009

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DIS 17.68, -0.91, -4.9%) has been mentioned frequently.
For now, Ratigan smiles at the scuttlebutt. "If I don't know yet what I'm going to do," he says, "how can anyone else be so sure?"
Regardless of whether that might sound like a negotiating ploy, Ratigan has always been very ambitious. He once told me that his dream job was to be a late-night talk-show host. See previous column.
There seems little doubt that Ratigan will want to remain in television. CNBC might decide to play hardball and make it difficult for him to join another network right away. It certainly wouldn't want to see one of its celebrities go off to a different TV operation.
Ratigan's star could rise to even greater heights elsewhere -- and he might also bring his fans with him, something that could hurt CNBC's ratings.
CNBC is the No. 1 business-news TV network. But audiences can be fickle. The Fox Business Network (which, like MarketWatch, the publisher of this column, is owned by News Corp.) and Bloomberg Television are intent on pressing CNBC.
The CNBC-Ratigan affair is a fascinating game of high-stakes poker, being played by two very determined parties. And who will blink first? Both sides are trying hard to take the high road, at this point, but TV is a business driven by large egos and big money.
When he talked with me about his prospects, Ratigan used the phrase, "I'm leaving CNBC because ..." several times, indicating that he was headed for the door. Still, I suspect that if CNBC offered to continue the negotiations, he'd listen. It's possible a deal could yet be worked out.
Right now, the network seems to believe that Ratigan is about to depart. When I asked CNBC spokesman Brian Steel if he wanted to offer a comment to this column, he made it sound like Ratigan and the network were on the verge of parting ways.
"We thank him for all of his quality contributions and wish him well," Steel told me by email late on Sunday afternoon.
Ratigan would be the second high-profile CNBC figure to make headlines recently for leaving. It was widely reported that Jonathan Wald, the network's leading news executive, had a contract dispute with the network. Officially, Wald's last day is March 31.
Ratigan declined to discuss his contract in detail and insisted that another deal is not in place. CNBC would miss Ratigan, too, and so might many viewers. He stands out because of his ebullience and great knowledge of the financial markets.

What do you think? Why would he vanish without a word or a farewell party?

Rick Wagoner asked ( From Obama Administration ) to resign from GM ? On Monday ?

2009-03-29T16:07:00.000-07:00

GM CEO Rick Wagner has agreed to resign at the Obama Administration's request. Wagner was not the best choice for CEO of GM at this time and his departure will be celebrated by many in the auto industry. The other half of the problem is UAW President Ron Gettelfinger. Will the Obama Administration call on Gettelfinger to resign? Would he be half the man Wagner is if his resignation would help?

GM CEO resigns at Obama's behest

The Obama administration asked Rick Wagoner, the chairman and CEO of General Motors, to step down and he agreed, a White House official said.

Wagoner's departure is one of the remarkable strings attached to a new aid package the administration plans to offer GM.

The White House confirmed Wagoner was leaving at the government's behest after The Associated Press reported his immediate departure, without giving a reason.

On Monday, President Obama is to unveil his plans for the auto industry, including a response to a request for additional funds by GM and Chrysler. (excerpt) read more at politico.com

When will the Recession be over ?? 2009,2010,2011,2012,2013 ?

2009-03-28T14:41:00.000-07:00

The economy has got to turn around soon. But how the heck will we know when the turn has come?
Here are five key signs that we at MSN Money will be watching for, plus some extras from experts and a couple from just plain folks eager to see some evidence of a recovery.
1) Indexes start rising
There was a flicker of good news in February, when the Economic Cycle Research Institute's Weekly Leading Index rose for the first time in six weeks.
Expert: Is a recovery coming?
The index, a composite of daily and weekly data on economic drivers of the business cycle, including corporate profits and housing activity, is still looking pretty weak, said Lakshman Achuthan, the managing director at ECRI, but it has stopped falling, and there has been some stabilization since mid-December.
"When these leading indexes begin to start rising, that will be a very clear and, as importantly, a very objective sign of a recovery," Achuthan said.
Detailed information about the institute's research is available only to subscribers, but the leading index is frequently mentioned in news reports and is worth following as a reliable indicator of key changes in the business cycle.
Talk back: How will you know the recession is over?
Another statistic worth following is consumer spending. That is already showing some signs of life. Consumer spending constitutes about 70% of the U.S. economy. When consumers spend, the economy grows. Consumer spending rose 0.6% in January, after a 1% decrease in December and a 0.8% drop in November.
2) Cardboard boxes are in demand
Cargo and cardboard are two heavy-duty industrial signals to watch.
The Baltic Dry Index is an assessment of the price of moving raw materials on cargo ships around the world. When the world economy is fading, shipping gets cheaper. When growth returns, shipping costs more. The index has shown some improvement this year, after sinking to a 22-year low in early December.
"In terms of a glimmer of hope, a tap has been turned," said Michael Gaylard, a derivatives broker at Freight Investor Services.
"The fundamentals -- the raw materials needed that are paramount to infrastructure rebuilding and investment around the globe -- they're starting to move," Gaylard said. "Once the flows that we've seen in the past few weeks start to have some continuity to them, then the market will rebuild. The turnaround has started, but it's going to be a long and slow process."Then-Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan used to watch the cardboard box business as an indicator of industrial production. About 75% of all nondurable goods are shipped in corrugated cardboard boxes; when demand for boxes is high, that's a sign that the economy is doing well.
3) Diamonds are forever . . . again
Jewelry sales are a leading indicator of recovery in the retail sector, according to Mike Niemira, the chief economist at the International Council of Shopping Centers. So what better store to watch than Tiffany (TIF, news, msgs)?
Sales of engagement rings have been down in recent months, said Mark Aaron, the company's vice president of investor relations.
"It's not that people don't fall in love during a recession," Aaron said, "It's whether they're making that commitment and buying a $10,000 engagement ring and making wedding plans.
"When people start to feel a little more secure about their jobs, when the stock market starts to stabilize, that might be enough to help restore confidence. If we see greater interest in the big-ticket items and a pickup in store traffic, that will be encouraging."
4) Restaurants are bubbly
There was no obvious sign of a recession at BLT Steak in New York City on a recent Thursday night. The tables were full, and the bar was packed.
But co-owner Keith Treyball said he has seen some pullback among his customers. He said he'll know the recession is ending when the most-affluent diners stop ordering the $150 bottles of wine they've been drinking lately and start ordering the $300 bottles they drank when the economy was stronger.
The wine indicator
Some restaurateurs have already seen signs of recovery.
Valentine's Day, traditionally a big one for restaurants, was even bigger for Wolfgang Puck's restaurants this year: Sales were up 25% across the board, said Tom Kaplan, the senior managing partner of Wolfgang Puck's Fine Dining Group.
Some in the restaurant business see sales of Champagne as a leading indicator. If you buy that, there's hope, as bubbly remains very popular at hip bars, nightclubs and hotels, said Stephen Brauer, the general manager of wines and champagnes at Pernod Ricard (PDRDY, news, msgs).
"You have the 25- to 35-year-olds who do not have mortgages and children in college who continue to spend money and enjoy themselves," Brauer said. "You do not have to go to the bank and get a loan to enjoy a great bottle (of Champagne)."
5) Little splurges are back in style
Here's another sign of life. Murray's Cheese Shop in Greenwich Village was packed on my last visit. I'd never seen it so crowded.Some glass-half-empty folks might say people were buying cheese for a night in, instead going out to dinner, but Murray's, which Forbes named the world's best cheese store, does not sell Kraft (KFT, news, msgs) singles. Cheese lovers end up spending $20 for a hunk of cheese. I did.
And people are still lining up for cupcakes at New York City's Magnolia Bakery. The bakery, which recently opened two more stores, has seen sales of its $2.50 cupcakes continually rise.
Strong sales of small indulgences demonstrate Americans still like to treat themselves and may soon be ready to move on to bigger treats.
Our own economic indicators
So what are other people watching?
Mike McLaughlin, an Asics sneaker salesman and an avid golfer from New Jersey, said he'll know things are improving when tee times become more expensive and harder to get.
Jen Sundstrom, a pharmaceutical sales representative in Philadelphia, will know when she finds herself back at Whole Foods Market (WFMI, news, msgs) for all of her grocery shopping.
Eric Goldberg, a regular at BLT Steak's bar, said his indicator is "the amount of time it takes to get a seat at the bar at BLT Steak." It's been easier to find a seat because fewer people have been out, he said.
Readers, take note: Goldberg stood the whole night.
Other people said they'd know a recovery was coming when they:
Upgraded to a bigger flat-screen television.
Saw lawyers working until 2 a.m. again.
Replaced generic dog food with organic brands.
Bought Starbucks (SBUX, news, msgs) lattes again.
Rejoined a gym and purchased sessions with a personal trainer.
Had more trouble catching a cab in New York City.
The taxicab indicator
David Zelman of housing research firm Zelman & Associates says he'll know the recession is over when he stops watching CNBC all day.
Where's the remote?
by msn.com

Ben Bernanke talks about AIG , on 60 minutes

2009-03-15T18:12:00.000-07:00

what company will replace CITI on the Dow Jones ?

2009-03-09T14:49:00.000-07:00

With Citi shares trading below $1, the first time since 1970 that a “penny stock” traded on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, it is widely expected that it will be removed from the index.
“The company was added to the Dow in 1997 when it was still known as Travelers, and the last company to be removed from the Dow was AIG last September (when its stock hovered above $1) and was replaced by Kraft Foods.
“It’s also expected that General Motors may be removed from the Dow. GM shares are trading slightly above $1 and there’s speculation it may be headed toward bankruptcy.
“There are other stocks in the Dow that are now a part of Wall Street’s Dollar Menu. In fact, there are currently five Dow stocks trading in the single digit range.
“Who will take their place in the Dow? Mostly likely, another company whose stock is faring better or relatively better in this recessionary environment.
“There aren’t too many of those but if I had to guess, I’d say it would have to be a company with a strong brand name and one that is viewed as influential. Also, one whose shares aren’t trading in the single digits.
“On the technology front, Apple and Google are possible contenders. In the pharmaceuticals/biotech world, perhaps Abbot Labs, Amgen, Bristol, Genentech and Gilead Sciences could be considerations. If terms of other industries and companies, perhaps Monsanto or Amazon?
“Some might argue about the relevance of the Dow as it doesn’t accurately depict what’s happening in the markets because of its limited number of stocks and because it is price-weighted rather than market-value weighted like the S&P 500.
“However, there is still a prestige factor involved in being part of this elite group and any company added would see a boost in volume and possibly price.
“The top editor at The Wall Street Journal, which is published by Dow Jones, decides on changes to the index. It was reported (by Reuters) that they are currently monitoring the situation ‘closely.’
“Who do you think should be included in the Dow and why?”

USA Economy Falls off a Cliff ? Warren Buffet States on CNBC ! Watch Here for free !

2009-03-09T09:19:00.000-07:00

Recovery Signs from the recession, now here ?

2009-03-06T06:22:00.000-08:00

3 of 5 recovery signs in place
D. Pett, Financial Post

With North American markets down more than 50% from their peaks, talk this week has turned again to the possibility that stocks are ready to rebound.
On Tuesday, Barack Obama, the U. S. President, declared that stock markets have bottomed and as indexes bounced on Wednesday, market analysts the world over jumped into the discussion, claiming a "bear market rally" was under way.
But based on yesterday's broad-based retreat that saw Canada's top exchange fall almost 200 points and the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 both drop more than 4%, prognosticators may have spoken too soon.
In fact a report from Credit Suisse this week claims a recovery, even in the short term, appears unlikely until certain conditions are in place.
"All in all, three of the five preconditions for a bear market rally are in place," said U. K.-based analyst Andrew Garthwaite in a note to clients. "Ultimately, however, we believe all five preconditions are needed."
The first building block to a bear market rally that appears to be in place is the presence of high cash levels sitting on the sidelines. Mr. Garthwaite noted that U. S. money market mutual funds are worth roughly US$4-trillion currently and account for 40% of total market capitalization. And for the first time since 1993, they represent a greater value than U. S. equity mutual funds.
Second, the analyst is encouraged by a turnaround in the best U.S. lead indicators.
Third, credit spreads appear to be stabilizing and improving, with corporate bond issues picking up over the past few months.
Holding back the bear market rally, on the other hand, is the pending peak in U. S. housing inventories and the all-important point of investor capitulation.
Mr. Garthwaite says existing home inventories will likely peak in the second quarter.
As for investors reaching a capitulation point, Mr. Garthwaite says technical indicators remain mixed. NYSE stocks trading above their 10-week average seems to have capitulated, the analyst says, while the VIX index, a measure of market volatility, earnings breadth and market breadth all indicate a lower level of stress than three months ago.
Equity risk appetite, equity sentiment and insider buying, three other key indicators, have not capitulated, however.
Despite Mr. Garthwaite's belief that a bear-market rally is not imminent until all of the preconditions mentioned are satisfied, he remains confident that governments and corporations have the right policies in place to help turn markets before they get much worse.
"We are reluctant to be negative on equities when the market is more oversold than at any time in the last 70 years and has experienced the biggest peak-to-trough decline since the Depression (in real and nominal terms)," he said
"While the outlook for GDP growth is the worst it has been since the 1930s, this does not mean the equity market has to be as cheap as it was in the 1930s

Waffen Buffet says USA Economy is in Shambles ?

2009-02-28T11:58:00.000-08:00

Following Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s worst year on record, Chairman Warren Buffett told shareholders Saturday that the economy would remain in "shambles" during 2009 and beyond, offering no prediction about the future may hold for U.S. stocks.
In his annual letter to shareholders -- eagerly anticipated by investors for the insights it may hold into his thinking -- Buffett said neither he nor Charlie Munger, his long-time partner in running Omaha-based Berkshire (BRKB:
Berkshire Hathaway Inc

"We're certain, for example, that the economy will be in shambles throughout 2009 -- and, for that matter, probably well beyond -- but that conclusion does not tell us whether the stock market will rise or fall," Buffett wrote.
Buffett, known as the "Oracle of Omaha," admitted to mistakes last year. "During 2008 I did some dumb things in investments," he said. One such error, he said, was the purchase of a large amount of Conoco Phillips Inc. (COP:
ConocoPhillips

COP 37.35, -1.10, -2.9%) stock when oil and gas prices were nearing peak levels.
"I in no way anticipated the dramatic fall in energy prices that occurred in the last half of the year," he said. "I still believe the odds are good that oil sells far higher in the future than the current $40-to-$50 price. But so far I have been dead wrong. Even if prices should rise, moreover, the terrible timing of my purchase has cost Berkshire several billion dollars."
Buffett also said his acquisition of shares in two Irish banks have turned out badly -- with losses of more than 89%.
On the positive side, the investor is pleased with buys totaling $14.5 million in fixed-income securities issued by General Electric Co. (GE:
General Electric Company

GS 91.08, -1.07, -1.2%) and William Wrigley Co. "We very much like these commitments, which carry high current yields that, in themselves, make the investments more than satisfactory. But in each of these three purchases, we also acquired a substantial equity participation as a bonus."
The per-share book value of both Class A and Class B shares of Berkshire fell 9.6%, Buffett said.
The company's net income fell to $4.99 billion from $13.21 billion in 2007.
The 78-year-old billionaire said that although the market value of bonds and stocks the company still holds have dropped dramatically along with the broader market, Berkshire is not bothered by those decreases. "Indeed, we enjoy such price declines if we have funds available to increase our positions. ... Whether we're talking about socks or stocks, I like buying quality merchandise when it is marked down."
On the lookout for inflation
'Whatever the downsides may be, strong and immediate action by government was essential last year if the financial system was to avoid a total breakdown. Had that occurred, the consequences for every area of our economy would have been cataclysmic. Like it or not, the inhabitants of Wall Street, Main Street and the various Side Streets of America were all in the same boat.'
— Warren Buffett
Commenting on the federal government's actions to resolve the economic crisis, Buffett said: "Economic medicine that was previously meted out by the cupful has recently been dispensed by the barrel. These once-unthinkable dosages will almost certainly bring on unwelcome aftereffects."
Inflation is likely to be one such effect, Buffett said.
"Moreover, major industries have become dependent on federal assistance, and they will be followed by cities and states bearing mind-boggling requests. Weaning these entities from the public teat will be a political challenge. They won't leave willingly."
However, said Buffett, the U.S. government did need to take "strong and immediate action" to avoid a "total breakdown" of the economy.
With regard to the subprime mortgage crisis, Buffett said lenders and buyers have to get back to a basic equation. "The present housing debacle should teach home buyers, lenders, brokers and government some simple lessons that will ensure stability in the future. Home purchases should involve an honest-to-God down payment of at least 10% and monthly payments that can be comfortably handled by the borrower's income. That income should be carefully verified."
He pointed out that the U.S. has overcome much worse obstacles in the past. "Though the path has not been smooth, our economic system has worked extraordinarily well over time. It has unleashed human potential as no other system has, and it will continue to do so. America's best days lie ahead."
With sizable interests in many of the largest publicly held U.S. corporations, Berkshire's book value was likely hit by the falling price of investments in banks and other financial-services companies including Well Fargo & Co. (WFC:
Wells Fargo & Company

MTB 36.60, -3.15, -7.9%)
Those stocks dropped 34% on average during the fourth quarter. Such losses aren't realized, so they won't affect Berkshire's quarterly earnings.
Buffett cops to mistakes, likes longer-term horizon
However, Buffett prefers to be judged on Berkshire's book value, which measures the company's assets minus liabilities. Gary Ransom, an analyst at Fox-Pitt Kelton, expected the company's book value to decline by 8% in the fourth quarter.
"He's really getting hit because he has a lot of credit-sensitive businesses," said Jeff Auxier, manager of the Auxier Focus Fund, who owns Berkshire shares.
Berkshire's Class A shares have dropped 44% in the past year and hit a 5 1/2-year low of $73,500 earlier this week. The Class B shares carry 1/30th the economic value of the Class A shares.
The last time Berkshire stock slumped to multiyear lows was about nine yeard ago, when Buffett was famously scorned for missing out on the dot-com boom. He shunned technology stocks in the late 1990s, missing out on huge gains, but when the sector crashed from 2000 through 2002, Berkshire shares almost doubled, vindicating the investor.
However, as the housing and credit markets boomed later on in the decade, Berkshire's stakes in financial-services companies like American Express and Wells Fargo remained large, even as he warned that the bubble might burst. See full story.
"He's the best out there, but it's amazing to see how Berkshire was so concentrated in financials," Auxier said.
'Too fast'
Berkshire waded further into the financial sector during the fourth quarter ,when Buffett bought $5 billion in the preferred stock of investment bank Goldman Sachs.
He also invested $3 billion in preferred shares issued by GE, which has a large, struggling financial-services unit called GE Capital. Blue chip GE announced a sizable dividend cut on its common shares on Friday. See full story.
The deals came with warrants that give Berkshire the right to buy 43.5 million Goldman shares at $115 each and 134.8 million shares of GE at $22.25 each. These contracts expire in October 2013.
Both Goldman and GE shares currently trade below these levels, battered by the financial crisis. Specifically, Goldman dropped 27% since Buffett's investment in the firm was announced Sept. 23, while GE plunged fully 65% since Berkshire unveiled its investment in the industrial conglomerate on Oct. 1.
'He dove in too fast and probably wishes he had waited a few months. ... No one, not even Buffett, can call the bottom.'
— Mark Sellers, Sellers Capital
Soon after, Buffett wrote in a New York Times editorial that he'd been buying U.S. stocks for his personal account and recommended that other long-term investors do so too.
Since that Oct. 17 article, the S&P 500 Index ($SPX:
S&P 500 Index
$SPX 735.09, -17.74, -2.4%) has slumped 22%.
"He dove in too fast and probably wishes he had waited a few months," said Mark Sellers, managing partner of hedge fund Sellers Capital LLC. "He hoarded cash for years, waiting, waiting, and then used a lot of it very quickly. No one, not even Buffett, can call the bottom."
Indeed, Buffett was clear in his Oct. 17 editorial that he can't predict the short-term movements of the stock market and has no idea whether stocks will be higher a year from now. However, he stressed that "major" U.S. companies will be generating record profits in five to 20 years' time.
Buying some protection
Many of Buffett's recent investments also have been made further up the capital structure of companies, giving him more protection, commented Sellers.
Preferred shares are senior to common stock and also pay large dividends. Goldman and GE are paying Berkshire 10% a year in dividends for five years.

Marketwatch.com

Dow 4,000 ?

2009-02-23T06:08:00.000-08:00

There are few steadfast investing principles. Dynamic markets constantly change and investors must be willing to adapt their strategies. However, one rule we should always follow is to trade with the primary trend. Trying to trade against the underlying current of the market will surely result in losses. Those doing so think of themselves as contrarians. In reality, they are foolish.
For months in my weekly newsletter EPIC Insights, I have repeatedly stated that the primary trend is bearish. When stock markets worldwide hit synchronized lows in November 2008, we were given notice. During the subsequent rally, markets began diverging and raised hopes that the primary trend was changing. This week that hope was crushed. As the chart shows, last week markets pushed to synchronized 2009 lows, on many occasions violated their 2008 lows, and have reinforced the primary trend as bearish:
Index Prior Low Date of Low Recent Low Date of Low New Low?
Dow Jones Industrial 7,552 11/20/2008 7,366 2/20/2009 Yes
Dow Jones Transport 2,989 11/20/2008 2,699 2/20/2009 Yes
NASDAQ 1,316 11/20/2008 1,440 1/20/2009 No
S&P 500 752 11/20/2008 770 2/20/2009 No
Wilshire 5000 7,451 11/20/2008 7,750 2/20/2009 No

FTSE 100 3,781 11/21/2008 3,889 2/20/2009 No
DAX Index 4,127 11/21/2008 4,015 2/20/2009 Yes
CAC 40 2,881 11/21/2008 2,751 2/20/2009 Yes
NIKKEI 225 7,163 10/27/2008 7,416 2/20/2009 No

With a primary bear market, we are unable to predict either the duration or severity of price declines. Instead, we turn to past experiences to guide us. Unfortunately, nothing in the past indicates promise for the immediate future.
For the economy, the current downtrend has already reached levels of prior deep recessions. However, as the storm clouds continue gathering we should expect this downturn to be more severe than any since the Great Depression. With indecisive policymakers who have used all traditional stimulative actions (i.e., interest rate reductions from the Federal Reserve and increased spending from the Federal government), we face an uncertain world with few concrete answers. Having used debt to finance our lifestyles for nearly 60 years, Americans are being forced to reduce debt and curtail spending. This combination should result in more economic malaise over the coming months.
Looking at stock market performance over prior bear markets, as shown in the following table, the picture this time around is equally bleak.
Bear Market Date of Market Date of Value
Market Peak Peak Bottom Bottom Lost Duration
1929 Crash 381 9/3/1929 41 7/8/1932 -89% 714 days
1968-1970 985 12/3/1968 631 5/26/1970 -36% 368 days
1973 -1974 1,052 1/11/1973 578 12/6/1974 -45% 482 days
2001-2002 11,338 5/21/2001 7,286 10/9/2002 -36% 347 days
NASDAQ 5,049 3/10/2000 1,114 10/9/2002 -78% 648 days
Current 14,165 10/9/2007 7,366 2/20/2009 -48% 344 days

While the current bear market has erased 48%, in line with the declines seen in most bear markets, the duration of 344 days is the shortest on record. If you follow the belief that this bear market is unwinding 60 years of excess spending, we should expect the Dow to lose at least 70% from peak to trough and the bear market to last in excess of 600 days. Combining these data points, the market may not bottom until the Dow approaches 4,000 sometime in the next 9 to 12 months.
Finally, most major bear markets do not end until prices have reached bargain levels. This often equaled a P/E multiple near 6-7 and a dividend yield in the same area. Currently the Dow sports an estimated P/E of 11 and a dividend yield of 4.3%. In order to achieve bargain levels, the Dow would need to trade near 4,000.
The picture painted here is very ugly. Most investors have a great deal of difficulty accepting the belief that the Dow could trade to such levels. I hope I am being overly cautious, but fear my analysis will prove correct. With such a drastic selloff predicted, earning meaningful returns will be difficult. Becoming excessively short stocks will provide the opportunity to be forced from your position by unexpected bear market rallies, while going long stocks that seem cheap will lead to losses and frustration as those cheap stocks become cheaper. Instead, I will stick to my core competencies as a value investor and search for cheap stocks that offer limited risk and outstanding return potential. However, I will not buy these shares blindly but will look to use index exposure to hedge all my risks.
Continuing a theme used in last week’s fundamental trade, I advise readers to become more short of the broad market. Last week, we shorted SPDR Trust (SPY) and iShares MSCI EAFE Index Fund (EFA) with excellent results. This week’s trade entails using options on SPY as a means to profit. Using a September 2009 expiration, I recommend shorting the SPY 77 calls (ROQ+IY) and using the proceeds to buy the SPY 77 puts (ROQ+UY) as this week’s fundamental trade. Cover 5% of your portfolio with this trade (six contracts for my portfolio).
By EpicAdv

Sirius Is Saved ?

2009-02-17T07:00:00.000-08:00

won’t have to file for bankruptcy today after Liberty Media Corp. agreed to invest $530 million to rescue the satellite radio broadcaster, the companies announced Tuesday.

Engelwood-based Liberty, the media and entertainment company founded by John Malone, will immediately loan Sirius $280 million, about $171 million of which will to pay off debt Sirius had coming due this week.

A second round of $250 million from Liberty (NASDAQ: LCAPA) will also be available to Sirius XM to help it pay its debts and ward off a potential takeover of Sirius by Charlie Ergen’s Dish Network Corp., the Englewood-based satellite TV company.

In return for the investment in Sirius, Liberty Media will own 12.5 million shares of preferred stock in Sirius XM (NASDAQ: SIRI) that Liberty can convert into common stock.

That would give Liberty a 40 percent ownership stake in the radio company.

Malone and Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei are expected to join the Sirius XM board of directors.

"We are excited to be investing in Sirius XM. We have been impressed with the company, its operations and management team," said Greg Maffei, president and CEO of Liberty, in a written statement. "Sirius XM's ability to grow subscribers and revenue in a difficult financial and auto market is indicative of how listeners view this as a 'must have' service."

Mel Karmazin, CEO of Sirius XM, called the deal with Liberty remarkable given today’s capital market’s, and validation of what the company envisioned when it merged the nation’s two satellite radio companies last year.

“This agreement enables Sirius XM to continue to develop the opportunities first outlined in the merger of Sirius and XM,” Karmazin said. “By strengthening our capital structure and enhancing our financial flexibility, this investment allows us to continue providing the great content and innovative programming our subscribers know and love.”

15 companies , are going out of bussiness ?

2009-02-09T09:12:00.000-08:00

15 Companies That Might Not Survive 2009
R. Newman

With consumers shutting their wallets and corporate revenues plunging, the business landscape may start to resemble a graveyard in 2009. Household names like Circuit City and Linens 'n Things have already perished. And chances are, those bankruptcies were just an early warning sign of a much broader epidemic.

Moody's Investors Service, for instance, predicts that the default rate on corporate bonds - which foretells bankruptcies - will be three times higher in 2009 than in 2008, and 15 times higher than in 2007. That could equate to 25 significant bankruptcies per month.

We examined ratings from Moody's and data from other sources to develop a short list of potential victims that ought to be familiar to most consumers. Many of these firms are in industries directly hit by the slowdown in consumer spending, such as retail, automotive, housing and entertainment.

But there are other common threads. Most of these firms have limited cash for a rainy day, and a lot of debt, with large interest payments due over the next year. In ordinary times, it might not be so hard to refinance loans, or get new ones, to help keep the cash flowing. But in an acute credit crunch it's a different story, and at companies where sales are down and going lower, skittish lenders may refuse to grant any more credit. It's a terrible time to be cash-poor.

[See how Wall Street continues to doom itself.]

That's why Moody's assigns most of these firms its lowest rating for short-term liquidity. And all the firms on this list have long-term debt that Moody's rates Caa or lower, which means the borrower is considered at least a "very high" credit risk.

Once a company defaults on its debt, or fails to make a payment, the next step is usually a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. Some firms continue to operate while in Chapter 11, retaining many of their employees. Those firms often shed debt, restructure, and emerge from bankruptcy as healthier companies.

But it takes fresh financing to do that, and with money scarce, more bankrupt firms than usual are likely to liquidate - like Circuit City. That's why corporate failures are likely to be a major drag on the economy in 2009: In a liquidation, the entire workforce often gets axed, with little or no severance. That will only add to unemployment, which could hit 9 or even 10 percent by the end of the year.

[Want to land a plum job without paying taxes? Here's how.]

It's possible that none of the firms on this list will liquidate, or even declare Chapter 11. Some may come up with unexpected revenue or creative financing that helps avert bankruptcy, while others could be purchased in whole or in part by creditors or other investors. But one way or another, the following 15 firms will probably look a lot different a year from now than they do today:

Rite Aid. (Ticker symbol: RAD; about 100,000 employees; 1-year stock-price decline: 92%). This drugstore chain tried to boost its performance by acquiring competitors Brooks and Eckerd in 2007. But there have been some nasty side effects, like a huge debt load that makes it the most leveraged drugstore chain in the U.S., according to Zacks Equity Research. That big retail investment came just as megadiscounter Wal-Mart was starting to sell prescription drugs, and consumers were starting to cut bank on spending. Management has twice lowered its outlook for 2009. Prognosis: Mounting losses, with no turnaround in sight.

Claire's Stores. (Privately owned; about 18,000 employees.) Leon Black's once-renowned private-equity firm, the Apollo Group, paid $3.1 billion for this trendy teen-focused accessory store in 2007, when buyout funds were bulging. But cash flow has been negative for much of the past year and analysts believe Claire's is close to defaulting on its debt. A horrible retail outlook for 2009 offers no relief, suggesting Claire's could follow Linens 'n Things - another Apollo purchase - and declare Chapter 11, possibly shuttering all of its 3,000-plus stores.

[See 5 pieces missing from Obama's stimulus plan.]

Chrysler. (Privately owned; about 55,000 employees). It's never a good sign when management insists the company is not going out of business, which is what CEO Bob Nardelli has been doing lately. Of the three Detroit automakers, Chrysler is the most endangered, with a product portfolio that's overreliant on gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs and almost totally devoid of compelling small cars. A recent deal with Fiat seems dubious, since the Italian automaker doesn't have to pony up any money, and Chrysler desperately needs cash. The company is quickly burning through $4 billion in government bailout money, and with car sales down 40 percent from recent peaks, Chrysler may be the weakling that can't cut it in tough times.

Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group. (DTG; about 7,000 employees; stock down 95%). This car-rental company is a small player compared to Enterprise, Hertz, and Avis Budget. It's also more reliant on leisure travelers, and therefore more susceptible to a downturn as consumers cut spending. Dollar Thrifty is also closely tied to Chrysler, which supplies 80 percent of its fleet. Moody's predicts that if Chrysler declares Chapter 11, Dollar Thrifty would suffer deeply as well.

Realogy Corp. (Privately owned; about 13,000 employees). It's the biggest real-estate brokerage firm in the country, but that's a bad thing when there are double-digit declines in both sales and prices, as there were in 2009. Realogy, which includes the Coldwell Banker, ERA, and Sotheby's franchises, also carries a high debt load, dating to its purchase by the Apollo Group in 2007 - the very moment when the housing market was starting to invert from a soaring ride into a sickening nosedive. Realogy has been trying to refinance much of its debt, prompting lawsuits. One deal was denied by a judge in December, reducing the firm's already tight wiggle room.

[See why "Wall Street talent" is an oxymoron.]

Station Casinos. (Privately owned, about 14,000 employees). Las Vegas has already been creamed by a biblical real-estate bust, and now it may face the loss of its home-grown gambling joints, too. Station - which runs 15 casinos off the strip that cater to locals - recently failed to make a key interest payment, which is often one of the last steps before a Chapter 11 filing. For once, the house seems likely to lose.

Loehmann's Capital Corp. (Privately owned; about 1,500 employees). This clothing chain has the right formula for lean times, offering women's clothing at discount prices. But the consumer pullback is hitting just about every retailer, and Loehmann's has a lot less cash to ride out a drought than competitors like Nordstrom Rack and TJ Maxx. If Loehmann's doesn't get additional financing in 2009 - a dicey proposition, given skyrocketing unemployment and plunging spending - the chain could run out of cash.

Sbarro. (Privately owned; about 5,500 employees). It's not the pizza that's the problem. Many of this chain's 1,100 storefronts are in malls, which is a double whammy: Traffic is down, since consumers have put away their wallets. Sbarro can't really boost revenue by adding a breakfast or late-night menu, like other chains have done. And competitors like Domino's and Pizza Hut have less debt and stronger cash flow, which could intensify pressure on Sbarro as key debt payments come due in 2009.

Six Flags. (SIX; about 30,000 employees; stock down 84%). This theme-park operator has been losing money for several years, and selling off properties to try to pay down debt and get back into the black. But the ride may end prematurely. Moody's expects cash flow to be negative in 2009, and if consumers aren't spending during the peak summer season, that could imperil the company's ability to pay debts coming due later this year and in 2010.

Blockbuster. (BBI; about 60,000 employees; stock down 57%). The video-rental chain has burned cash while trying to figure out how to maximize fees without alienating customers. Its operating income has started to improve just as consumers are cutting back, even on movies. Video stores in general are under pressure as they compete with cable and Internet operators offering the same titles. A key test of Blockbuster's viability will come when two credit lines expire in August. One possible outcome, according to Valueline, is that investors take the company private and then go public again when market conditions are better.

Krispy Kreme. (KKD; about 4,000 employees; stock down 50%). The donuts might be good, but Krispy Kreme overestimated Americans' appetite - and that's saying something. This chain overexpanded during the donut heyday of the 1990s - taking on a lot of debt - and now requires high volumes to meet expenses and interest payments. The company has cut costs and closed underperforming stores, but still hasn't earned an operating profit in three years. And now that consumers are cutting back on everything, such improvements may fail to offset top-line declines, leading Krispy Kreme to seek some kind of relief from lenders over the next year.

Landry's Restaurants. (LNY; about 17,000 employees; stock down 66%). This restaurant chain, which operates Chart House, Rainforest Café, and other eateries, needs $400 million in new financing to finalize a buyout deal dating to last June. If lenders come through, the company should have enough cash to ride out the recession. But at least two banks have already balked, leading to downgrades of the company's debt and the prospect of a cash-flow crunch.

Sirius Satellite Radio. (SIRI - parent company; about 1,000 employees; stock down 96%). The music rocks, but satellite radio has yet to be profitable, and huge contracts for performers like Howard Stern are looking unsustainable. Sirius is one of two satellite-radio services owned by parent company Sirius XM, which was formed when Sirius and XM merged last year. So far, the merger hasn't generated the savings needed to make the company profitable, and Moody's thinks there's a "high likelihood" that Sirius will fail to repay or refinance its debt in 2009. One outcome could be a takeover, at distressed prices, by other firms active in the satellite business.

Trump Entertainment Resorts Holdings. (TRMP; about 9,500 employees; stock down 94%). The casino company made famous by The Donald has received several extensions on interest payments, while it tries to sell at least one of its Atlantic City properties and pay down a stack of debt. But with casino buyers scarce, competition circling, and gamblers nursing their losses from the recession, Trump Entertainment may face long odds of skirting bankruptcy.

BearingPoint. (BGPT; about 16,000 employees; stock down 21%). This Virginia-based consulting firm, spun out of KPMG in 2001, is struggling to solve its own operating problems. The firm has consistently lost money, revenue has been falling, and management stopped issuing earnings guidance in 2008. Stable government contracts generate about 30 percent of the firm's business, but the firm may sell other divisions to help pay off debt. With a key interest payment due in April, management needs to hustle - or devise its own exit strategy.

Chapter 11 for Sirius Satellite Radio ?

2009-02-03T10:11:00.000-08:00

Sirius XM (NASDAQ: SIRI) is up against debt payments that its management has been saying would not be a problem.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "Sirius XM Satellite Radio Inc. is facing an important test of its viability this month: how it handles $174.6 million in debt coming due Feb. 17." Since the company has not reported its fourth quarter, no one knows for certain how much cash Sirius has. More debt payments are due later in the year.

Could the debt problem this month push Sirius into Chapter 11? It is impossible to tell, but the obligation has not been renegotiated or replaced with new debt.

Sirius may be best off in Chapter 11, given its huge debt load. Without that anchor it could operate more freely. The company's core business may be attractive enough to attract debtor-in-possession financing to get Sirius through the process.

At $0.12 a share, Sirius already trades like it is bankrupt. It ought to look at the airline industry and see how well Chapter 11 can work.

Buy Gold ?? Info why and why not !

2009-02-02T10:36:00.000-08:00

Gold Falls ?

(Bloomberg) -- Gold fell for the first time in three sessions as some investors sold the metal after a rally to the highest price since July. Silver also declined.

The seven-day relative strength index for gold futures topped 70 on Jan. 30, a signal that prices may drop in the near term. Gold gained 5 percent last month, driving investment in the SPDR Gold Trust, the biggest exchange-traded fund, or ETF, backed by bullion, to a record 843.6 metric tons on Jan. 29.

“Gold is overextended to the upside and we’ve sold some calls against our gold ETF,” said Dennis Gartman, an economist and editor of the Gartman Letter in Suffolk, Virginia. “There is growing interest in gold and we remain bullish of it. We were a bit concerned at the overbought nature of the market.”

Gold futures for April delivery fell $11.30, or 1.2 percent, to $917.10 an ounce at 12:17 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange’s Comex division. The contract gained 4.3 percent in the previous two sessions to settle at $928.40 on Jan. 30. The most-active contract last closed higher on July 28.

Silver futures for March delivery slid 6 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $12.505 an ounce. The metal slumped 24 percent in 2008 while gold gained 5.5 percent.

Investment in Barclays Plc’s IShares Silver Trust, the biggest ETF backed by silver, also rose to a record last week, topping 7,453.2 metric tons on Jan. 27.

Buying Opportunity

Still, a drop in prices may be a buying opportunity for investors seeking a store of value in precious metals, analysts said. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 8.6 percent last month, the steepest January decline on record, while the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index of 19 raw materials lost 4 percent.

“The search for safe havens is still a major factor driving investor decisions,” said James Turk, founder of Goldmoney.com, which held $548 million in gold and silver for investors at the end of January. “Gold is the safest haven of all. Gold will continue to benefit from all the monetary turmoil and worries about insolvent banks.”