• The Chicago Board of Trade (NYSE: BOT) and Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc (NYSE: CME) to hold a special shareholder meeting in Chicago about merging at 4pm.
• Take-Two Interactive Software (NASDAQ: TTWO) to hold a business update at 4:30pm.
• Alcoa Inc (NYSE: AA) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 5pm.

• Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, to be held from July 10-July 13 in Santa Monica, California.
• The Home Depot Inc (NYSE: HD) to release a 2007 Sales Update at 9am.
• Sealy Corporation (NYSE: ZZ) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 5pm.

Continue reading Market highlights for next week: Monthly sales numbers coming

Market highlights for next week: Monthly sales numbers coming originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 06 Jul 2007 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Chicago Merc. bid gets support from CBOT management originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 26 Jun 2007 13:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Calyon downgraded shares of Airtran Holdings to Neutral from Add, citing concerns with AAI's yield trends.
• The firm also downgraded shares of UAL Corp to Add from Buy based on higher fuel prices and slightly weaker-than-expected RASM increases.
• Stifel downgraded the REIT Sector citing rising interest rates and mutual fund outflows, among other reasons. Companies that include Cedar Shopping Centers Inc (NYSE: CDR), Kimco Realty Corporation (NYSE: KIM), Kite Realty Group Trust (NYSE: KRG), Ramco-Gershenson Properties Trust (NYSE: RPT), Simon Property Group Inc (NYSE: SPG) and Tanger Factory Outlet Centers Inc (NYSE: SKT) were downgraded to Hold from Buy.

• Morgan Joseph downgraded shares of Penn National Gaming Inc (NASDAQ: PENN) to Hold from Buy on valuation.
• CBOT Holdings Inc (NYSE: BOT) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.
• JP Morgan downgraded shares of Netflix Inc (NASDAQ: NFLX) to Underweight from Neutral, as the firm believes the company's growth will be impacted by Blockbuster Inc's (NYSE: BBI) Total Access offer.

Analyst downgrades 6-11-07: AAI, UAUA and the REIT sector originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 11 Jun 2007 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading What do Whole Foods, Sirius and Borders have in common?

What do Whole Foods, Sirius and Borders have in common? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 06 Jun 2007 11:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• The Wall Street Journal reported that President Bush picked former advisor Robert Zoellick to take over the World Bank from Paul Wolfowitz; Mr. Zoellick, now a vice chairman at Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS), was a trade representative and deputy secretary of state.
• The Institutional Shareholder Service has advised shareholders of medical device maker Biomet Inc (NASDAQ: BMET) to turn down a $10.9B private equity deal for the company, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• The Financial Times reported that the IntercontinentalExchange Inc (NYSE: ICE) has signed an exclusive deal with the CBOT Holdings Inc (NYSE: BOT), a move that could advance ICE's unsolicited bid for the Chicago Board of Trade.
• Rather than focus on potential take-out targets, Barron's Online's "Weekday Trader" said that the smart bet for investors is to focus on companies with rising profits, cash flows and dividends, such as Loews Corp-Carolina Group (NYSE: CG) and Imperial Tobacco Group plc (NYSE: ITY), which boast free cash and dividends.

• Best Buy Co Inc (NYSE: BBY) is in talks with Vivek for a "foray" into India, the Economic Times reported.
  
• The Washington Post reported that Nigeria filed criminal charges against Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE) over child deaths.

Newspaper wrap-up 5-30-07: Bush taps Robert Zoellick to head World Bank originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 30 May 2007 09:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Before the bell 5-30-07: Stock futures drop after Chinese stocks tumble originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 30 May 2007 07:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

• At 8:30 a.m., April Producer Price Index is due to be reported. This measure of inflation at the wholesale level is expected to have increased 0.6% after a 1% increase in March. Core PPI, which excludes food and energy prices is estimated to have increased 0.2% after prices remained flat the month before. If PPI numbers will come higher-than-expected, markets could change direction as it would mean the Fed would continue to focus on inflationary pressure, perhaps at the expense of economic growth.
• At the same time, April retail sales will also be released. Investors got a snapshot of this indicator yesterday, when individual retailers reported their own sales. This will give an overall indication of consumer spending. Retail sales are forecast to rise 0.4% in April after a rise of 0.7% in March. While higher gas prices may have clamped on consumer spending at stores, it may have also inflated the number of consumer spending.
• Finally, at 10: a.m.m March business inventories are due.
• The RBC Cash Index found that confidence was 87.1 in May, only slightly higher than April's reading of 85.4, a six-month low. Consumer confidence was essentially stuck as consumers worry about gasoline prices, which made them anxious about the economy's prospects and their own financial positions.

As if all this news and concern about economic activity wasn't enough, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan decided to weigh in with his own view, saying he still believed there was a one-third chance that the U.S. economy would slip into recession this year, reiterating a statement made in March. When Greenspan first said that, his comments may have helped fuel a market sell-off in February.

Before the bell 5-11-07: Heading for higher open ahead of data, despite Greenspan originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 11 May 2007 08:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

NYSE Group, Inc. (NYSE:NYX) opened at $83.40. So far today the stock has hit a low of $82.75 and a high of $84.17. As of 10:50 this morning, NYX is trading at $82.93, up $0.62 (0.8%).

After hitting a one year high of $112.00 in November, the stock has slipped over the past few months. Jim Cramer believes that with this stock as low as it is, it's time to "back up the truck" and buy. Merger and acquisition buzz regarding the InterContinental Exchange (NYSE:ICE) and CBOT (NYSE:BOT) could give NYX a lift as well. The technical indicators for NYX have been bearish but improving slightly, while S&P gives the stock a positive 4 STARS (out of 5) buy rating.

For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider an April bull-put credit spread below the $70 range. NYX hasn't been below $70 since September and has shown support around $74. This trade could be risky if the recent market hiccup turns into more of a down market than expected, but recent economic indicators seem to still show that the US economy is on the right track.

Brent Archer is an analyst on the move at Investors Observer (Free Subscription).

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.

Cramer (and a trade) on NYSE originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 15 Mar 2007 11:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.