Daily Archives: December 7, 2006

Cramer Eats Crow

Negative stocks: SIRI, HSY, PNRA, RATE, F

Cramer went back over Sirius (SIRI), and said he is eating crow.  He said point blank right now that neither one of these will make it as a standalone company.  He doesn’t think it is a buy here, but the only way to make it is if they merge.  Doug and I already outlined what a potential Sirius-XM would look like, and you can read that again here if you didn’t before.

Cramer also said he likes Panera Bread (PNRA).  He said the reduced guidance was from the Midwest weather.  He doesn’t think it was just storms, because that is only 40 out of 900 stores.  He said he was wrong to recommend it, and he thinks the growth is slowing.  He said it is time to ring the register on PNRA.  Panera closed down a tad today, but traded down 1% more to $56.13 after he panned the company.  PNRA’s 52-week low is $46.25.

He thinks the only way to play Ford (F) is to buy the convertible notes.  He said the common stock can get crushed and the new debt is paying 4%.  You can buy the convertible bonds instead.

Bankrate (RATE) needs to have the profits taken now, because he doesn’t think Sue Decker wants anything to do with them and will not be acquiring the company.

He also started out saying he was wrong on Hershey (HSY) since they warned.

Does crow taste like chicken?

Jon C. Ogg
December 7, 2006

Posted on: December 7, 2006 – 6:53 pm in Cramer

Cramer is Now Backing eBay

After first talking Dolby (DLB) higher on the first segment of CNBC’s MAD MONEY, Cramer said it is time to put away grudges on stocks.  He thinks it’s time to recommend eBay (EBAY).

He thinks even though it is run by Meg Whitman, has weak user trends, spent too much on Skype, and yada, yada, yada…………

Under $32.00 he likes it, and he said he can whip himself that it is up $9.00 from lows.  He thinks it is still down 25% and now represents and "internet value stock."  He said the bad news has been discounted into the shares.  It trades under 26 times next year’s earnings but growing at 21%.

He said Bear Stearns has it right.  He thinks PayPal is still winning over Google’s checkout.  He likes the Shopping.com and now you can bring in new customers this way.  He even went as far as to say that while he’s been slamming Meg Whitmas that she has been wheeling & dealing including a pact with Yahoo!.  He also likes the recent deal with Baidu.com that started in November.

He likes the $3.2B cash and no debt, plus the company is hording cash.  EBAY closed down 2.7% at $31.30 in normal trading, but is up at $32.05 after the comments.

Do you think Cramer will auction a dinner off with himself liek Warren Buffett did?

Jon C. Ogg
December 7, 2006

Posted on: December 7, 2006 – 6:25 pm in Cramer

Cramer Loves Dolby

On tonight’s MAD MONEY show on CNBC, Cramer had a new pick that is up and heading higher.  He said he was blown away by Dolby’s (DLB) 45% move up lately.  He said it is everywhere and in everything you hear. Cramer calls it "the Microsoft of the digital experience."

It closed at $28.95, up from $23 recently and up from $a low of well under $20 over the last year.  He thinks the past doesn’t matter and this is going higher.  The stock soared after its last earnings after beating by $0.11 and guiding higher, but he doesn’t think it soared enough.  The new information they divulged signals to Cramer that the estimates are too low and need to go higher.  The estimate is $0.83 to $0.92 projected for next year, but Cramer said he would eat his yellow hard hat if the company doesn’t earn $1.07 next year (he then said he thinks they’ll do $1.00 next year).

He thinks that on top of the music, but this is also a stealth play on the new flat panel TV’s because the HD requires to have new Dolby compliant specs.  The company has a huge margin on its licensing, and the company has even been able to squeeze royalties out of Microsoft.  It has $4.55 cash.  It trades with a lower multiple than its growth rate.

For a reference DLB has been public less than 2 years and it came public at just under $25.00 in early 2005.  DLB has trailing EPS of $0.80 and has a 36 P/E ratio.  Now at $30.00 this is a new all-time high.

Jon C. Ogg
December 7, 2006

Posted on: December 7, 2006 – 6:11 pm in Cramer

Chip/Semiconductors Trading Down After Xilinx & National Semi (Watch the Charts)

Stock Tickers: XLNX, NSM, SMH, XSD, ALTR, NVLS, INTC, AMD

Perhaps the easiest way to measure the Semiconductor stocks as a whole is by evaluating the Semiconductor HOLDRs (SMH) and the SPRD Semiconductor (XSD).

These two trade usually within 1% or so of each other, although there are times spread out where one does better than the other as the components have a different mix.  But if you average these out on any given day you should have a good idea of the performance of chips as a whole.

Tonight they are both down.  SMH is down in after-hours activity by 1.65% at $33.88, and that is after being down 1.2% at $34.45 in regular trading. XSD is indicated down but there has been no volume as it is much thinner, but it closed down 1.7% at $50.25 in normal trading today.  The concern here on both SMH & XSD is that both are getting right around their respective 50-day and 200-day moving averages, and they are converging.  Technicians look for that, so we are at some levels where the technicians could start rattling their sabres about the charts.

The reason these are lower is because of Xilinx (XLNX) lowering their forecasts in the mid-quarter update and because of National Semiconductor (NSM) showing a fall in profits.

Xilinx (XLNX) fell 2% in regular trading to $26.44, but shares are down more than 4.5% to $25.21 in after-hours activity.  The company put quarterly revenues at $458 million to $472.5 million (compared to $482 million estimates), and it sees gross margin at 61-62%.

National Semi (NSM) fell 3.5% to $23.92 in normal trading but shares are down another 1.5% to $23.55 in after-hours trading.  NSM posted earnings of $0.27 on EPS as expected, and revenues were $501.6 million (compared to $501.5M est.).  Unfortunately the company said bookings were down some 16% and gross margin was down 2.4% to 58.9%.  It forecast a sequential revenue drop of 8% to 11% with slightly lower margin again.  That revenue number would be at least $35 million short of the $495 million expected, and it could be as much as $50 million light.

Earlier this week Altera (ALTR) fell marginally after lowering its target, and it is often compared as the immediate comparable stock as XLNX.  ALTR shares fell 2.3% to $19.74 in normal trading, and its shares are at $19.60 in after-hours activity.  Novellus (NVLS) gave a decent mid-quarter update earlier in the week, but fell after Goldman Sachs cut it to a "Sell" rating; NVLS closed down 1.1% at $32.51 in regular trading, and shares are down another $0.06 at $32.45 in after-hours activity.

Now we just have to wonder who else is going to come clean.  So far we have no word out of Intel (INTC) nor out of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).  INTC closed down 1.2% at $20.65 in normal trading and are only down $0.01 more in after-hours trading.  AMD closed down 2% at $21.05 in regular trading and are down $0.04 after-hours.

Jon C. Ogg
December 7, 2006

Posted on: December 7, 2006 – 5:13 pm in Semiconductor

Time For Wal-Mart To Close Store (WMT)

Newsweek has come up with the most intelligent explanantion of Wal-Mart’s problems published recently in the popular press. With 4,000 US stores, almost every US resident is within 25 miles of one. The stores compete with one another: "Wal-Mart is overstored," says retail consultant Burt Flickinger III. "They need to go down to 100 to 125 new stores a year."

Even this may be understated. If sales at the stores are fundamentally flat, getting same-store sales moving back up in the 5% range may mean shutting 200 stores. At least that is the simple math. If some of these stores are especially poor performers, the figure might be slightly less.

On the back of an envelop, Wal-Mart’s US store count needs to be in the 3,750 to 3,850 range. If the company adds stores it is difficult to see how comparisons to previous years can be anything but poor.

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

Posted on: December 7, 2006 – 4:30 pm in Retail

US Stock Market Close (DEC 7, 2006)

DJIA    12,278.41; Down 30.84 (0.25%)
NASDAQ    2,427.69; Down 18.17 (0.74%)
S&P500    1,407.29; Down 5.61 (0.40%)
10YR-Bond    4.483%
NYSE Volume    2,700,656,000
NASD Volume    2,045,004,000

After a mix & match of comments on a potential XM Satellite & Sirius Satellite, XMSR traded up 0.75% to $14.81 and SIRI traded up 1.3% to $3.88.

Level 3 (LVLT) rose another 3.8% to $5.75 after Cramer was postive again on out and interviewed the CEO.  Last night Cramer said it was his best stock under $10.00 out there.

Despite some indications that the FDA would keep the drug coated stents going as they are now, Boston Scientific (BSX) fell 0.3% to $16.94 and J&J (JNJ) rose a whopping $0.03 to $66.06.

Apple (AAPL) fell another 3.1% to $87.04 after research reports indicate that Apple’s iPhone may be delayed by several months.

Eli Lilly (LLY) fell 1.6% to $53.99 as their longer-term guidance is essentially under street targets.

Arena Pharma (ARNA) fell 1.7% to $13.21 ahead of the pricing of its 8M share secondary offering set for tonight.

Vanda Pharma (VNDA) rose a whopping 68% to $26.15, its highest close by far since its IPO, on very positive Schizophrenia studies.  Now Schizo’s might not have to say, "I’m a schizophrenic, and so am I."

Coca-Cola (KO) rose 0.7% to $48.72 after naming a new COO.

AU Optronics (AUO) fell 2.5% to $13.38 after lowering shipment targets.

Corning (GLW) fell almost 4% to $21.05 after comments out of the company were sort of taken by the street that the company was seeing a slowing in demand.

Insmed (INSM) fell another 12% to $1.15 after confirming the patent case loss to Genentech.

Akamai (AKAM) rose 7% to $53.38 on a positive boutique report.

Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) rose 2.6% after Goldman Sachs added it to the Conviction Buy List; although estimates lowered for 2006 and raised for 2007.

The biggest of the little pigs, Gateway (GTW), rose 2% to $1.90 after the company removed a rights program and made it easier for directors to be replaced.

Jon C. Ogg
December 7, 2006

Posted on: December 7, 2006 – 4:16 pm in Market Close

Stent Safety Issues at the FDA….Hogwash

Stock Tickers: BSX, JNJ, ANPI, SRDX, CONR, BMY, SNY, ABT, MDT

The FDA review of stents should not change the current practice, and that is for drug coated and uncoated stents.  If it does then the FDA is saying that having a heart attack is better than trying to prevent a heart attack.  No one can tell you 100% that the FDA will go ahead and keep these on the markets as is because we are afterall dealing with the FDA, but the benefits are too huge to keep them out of the market.

Boston Scientific (BSX) presented that the TAXUS drug coated stents are just as safe as bare metal stents already.  It also noted that TAXUS stents are far more effective in keeping arteries open and reducing the need for repeat procedures.  Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) has also said there is no significant difference in clotting, heart attack or death rates between its CYPHER stent and bare metal versions.

Multiple studies have suggested the risk of blood clots, heart attack and death rises in patients who stop taking Plavix earlier than now recommended.  The FDA believes patients could face a small but significant chance of blood clots, the question is to what extent are the risks compared to the benefits.

Medtronic (MDT) and Abbott (ABT) are both developing new stents, so this is farther reaching down the road than just the few companies alone.  Also, Angiotech (ANPI) is the maker of BSX’s polymer and SurModics (SRDX) is J&J’s polymer maker.  Conor Medsystems (CONR) is also currently under a takeover deal by J&J.

Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) & Sanfi-Aventis (SNY) make Plavix, the most common blood thinner used by people that have had stent surgeries.

The companies (BSX & JNJ) were presenting data, and consumer comments and panel questions will be today and tomorrow morning.  The FDA panel vote on recommendations is expected to take place tomorrow afternoon, and if for some reason they do anything other than recommend that blood thinners should be used for longer periods then they need their heads examined.

Insurance companies are probably watching this quite closely too because if the FDA says all of a sudden that drug coated stents are not worth the added efforts, then it will be the insurers paying for extra heart surgeries down the road.

If I ever need a stent myself, I will be looking to get the drug coated stents hands down and with no questions asked.  These prevent restinosis far better than bare metal stents and if there is a small added risk of clotting it is still worth it.   

Jon C. Ogg
December 7, 2006

Posted on: December 7, 2006 – 3:06 pm in FDA

Cramer on Heelys and News Corp

On today’s STOP TRADING segment on CNBC, Cramer said if you can get Heelys (HLYS) under $20 grab it but now he thinks it may go up to $28 or $30.  He says he doesn’t want to buy it at $30.

He then discussed News Corp (NWS), as he thinks Murdoch pulled the wool over Malone.  He thinks this is the same as a giant buyback, and News is the fastest growing media company  in the country.

Cramer’s secret stock is "CSWC"…Capital Southwest, as they had a tie to HLYS.

Jon C. Ogg
December 7, 2006

Posted on: December 7, 2006 – 2:46 pm in Cramer

Challenging Cramer (Dec 7, 2006)

On Cramer’s video today he noted many sectors. Financials are up, presuming that employment will be weak tomorrow and that the gains today are borrowing against gains tomorrow.    BA, IR, CAT are all impressive right now in cyclicals.  His $5.00 picks: Denny’s (DENN) major turn; Rite-Aid (RAD) as told the merger will go through and the union problems will be resolved and RAD going to $6.00; noted LVLT again from last night about the CEO sticking his out calling for 25% growth.  Chevron (CVX) big buyback that people don’t like, but that’s ridiculous according to Cramer.

MY OWN take versus CRAMER’S on two other stock issues he noted today:

Cramer noted he thinks KB Home (KBH) is for sale (while he was commenting on a sector downgrade today, which he thought was a worthless call).  He and others have noted this one and other homebuilders.  To me personally KBH is the most vulnerable of the entire homebuilder group to an acquisition whether they want one or not since the founder/CEO had to be allowed to be booted after he got caught with his hand in the options cookie jar.

Sysco (SYY) is also a good slow growth earner according to Cramer to own here and now.  On a personal note, my own take is thta SYY is probably vulnerable right now as far as I can tell.  The stock is going to have a tone of overhang at $38+ and again at $40 or less it has already run massively after breaking under $30 for the summer.  It needs a breather and it is also is going to share some risk in all these trans fat foods as they are the #1 or #2 major food supplier in most metro areas around the US.  At $36.70 and at a 52-week high this may need a breather before longs want to start piling in.

Jon C. Ogg
December 7, 2006

Posted on: December 7, 2006 – 12:51 pm in Cramer

Chinese Solar IPO Filing: Trina Solar Ltd.

(Corrected post from 3 minutes ago)

There is another "solar power application" company to put on the IPOWATCH LIST.  Trina Solar Lt. in China has filed to come public underthe ticker "TSL" on NYSE for its ADS shares.

The company received a $40 million investment over the summer froman investor consortium led by Milestone Capital, Merrill Lynch and GoodEnergies Investments.

Merrill Lynch is listed be the lead underwriter, seeing as that theywere an investor, and co-managers are listed as Cowen & Co. andCLSA Asia-Pacific Markets.

The company had already said it planned to come public, and theyhave said at the Solar And Clean-Tech Symposium that have beenprofitable.  In 2005 the company posted revenues of $27.275 million andnet income of $3.3 million.  For the first 9-months of 2006 it hasposted $75.7 million and net income of $7.8 million.

It looked like the big jump from revenues from 2005 to 2006 wouldhave been an acquisition but their prospectus statement regarding thatis: Our net revenues increased primarily due to our increasedmanufacturing capacity as demand for our products remained strong……

More information can be found at www.trinasolar.com.

Jon C. Ogg
December 7, 2006

Posted on: December 7, 2006 – 11:32 am in IPOs

The Feds Want Oil Cash (XOM)(COP)

The Department of the Interior has determined that oil and gas companies owe it a ton of money for leases to drill on government land.

The problem was actually caused by the government. It never sent its collection agency out to get the money.

The problem may not be that Exxon or Conoco should pay their bills. The amount is unlikely to break them. But, the new Democratic Congress could decide that the issue is part of a larger one. Oil companies may to much money, they say. And, if their cash flows are enhanced by failing to pay the govenment, all sorts of hearings may start and the drum beating about oil profits and the poor old US Govenment  may lead to the kind of backlash Big Oil would like to avoid.

Right.

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

Posted on: December 7, 2006 – 10:27 am in Uncategorized

Boston Scientific Goes To The Mattresses

Stocks:  (MRK)(BSX)(JNJ)(PFE)

Yet another investigation of the health affect of stents. Where will it end?

The FDA is bringing in outside experts to get their opinions on the dangers of drug coated stents.Boston Scientific desperately needs a good result. The company has said that sales will rise 21% next year. If the new study undermines stent sales, the forecast could be a pipe dream.

The concern is that drug coated stents can cause blockages and heart attacks.Global stent sales are about $6 billion a year and BSX and Johnson & Johnson own the market. The FDA survey could determine whether its is a market worth owning or if the medical liabilities could become legal liabilities. Think Merck and Vioxx.

Pfizer just learned the hard way that forecasts can be undermined by research results.

Ouch.

Posted on: December 7, 2006 – 10:14 am in Pharmaceuticals

Motorola Has Too Much Money, Buy Nortel

Stocks:  (MOT)(JNPR)(NT)

Motorola is sitting on too much cash and Wall St. is worried that the company does not know what to do with it. Cash and securities less debt is about $7 billion.

Some institutions have floated Juniper and other telecom infracture companies, which are viewed as expensive compared to their earnings.

The obvious answer may be Nortel, which is run by a former Motorola exec. With a market cap of about $9.5 billion, Nortel trades at less than one time revenues. Morningstar loves the company and thinks its turnaround is well along: "Though it no longer dominates, Nortel is still the leader in optical networking systems. This is an area of the telecom equipment industry with great long-term promise.:" And, "Nortel has a diverse product line and well-established customer base that includes many of the largest global carriers. About 45% of sales come from outside North America."

Nortel would add $10 billion in revenue to add to Motorola’s $40 billion. And, the businesses are very closely related. Juniper, on the other hand, has about $2 billion in revenue. Its market cap is nearly $12 billion.

Too much cash at Motorola. Buy a turnaround on the cheap.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at douglasamcintyre@247wallst.com. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.
Posted on: December 7, 2006 – 10:01 am in Telecom

Market Has to Absorb Over $1 Billion in Secondary Offerings Today

This certainly isn’t the first time this has happened and there are other days where Secondary stock offerings have been more, but we have several stock offerings from companies hitting the capital markets today to the tune of over $1 Billion on almost 50 million shares.  This often acts as a hidden volume trade on the markets, and it can act as a liquidity suction cup if this occurs on a low-news days.

For reference CSCO trades 51 million shares per day and at $27.00-ish this accounts for some $1.37 Billion, YHOO trades about 29 million shares on average and at $27.00-ish accounts for some $781 Million in average trading.  This probably won’t bleed the markets but it is definitely worth monitoring as all the companies that can sell shares will try to do so before we get into the Holiday spirit and the stock market goes on auto-pilot.

Here is a summary of the deals today:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stock Shares(M) Price $Million
FSNM 2.75 $25.00 $68
MNKD 20 $17.42 $348
PNM 5 $30.79 $152
SWSI 4.6 $25.50 $117
VOLC 7.5 $16.75 $125
WPZ 7 $38.00 $266
Totals 46.85 $1,076

Jon C. Ogg
December 7, 2006

Posted on: December 7, 2006 – 8:36 am in Uncategorized

Pre-Market Stock News (Dec 7 2006)

(ACE) Ace Ltd. guides 2007 EPS $6.65-7.15 vs $6.85e.
(ARNA) Arena should have its 8M share secondary price tonight.
(CPST) Capsone Turbine names new CEO.
(CWST) Cassella Waste$0.06 EPS vs $0.02e.
(DDMX) Dynamex $0.34 EPS vs $0.31e.
(DLIA) Delia’s $0.11 EPS vs $0.07e.
(EAT) Brinker NOV s-s-s -2.6%.
(FCS) Fairchild Semi reiterated Q4 guidance.
(FLE) Fleetwood -$0.31 EPS vs -$0.32e.
(FNM) Fannie Mae said past earnings would be cut by $6.3 Billion because of misstatements.
(FNSM) FirstState Bancorp 2.75M share secondary at $25.00.
(GIII) G-III Apparel $1.59 EPS vs $1.37e; raised 2007 guidance.
(GPRO) Gen-Probe in 3M development pact for rapid food safety testing.
(HD) Home Depot taking $200M charges related to options.
(HLYS) Heelys IPO was touted by Cramer on MAD MONEY.
(HSY) Hershey lowered guidance.
(INSM) Insmed violated Genentech patents (was out during yesterday market hours).
(IDEV) Indevus -$0.25 EPS vs -$0.24e.
(JOSB) Jos. A. Banks $0.30 EPS vs $0.29e.
(LLY) Eli Lilly guides $3.10 to $3.20 EPS for 2007; sees 2005 #.25 to $3.35; sees single-digit EPS growth in 2008 & 2009.
(LVLT) Level 3 was noted as the best stock under $10 that Cramer knows.
(MEDX) Medarex announced FDA Fast Track designations for Ipilimumab.
(METH) Methode Electronics $0.13 EPS vs $0.11e.
(MNKD) Mannkind Corp 20M share secondary priced at $17.42.
(MOV) Movado $0.64 EPS vs $0.61e.
(NCS) NCI Building Systems $1.33 EPS vs $1.34e.
(PNM) PNM secondary priced 5M share secondary at $30.79.
(PTMK) Pathmark -$0.11 EPS vs -$0.17e.
(RVI) Retail Ventures looking for a buyer for its Value City Stores.
(RYL) Ryland adds $175M to share buyback.
(SEAC) Seachange -$0.04 EPS vs -$0.07e.
(SWSI) Superior Well Services 4.6M share secondary priced at $25.50.
(TLAB) Tellabs down 3% on downgrade.
(TOPT) Top Tankers down 4% on wider loss than expected.
(VNDA) Vanda Pharm has positive Phase III results from Iloperidone trials.
(VOLC) Volcano 7.5M share secondary priced at $16.75.
(WMT) Wal-Mart trying to remake its image according to WSJ.
(WPZ) Williams partners LP 7M "unit" secondary offering priced at $38.00.

Posted on: December 7, 2006 – 8:13 am in Pre-Market Activity

Select Analyst Calls (DEC 7, 2006)

AAP raised to Buy at Citigroup.
ALU put on Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.
AOC cut to Neutral at Merrill Lynch.
ATVI started as Buy at Oppenheimer.
BEAS cut to Sector Perform at RBC.
BMET started as Buy at UBS.
CTXS cut to Sector Perform at RBC.
DRIV cut to Sector Perform at RBC.
EROC started as Buy at AGEdwards.
ERTS started as Neutral at Oppenheimer.
GLH raised too Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
KBH raised to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
KYPH started as reduce at UBS.
LAMR started as Buy at Jefferies.
LPX raised to Buy at B of A.
MET cut to Mkt Perform at KBW.
MIC started as Buy at AGEdwards.
OPTM started as Buy at Jefferies (maybe yesterday call).
PPP cut to Sell at Deutsche Bank.
RIMM cut to Sector Perform at RBC.
RSTO started as Outperform at RBC.
RYL cut to Underperform at Credit Suisse.
SFY cut to Reduce at UBS.
SYK started as Neutral at UBS.
TDW cut to Reduce at UBS.
THQI started as Buy at Oppenheimer.
TLAB cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
ZUMZ started as Buy at B of A.

Posted on: December 7, 2006 – 8:08 am in Analyst Calls

Wal-Mart’s PR Brain Trust (WMT)

Wal-Mart has retained PR operation Edelman in another sign that the retailer is focusing on form over substance. The public relations firm is using employees who have helped in political campaigns to run something called "Candiate Wal-Mart"

Wal-Mart is guessing that if it improves its image with the public then sales might go up. Bad feelings about putting small retailers out of busness and pushing around employees must be the fall guy for the company’s dropping same-store sales.

The PR operation even helped turn the Wal-Mart launch of $4 prescriptions into a "we are bring down healthcare costs" campaign.

Now that The Wall Street Journal has"outed" Wal-Mart’s fancy campaign to win over the press and consumers, the troubling question arises as to whether people don’t shop at Wal-Mart because they don’t like the company or because they don’t think the stores have the products they want at the price they want.

Maybe if Wal-Mart would put the kind of effort into merchandising that it appears to be putting into burnishing its image the financial health of the company might actually improve.

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

Posted on: December 7, 2006 – 6:00 am in Retail

Europe Market 12/7/2006 Gallaher Up 19%

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

Markets in Europe were higher at 5.45 AM New York time.

The FTSE was up .5% to 8,122. Barclays was up 4.2% to 715.5. BP was down .3% to 577.5. BT was was down 3% to 290.25. GlaxoSmithKline as up 1% to 1351. Gallaher was up 19% to 1164. Prudential was up 2.5% to 669. Reuters was up .5% to 455.75. Vodafone was flat at 136.5. Uniliver was .7% to 1368.

The DAXX was up .3% to 6,390. Bayer was down .2% to 39.27. DaimlerChrysler was up 1% to 44.32. DeutscheBank was up .8% to 98.86. Deuteche Telekom was flat at 13.34. Siemens was up 1.1% to 72.73.

The CAC 40 was up .3% to 5,365. Alcatel/Lucent was up 2.4% to 10.28. AXA was down .2% to 29.13. France Telecom was up .1% to 19.52. ST Micro was up .8% to 13.77. Vivendi was  up .1% to 29.31.

Data from Reuters.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: December 7, 2006 – 5:47 am in International Markets

Google Turns On The Telly (GOOG)

Google has cut a deal with British broadcaster BSkyB to provide video programming and services like e-mail for the television firm’s website. More important, Google video content will appear on BSkyB programming which runs through set-top boxes which store customer data.

Google Adsense program for targeting advertising would be utilized to help serve relevant commercials.

The alliance joins Google with Rupert Murdoch who controls the British company which is run by his son.

Google stated that the deal was important to the search company: “This is a really, really big deal for us,” said Eric Schmidt, Google’s chairman and chief executive. “If it works, it will become our most lucrative deal from the get-go.”

And, that may well be so. Set-top box technology is employeed in both satellite and cable deployments around the world. If Google’s targeting tech allows ads to be more accurately served to consumers based on behaviior, it would be a significant break-through for the TV advertising industry.

With newspaper and radio buying sevices already in place, Google goes after the TV.

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

Posted on: December 7, 2006 – 5:28 am in Internet

Media Digest 12/7/2006 Reuters, NYTimes, WSJ, FT

Stocks:  (GOOG)(BSX)(JNJ)(RIMM)(MSFT)(NWS)(F)(HD)(BA)

Reuters writes that British tobacco company Gallaher has been approached about a buy-out, probably by Japan Tobacco.

Reuters also writes that drug coated stents face a safety review in the US. The large suppliers of the products at Boston Scientific and Johnson & Johnson.

Reuters writes that the CEO of Research In Motion sees sales of its products doubling in Asia over the next year.

Reuters also reports that Microsoft’s Zune player sales should hit one million by mid-2007.

The Wall Street Journal reports that News Coporation is close to buying the stake that Liberty Media has in the company. News Corp would give Liberty it ownership stake in DirecTV and other assets.

The WSJ writes that Ford is adding $5 billion to the $18 billion in debt it is raising

The WSJ also reports that it found routine options backdating from 1981 to 2000, and that it would have to restate financials.

The New York Times reports that royalties owed to the US government by oil companies often go unpaid.

The New York Times reports that technical advances and airline needs have put the 36-year-old Boeing 747 back in demand.

The FT reports that Google will provide video programming to British broadcaster BSkyB and will use its Adsense program to help target BSkyB customers.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: December 7, 2006 – 5:16 am in Press Digest