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Internet Fund High on Take-Two, Google, and Apple
Tweet Share on Facebook August 19, 2008 Comment (1)Ryan Jacob of the Jacob Internet Fund (JAMFX) continues to tout tech names, hoping for a recovery in that sector to boost his fund's returns.
His fund is down more than 20 percent this year as some of his earlier picks, such as Shutterfly and Yahoo, hurt results.
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S&P Companies Face Less Help From Overseas
Tweet Share on Facebook August 14, 2008 Comment (1)Stock strategists continue to worry about the spread of America's economic slowdown to the rest of the world. Revenue from international operations, whether in emerging markets in Asia or stalwarts like Europe, has been one pillar still supporting U.S. stocks as the domestic economy slows.
Now, Standard and Poor's international equity strategist Alec Young says sales to those markets might be slowing. That could be worse than expected for U.S. equities. He writes:
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Survey: Investors Worry About Global Economy
Tweet Share on Facebook August 13, 2008 CommentMerrill Lynch's always informative monthly survey of 193 fund managers shows some real changes in the way money managers are thinking about the economy.
Basically, they now think the financial crisis may be morphing into an economic one, where formerly steady countries around the globe start to see more slowing.
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Best Buy Gets the iPhone
Tweet Share on Facebook August 13, 2008 Comment (2)Best Buy's win as the first independent U.S. chain to sell the iPhone at 600 of its locations could set the retailer up to be one of the big winners during the holiday season. Competition is normally fierce among "must have" gadgets, but with the economy slowing, there just aren't as many rivals for Apple's popular phone. Best Buy will sell them for the same starting price of $199 for the 8GB model, with the same 2-year service agreement with AT&T.
Best Buy (BBY) shares jumped about 3 percent in early trading. Apple (AAPL) gained about 2 percent.
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Solar Earnings Soar
Tweet Share on Facebook August 12, 2008 Comment (2)The shares of two Chinese names are reviving the solar sector this morning.
LDK Solar (LDK) is up more than 20 percent today after second-quarter earnings more than doubled to $1.29 a share from 45 cents a year ago. Wall Street was expecting profits to fall to 42 cents, so the beat is a huge one. Operating profit rose to $100.3 million from $52.5 million last year, despite the high cost of polysilicon, which LDK uses to make its products. The company also raised its annual revenue estimates by a whopping 50 percent from the midpoint between earlier forecasts to $1.65 billion to $1.75 billion. Analysts at ThinkPanmure, who initiated coverage on LDK this week with a $50 price target, raised their 12-month price target to $55 on the back of the earnings report. Shares traded near $41 at midmorning.
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Stocks: a Bit Less Bad
Tweet Share on Facebook August 11, 2008 Comment (1)Dan Weiss, who blogs at Vestopedia (here via Seeking Alpha), points to a recent shift in market leadership:
As of June 30, 2008, the year to date performance of sectors in the Russell 3000 Index were as follows (from best to worst):
- Energy +12.8%
- Materials +2.3%
- Utilities -2.9%
- Consumer Staples -7.9%
- Industrials -11.9%
- Health Care -12.3%
- Technology -12.6%
- Consumer Discretionary -15.6%
- Telecom -16.9%
- Financials -27.1%
From June 30, 2008 to August 8 we have seen a near complete shift as can be evidenced by the following returns in the period (the figures in parentheses are the numbers year to date to 8/8/08):
- Health Care +10.2% (-3.3%)
- Financials +9.3% (-20.3%)
- Consumer Staples +7.5% (-1.0%)
- Consumer Discretionary +7.2% (-9.6%)
- Industrials +4.8% (-7.7%)
- Technology +3.8% (-9.2%)
- Telecom -3.9% (-20.1%)
- Utilities -8.3% (-10.9%)
- Materials -8.5% (-6.4%)
- Energy -19.0% (-8.6%)
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Amazon's Kindle Worth $1 Billion
Tweet Share on Facebook August 11, 2008 Comment (1)After early production runs sold out, speculation about just what kind of product Amazon's little white reader will be for the online retail giant (An iPod for books? A better Sony Reader? Something in between?) is now getting some closer attention.
Amazon (AMZN) has kept diligently mum on its real sales numbers, but Mark Mahaney, a Citigroup analyst, says they're looking much stronger than expected.
He pegs 2008 sales at around 380,000, double his earlier estimate. That translates to revenue above $1 billion by 2010, compared with his earlier estimate of $400 million to $750 million. It's also nearly 4 percent of Amazon's total sales—a number that puts the Kindle in the sort of territory that could make it a real growth driver if it can become one of this holiday season's "it" gadgets.
Amazon shares are up more than 10 percent today on the news.
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Today's Links
Tweet Share on Facebook August 11, 2008 CommentBloomberg has a great piece on the "lone gunman" theory of Bear Stearns's near collapse. Options traders bet $1.7 million that the share price of the country's fifth-largest bank would fall by half in a little over a week—a move analysts are saying smacks of insider trading that could have netted something like $270 million in profit.
Meanwhile, the Economist taps an unnamed risk manager for a less nefarious (but no less important) look at what bankers were doing as the credit crunch began to loom (hint: not enough).
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Research in Motion in Europe
Tweet Share on Facebook August 7, 2008 Comment (1)Research in Motion's (RIMM) Bold device is on shelves in Germany and hits Austria next week. Citigroup's Jim Suva says it puts to rest fear among investors that the launch would be delayed.
He writes: "We believe actual launch removes significant sentiment overhang from RIM shares & should counter fears of rampant ad spending that has served as add'l stock overhang."
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Wal-Mart, Target Sales Slump
Tweet Share on Facebook August 7, 2008 CommentIf it seems like we've been harping on problems in retail stocks lately, it's because through all the noise about banks and housing, the consumer is still the biggest driver of economic growth.
Today, Wal-Mart (WMT) and Target (TGT) both showed that shoppers are pulling back.
Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, managed a 3 percent gain in July but said sales this month won't be as rosy. CEO Eduardo Castro-Wright noted that many shoppers are holding back on spending until payday.
