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With the passing of each hour, there are more media reports that talks between GE (NYSE:GE) and Vivendi for the French company to sell its 20% of NBCU to the American conglomerate have moved closer to collapse. Without Vivendi’s cooperation, GE cannot form the joint venture it is creating with Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) to take the management and eventually the ownership of the entertainment company out of its hand. Read Full Story
It Looks More Likely GE (GE) May Keep NBCU, Force Job Cuts
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Barnes & Noble (BKS) Runs Out Of E-Readers: Amazon (AMZN) Stands Alone
Sony (NYSE:SNE) said it might not have its e-reader, the Daily Edition Reader, ready to ship before Christmas. It has given customers a range of dates for availability of its product that could be as early as December 18 or as late as January 8.
Now, Barnes & Noble (NYSE:BKS) has come up short on the inventory of units for its device–the Nook. The book retailer said, “Preorders have exceeded our expectations.”
Barnes & Noble and Sony came into the e-reader market to challenge the extremely successful Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) Kindle which has established a large enough market to prove the devices are popular. Several research firms say that they expect e-reader sales to hit three million this holiday season. Amazon is the only competitor in the field which has effectively managed its inventory. That leaves Barnes & Noble and Sony with little more than the embarrassment of botched launches. Read Full Story
Hershey Longs For Cadbury?
The trust that controls Hershey has asked the company to make a bid for UK sweets company Cadbury (NYSE:CBY).
The Wall Street Journal reports that the offer would be approximately $17 billion which would top the current offer from Kraft (NYSE:KFT)
Douglas A. McIntyre
52-Week High Club (DDS, DBRN, SJM, MRK)
Dillard’s Inc. (NYSE: DDS) rose as high as over 10% to a yearly high of $15.79 after the department-store chain was upgraded by Deutsche Bank AG.
Dress Barn Inc. (NASDAQ: DBRN) rose as high as 9.2% to a yearly his of $22.42 after the women’s clothing retailer announced earnings of $0.37, beating analysts estimates.
The J.M. Smucker Company (NYSE: SJM) rose as high as 6.3% to a yearly high of $56.86 after the jam and peanut butter maker reported earnings of $1.222 per share, beating analyst estimates.
Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK) rose nearly 4% to a yearly high of $36.67 after the pharmaceutical company announced that drug Elonva was recommended for treatment of the ovaries in the European Union.
Garrett W. McIntyre
Unusual Friday Options Activity (AAPL, GOOG, BAC, LEAP, PCS, DRYS, YHOO)
We have seen some unusual options trading today. As you would expect, some is around today’s 4:00 PM close with today being options expiration date. But some bets are way out into 2011 and we have some around merger rumors. All have links with full details on the options trading analysis at VSInvestor:
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) are both seeing very active trading around expiration date today, and the closest strikes are acting as magnets.
Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) has seen a very bullish bet in options out to 2011.
There is some elevated Dec-2009 Call options activity in both Leap Wireless International Inc. (NASDAQ: LEAP) and MetroPCS Communications Inc. (NYSE: PCS) on today’s re-rumor of a potential deal coming back up.
DryShips, Inc. (NASDAQ: DRYS) is very active in the stock after an increased convertible note offering, yet the options activity seen today seems muted.
Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) has a big bet out in January 2011 options expiration.
You can join our open email distribution list to hear more news on key analyst calls, top day trader alerts, mergers and acquisitions, Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.
JON C. OGG
NOVEMBER 20, 2009
Next Week’s Top 10 Earnings on Deck (HPQ, TSN, CPB, LDK, TECD, BKS, BGP, JCG, DLTR, DE)
Earnings season has mostly wound down, but as always at least some major companies are reporting earnings. Some are actually market-movers as well and it is a short week with earnings out only Monday and Tuesday, with a few on Wednesday. On deck are Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ), Tyson Foods Inc. (NYSE: TSN), Campbell Soup Co. (NYSE: CPB), LDK Solar Co. Ltd. (NYSE: LDK), Tech Data Corp. (NASDAQ: TECD), Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), Borders Group, Inc. (NYSE: BGP), J. Crew Group, Inc. (NYSE: JCG), Dollar Tree Inc. (NASDAQ: DLTR), and Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE).
We have included estimates from Thomson Reuters, relative data on peers and recent developments, and relative performance on each where it was applicable.
Read Full Story
Rig Count Growth Mostly Positive (BHI, OIH, DIG, USO, OIL)
Baker Hughes, Inc. (NYSE: BHI) has released its data on the weekly rig counts and most are up. We are watching the key ETF products react via the Oil Services HOLDRs (NYSE: OIH), the Ultra Oil & Gas ProShares (NYSE: DIG), the United States Oil (NYSE: USO) ETF and the iPath S&P GSCI Crude Oil Total Return Index ETN (NYSE: OIL) react to this news. It will be interesting to see if this continues after the recent pause in oil.
The Palm Margin Squeeze (PALM, S, AMZN, WMT)
Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) has sort of already fallen from grace despite all the hype behind the Palm Pre. Throw in that Pixi too. Discounting is trumping what may be weaker sales. It turns out that Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) is offering the Palm Pre for Sprint for a mere $79.99. Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) has it offered direct at $149.99 price after discounts and rebates at its site. Sprint Nextel is also selling the Palm Pixi for $99.99, but the Palm Pixi is now for sale for $24.99 at Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT). We confirmed all these prices on the websites, and this is going to confirm tough times for Palm and its finances.
Read Full Story
Today’s Best Market Rumors (11/20/2009) (GS)(JAVA)
Updated throughout the day.
GE (NYSE:GE) and Vivendi are at odds over the NBCU valuation (FT)
IBM (NYSE:IBM) is taking advantage of the delay in the Sun (NASDAQ:JAVA) deal to be bought by Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) (TheStreet)
The joint venture between Rio Tinto (NYSE:RTP) and BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP) may lead to a merger. (various)
Ferrero may want to buy Cadbury’s gum and candy division. (NYTimes)
Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) investors want the firm to cut down the size of bonuses to be paid at the end of the year (various)
Douglas A. McIntyre
Top Day Trader Alerts (BCRX, DELL, DRYS, NVAX, WCRX)
These are this morning’s top day trader alerts and active trader alerts early this Friday morning. We have links through to each stock at VSInvestor.com with more data and analysis on each:
BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: BCRX) down almost 6% on its secondary offering.
Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) is down 8% on earnings, but we came up with the technical levels to watch in moving averages and prior pivot points.
DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ: DRYS) is down almost 4% after it increased the size of its convertible note offering.
Novavax, Inc. (NASDAQ: NVAX) is trading down 10% on a secondary offering on deck.
Warner Chilcott plc (NASDAQ: WCRX) is down only 2% after insiders and private equity holders are selling shares in a secondary offering.
You can join our open email distribution list to hear more news on key analyst calls, top day trader alerts, mergers and acquisitions, Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.
JON C. OGG
NOVEMBER 20, 2009
Top 10 Analyst Upgrades, Downgrades, Initiations (AFL, BRCM, DDS, D, INTC, MRVL, BTU, RTP, STP, TXN)
These are Friday morning’s top 10 analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations we have seen early this morning in Wall Street research calls:
AFLAC (NYSE: AFL) Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM) Started as Outperform at BMO Capital Markets.
Dillard’s (NYSE: DDS) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
Dominion (NYSE: D) Cut to Sell at Citigroup.
Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) Started as Outperform at BMO Capital Markets.
Marvell Technology (NASDAQ: MRVL) Started as Outperform at BMO Capital Markets.
Peabody Energy (NYSE: BTU) Removed from Conviction Buy List (still Buy rated) at Goldman Sachs.
RioTinto (NYSE: RTP) Cut to Underperform at Credit Suisse.
Suntech Power (NYSE: STP) Raised to Hold at Soleil.
Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) Started as Outperform at BMO Capital Markets.
You can join our open email distribution list to hear more news on key analyst calls, top day trader alerts, mergers and acquisitions, Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.
JON C. OGG
NOVEMBER 20, 2009
South Korea Continues To Best US In Auto Trade
The AP reports that South Korean auto groups claim that the Asian country exported 600,000 cars and light trucks to the US last year. Only 7,000 American autos were sold in South Korea during that period. The figures probably got more lopsided this year as Hyundai improved it sales in the US.
The numbers look a bit like those the US had to contend with in the 1970s as Japan began to take a large part of the American market but domestic car companies had trouble getting their products into the Japanese market. Read Full Story
Microsoft (MSFT) Claims Windows 7 Is Major Success
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer told attendees at the company’s annual shareholder meeting that Windows 7 sales were astonishingly high. According to a Wall Street Journal account of the gathering, “Microsoft Corp. has sold twice as many copies of Windows 7 in its first few weeks than any previous version of the operating system,” Ballmer said.
The news means that one of Microsoft’s five major operating units may do well and next year. That leaves four to go. Read Full Story
Vivendi Disputes Value Of GE’s (GE) NBCU Business
The much-anticipated deal for Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) to take control of the NBC Universal division of GE (NYSE:GE) may die next week . Vivendi, which owns 20% of NBCU, believes that the entertainment and news company is worth much more than GE does.
According to the FT, “General Electric and Vivendi are at least $1bn apart in their valuation of the French group’s stake.”
It will be a challenge for GE to operate a business that it clearly wants to sell. Read Full Story
Big Goldman Sachs (GS) Shareholders Fight Bonuses
A number of large Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) shareholders would like to see the firm’s profits in their pockets and not in the bank accounts of the Goldman partners.
The Wall Street Journal reports that many institutions that hold Goldman shares are upset that the firm’s EPS will be down this year even though the investment bank will post record sales. A great deal of this drop is because Goldman issued 100 million shares to improve its balance sheet. Cutting compensation would rebuild EPS figures which should help drive up the value of the stock. Read Full Story
The Federal Reserve Vs. Ron Paul
There is a rumor that has been around Hollywood for decades that some of the greatest silent film comedy scripts were created by screen writers who would bribe wardens at a local insane asylum to allow a patient to sit in on their story meetings. Allegedly, some of the most hilarious moments in the history of comedic cinema came out of ideas from the minds of people who spent all of their time on locked wards. Even the craziest person in the world can give birth to an idea which is both brilliant and intelligible. Read Full Story
Media Digest 11/20/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg
Reuters: The Senate is near its first vote on healthcare.
Reuters: Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) is betting on corporate spending for its recovery.
Reuters: Time Warner’s (NYSE:TWX) AOL showed that the worst is not over for media job cuts.
Reuters: China cyber-spying against the US will probably grow. Read Full Story
Asia Markets And Europe Open (11/20/2009)
Markets in Asia fell.
The Nikkei was down .5% to 9,498. Sony NYSE:SNE) fell after its investor meeting. Mitsubishi UFJ (NYSE:MTU) gained back some losses.
The Hang Seng fell .7% to 22,451.
The Shanghai Composite was down .4% to 3,308.
At the open in Europe, the FTSE was up .3% to 5,281. The Dax rose .5% to 5,727. The CAC 40 rose .4% to 3,775.
Data from Reuters and MarketWatch.
Douglas A. McIntyre
Pimco’s Gross Says Buy Utilities
PIMCO’s chief Bill Gross puts out a regular letter in which he shares his investment advice with the public. 
Invoking the memory of Will Rogers, a Depression-era comic, Gross describes the recent upheaval in the financial markets as a period where investors needed to concern themselves with the return of their money, rather than return on their money. After sharing an amusing (if not somewhat disturbing) story of having his wife emptying their bank accounts at the height of the crisis, Gross argues that it is time for investors to concern themselves with the problem of earning some return again. Read Full Story
52-Week High Club (DCI, NTAP, TSL)
Donaldson Company Inc (NYSE: DCI) rose over 8.5% to a yearly high of $45.19 after the air filter maker reported 3Q earnings of $0.45 per share, beating analyst estimates.
NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP) rose over 5.5% to a yearly high of $31.25 after the server maker reported profits of $0.37 per share, beating analysts estimates.
Trina Solar Limited (NYSE: TSL) rose over 9.5% to a yearly high of $46.80 after the Chinese solar company reported 3Q profits of $1.29 per share, beating analyst estimates by nearly 50%.
Garrett W. McIntyre
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Today’s top tickerspy Indexes Home Furnishing R... +14.1% Ethanol and Biofu... +5.1% Electronics Retai... +2.1% Diabetes Stocks +2.0% Memory Chip Stock... +2.0% 
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- US Sen. Landrieu Will Vote To Advance Health-Care Bill
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- paidContent - Nielsen Biz Selling Print, Online But Not Until December; Lachlan Murdoch Considering Investing
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