The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA) just reached a tentative agreement with its 20,500-member engineering union, the Society of Professional Engineers in Aerospace (SPEEA). This puts to rest the labor woes that cast a shadow over the company beginning in September. On November 1, Boeing settled a 54 day strike with its 27,000 member machinists union. And today, Boeing looks like it will avert a strike with SPEEA if the parties sign a contract by December 1.

In the negotiations, SPEEA wanted a specific limit on subcontracting engineering work and Boeing wanted to make sure that contract improvements would be affordable if there was a slowdown and that it would have outsourcing flexibility to stay competitive. Boeing initially asked engineers to pay more of their health care costs and for new engineers to accept a 401(k)-style retirement plan rather than the current defined-benefit pension program.

Boeing engineers are well-paid. 13,000 of them in Washington state, Oregon, Utah and California make an average of $88,000 a year, and its 7,000 technical workers average $67,000. But SPEEA wanted more -- 10% annual raises through 2011, more vacation days, higher overtime rates, a restoration of early retiree medical benefits and changes to the health-care and pension plans.

For the past several years, eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) has pretty much cornered the market for online auctions. It has created such large barriers of entry, that smaller sites have difficulty breaking into the market. But this week's seller boycott on eBay has opened the door for some smaller companies.

We took a look earlier this week at the reasons behind the current eBay strike. We made note at that time, that some of your bigger name competitors, such as Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK) were going to be capitalizing on the sellers' strike, but now we are also starting to hear about gains made in some smaller companies that you may have never heard of before.

In a recent article from Seattle Post-Intelligencer, two Washington-based companies said they have been loving all the negative attention that eBay has been receiving as of late.

Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) hit the earnings confessional after the close, reporting fourth-quarter results of $158.5 million, or 21 cents per share, a 35% jump from year-ago results. As same-store sales rose 4%, revenue hit $2.44 billion, up 22% from last year's $2 billion take. Both headline numbers were on par with analysts' expectations. As I pointed out this morning, recent history indicated that SBUX had decent odds of coming in even with the Street's consensus view.

What the Street wasn't expecting, however, was the company's lowered guidance for the upcoming fiscal year, citing rising commodity costs, increased competitive pressures, and softer consumer spending. For its year that wraps up in September, SBUX expects to earn between $1.02 and $1.05 per share, representing year-over-year growth of 17% to 21% from fiscal 2007. SBUX had previously targeted earnings growth of 20% to 22%. Revenue is expected to rise 17% to 18%. Same-store sales are now expected to rise between 3% and 5%, narrowing an earlier range of 3% to 7%.

The company is also reducing its expansion goals, lowering the number of new-store openings planned to 2,500 from 2,600.

In after-hours trading, the shares have plunged nearly 9%. If this activity follows through into the regular session tomorrow, SBUX will be poised to hit a new 52-week low. Remember that potential technical support in the form of the 80-month moving average resides about 10% below the stock's closing levels.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

It is refreshing to any reader when the author of a book has walked the walk and talked the talk. Well, this is the case with Michael Moe's new book Finding the Next Starbucks. Michael Moe was among the very first analysts to discover the growth and magic of Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX). Mike was a young analyst visiting companies up in Seattle, and after a long week, his last meeting was with the fledgling, up start company named after a Moby Dick character. Mike nearly canceled the meeting to catch an earlier plane home. The readers of Mike's new book should be grateful he did not. Mike was involved with Starbucks when it had a market value of barely $200 million: today Starbucks' market capitalization is $20 billion.

Finding the Next Starbucks is a must read for any level investor, new to experienced. Michael Moe brings his more than 20+ years of investment banking and analytical experience and skills to life. Michael is passionate about growth investing and the power of growth. I said he has walked the walk and talked the talk: Michael is Chairman, Founder and CEO of ThinkEquity Partners headquartered in San Francisco. ThinkEquity has recently merged with British firm Panmure Gordon to establish the entity into a global player.

Over the past few months I have written a lot about the housing market, and almost all of what I have written has been negative, so when i ran across an article today discussing some markets where prices are thriving I felt it only fair to discuss.

According to a report from CNNMoney.com there are 11 metro areas that have enjoyed double digit growth in home values over the past twelve months. Just goes to show that the old saying is still true... when it comes to real estate, its all about location, location, location.

So why exactly are there some parts of the country where prices are still going through massive increases while other sections of the nation have seen dramatic drops in prices? There are a couple factors at play according to the report:

1. Strong job market
2. Solid population growth
3. Areas that never went through the massive boom earlier in the decade that sent prices sky high in most of the nation

A small retailer based in the affluent city of Bellevue, across Lake Washington from Seattle, has sued Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX), alleging that the Seattle coffee giant's ambition which the suit characterizes as "insatiable and unchecked" results in an effective monopoly of the industry.

Often, when I spy a headline somewhere about another lawsuit against Starbucks, it's generally along the lines of a customer with a scorched lip -- or defective cup lid, as in one which a judge just threw out. But competitors sues Starbucks, as do labor, consumer, and other groups.

The lawsuit du jour is initiated by Penny Stafford, owner of Belvi Coffee and Tea Exchange. Stafford claims says she "was locked out of the best office space in Bellevue and Seattle by Starbucks' exclusive leasing agreements with landlords" according to a Seattle Times story. Such agreements for coveted food and beverage service space in high-rise office buildings are not uncommon. But Stafford's claims that 78% of Bellevue "Class A" office sites are effectively locked up for Starbucks.

Stafford did manage to rent space inside one deli to sell espresso, and found herself competing with free samples given out to customers by employees of the nearest Starbucks, who visited the deli as many a four times a day with samples, she claims. Stafford's deli business went under. She maintains her original location near that same site.

Stafford and her legal team aren't looking to go it alone. The lawsuit is seeking status as a class-action.

Microsoft has said it will spend $2 billion on new technologies to combat the threat of Google, Yahoo!, eBay and the like. Which to shareholders means operating expense, to Google means let's throw a hundred products against the wall to see what sticks, and to college grads means money money money. But to Redmond, Washington?

It means cranes, concrete, and an "eye-popping" real estate market. A company headquarters that now employs 30,000 people could add 12,000 in the next two years -- 3.1 million square feet, or 14 new buildings to be constructed. As the New York Times points out, for Seattle "those are staggering numbers."

Seattle may be happy, or not. On one hand, the unemployment rate will certainly decrease if Microsoft is going new-hire crazy. On the other hand, the city is already clogged with traffic and real estate prices are ridiculous for the relatively small market.

[Photo OsakaSteve]

Last week, between June 23 and 29th Starbucks [SBUX] Corporation Chairman, Howard Schultz, exercised more that 1 million share options at $4.13 a share for a gain of $34 million, (avg price $36.42 a share) . This should help out the SBUX founder and former CEO -- who has said (according to this Seattle Post-Intelligencer article), that the Seattle Sonics basketball franchise (35-47), of which Shultz heads the owners' consortium, has lost more than $60 million in five years.

Schultz still has more than 15.7 million shares of Starbucks stock, and needed to make this week's move in advance of a Sept. 30th expiration date. 

Though you probably could manage to have Starbucks [SBUX] erect a store in your living room if you could demonstrate the commercial value of that location, Starbucks does not sell franchises, contrary to what many believe. Joshua Kennon of About.com discusses Franchise Value (as opposed to franchising in the sense of a company that sells the right to run locations to individuals) in an article using SBUX as its case study of an excellent business with very strong brand awareness and loyalty.  

A friend of mine, visiting Seattle for the first time some years ago, backed me into a corner insisting that Starbucks just had to have some extra-special ingredient that forced her to keep going back for more. Caffeine? I ventured. No, not that, she insisted. Maybe she was on to something after all: a little something called brand awareness?