Daily Archives: November 23, 2007

52-Week Lows Today (November 23, 2007)

DJIA           12,980.88 (+181.84; +1.42%)
S&P500    1,440.70  (+23.93; +1.69%)
NASDAQ   2,596.60  (+34.45; +1.34%)

These didn’t all close on 52-week lows, but here is a list of stocks that managed to hit new 52-week lows today despite a strong stock market, and on what was otherwise a quiet news day.  This list only includes stocks that were down right before the end of the day rather than stocks that hit or touched 52-week lows and then recovered:

  • Adaptec (NASDAQ:ADPT)
  • Advanced Medical Optics (NYSE:EYE)
  • Cott Corp. (NYSE:COT)
  • Diebold (NYSE:DBD)
  • Dialysis Corp. of America (NASDAQ:DCAI)
  • eLong (NASDAQ:LONG)
  • Gluu Mobile (NASDAQ:GLUU)
  • iBasis (NASDAQ:IBAS)
  • La-Z-Boy (NYSE:LZB)
  • Shoe Carnival (NASDAQ:SCVL)
  • Webzen (NASDAQ:WZEN)

Jon C. Ogg
November 23, 2007

Posted on: November 23, 2007 – 1:13 pm in HI/LOW, , , , , , , , , , ,

Mid-November NYSE Short Interest In Tech Stocks (AMD, GLW, EMC, HPQ, IBM, LSI, MU, MOT, NOK, NT, TXN, VMW)

Every month, 24/7 Wall St. peruses through the NYSE, AMEX, and the NASDAQ.  One key area we look at of course is technology.  Below is a summary of some of the key technology stocks we evaluate daily and are interested in the short interest of each:

Stock (Ticker)                   11/15/2007     10/31/2007     Change
Advanced Miro (AMD)     68,231,116     67,071,442     +1.73%
Corning (GLW)                 12,678,622     16,112,839     -21.31%
EMC Corp. (EMC)            50,028,872     61,281,674     -18.36%   
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ)  19,968,125     21,272,824     -6.13%
IBM (IBM)                            13,236,353     13,826,521     -4.27%
LSI Logic (LSI)                  52,043,374     49,830,763     +4.44%
Micron Tech (MU)             58,664,775     51,730,612     +13.40%
Motorola (MOT)                 30,158,214     28,509,945     +5.78%
Nokia (NOK)                      13,558,932     11,122,200     +21.91%
Nortel (NT)                         12,041,541     12,909,979     -6.73%
Texas Inst. (TXN)              27,288,442     29,206,232     -6.57%
VMware (VMW)                  11,681,831     10,440,110     +11.89%

We have already covered:

Jon C. Ogg
November 23, 2007

Posted on: November 23, 2007 – 10:09 am in Short Interest, Technology Companies, , , , , , , , , , , ,

US Search Engine Share, October 2007 (GOOG)(YHOO)(MSFT)

In October, Google (GOOG) expanded its search share in the US moving further ahead of Yahoo! (YHOO) and Microsoft (MSFT) according to comScore data.

Share of Searches (%)                     

                                                 Point   Change   

                                                       Oct-07 vs.   

    Core Search Entity    Sep – 07          Oct -07            Sep-07            

    Total Core Search        100.0 %      100.0 %            0.0

    Google Sites                 57.0 %           58.5 %         1.5

    Yahoo! Sites                 23.7 %       22.9 %            -0.8

    Microsoft Sites             10.3 %         9.7 %             -0.6

    Ask Network                  4.7 %         4.7 %              0.0

    Time Warner Network     4.3 %         4.2 %             -0.1

Source: comScore

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 23, 2007 – 9:57 am in Internet, , ,

Top NYSE Short Interest Increases (CVS, AMD, HD, MU, WMT, MIR, BIG)

It is always interesting seeing which groups and which stocks saw the biggest changes in short interest.  This list doesn’t show financials because we’ve already shown that individually.  Here are some of the largest key short interest INCREASES from October 31 to November 15:

Stock (Ticker)                    NOV 15            OCT 31           Change
CVS Caremark(CVS)     67,661,461     37,871,140     29,790,321
Advanced Micro (AMD)   68,231,116     67,071,442     1,159,674
Home Depot (HD)          62,955,046     57,367,957     5,587,089
Micron Technol (MU)      58,664,775     51,730,612     6,934,163
Wal-Mart Stores (WMT)  51,603,102     44,236,637     7,366,465
Mirant Corp (MIR)            50,241,294     23,796,710     26,444,584
Big Lots Inc (BIG)            34,616,813     28,812,272     5,804,541   

Jon C. Ogg
November 23, 2007

Posted on: November 23, 2007 – 8:36 am in Short Interest, , , , , , ,

Largest NYSE Short Interest Decreases (Q, GE, TWX, EMC, BSX, PFE)

It is always interesting seeing which groups and which stocks saw the biggest changes in short interest.  This list doesn’t show financials because we’ve already shown that individually.  Here are some of the key largest DECREASES in short interest from October 31 to November 15:

Stock (Ticker)                    NOV 15        OCT 31             Change
Qwest Comm. (Q)         66,747,528     82,000,170     -15,252,642
General Electric (GE)    61,608,091     66,708,279     -5,100,188
Time Warner (TWX)       61,393,120     68,977,843     -7,584,723
EMC Corp (EMC)           50,028,872     61,281,674     -11,252,802
Boston Scientific (BSX) 35,257,658     39,893,566     -4,635,908
Pfizer Inc (PFE)               34,773,855     45,263,120     -10,489,265

Jon C. Ogg
November 23, 2007

Posted on: November 23, 2007 – 8:33 am in Short Interest, , , , , ,

November NYSE Short Interest: Not Pretty For Financials

Short interest for stocks traded on the NYSE was up about 3% for the period ending November 15 compared to the October 31 numbers. Bets against big financials sky-rocketed, and positions in some retailers jumped.

The shares sold short in Washington Mutual (WM) jumped 12.3 million to 74.6 million. Wells Fargo (WFC) shares sold short moved up almost six million to 53.7 million

The short position in Wal-Mart (WMT) spiked to 7.4 million to 51.6 million and Home Depot’s (HD) was up 5.6 million to 63 million.

Largest Short Positions

Company                                         Shares Short

Ford (F)                                           164.4 million

Countrywide (CFC)                           112.5 million

Washington Mutual                            74.6 million

AMD (AMD)                                       68.2 million

CVS                                                  67.6 million

Qwest (Q)                                          66.7 million

Home Depot                                       63.0 million

GE                                                    61.6 million

Time Warner                                      61.3 million

Best Buy                                           59.1 million

Source: NYSE

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 23, 2007 – 8:02 am in Short Interest, , , , , , , , ,

Boeing’s Best Weapon Against Airbus: Plummeting U.S Dollar (BA)

There are numerous articles on the web today discussing how Airbus’ parent EADS may cut its $3 Billion R&D budget.  It isn’t the maximization of technology.  It isn’t a slowing economy.  It’s the weaker and weaker U.S. Dollar.

If this is music to anyone’s ears it would be to that of Boeing (NYSE:BA). 

Bloomberg reported that this Dollar-Euro level has passed the pain barrier, although the Unions in Europe were in disagreement as the company has record orders. 

Frankly, if EADS wasn’t smart enough to enter better currency hedging then maybe they deserve their labor unions to be unhappy as it begins the construction and roll-outs of its new planes.

Boeing (BA) won $716 million in orders from KLM on Thursday.  As long as Boeing doesn’t have excessive raw materials costs that have been rising on a weak dollar, maybe it can win more orders away from Airbus from the dollar collapse.

Jon C. Ogg
November 23, 2007

Posted on: November 23, 2007 – 7:56 am in Airlines,

Diller & IAC In China: You Bet Your Ask (IACI, BIDU)

Despite a pending break-up in the media conglomerate, IAC/Interactive (NASDAQ:IACI) is spending up to $100 million to launch a new Internet company…. In China.  IAC is planning bring its Ask.com to the Chinese market, although reports put this as a search and advertising company rather than as a transaction-based company.

The new Internet company could launch within a year and its Ask.com could be available within two years.  With the valuations that Baidu.com (NASDAQ:BIDU) and others have seen, this can’t be that big of a surprise despite the pending break-up of the online and media conglomerate.  Baidu.com trades at more than 25-times 2008 projected revenues, while  IAC trades around 1.15-times 2008 projected revenues.  It’s a wonder with numbers like this that everyone hasn’t followed Nixon to China.

IAC/Interactive is under review for our Special Situation Investing Newsletter that covers buyouts, break-ups, spin-offs, reorganization, restructuring, and more.

Jon C. Ogg
November 23, 20

Posted on: November 23, 2007 – 7:37 am in China, Internet, ,

Amazon.com’s Kindle e-Book Reader Sold Out: Hype or Mega-Hit? (AMZN)

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) is apparently already sold out of its new Kindle electronic book reader.  That is what the launch and intro page for the Kindle notes. What is not clear is if this is part of a publicity stunt or if this is already lining up to be a game changer.  There haven’t been any formal figures as to how many readers have really been sold and there wasn’t coverage on how many were being made for the first launch.

Kindle Availability: "Due to heavy customer demand, Kindle is temporarily sold out. Because we ship Kindles on a first-come, first-served basis, please ORDER NOW to reserve your place in line. See availability messaging above for estimated in-stock date."  Availability: In stock on December 5, 2007.

Sony has had one of these out for some time, and it has barely registered as a footnote in the grand scheme of things as Sony.  Sony’s Reader Digital Book is less robust than Kindle and has been on the market much longer, and it costs $299.99.  Sony has also had promotion of 100 free e-book offers for e-book reader purchases between August 4, 2007 and January 31, 2008.  Amazon’s Kindle reader is $399.00, but it acts more like a portable written media device as it allows newspapers, blogs, and more to be connected wirelessly through the same high-speed data network (EVDO) as advanced cell phones.

Jon C. Ogg
November 23, 2007

Posted on: November 23, 2007 – 7:06 am in Entertainment, Internet, Product Review, , ,

Qualcomm Has a Bad Thanksgiving (QCOM, BRCM)

Broadcom Corp. (Nasdaq: BRCM) announced early this morning that a federal judge has let stand a jury verdict that found that Qualcomm Inc. (Nasdaq: QCOM) infringes three Broadcom patents. Broadcom plans to inform the judge that it will not seek a new trial.  Instead Broadcom will accept the original $19.6 million in compensatory damages as originally awarded by the jury AND will immediately pursue an injunction against Qualcomm’s infringing products.  In the injunction, Broadcom will seek to enjoin Qualcomm from making, using, selling and developing third generation (3G) WCDMA and EV-DO cellular chips that infringe any of the patents.

As far as history is concerned, a unanimous federal jury previously found that Qualcomm infringed three Broadcom cellular phone baseband patents, and that the infringement had been willful, allowing the judge to double the damage award to Broadcom for past infringement from $19.6 million to $39.3 million.  In that ruling Judge James V. Selna awarded Broadcom double damages and its attorneys’ fees in the case, based upon the jury’s finding of willful infringement. Later Judge Selna decided to reconsider his decision on double damages and attorneys’ fees as a result of a subsequent change in the federal law regarding willfulness announced in an unrelated appellate case involving Seagate Technologies. In the wake of the Seagate decision, Qualcomm asked for a new trial on whether its products infringe Broadcom’s patents.

On November 21, Judge Selna issued his final ruling in the matter, overturning his earlier award of double damages and attorneys’ fees in light of Seagate, but allowing the jury’s underlying infringement verdict against Qualcomm to stand. He gave Broadcom the option either to accept his final decision on enhanced damages and thereby avoid a new trial, or to seek a new trial in which the issue of willfulness would be tried again, along with Broadcom’s infringement claims.

It is unclear how this will ultimately turn out and with Broadcom seeking further injunctions, it is hard to know when this will end or how bad it will get for Qualcomm.  24/7 Wall St. had previously written about how this could cost it over $1 Billion or more per year, and its chief legal counsel had left the company. Nokia’s attempts to get Qualcomm’s chips barred from the U.S. was dropped by the ITC Wednesday, but the Broadcom case is believed to have more bite to it. 

Sometimes management makes the wrong dice throws.  Time might be short for Jacobs the younger…..

Jon C. Ogg
November 23, 2007

Posted on: November 23, 2007 – 6:36 am in Law, Semiconductor, Wireless, , ,

Business News: What You Missed Thanksgiving & Pre-Black Friday (AKH, GS, GLW, AMZN, NWS, MT, UAUA, URI, GOOG, CDTI)

Air France KLM SA (NYSE:AKH/ADR) shares traded up roughly 7% Thursday after beating earnings from price hikes and fuel hedging.

After United Rentals (NYSE:URI) said it was suing Cerberus on the broken merger, Cerberus is taking its own defensive actions to cap the damages to $100 million.

The O.E.C.D. puts total U.S. write-offs and write-downs at roughly $300 Billion from major U.S. banks, while so far only $50 Billion has been estimated out of major banks as to what may be written down…..Source, New York Times.

UAL Corp. (NASDAQ:UAUA) may be closer to a merger than they led on… source, Business Week.   Business Week also wonders if Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) is winded……and it talks up Clean Diesel Technologies (NASDAQ:CDTI)….

Bond insurer CIFG is being acquired for some $1.5 Billion by Groupe Banque Populaire and Groupe Caisse d’Epargne to take ownership from Natixis….. New York Times ran a story.

ArcelorMittal (NYSE:MT/ADR) confirmed media reports that it is in talks with controlling holders in China Oriental Group Limited on increasing its stake from 28%.

CNET and TechCrunch reported that News Corp. (NYSE:NWS) may acquire social networking site LinkedIn in early 2008.

Amazon.com’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) Kindle e-book reader priced at $399.00 is actually sold out already, with a new December 5, 2007 ‘in-stock’ date.

Financial Times reported that Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) is trying to raise $4 to $6 Billion for a new stock picking hedge fund… not quant, not computerized… old fashioned stock picking.

Corning (NYSE:GLW) may be one to watch as SAMSUNG is reportedly investing $2.2 Billion to increase its LCD production.

WSJ ASIA: China Railway raised 22.44 billion yuan from its Shanghai initial public offering, after pricing its shares at the top of the indicated price range.

Jon C. Ogg
November 23, 2007

Posted on: November 23, 2007 – 4:30 am in ADR, Pre-Market Activity, , , , , , , , , ,