MAJOR PAPERS:

• The books of Fannie Mae -- Federal National Mortgage Association (NYSE: FNM) -- and Freddie Mac -- Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (NYSE: FRE) -- are being examined by the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to review their financial condition, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• The Wall Street Journal also reported that the Chevy Volt, an electric car from General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM), is slated to roll out in two years and it received a major boost from 36 utilities that operate in 40 states who agreed to work together to make the plug-in vehicle possible. Among the utilities are American Electric Power Company Inc (NYSE: AEP), Consolidated Edison Inc (NYSE: ED), Duke Energy Corporation (NYSE: DUK), and Edison International (NYSE: EIX).
• Struggling mortgage lender Paragon is reportedly in talks with The Blackstone Group LP (NYSE: BX) about a potential takeover by Blackstone, the Financial Times reported.

OTHER PAPERS:

• The New York Times reported that TiVo Inc (NASDAQ: TIVO) will today introduce a "product purchase" feature in partnership with Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN). Under TiVo's plan, the television remote control will be turned into a tool for buying products that are advertised and promoted on talk shows and commercials.

Was the optimism observed in last week's preview post rewarded? Well, as it turned out there were few negative surprises from the companies listed there, really just Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) and narrow misses from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT).

Again this week, in a list of earnings expectations for some prominent companies in a variety of sectors, we see an apparent optimism. That is, analysts are anticipating more earnings growth than earnings declines.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expect the following companies to report a rise in earnings when compared to the same period of the previous year.

• Newmont Mining Corp. (NYSE: NEM): $0.48 EPS (50.0%) on sales of $1.5 billion (+15.7%)
• Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN): $0.26 EPS (26.9%) on sales of $4.0 billion (+37.1%)
• Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT): $1.54 EPS (19.5%) on sales of $12.7 billion (+11.7%)
• McDonald's Corp. (NYSE: MCD): $0.86 EPS (17.4%) on sales of $5.9 billion (-1.5%)
• ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP): $3.41 EPS (15.0%) on sales of $198.6 billion (+319.3%)
• Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL): $1.08 EPS (14.8%) on sales of $7.4 billion (+36.0%)
• Halliburton Co. (NYSE: HAL): $0.68 EPS (11.8%) on sales of $4.3 billion (+13.7%)
• Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN): $0.46 EPS (8.7%) on sales of $3.4 billion (-1.1%)
• Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO): $0.12 EPS (8.3%) on sales of $1.4 billion (+10.5%)
• AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T): $0.76 EPS (7.9%) on sales of $31.2 billion (+5.7%)
• PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: PEP): $1.02 EPS (7.8%) on sales of $10.5 billion (+9.4%)
• Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc. (NYSE: BUD): $0.93 EPS (6.5%) on sales of $4.7 billion (+4.2%)
• Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE): $0.54 EPS (22.2%) on sales of $11.5 billion (+3.5%)
• 3M Co. (NYSE: MMM): $1.35 EPS (8.9%) on sales of $6.7 billion (+9.0%)
• Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK): $0.83 EPS (1.2%) on sales of $6.0 billion (-1.2%)

Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) shares are falling today after the company announced this morning that it has opened an office supplies division designed to compete with Staples Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLS) and the like. Evidently, investors aren't too excited by the Amazon's entry into this already struggling portion of the retail sector. If you think this stock won't be rising too far in the coming months, then it could be a good time to look at a bearish hedged play on AMZN.

After hitting a one-year high of $101.09 in October, the stock hit a one-year low of $61.20 in March. This morning, AMZN opened at $79.55. So far today the stock has hit a low of $77.63 and a high of $80.08. As of 12:30, AMZN is trading at $80.04, down $0.64 (-0.7%). The chart for AMZN looks bullish and steady, while S&P gives the stock a neutral 3 Stars (out of 5) Hold rating.

For a bearish hedged play on this stock, I would consider an August bear-call credit spread above the $105 range. A bear-call credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of call options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make a 5.3% return in two months as long as AMZN is below $105 at August expiration. AMZN would have to rise by more than 30% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.

This post is part of a series on some of the most memorable companies that have disappeared.

What goes up, must come down. It was a cute ad. Who knew it would turn out to be so prophetic?

Pets.com will go down in history as a textbook example of dot-com flame-out, going from IPO to liquidation in nine short months.

Founded in 1998, the company, which had the bright idea of selling pet food and supplies to the public via the internet, went public in February 2000 and raised $82.5 million.

The White House is in overdrive promoting former press secretary Scott McClellan's What Happened. That promotion has helped drive it to the number one selling position on Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN). While Amazon will benefit from the sales of the book, the stock is more than fairly valued.

The White House's promotion is based on its passionate response to the confirmation bias it demonstrated in the run up to the Iraq war. As I wrote in this Business Strategy Review article, confirmation bias is when facing a major decision, one exhibits an unwillingness to admit conflicting data – no matter how salient – to influence a closed point of view. Mclellan points out that the White House decided to go to war against Iraq a year before its start and manufactured a false "case" to sell it.

McClellan pointing this out is hardly news. But I thought his comments about George W. Bush's cocaine use, as reported by 6abc.com, were more revealing. Recalling a 1999 conversation with Bush, McClellan writes: "'The media won't let go of these ridiculous cocaine rumors,' I heard Bush say. 'You know, the truth is I honestly don't remember whether I tried it or not. We had some pretty wild parties back in the day, and I just don't remember.'

Every time I see a story about Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) I am infuriated and bewildered. How in the world can a 13 year old company have a P/E ratio of 70 and $32 billion capitalization on 37% year over year growth. The top line growth is great and so is the growth in net earnings but does it justify a P/E of 70?

Yesterday Amazon impressed Wall Street by beating expectations in many areas. However, two areas that disappointed were it's reduced earnings projections for the year and a lack of transparency or specifics in certain segments of its enterprise. Also if earnings were lowered by 4% to 6% then why is the stock only down 3%?

The stock is down about $2 from yesterday's close of $81 fluctuating in the the high 70's. From my perspective the stock is way too high and the limited number of shareholders is still holding up the price. Last year I wrote Who owns Amazon.com - really? and not much has changed in this regard.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) shares are trading higher after CEO Jeffrey P. Bezos said in a letter to shareholders that he very pleased with AMZN's new electronic book-reader Kindle. He added in the letter that all major publishers have embraced the device, demand for the Kindle has been high, and that shareholders should expect more innovation from AMZN. The Kindle is currently out of stock, but AMZN expects to have more devices in stock next week. If you think that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, hen now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on AMZN.

After hitting a one-year low of $44.16 last April, the stock hit a one-year high of $101.09 in October. AMZN opened this morning at $76.48. So far today the stock has hit a low of $76.32 and a high of $80.92. As of 11:55, AMZN is trading at $80.88, up $6.85 (9.3%). The chart for AMZN looks neutral and improving, while S&P gives the stock a neutral 3 STARS (out of 5) hold rating.

For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a May bull-put credit spread below the $60 range. A bull-put credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of put options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make a 4.8% return in just one month as long as AMZN is above $60 at May expiration. Amazon would have to fall by more than 26% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.

AMZN hasn't been below $60 since almost a year ago and has shown support around $70 recently. This trade could be risky if the company's earnings (due out in on 4/23) disappoint, but even if that happens, this position could be protected by the support the stock might find around $62, where it bottomed out in February and March.

Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer.

DISCLOSURE: Mr. Archer owns and/or controls diversified portfolios of long and short stock and option positions that may include holdings in companies he writes about. At publication time, Brent neither owns nor controls positions in AMZN.

Internet retailer Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) is following Best Buy Inc.'s (NYSE: BBY) lead and is now supplying $50 gift certificates to those customers who purchased a now-obsolete HD DVD player on the e-tailer's website prior to February 23. Customers who bought an HD DVD player before that date have until April 9, 2009 to contact Amazon.com and claim their $50 credits (limit of 10).

It's good that Amazon.com is finally doing this -- but why did it take so long? The pioneering e-tailer didn't lead the charge on this one, and left that task to brick-and-mortar retailer Best Buy. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) followed shortly behind and then a month later, Amazon.com joins the fray? Generally, Amazon.com is the leading trendsetter -- but not this time.

So, Amazon.com is giving previous HD DVD unit customers a $50 credit on anything else available for sale while pitching some great offers on the format winner Blu-ray format (always have to work an upsell in there). It would be great if every retailer who sold HD DVD players would follow along Best Buy's lead and provide $50 credits to customers as a future business retention tool, but that probably won't happen. The lack of that action, though, shows just who is in tune with customers and who could care less.

First, let me admit something up front -- I am behind the times. I am not part of the texting culture because I do not own a cell phone. This makes me odd, I know, and I probably will own one of these devices sooner rather than later, but for now, I have to call myself what I am -- a texting virgin. Nevertheless, I read with interest the following article about a new initiative by Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN).

The article states that Amazon is launching a program called TextBuyIt, where users can get information on products by searching for them via a name/description or a UPC number. Here's the big kicker from the article, though: the author points out that people can, of course, do shopping even while they find themselves in competing real-world stores. So, if a hip texter is in a Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) or a Target (NYSE: TGT) or a Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), maybe said hip texter might buy a product from Amazon instead of buying it from where he's at. That's the implication of the service, at least.

I'm not sure if I buy that this service will add much value to Amazon's current mobile offerings, though, at least in the short run (also, it sounds like a complicated task to perform). Thing of it is, when you're on the go, while you might use your cell phone to play games and acquire information, and maybe even put in an order for a stock or two, I'm not sure that anyone outside the most hardcore tech demographic would want to start shopping on Amazon via texting. I mean, if you're in a store, you probably would want to buy an item from a store, right? Plus, if you're on the go, you would probably want to just pop into a nearby store to buy something if you have the urge.

I see the value of brick-and-mortar retailers using texting to establish relationships with customers -- e.g., "text in an order and we'll have it ready for you at the front when you pull in," sort of like texting a pizza order. For all I know, that might already be happening somewhere. But, I'm not confident this will work for Amazon in the exact competitive fashion it envisions. However, I will acknowledge that it is something Amazon must nevertheless experiment with to cover its bases; after all, even though I am not currently part of it, we are in a texting zeitgeist, whether we like it or not...

Disclosure: I don't own shares in any of the companies mentioned here; positions can change at any time.

There has been plenty of banter back and forth as to whether the Federal Reserve had lost some of its gusto. Can it have a significant impact given the massive scale of the global economy? Measured by the reaction of Wall Street investors today, the answer is a resounding yes.

Wall Street has finally found a reason for a big rally. The Federal Reserve plans to pump $200 billion into the financial markets to help ease the strain from the credit crisis. The Dow Jones industrial average is up about 416 points at the 12,156 level. That's the index's biggest one-day point gain since July 24, 2002. The NASDAQ closed up 86.42 to 2,255.76 and the S&P 500 finished the day at 1,320.65 gaining 47.28.

Among some of our more closely watched stocks Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) rallied to 439.85 +26.23 (+6.34%), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) climbed 127.39 +7.70 (+6.43%) Microsoft was up 29.30 +1.25 (+4.46%), Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) rose 67.15 +3.68 (+5.80%), Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) moved up to 163.07 +7.49 (+4.81%), eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) grew to 26.41 +0.69 (+2.68%), and General Electric (NYSE: GE) was up to 33.40 +1.70 (+5.36%).

Todays move by the Fed implies they had seen enough data, and stories like Dow below 12,000 -- do I hear 11,000? Yes I do! to be spooked into action. No one knows what tomorrow will bring but at least for today the Fed was Big Time again!

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money. Disclosure: I own EBAY and do not own any of the other stocks discussed.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• According to people familiar with the matter, Yahoo! Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO) has stepped up talks with Time Warner Inc (NYSE: TWX) to possibly create an alternative to the unsolicited bid Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) made for Yahoo!, the Wall Street Journal reported. Though a Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo! is considered the "most likely outcome," Yahoo! and Time Warner have been in talks to incorporate the AOL Internet unit into Yahoo!
• The Financial Times reported that the European Commission is probing the process under which an important Microsoft document format could be adopted as an industry standard, according to The Financial Times. This move would carry substantial commercial benefits for the company.
• The Financial Times also reported that Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) will start selling wine in the U.S. in an effort to enlarge its expanding non-perishable groceries business.

WEB SITES:

• According to the chairman of parent group CITIC Group, Kong Dan, Reuters reported that CITIC Securities is in talks to acquire a larger stake in The Bear Stearns Companies (NYSE: BSC) in order to reflect the drop in shares of the broker.

Has anybody else out there noticed that Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN), recently sold $135 million of his stock? Not to worry, these are his regular 10b5 plan sales that are pre-scheduled with the SEC. Just smart diversification I suppose.

Normally, I would think this is not that big a deal since he owns billions of dollars of the stock as the single largest shareholder. If I were him, I would be selling too, in particular because I have felt that AMZN is overpriced for quite a while. (See Serious Money: AAPL, AMZN, GOOG, ISRG -- at what Price?)

The stock jumped early this month when Amazon announced the retirement of debt and a stock buyback plan over the next two years. This was a temporary affect; the stock has been trading in the low $70's recently, give or take a few bucks.

But what strikes me as curious is that this buyback plan is announced while insider selling has rarely been higher! The buyback and Bezos selling inspired me to look at the latest insider trading. When I checked it out I discovered company directors, officers, and "affiliated persons" have all been sellers and only sellers. To be fair some of the sales are listed as 'planned'; however, the plan does not have to be filed very far in advance, so I am not impressed by this.

We spend a considerable amount of time trying to figure out where value lies in the market. A lot of last years' favorite high flyers have come back down to earth. Some of them are starting to resemble bank stocks. However, I have read nothing of Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) dabbling in sub-prime mortgages or CDO's. Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ: ISRG) has not reported any bad news -- and both are down but showing signs of some upside again.

Regardless, the price on any given day is a myth, a story, speculation based on a few truths and many unknowns. There is a lot of huffing and puffing about current and future valuations.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) one of our most inventive, progressive and dynamically promoted companies is down over 35% in one month. Apple euphoria pushed it too high in December, and I think it could be argued that it has become a value play now. My colleague Georges Yared is on record forecasting a one-year price for AAPL shares of $300...10.5 to go. Beltway Greg, one of our frequent AAPL enthusiasts has thrown out a price target of $260, and I am on record with a $225 as the top end. Apple closed at $145.46 $125.48 on Friday.

What is the truth? There is none, until we are looking back at facts instead of forward with best guesses. As of today Apple might even be too high. Hey George, what do you think now?

Don't even get me started on Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) My last post on the subject was Amazon is not worth a penny over $60 - and I think even less! It closed Friday at $73.50 with a P/E around 66. So in case the math is tough for you, AMZN has to increase its net earnings by 100% to achieve a P/E of 33 twelve months out and would then be 22% higher than Apple is today -- go figure. There have been times that AMZN was on sale but for most of it's existence I have thought it was over priced and I do today as well. As best as I have been able to learn AMZN's price is greatly affected by the limited number of shares: Who owns Amazon.com - really?

January and so far February has been a tough month in the stock market but I have positioned for the long term with many value propositions. In the short run I have been the "price is right" winner on a few things like GOOG and ISRG and I don't share many peoples pessimism for the stock market. We have been net buyers in January and February looks to be the same. Who knows, I might even get crazy and buy some Amazon some day.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the design and research principal for an architecture & planning firm. To find potential opportunities and verify my track record read Chasing Value or Serious Money. Disclosure: I own shares of ISRG.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) shares are rising today after the online retail giant announced a multi-billion dollar stock and debt buyback plan this morning. The company will retire debt worth $1.25 billion and will buy back up to $1 billion in common stock over the next two years. If you think that the company won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on AMZN.

After hitting a one-year low of $37.04 in March, the stock hit a one-year high of $101.09 in October. AMZN opened this morning at $73.40. So far today the stock has hit a low of $72.67 and a high of $74.60. As of 10:20, AMZN is trading at $74.07, up $3.16 (4.5%). The chart for AMZN looks bearish but improving slightly, while S&P gives the stock a neutral 3 STARS (out of 5) hold rating.

For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a March bull-put credit spread below the $55 range. A bull-put credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of put options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make a 4.4% return in just six weeks as long as AMZN is above $55 at March expiration. Amazon would have to fall by more than 22% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) will begin selling Blu-ray movie titles this month for quite a discount -- some for as low as $13.95, according to sources. This pricing moves comes as many customers have opted to stick with the older DVD standard and its $10 to $15 discs instead of the $30 Blu-ray discs -- and $300 players. To most consumers, the marginal improvement is just not worth it.

But now that Blu-ray has a huge upper hand against format competitor HD DVD, this recent price cut by Amazon.com may go a long way toward getting Blu-ray into the hands of consumers who were previously afraid of buying either high-definition format while waiting to see which one would become the standard.

Blu-ray players still aren't nearly as inexpensive as standard DVD players, and the job of hardware manufacturers will now be to get the price to a reasonable level (like $150) and entice customers to pony up for a new Blu-ray player. Once Blu-ray titles hit the $17.99 mark and players hit $150, expect Blu-ray to begin growing. Nothing moves consumers over the edge like price -- nothing. Until then, those $13.99 DVD titles and $60 up-converting DVD players will do most customers just fine.