FeedTheBull - Unpublished Stock Market News

Magic Formula Business Sector #4: Industrial Materials

MagicDiligence — Fri, 16 May 2008 09:22:24 -0400

Industrial materials comprises a wide variety of businesses, from copper miners to aircraft makers. Except for the commodity stocks, many businesses in this sector have one key characteristic that makes them attractive to the Magic Formula screen...

Fed Wants To Regulate Asset Bubbles

finblogger — Fri, 16 May 2008 01:31:53 -0400

In a series of comments by Federal Bank Governors, they have let it be known that preventing buildups like the dotcom and housing bubbles may become a priority for the Fed. Ft.com report says that the Treasury recommends giving the Fed wide authority to require financial institutions to alter behaviour that it believes poses a threat to financial stability.

Barron's Analyst Recommends Vodafone (VOD)

ceoblogger — Thu, 15 May 2008 22:05:09 -0400

Barron's analyst recommends Vodafone based on emerging market growth and other factors. The analyst has also been pretty good with his picks so far this year.

Last Day is Fri May 16th

PLATINUMPICKS — Thu, 15 May 2008 21:00:50 -0400

Upgrade to a Full-Member before Friday's closing bell (May 16, 2008)

and you will be locked in at the current rate forever! After Fridays closing ding, the membership rate will increase.

Tough Times for Corporate Software Spending

mfan — Thu, 15 May 2008 18:21:15 -0400

Excerpt - "An April 8-15 ChangeWave corporate spending trends survey shows a deterioration in 2nd Quarter software purchases with little relief in sight. But there's good news on the Virtualization front - with strikingly upbeat findings for VMware (VMW) and good indications of momentum for Citrix (CTXS)."

Great Day at Headquarters and RCH

upsidetrader — Thu, 15 May 2008 17:48:24 -0400

A CHART OF RCH WHICH HAS EXPLODED THE LAST TWO DAYS AND A REVIEW OF RECENT PICKS THIS WEEK

Is the Worst Behind Us?

ockhamsrazor — Thu, 15 May 2008 15:57:09 -0400

The short answer is YES! The slightly longer answer is in this article.

Supporting pyramid schemes like Pre-Paid Legal is lucrative for politicians

fraudfiles — Thu, 15 May 2008 14:24:53 -0400

Hundreds of thousands of dollars of campaign contributions have gone to Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff from multi-level marketing (pyramid scheme) companies since 2003. It's no wonder that he spoke in favor of weakening the Utah law against pyramid schemes... and the politicians listened to him.

I think its time for a pep rally

theWild1 — Thu, 15 May 2008 14:04:03 -0400

With all the bad news and signs in the market, the DOW has actually gone up. Are we at the very same point as last year and ready for a rally?

Bill Ackman/Pershing Square Capital's Q1 moves

ceoblogger — Thu, 15 May 2008 13:35:04 -0400

Ackman basically sold down his PUTS in MBIA and Ambac and probably made a small fortune. He also established a position in Wendy's in the quarter and added another 16 million shares of Target, his favorite retail company. Other than that, he held positions in Sears, Cadbury, Greenlight Capital, and loaned Borders Group money to stay afloat and took tons of options/warrants at $7.

The link shows some of his recent stock picks and tracks the performance.

CBS in $1.8B deal for online news, info site CNet

PersonalTech — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:46:07 -0400

CBS is buying CNet Networks, an online news and information provider, for $1.8 billion in cash in its latest bid to expand its reach on the Internet.

The price of $11.50 per share represents a massive premium of 45% over CNet's closing stock price on Wednesday, and appears to get CNet out of a nasty battle with one of its largest shareholders, which had been agitating for a shakeup at the company after its stock slumped.

CNet shares jumped $3.48, or 44%, to $11.43 in morning trading Thursday. Investors didn't see the deal as positively for CBS, and pushed that company's shares down 89 cents, or 3.6%, to $23.93. Citigroup analyst Jason Bazinet said in a note that the "pricing risk is high" for CBS.

CBS's CEO Leslie Moonves told reporters on a conference call that acquiring access to CNet's large online audience in order to distribute media content from CBS was "a large part" of CBS' motivation in going after the San Francisco-based online company.

"Our idea is to have our content wherever, whenever you can get it, and adding CNet just makes that happen faster," Moonves said.

Despite the high premium CBS is paying for CNet, CBS's chief financial officer Fred Reynolds called the price "fair" said the acquisition would immediately add to CBS's earnings. CBS will fund the acquisition with cash on hand.

CNet was an early pioneer on the Internet, but its executives have faced harsh criticism from dissident investors in recent months who say the technology news and entertainment company should be doing more to restore the $1 billion in shareholder value that has disappeared since December 2005.

Moonves said he saw opportunities for distributing CBS news, music and other content on CNet's online outlets, and also for tapping CNet's significant online advertising sales operation to boost over ad growth for the media company.

CBS's chief of interactive business Quincy Smith has been moving aggressively to find new online outlets for its entertainment programming as more people shift their media consumption from traditional outlets like TV and radio to the Internet.

On Wednesday, CBS announced a partnership with Eqal, the company that came up with the online video hits "lonelygirl15" and "KateModern," to work on video programming that's integrated across broadcast television, online and mobile media platforms such as cell phones.

The acquisition, expected to close in the third quarter after shareholder and regulatory approval, would make CBS one of the 10 most popular Internet companies in the U.S., with 54 million unique visitors a month and approximately 200 million uses worldwide, CBS said.

CBS, which is also a major radio broadcaster, inked a deal in March to provide audio programming from all 140 of its radio stations to Time Warner Inc.'s AOL music service.

Very Bullish Start Ends With Most Indexes Closing At Or Near Their LOD; My Best Stocks Held Up Well During The Selling

BigWaveTrading — Thu, 15 May 2008 08:24:04 -0400

Well, that sure is not how you like to close them. Especially with volume picking up there while we sold off right after hitting the 200 day moving average on the Nasdaq. The good news is that the market still gapped high enough in the morning that all major market indexes were able to close with gains. But there was a negative blip in regards to leading stocks as the IBD 100 fell 1.2%.

Thankfully, even though volume ticked slightly higher on the Nasdaq, the NYSE had volume come in 1% lower on the reversal. To go along with that the volume was below average on the NYSE for the 38th straight session, volume was barely above the 50 DMA on the Nasdaq. With the volume being higher and prices being higher that would still be bullish despite the reversal. The volume simply was not full of conviction in the form of huge clear distribution. I guess you could count 4/1 as average daily volume on the NYSE, by the way, but still it wasn’t above average so I guess the point still stands.

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PLATINUMPICKS — Wed, 14 May 2008 22:42:30 -0400

Join now as a free limited member and get access to free stock picks and alot more. Picks are posted daily before 11pm est the evening before trading day. JOIN NOW

Icahn Will File Yahoo Proxy Board Slate

PersonalTech — Wed, 14 May 2008 18:26:43 -0400

By Aaron Task in Investing, Internet, Newsmakers, Venture Capital, M and A, IPOs

Carl Icahn is going to move forward with a full proxy slate to replace Yahoo's board of directors, Reuters reports.

"Icahn, who has amassed a large stake in the Internet company, has lined up at least 12 potential board candidates," Reuters reports.

The deadline for Icahn (or anyone else) to submit a proxy slate is Thursday, so if the famed corporate raider is going to make a move, we'll know very shortly.

As Henry and I discussed this morning, a key question is whether big Yahoo shareholders Gordon Crawford and Bill Miller will support Icahn. Then again, he might not care and Yahoo's board might end up wishing they'd dealt with the devil they know (i.e., Ballmer) when all is said and done.

Icahn did not respond to a call seeking comment.
Update: The obvious question: Is Microsoft supporting Icahn, either overtly or covertly? We'll know more if/when Icahn announces his proxy slate; if some of the same folks set to be on Microsoft's since-disbanded slate are on Icahn's, then it's fair to say Redmond had a hand in this.

Knowing Microsoft is ready to take a chance again would certainly help, but I don't think it's the only thing on Icahn's mind. He's an opportunist – and I don't mean that in a negative way. It could be he believes new management could do more to extract value from Tech Ticker's parent, whether Microsoft has truly "moved on" or not.

Assuming Icahn does move forward, Capital Re's Crawford and Legg Mason's Miller are key to any effort to oust (or merely influence) Yahoo's board because, combined, they represent ownership of about 23% of Yahoo shares.

Crawford has publicly scolded Jerry Yang and Yahoo's "so-called independent" board and has a history of working behind the scenes to oust executives who let him down (Steve Case at AOL-Time Warner, as Kara Swisher details). So it's reasonable to think Crawford could be supporting Icahn's effort.

Miller would seem to be more of a wildcard given his public statements this morning, as reported in The NY Times: “Unless Microsoft is willing to come back and discuss a deal, it is hard to see what additional directors or new directors would be able to accomplish on behalf of shareholders.”

Then again, "Miller is on his last legs," as one money manager told me this afternoon (Wall Street is a cold place.) After an amazing period of outperforming the market, Miller has struggled in the past two years and again so far in 2008, hurting both his reputation and his parent company.

Arguably more than anyone else, Miller needs Yahoo shares to rally – one way or another.

Bears Take a Bite Out of Deere

ockhamsrazor — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:59:43 -0400

Deere and Company has been benefiting from increased sales due to the boom in global argriculture prices, but the company has not been able to take advantage to the extent that analysts had hoped. Read here why it is not a good buy at this time.