Monthly Archives: November 2006

Europe Markets 11/30/2006 British Air, BT, Alcatel Up

Stocks:  (BCS)(BP)(BAB)(BT)(GSK)(PUK)(RTRSY)(UL)(VOD)(BAY)(DCX)(DT)(DB)(SI)(ALA)(AXA)(FTE)(V)

Markets in Europe were modestly higher at 6.05 AM New York time.

The FTSE was up .3% to 6,100. Barclays was up .4% to 689.5. BP was up .4% to 580.5. British Air was up 1.9% to 504.75. BT was up 2.1% to 283. GlaxoSmithKline was down .9% to 1359. Prudential was up 1.7% to 673.5. Reuters was down .2% to 456.75. Unilever was up .4% to 1381. Vodafone was up .6% to 135.25.

The DAXX was up .4% to 6,390. Bayer was up .4% to 40.05 DaimlerChrysler was up .6% to 44.67. DeutscheBank was down .3% to 98.55. Deustche Telekom was down .2% to 13.54. Siemens was up .1% to 72.56.

The CAC 40 was up .3% to 5,386. Alcatel was up 1% to 10.26. AXA was down .1% to 29.06. France Telecom was down .6% to 19.71. ST Micro was up .1% to 13.85. Vivendi was up .7% to 29.39.

Posted on: November 30, 2006 – 6:07 am in Uncategorized

The Fifteen Most Overvalued Stocks: Schlumberger

Stocks: (SLB)(XOM)

Schlumberger dominates the business of providing services to the world’s largest oil and gas companies. It is currently helped by the fact that oil and gas are harder and harder to find and recover. The company’s services are critical to helping Big Oil recover more deposits.

But, the stock has gotten expensive. As Morningstar points out: "With demand tied to a cyclical industry, Schlumberger’s primary risk is a protracted downturn in oil and gas prices. Pricing power can evaporate for service companies when drilling activity slows down."

Over the last five years, Exxon’s stock is up about 100%. Schlumberger’s is up closer to 200%. Its return is almost 2x of that of the industry its serves. At $68, it is well above its 52-week low of $47.19.

The sharp drop in crude oil prices and cautionary comments from Schluberger’s management have not helped perceptions of the company recently. If oil prices stay at current levels or drop further, SLB is not helped.

Douglas A McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

Posted on: November 30, 2006 – 5:40 am in Uncategorized

Media Digest 11/30/2006 Reuters, WSJ, NYT

Stocks; )JNJ)(AMD)(INTC)(GM)(NYT)(F)(TIVO)(VOD)(YHOO)(AMGN)

According to Reuters, the US economy was stronger that first throught for the third quarter. GDP growth was revised up to 2.2%.

Reuters writes that US Air will meet with Delta’s creditors today in an attempt to buy the bankrupt airline.

Reuters writes that AMD has unveiled three chips for PC "power users" who tend to set early trends in purchasing. The move is to counter Intel’s newest computer chips.

Reuters writes that GM has made a pledge that it will continue to develop and then market plug-in hybrid cars.

Reuters writes that former AIG chairman Hank Greenberg is trying to convince Morgan Stanley to participate in a buy out of The New York Times Company.

The Wall Street Journal writes that a new study says that Wall St. is losing its competitive edge because of heavy regulation.

The Wall Street Journal says that real estate firm SL Green may up its bid for Reckson, but will not match a bid by rival investors.

The Wall Street Journal also writes that 38,000 workers from Ford have taken the company’s buy-out offer.

The Wall Street Journal also reports that Tivo narrowed its loss in the last quarter but that results will be hurt in the next due to customer cash in rebates.

The Wall Street Journal also says that Europe cell phone giant Vodafone will start putting advertising on customer phones. The deal will be done in cooperation with Yahoo!

The New York Times writes that kidney experts are questioning whether patients are being overtreated with anemia drugs. The study could hurt sales of products from Amgen and Johnson & Johnson.

The New York Times also reports that Huffington Post, a political blog, will start hiring full-time reporters to cover Congress and the next presidential race.

Douglas A. McIntyre.

Posted on: November 30, 2006 – 5:21 am in Uncategorized

Asia Market Report 11/30/2006 ChinaMobile, Daiwa Securities Up

Stocks: (CAJ)(FUJ))HMC)(HIT)(NIPNY)(NTT)(SNE)(TM)(CHL)(CHN)(PCW)(HBC)

Asian markets were sharply higher.

The Nikkei was up 1.2% to 16,274. Bridgestone rose 1.8% to 2535. Canon was up .7% to 6120. Daiwa Securities was up 3% to 1327. Fuji Film was up .7% to 4610. Hitachi was up 1.2% to 688. Honda was up 2.2% to 4100. NEC was up 1.3% to 553. NTT was up 1% to 586000. Sharp was up .5% to 1949. Softbank was up 1% to 2425. Sony was up .2% to 4580. Toshiba was .5% to 741. Toyota was up 1.3% to 7020. Yahoo Japan was 2% to 45600.

The Hang Seng was up 1% to 18,960. Cathay Pacific was up 1.6% to 18.5. China Mobile was up 1.7% to 65.4. China Unicom was up .3% to 8.96. HSBC was up .5% to 144.5. PCCW was flat at 5.05.

The KOSPI was up .7% to 1,432.

The Straits Times was.4% to 2,839.

The Shanghai Composite was up 2.2% to 2,099.

Data from Reuters

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 30, 2006 – 4:52 am in International Markets

As GM Goes Green, Toyota Questions The Market

Stocks: (GM)(TM)

Toyota’s sales of its Prius hybrid are lousy. The big Japanese car company blames that on the fact that the US government is not giving out incentives to buy the car. If buyers really wanted them, it is not clear why lack of incentives are killing sales.

For the first time since the car was introduced in 2003, Toyota does not have a backlog of unfilled customer orders. October sales of Prius were the lowest since March.

Of course, GM never likes to come to a party early. Just as Toyota hybrid sales are going down the drain, GM trumpets its "next big thing" in the plug-in electric hybrid.

While GM’s product works differently from Toyota’s, the No.1 car manufacturer’s announcement comes at an awkward time. Just as Toyota is saying hybrids may not be a good business. Unless, of course, the govenment pays part of the price.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

Posted on: November 30, 2006 – 4:35 am in Uncategorized

Netlist IPO Priced at the Low End of the Range

Netlist (NLST) has been an IPO that hasn’t been "on again, off again" but it has been one that has been on the IPO docket without a resounding "We love you" from the street. 

This IPO finally priced at $7.00 for 6.25 million shares, so the priced the whole deal but at they low end of the $7.00 to $9.00 range.  The company actually made its IPO filing in August, and we put out quite a bit of data on it at the time. The underwriting group was listed as Thomas Weisel, Needham, and W.R.Hambrecht.  Here is a link to find more, but right now it seems they had to price the deal a little low to garner interest.

Netlist is an Irvine, California-based company that designs and builds memory systems or modules used by computer manufacturers.  IBM (IBM) and Dell (DELL) are responsible for nearly 80% of their revenues.

HERE is a background piece on the company we ran at the filing date.

Jon C. Ogg
November 30, 2006

Posted on: November 30, 2006 – 4:30 am in IPOs

Zune Resurrection (MSFT)(AAPL)(SNDK)

Just a few days ago, the new Microsoft Zune multimedia device was dead It had fallen out of the Amazon "Top Ten" consumer electroincs sellers. Stick a fork in it.

But, recent data from Reuters suggests otherwise. Thirty-five percent of Zune buyers are expecting to buy the device to replace another digital media player. Yes, thirty-five percent. Zune has also grabbed 9% of the multimedia player market in the last week, moving into second place ahead of Sandisk.

Interestingly enough, the Reuters showed that 80% of the people it surveyed were in the market for their first portable multi-media player, a sign that the market for these devices can still expand.

Apple’s lead is still commanding, and it may never be supplanted as the No.1 device. But, the early data on Zune is not as bad as the initial media reports, and Microsoft, if nothing else, is a dogged competitor.

TIme will tell.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

Posted on: November 30, 2006 – 4:19 am in Uncategorized

Best Buy On The Road To Perdition

Stocks:  (BBT)(WMT)(DELL)

Best Buy’s CEO has stated that he will match Wal-Mart’s pricing on consumer electronics. As a matter of fact, he will match anyone’s prices. The consumer electronics retailer is competing with mega-stores like Wal-Mart and online retailers like Dell. Sort of caught in the middle.

Best Buy’s stock is near the high of $58 that is set in April. This was not just a recent high. The stock has not traded above this point  in the last five years. It now trades around $55.

Matching Wal-Mart’s prices may be the only option Best Buy has to keep store traffic and e-commerce purchaes at a good level. But, it could really pound the old operating margin.

It is not good news.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own shares in companies that he writes about.

Posted on: November 30, 2006 – 4:09 am in Uncategorized

Audit Committees: Accountants Needed

From The Accounting Observer

Huron Consulting Group, the forensic accounting firm, has put together an interesting study on the presence of accounting types on the audit committees of publicly-traded firms. “Accounting types” is defined by them as:

“- an “accountant” by training and experience (this category included CPAs, controllers, accounting professors and those who served on accounting standards or other similar boards); or

- a “finance professional,” such as a chief financial officer, treasurer, finance professor.”

Anyone not meeting those criteria was considered to be – a non-accountant. (Poor wretches.) The study’s authors inspected the disclosures of 178 Nasdaq 100 and Fortune 100 firms, covering 700 different audit committee members from 2002 (when the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed) through 2005. Given that Sarb-Ox imposed more responsibility on management for producing “cleaner” financial statements, and stiffened the auditing profession at the same time, you might have expected that accounting expertise would be in demand on audit committees. Another impetus: beginning in 2003, the NYSE and the Nasdaq both required audit committees to have at least one member with enough experience to understand accounting issues as they relate to the company they serve.

“More” is exactly what Huron found in its study – but maybe not to the degree you might have expected over the four-year span. Accounting-oriented audit committee members were only 5% of the total in 2002 and their presence more than doubled to 11% in 2005. Other findings: 37% of audit committee experts didn’t seem to have an accounting OR finance background, and 17% of the companies didn’t appear to have an expert with either background.

What to make of the findings? To be honest, it’s surprising at first that there was such a modest increase in the number of accounting types. Not that a doubling in four years is chopped liver; but given the urgency created by SarbOx, you’d have expected a bigger presence. That’s especially puzzling because most of these firms should have had to deal with Section 404 testing a couple years after SarbOx’s passage. Maybe many qualified accounting-type experts saw the handwriting on the wall and wanted to wait until the gut-wrenching phase of Section 404 passed. Now that the worst is out of the way, maybe they’re going to pile onto audit committees. There’s never a shortage of attrition from the ranks of Big Four audit partners.

http://www.accountingobserver.com/blog/

Posted on: November 30, 2006 – 3:55 am in Uncategorized

Dynavax Hepatitis B Phase III Study Positive

From BioHealth Investor

Shares of Dynavax Technologies Corp (DVAX) jumped more than 30% on Wednesday after the company announced that its Hepatitis B phase III clinical study showed positive results. The announcement came following market close on Tuesday.

The study showed a statistically significant advantage of Dynavax’s HEPLISAV HEP B vaccine when compared to the conventional vaccine, Engerix-B, developed by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

What is of primary importance is the fact that HEPLISAV outperformed Engerix-B in older subjects, a population who has historically proven more difficult to immunize.

It was able to provide over 98% protection in this older population after only two doses.

Further trials of HEPLISAV are planned to take place in Canada and Europe to investigate multiple dosing regimens and the effects of the vaccine in differing age populations. Dynavax expects these trials to conclude in 2008.

Shares of Dynavax closed at $9.79 after establishing a new intraday 52-week high.

http://www.biohealthinvestor.com/

Posted on: November 30, 2006 – 3:53 am in Uncategorized

Targeted Genetics Stock Continues Unexplained Rise

From BioHealth Investor

Targeted Genetics Stock Continues Unexplained Rise

Shares of Targeted Genetics (TGEN) continued to rise on Wednesday gaining more than 13% to $5.39. On Monday, TGEN stock jumped more than 50%. Both days saw a tremendous spike in volume with no detectable news or any other significant events.

Back on November 8th BioHealth Investor suggested that Biogen Idec (BIIB) should buyout TGEN after the biotech giant helped ease the company’s debt levels through a restructuring agreement. Under the agreement BIIB also purchased more TGEN stock.

Could Biogen or any other company be in merger talks with Targeted Genetics?

http://www.biohealthinvestor.com/

Posted on: November 30, 2006 – 3:51 am in Uncategorized

Analyzing Tiffany& Co (TIF)

By Yaser Anwar, CSC of Equity Investment Ideas

TIF reported 3rd Q EPS of $0.18 (excluding one time tax benefit and gain on securities sale of $0.03), were above street expectations of $0.16. US comps were up +6% (Sept +7%, Oct +4%) but Japanese comps down -5% (Sept -4%, Oct -7%). Operating margins were flat, with GM declines offset by lower SG&A rate.

The stock had a great day due to-

1) Sales growth in November higher than expectations, with US comps & International comps stronger than expectations

2) Europe and non-Japan Asia sales strong and above internal expectations in 3Q, with comps +21% and +17%; respectively,

3) Buyback of around $100 mill of shares in 3rd Q,

4) Gehry collection results were above expectations,

5) Higher end jewelry is performing best

6) Strength in London with Bond St. store “meaningfully” higher and the New US stores performing well.

7) Increased 2006 guidance to $1.79-$1.84 from $1.77-$1.82, which implies 4Q06 guidance of $0.99-$1.04, cons. is at $1.02.

Investors should note that the Japanese business remains weak and management no longer providing specific Japan comp guidance, instead they are now focus on Intl., comps decelerated monthly throughout the quarter, but they appear better on a 2 year basis. Also that gross margins continue to be pressured by higher raw material costs & inventory was up double digits to +19%.

  • TIF’s primary growth drivers are new store openings and SSS. Over the next few years, TIF anticipates annual mid-single digit growth in worldwide square footage with the opening of three to five US stores and five to seven international stores.
  • Investors should expect net sales growth to be driven by new products and multi-channel distribution, and for an operating margin improvement from expanded internal manufacturing and diamond sourcing capabilities, and expense controls.
  • TIF’s new $700 share repurchase authorization should also provide support for EPS growth

http://www.equityinvestmentideas.blogspot.com/

Posted on: November 30, 2006 – 3:48 am in Uncategorized

Texas Instruments CEO Sees No Evil Inventory

By William Trent, CFA of Stock Market Beat

Our readers are quite familiar with our concern that excessive capacity additions are going to make an already bad inventory situation even worse. Texas Instruments CEO Rich Templeton begs to differ – MarketWatch:

The semiconductor industry doesn’t appear to have a serious problem with excess inventory, Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN) Chief Executive Rich Templeton said Tuesday. “I don’t think we have an inventory situation that’s out of control compared to what we’ve seen in the past,” Templeton said at a Credit Suisse conference for investors.

He said many customers are comfortable with trimmer inventories, meaning they reorder more slowly knowing they can get additional chips from suppliers if needed.

What Templeton is saying is that semi manufacturers need to carry more inventory because their customers don’t want to. While that is fair enough, it doesn’t mean the companies should pile up their own inventory forever. The reason customers don’t want to hold semiconductors in inventory is that they generally decline in value over time. That doesn’t change just because it is the manufacturer holding it rather than the customer, but simply reflects a shift in the risk profile of supplier and customer.

Texas Instruments has said as much themselves, as the article notes:

In its third-quarter financial report issued in October, TI said declining orders led it to expect slower fourth-quarter growth than normal. Customers had broadly replenished their inventories and were operating with a lower backlog of products, the company said. Buyers believed chip supplies had improved. The company also said an inventory correction continued in Japan, where manufacturers were building more low-priced cell phones.

So there you have it. There is no glut, unless you count Japan, the customers that have inventory but no backlog, and the inventory on manufacturer’s balance sheets (that amounts to the “improved supplies.”)

The author may hold a position in the securities discussed. The author’s current holdings are as follows: Long: Intuit (INTU) put options; Nasdaq 100 (QQQQ) put options; Bookham (BKHM; Ballard Power (BLDP); Syntax Brillian (BRLC); CMGI (CMGI); Genentech (DNA); Ion Media Networks (ION); Lion’s Gate (LGF); Three Five Systems (TFS); Adobe Systems (ADBE) call options; IShares Japan (EWJ); StreetTracks Gold (GLD); Starbucks (SBUX); U.S. Oil Fund (USO); Plantronics (PLT) call options; Short: Ceradyne (CRDN) put options; Lion’s Gate (LGF) call options; Dell (DELL) put options; Plantronics (PLT) put options;

http://stockmarketbeat.com/blog1/

Posted on: November 30, 2006 – 3:45 am in Uncategorized

LCD Panel Makers Find Capacity is Capacity

By William Trent, CFA of Stock Market Beat

We have closely followed the overcapacity situation in LCD panels, and have maintained that the way to solve the problem is to produce only as many panels as are needed. The quest for market share has more frequently made the problem worse. Some argue that the new plants are to produce larger monitors, but we have said that it can also be used to produce larger quantities of the smaller monitors. As DigiTimes reports:

Since LPL’s 5G plant is running at full capacity and sales for 42- and 47-inch TV panels are below expectations, the company decided to volume produce 19-inch monitor panels at its 7.5G plant, the sources added. The company is also set to volume produce 19-inch widescreen LCD monitor panels at its 7.5G plant in January 2007, said the sources.

The move is surprising, as it is not efficient to produce 17-inch and 19-inch LCD monitor panels in such advanced facilities; next-generation plants are more suited for TV panel production, the sources pointed out.

The sources added that the move will accelerate price drops for LCD monitor panels.

The panel makers seem to get it at times, though the record is spotty. LCD panel makers to cut capacity 10% in December:

LCD panel makers such as AU Optronics (AUO), Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT) will slow their production by 10% in December, according to sources. Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO) will not decrease output of its LCD monitor panels but will reduce its LCD TV panel output, the sources added.

It’s a start. However, it likely has as much to do with an anticipated seasonal slowdown after the holidays than with any real discipline on the part of manufacturers.

The author may hold a position in the securities discussed. The author’s current holdings are as follows: Long: Intuit (INTU) put options; Nasdaq 100 (QQQQ) put options; Bookham (BKHM; Ballard Power (BLDP); Syntax Brillian (BRLC); CMGI (CMGI); Genentech (DNA); Ion Media Networks (ION); Lion’s Gate (LGF); Three Five Systems (TFS); Adobe Systems (ADBE) call options; IShares Japan (EWJ); StreetTracks Gold (GLD); Starbucks (SBUX); U.S. Oil Fund (USO); Plantronics (PLT) call options; Short: Ceradyne (CRDN) put options; Lion’s Gate (LGF) call options; Dell (DELL) put options; Plantronics (PLT) put options;

http://stockmarketbeat.com/blog1/

Posted on: November 30, 2006 – 3:42 am in Uncategorized

Xerox Catches Debt Upgrade

By Willaim Trent, CFA of Stock Market Beat

We have been skeptical of the turnaround at Xerox (XRX). Although the company frequently points to the strong growth in their color and digital product lines, it never seems to be enough for overall sales growth to keep pace with economic growth, because declining older businesses take it all away. What’s more, the suggestion that shareholders treat restructuring charges as one-time events stretches credulity when the company records them every year.

However, as we noted before, debt reduction has positioned the company to reduce its borrowing costs.

Moody’s raises Xerox debt rtgs to investment-grade | Reuters.com

Moody’s raised Xerox’s senior unsecured rating one notch to “Baa3,” the lowest investment-grade rating, from “Ba1.” A rating change to investment grade can significantly reduce a company’s borrowing costs.The outlook on the rating is positive indicating it could be raised again over the next 12 to 18 months.

So good news for bondholders. For stockholders, however, we are still concerned about the declining cash flow.

The author may hold a position in the securities discussed. The author’s current holdings are as follows: Long: Intuit (INTU) put options; Nasdaq 100 (QQQQ) put options; Bookham (BKHM; Ballard Power (BLDP); Syntax Brillian (BRLC); CMGI (CMGI); Genentech (DNA); Ion Media Networks (ION); Lion’s Gate (LGF); Three Five Systems (TFS); Adobe Systems (ADBE) call options; IShares Japan (EWJ); StreetTracks Gold (GLD); Starbucks (SBUX); U.S. Oil Fund (USO); Plantronics (PLT) call options; Short: Ceradyne (CRDN) put options; Lion’s Gate (LGF) call options; Dell (DELL) put options; Plantronics (PLT) put options

http://stockmarketbeat.com/blog1/

Posted on: November 30, 2006 – 3:39 am in Uncategorized

Cramer names annointed stocks institutions use for mechanics

Cramer said the mechanics of the market are a secret to most.  This moves stocks in the short term, and the institutons will hate him for this.  The mechanics of a stock moving up are more imprtant than the fundamentals and "the market" doesnt really exist.

With this you can outsmart the institutions, but this is on short-term gaming.  This is why you can buy stocks that already ran and still make money.  Symbolism is important here.  They may need to have oil exposure, so Exxon (XOM) is symbolic for that.  In aerospace, it is Boeing (BA), in banking it is Bank of America (BAC), with internets it is Google (GOOG), equipment is Cisco (CSCO), in oil services it is Schlumberger (SLB).

Jon C. Ogg
November 29, 2006

Posted on: November 29, 2006 – 6:27 pm in Cramer

No Merry Christmas For Verizon

Stocks:  (VZ)(CMCSA)(CVC)

According to Barron’s, Comcast was able to raise rates for basic cable by 5.4%. The data to estimate the figure was based on a survey of several markets by Berstein Research.

So, the bottome line is that the competition from Verizon’s new fiber FiOS TV service is "restrained". In other words, the $18 billion that Verizon is putting into it fiber initiative is not scaring Comcast into rate breaks to keep customers.

Although the news is not definitive, it is hardly good for Verizon. The company’s massive bet on FiOS has to pay off within the next year or so, or Verizon management will look like a pack of fools to Wall St.

Some industry experts think that Verizon is simply too far behind the cable companies, and that, with their investment behind them and Verizon’s $18 billion being spent now, it is "game, set, match" to the cable guys.

Until the market see companies like Comcast and Cablevision offering sharp discounts on cable TV, Verizon is struggling.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

Posted on: November 29, 2006 – 4:56 pm in Uncategorized

Market Wrap (Nov. 29, 2006)

DJIA    12,226.73; Up 90.28 (0.74%)
NASDAQ    2,432.23; Up 19.62 (0.81%)
S&P500    1,399.35; Up 12.63 (0.91%)
10YR-Bond    4.521%     Up 0.012
NYSE Volume    2,732,627,000
NASD Volume    1,870,362,000

Q3 GDP was revised from an initial estimate of 1.6% growth to 2.2% (compared to 1.8% estimates).  Today is a mixed bag in the markets, despite the major averages rising.  The Fed’s Beige Book indicated that consumer spending is increasing and that most districts are cautiously optimistic on holiday sales after the economy has improved a bit since October.

The New York Times (NYT) had a very strong day rising 7.5% to $24.76 as CNBC’s Charlie Gasparino said that Hank Greenberg may try to acquire the entire company.

Home Depot (HD) also rose 1.5% to $37.61 after CNBC’s Charlie Gasparino commented that private equity firm KKR had crunched numbers to look at acquiring the $77 Billion home improvement and building supply behemoth.

3Com (COMS) fell 10% to $4.02 after it acquired the remaining 49% stake in its venture with Huawei; mainly because this wipes out their cash and their history of going-it-alone stinks.

Pfizer (PFE) rose $0.02 to $27.07 after announcing it would shed 25% of its drug sales workforce.

Dollar General (DG) fell 6% to $15.70 after no bid emerged after the rumors were out yesterday.

Tiffany’s (TIF) rose 6% to $38.21 after beating earnings and raising guidance for the fiscal year.

GRUPO AEROPORTUARIO (OMAB), today’s IPO of the Mexican airport operator, priced at $18.00 and closed considerably higher at $20.85 after numerous look at this as a very protected business operation.

Microsoft (MSFT) rose 0.6%, or $0.18, to $29.57 after it offered 13-15% sales growth targets for 2007 and noting it would be more aggressive on share buybacks.

Bon-Ton (BONT) rose 16% to $37.68 after retail sales there exceeded estimates.

Dress Barn (DBRN) also rose a sharp 19% to $24.46 after strong sales numbers.

Chicos (CHS) rose 4% to $24.09 after it profits fell but they were in-line and the company did not warn nor did it post a negative s-s-s number.

Ford Motor (F) rose $0.01 to $8.16 after noting that some 38,000 workers were taking early buyouts and after the company said losses in 2007 would keep a dividend out of the picture.

SanDisk (SNDK) fell 2.3% to $43.73 after Merrill Lynch said NAND inventory levels were increasing and maintained a neutral sidelines stance until the shares go lower.

Jon C. Ogg
November 29, 2006

Posted on: November 29, 2006 – 4:07 pm in Market Close

Cramer says Bank of America is better than Citigroup

On today’s STOP TRADING segment on CNBC around 2:45 PM EST, Jim Cramer outlined which was better between Citigroup (C) and Bank of America (BAC) now that BAC has eclipsed C’s market cap.

Cramer says that Citigroup’s Chuck prince needs to go.  C is up 2% compared to BAC, but Citigroup could go up 5 points if he would leave.  If Cramer had to buy one, he’d buy B of A (BAC) because it is a stock and Citigroup (C) acts like a bond.

Cramer said you gotta "buy the heck out of apple" with iPhones going to be huge for it. Zune is not a threat.

Jon C. Ogg
November 29, 2006

Posted on: November 29, 2006 – 2:46 pm in Cramer

Does Online Shopping Kill Stores?

ComScore has come out with its data on Cyber-Monday, the weird appellation given to the first day after the Thanksgiving weekend. The day went better than expected. Revenue from online ecommerce hit $608 million, up 26% from a year ago. The largest one-day total ever. For the first 27 days of November, online ecommerce revenue was up 24% to $9.84 billion.

Putting these number next to the same-store sales drop-off at Wal-Mart. Same-store sales across the industry rose 2.5% in November according to the International Counsil Of Shopping Centers. The trade group said this was the slowest month since March.

Althought there is a dearth of good data on what online shopping takes from the so-called "bricks and mortar" world, it is hard to imagine that there is not some element of borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.

Online sales may be doing fine. But, if off-line sales are not, a false sense of how well the retail sector is going might tempt investors to be overly confident. That could be a mistake.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

Posted on: November 29, 2006 – 2:27 pm in Uncategorized