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FeedPosted Nov 25th 2009 4:10PM by Jon Ogg (RSS feed)
Filed under: Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Wal-Mart (WMT), Target Corp. (TGT), Garmin Ltd (GRMN)

The day before Thanksgiving is always an unusual one. We had a slew of economic data today and that all propelled shares higher than what the pre-market indications were.The largest figure today was that jobless claims finally broke under the 500K per week mark... Initial Jobless Claims came in at 466,000, under the 495,000 expected by Bloomberg. The continuing jobless claims also fell by 190,000 to 5,423,000.
The Department of Energy's weekly oil inventories data did
show gains after recent drops. This was in crude, gasoline, and refining capacity, with distillates as the only loser. The data on Personal Income & Spending for September were +0.2% on income and +0.7% on spending, versus Dow Jones estimates of +0.1% and +0.6%, respectively.
Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:
Dow 10,464.40 +30.69 (0.29%)
S&P 500 1,110.63 +4.98 (0.45%)
Nasdaq 2,176.05 +6.87 (0.32%)
TOP ANALYST CALLSTOP MARKET RUMORSContinue reading Closing Bell: Economic Catapult for Thanksgiving & Black Friday (WMT, TGT, GRMN, GOOG, MSFT)
Posted Nov 25th 2009 2:30PM by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Internet, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Research in Motion (RIMM), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), McGraw-Hill Companies (MHP), Media World, Technology
Look for a LinkedIn IPO, but not in the near future. Company co-founder and executive chairman Reid Hoffman has revealed his (and his investors') exit strategy, even if it could take a while to get there. Any social media company IPO would take a while to get off the ground in this market, since companies are being incredibly cautious. So, "not anytime soon" could coincide with a change in market conditions ... but Hoffman stopped well short of that.
At an event in London to celebrate LinkedIn's hitting the 3 million user mark in Britain, Hoffman said about the company's IPO prospects, "Probably at some point a balance will occur when that's the right thing. That will not occur in the near term." Worldwide, LinkedIn has 53 million members.
Continue reading Reid Hoffman: LinkedIn will go public (at some point)
Posted Nov 25th 2009 12:00PM by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Wal-Mart (WMT), Walgreen Co (WAG), Gap Inc (GPS), RadioShack Corp (RSH)
If Thanksgiving is a bird, a beer and a football game for you, prepare to have your thinking challenged. Many retailers are looking to get a head start on Black Friday this year, opening a day early, some of them for the first time. Most Old Navy Stores (GPS) will open their doors on Thursday, along with Wal-Mart (WMT), Toys "R" Us, RadioShack (RSH) and Walgreen's (WAG). Rather than bet solely on Friday, retailers are looking to eke every last dime they can out of the holiday season this year.
The National Retail Federation expects holiday spending to drop 1% this year to $437.6 billion. "Retailers need to be competitive," says NRF spokeswoman Ellen Davis. "There's a lot riding on the success of November and December retail sales."
Continue reading Retailers can't wait for Black Friday, open Thursday
Posted Nov 25th 2009 10:30AM by Jim Cramer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Wal-Mart (WMT), Market matters, Sears Holdings (SHLD), Kohl's Corp (KSS), Stocks to Buy, Cramer on BloggingStocks
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says you can't ignore the positive outlook of Phillips-Van Heusen's CEO. Can you be as bearish about retail if the company that has almost half the dress shirt business in the country, the one that has more than half the neckwear in this country, the one that has more than 600 stores and is in Kohl's (
KSS) (
Cramer's Take), Wal-Mart (
WMT) (
Cramer's Take), Sears (
SHLD) (
Cramer's Take) and just about everyone else, tells you that things are booming?
Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: This bullish retail story looks like a good fit
Posted Nov 25th 2009 8:30AM by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Google (GOOG), New York Times'A' (NYT), News Corp'B' (NWS), Initial public offerings
Facebook is implementing a new stock structure to make sure the founders retain control, immediately causing rumors about an impending initial public offering. Why would Facebook need Class A and Class B shares otherwise? Under the new structure, which is similar to Google's (GOOG), Mark Zuckerberg and other early entrants wouldn't have to worry about yielding the floor to outsiders when if the company goes public.
The stock structure was adopted to ensure that existing shareholders keep control on voting issues, according to Facebook statement. No details were given as to who the winners are in this arrangement, but a Wall Street Journal report says that, according to its sources, all current shareholders would be converted to Class B shares, which carry 10 times the voting rights of Class A shares.
Continue reading New Facebook share structure hints at IPO
Posted Nov 25th 2009 7:45AM by Melly Alazraki (RSS feed)
Filed under: Before the bell, International markets, Market matters, Tiffany and Co (TIF), Economic data, Deere and Co (DE), Oil, Housing, Federal Reserve

U.S. stock futures advanced Wednesday morning ahead of what is going to be a busy day full of economic reports before Thanksgiving. While investor sentiment is still upbeat following the Federal Reserve minutes and optimism about the economy, trading could be choppy today given the market is closed tomorrow. The market will reopen Friday for a short day.
U.S. stocks fell on Tuesday on lackluster economic data, namely the GDP revision downward. However, the losses eased after the FOMC minutes and the Fed raised its growth expectations for 2010.
Continue reading Before the bell: Futures higher ahead of housing, jobless data
Posted Nov 24th 2009 6:30PM by Joseph Lazzaro (RSS feed)
Filed under: Commodities

Nuclear power is coming back into style, and perhaps just in time for the climate, and for the United States.
Environmental groups, previously opposed to nuclear power, are starting to support the technology, as it represents the lesser of two evils compared to coal-fired electric power generation plants,
The Washington Post reported Wednesday. And the choice is obvious enough: faced with either processing nuclear waste or seeing the atmosphere heat up to irreversible levels, via coal-producing climate change, nuclear technology wins.
Continue reading Nuclear power is on the comeback trail
Posted Nov 24th 2009 4:20PM by Jon Ogg (RSS feed)

The GDP for Q3 showed a revision confirming that the
end of the recession is still 'unofficially' official. The Case Shiller data was more mixed despite another small gain, but it has a farther look-back than most new data has been showing.
And the
FOMC released its minutes from the November 3 and 4 meeting that gave low inflation forecasts, higher GDP, and even less-bad unemployment. The FDIC fund
going red had no solid impact on financials today. We even had a 2% drop in the price of oil despite a small gain in gold. Here were today's unofficial index closing bell levels:
DJIA 10,433.71 (-17.24)
NASDAQ 2,169.18 (-6.83)
S&P500 1,105.66 (-0.58)
Top 10 Analyst CallsTop Day Trader AlertsPosted Nov 24th 2009 12:00PM by Elizabeth Harrow (RSS feed)
Filed under: Forecasts, Deals, Employees
Playboy Enterprises (PLA) announced Tuesday that it will outsource all of its publishing operations -- save editorial -- to American Media Inc., reports the Wall Street Journal (subscription required). The Florida-based firm will take the reins on Playboy's production, circulation, advertising sales, marketing, and support functions, in exchange for fees and incentives. No further financial details on the deal were provided.
"Our goal is to focus our resources on what we do best, which is to create compelling content," explained CEO Scott Flanders. "By joining forces with American Media, we will be able to significantly reduce our cost structure and leverage the economies of scale related to manufacturing, distribution and marketing that are available to this large, multi-title publisher."
Continue reading Struggling Playboy outsources business ops
Posted Nov 24th 2009 10:30AM by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Internet, Apple Inc (AAPL), Research in Motion (RIMM), Media World, Initial public offerings, Technology
Twitter is on the prowl. Though it made its last acquisition more than a year ago, company founder Biz Stone said on Tuesday that it's looking to add to the stable. There aren't any specific targets yet -- at least none revealed -- and Twitter is keeping its options open. The likely pool of potential acquisitions consists of third-party Twitter application developers, which is largely responsible for the micro-blogging service's growth in popularity.
Stone, one of Twitter's founders, said at a Tel Aviv news conference, "As our attention is grabbed by some of these developers, we will take a hard look at them." This refers to companies that develop applications for Apple's (AAPL) iPhone and Research in Motion's (RIMM) Blackberry. It also refers to developers for the Web and desktop, such as HootSuite and TweetDeck.
Continue reading Twitter to make acquisitions, generate revenue in 2010
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