Monthly Archives: September 2009

52-Week High Club

Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) hit a yearly high of $97.33 as options traders place bets in anticipation of positive earnings.

Dr Pepper Snapple Group (NYSE: DPS) hit a yearly high of $28.58 as Citigroup gives the company a buy rating in anticipation of the declaration of a dividend or stock buy backs in 2010.

Mead Johnson Nutrition Company (NYSE: MJN) hit a yearly high of $43.68 as rumors of a takeover circulated.  The shares promptly dropped as the rumored purchaser, Danone SA, denied the reports.

Thor Industries (NYSE: THO) hit a yearly high of $30.64 as it reported that its 4Q profits had quadrupled.  

Valassis Communications (NYSE: VCI) hit a yearly high of $25.25, boosted by positive news coming out of Gannett.

Walgreen Company (NYSE: WAG) hit a yearly high of $37.53 after the company’s earnings beat analysts estimates.

Garrett W. McIntyre

Posted on: September 29, 2009 – 4:12 pm in Analyst Calls, Dividend, Food, Media, Mergers and Buy Outs, Stock Buybacks, Transports, , , , , ,

24/7 Wall St. TV: Apple App Downloads Hit 2 Billion

24/7 WallSt TVClose to one out of three people in the world has downloaded an app from the Apple (AAPL) App store. Or, a much smaller number of people have downloaded ten or twenty apps on their iPhones or iPods.

Apple announced today that it has hit two billion downloads. The electronics and computer firm also said that there are now more than 85,000 apps available to the more than 50 million iPhone and iPod touch customers worldwide and over 125,000 developers in Apple’s iPhone Developer Program.

The store may be helping Apple, but does it help anyone else? Read More »

Posted on: September 29, 2009 – 1:28 pm in Software, TV,

Fertilizer Wars Heat Up Again (CF, TRA, AGU, MOO)

magazin

Fertilizer maker CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CF) said it has purchased 7% of the shares of competitor Terra Industries Inc. (NYSE:TRA) on the open market. CF has also renewed its offer to purchase the remaining shares of Terra, this time for about $4 billion. The latest offer values Terra at about $40/share and includes a $7.50/share adjustment to pay for a special dividend that Terra proposes to issue to its shareholders.

CF Industries is itself trying to resist a buyout from Canadian fertilizer maker Agrium Inc. (NYSE:AGU), which last week extended its exchange offer for CF until October 22nd. That offer includes $40/share in cash plus one share of Agrium stock for each share of CF stock. Read More »

Posted on: September 29, 2009 – 10:16 am in Agriculture, , , ,

Today’s Best Market Rumors (9/29/2009) (AMD)(GOOG)(AMGN)

newspaperUpdated throughout the day.

Update:  Xerox (XRX) may find that IBM (IBM) or HP (HPQ) outbid it for ACS (ACS)  (Barron’s)

Update:  Apple (AAPL) may be working on a touchscreen remote for an upcoming TV product.  (The Boy Genius Report)

Update: Sequenom (SQNM) is recovering some losses, perhaps due to rumors it may be sold (TheStreet)

Warner Music (WMG) may be near a licensing deal with Google’s (GOOG) YouTube. (WSJ)

Hedge fund manager John Paulson may try to merge CIT (CIT) with IndyMac Federal Bank (NYPost)

Cytokinetics (CYTK) continues to rise despite denying rumorsthat it may be bought by Amgen (AMGN) (DJ Newswires).

AMD (AMD) could be at riskfor bankruptcy. (MarketWatch)

Alexion Pharmaceuticals (ALXN) and Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) may be acquisition targets.  (The Deal)

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: September 29, 2009 – 9:13 am in Rumors, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Big Stock Moves Of The Day (9/29/2009)

Aocording to Volume Spike Investor, several stocks are making significant moves before the open.

Including in the list are Gannett (GCI) (details), BSD Medical (BSDM) (details), Walgreen (WAG) (details), Sequenom (SQMN) (details), and MBIA (MBI) (details).

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: September 29, 2009 – 8:28 am in Pre-Market Activity, , , , ,

The Fed Continues to Operate Blindly

By John Tamny

For those who’d been optimistic that Federal Reserve officials might eventually wake up to the true nature of inflation, last week’s FOMC meeting likely dashed all hope. The Fed continues to reveal a shocking blindness about inflation’s actual causes, and instead comforts itself with the false notion that subpar economic growth is inflation’s cure. The important part of last week’s FOMC statement went like this:

Read more:

Posted on: September 29, 2009 – 8:17 am in Uncategorized

Despite The Recession, Dell (DELL) Goes Super High-End

nokDell (DELL) may be taking a page from the Apple (AAPL) marketing manual. A PC with extraordinary features and a beautiful case will sell for more than $2,000, at least to some people. The Apple Mac has dominated the $1,000 plus PC market for the last two years. Dell means to get a larger portion of that market.

The No.2 PC firm is releasing the Latitude Z 600. The machine will be .57 inches in thickness and have a 16 inch screen according to Engadget. It will use a Core 2 Duo processor. And, it will cost more than $2,000. With a full array of features, that price could go much higher. Read More »

Posted on: September 29, 2009 – 6:06 am in PC Companies, ,

Retailer’s Lament: Halloween Sales Turn Ugly

AnnPinched between poor back-to-school sales and a holiday sales season that is anticipated to be the worse in years is Halloween which generally brings retailers about $5 billion. This year will not be as good as last which may be telling when analysts look toward industry sales in November and December.

The Nations Retail Federation says, “consumers are expected to spend an average of $56.31 on Halloween, down from $66.54 in 2008.  That is a slide of 15%, and much of the retail industry cannot survive if holiday sales in last quarter are nearly as bad. Read More »

Posted on: September 29, 2009 – 5:49 am in Retail

Starbucks (SBUX): Instant Coffee=Instant Profits

bucksStarbucks (SBUX) has been talking about its foray into the instant coffee business for some time. The product “VIA Ready-Brew” will actually launch in the US and Canada today.

According to the company “Starbucks VIA is made with a proprietary, U.S. patent-pending microgrind technology to preserve the coffee’s taste, quality and freshness.” Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz see the launch as a way to get the firm into the $21 billion instant coffee business using its brand power as leverage. Read More »

Posted on: September 29, 2009 – 5:32 am in Food, Retail,

China Reaches Out Again For Crude Supply Domination

oilChina has made aggressive investments in oil production facilities and fields in Venezuela, Brazil, and several places in the Middle East. Almost all its multi-billion dollar deals are aimed at locking up supply to accomodate its ravenous need for energy which fuels is rapidly expanding economy. Many of its recent transaction guarantee crude at market prices.

The most substantial China investment to date is a plan to buy one-sixth of the reserves of Nigeria which is a poor nation with abundant supplies of crude. Read More »

Posted on: September 29, 2009 – 5:05 am in Oil & Gas, ,

Direct Stimulus Spending Hits $100 Billion Milestone

uncle samby Christopher Flavelle, ProPublica

Federal agencies have now spent more than $100 billion on contracts, grants, loans, and entitlements, according to Recovery.gov, the site mandated by Congress to track stimulus spending. Combined with the $62.5 billion in tax relief  that’s already out the door, total outlays are slightly more than 20 percent of the stimulus package passed by Congress in February.

The $100-billion milestone is a symbolic one. Moreover, as we’ve noted in this space before, the pace of stimulus spending has declined in recent months, from about $1.3 billion daily in its first 100 days to about $570 million a day in September, as large block grants to states gave way to smaller (and slower) spending projects. So while it took seven months for federal agencies to spend their first $100 billion, the next $100 billion may be a longer time coming.

Posted on: September 29, 2009 – 4:42 am in Politics

SPAC Live Deals Report and Stake Sales (TTY, NAQ, CLA, TMI, IDI, IAQGU, TOH)

bankSPACupdate.com produces reports on blank check companies, stake purchases and live deal situations.
 
Three blank check companies: 2020 ChinaCap Acquiro (AMEX: TTY), NRDC Acquisition (AMEX: NAQ) and Capitol Acquisition Co. (AMEX:CLA), are all trading at or above their trust values prior to their deal votes. This signals growing investor confidence in the targets the SPACs have selected. Read More »

Posted on: September 29, 2009 – 4:37 am in Small Cap Stocks, , , , , ,

Media Digest 9/29/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   China may hold the key to a sanctions program against Iran.

Reuters:   The head of the AIG (AIG) unit that caused most of the firm’s losses is back in US.

Reuters:   The G20 has set up a long struggle over bank capital rules. Read More »

Posted on: September 29, 2009 – 4:05 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Asia Markets And Europe Open 9/29/2009

chinaMarket in Asia were mixed

The Nikkei was higher by .9% to 10,100. Honda (HMC) rose.

The Hang Seng was up by 2.3% to 21,060.

The Shanghai Composite dropped .3% to 2,755.

At the open in Europe, the FTSE was down .3% to 5,152. The Dax fell .2% to 5,725 and the CAC 40 was down .1%.

Data from Reuters and MarketWatch.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: September 29, 2009 – 3:26 am in International Markets,

Ohio Attorney General: Bank Of America (BAC) Could Owe “Billions”

ewisWell, back in the history of American finance, the public and some members of Congress were lead to believe that Bank of America (BAC) bought Merrill Lynch as a way to save the world’s credit markets. Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke allegedly held a gun to the bank’s chief Ken Lewis and threatened his job and the jobs of his board members if he backed out of his plan to buy the brokerage. They argued that if Merrill Lynch failed so could the financial system.

That now seems centuries ago. Since then, Bank of America has been accused of concealing Merrill’s fourth quarter 2008 losses and improperly disclosing that it paid at least $3.8 billion in bonuses to Merrill staff members. Read More »

Posted on: September 28, 2009 – 5:19 pm in Law,

Hertz (HTZ), After Admitting To Severe Financial Risks, Sues Audit Integrity Over Rating

bear

“If our cash flows and capital resources are insufficient to fund our debt service obligations, we may be forced to reduce or delay capital expenditures, sell assets, seek to obtain additional equity capital or restructure our indebtedness. In the future, our cash flows and capital resources may not be sufficient for payments of interest on and principal of our debt, and such alternative measures may not be successful and may not permit us to meet scheduled debt service obligations. “  Hertz Global Holdings 10-K

The list of risk factors in the Hertz (HTZ) 10-K is nearly a mile long. A great deal of them deal with the company’s debt and questions about whether it can make timely payments. Odd and ironic that Hertz, of all companies, would sue Audit Integrity over its list of the companies with market caps over $1 billion that are most likely to go bankrupt over the next twelve months.

There are a number of reasons to agrees or disagree with the Audit Integrity analysis. The research firm’s approach of using data that is accounting-based, market-based, and fraud-based is substantially different from other models that predict corporate bankruptcies.  But, AI offers a painstaking description of its methodology and makes it clear that public companies listed are not necessarily going to file for Chapter 11. In one section of its report, AI writes “Whether an actual bankruptcy filing occurs or not, these are companies with weak financial condition, raising the risks for losses,defaults and other high risk events.”

Hertz released a statement about the lawsuit–”Hertz alleges in the lawsuit that Audit Integrity and (AI CEO) Mr. Zwingli have defamed Hertz through a report published by Audit Integrity and public statements made by Mr. Zwingli. Hertz is seeking injunctive relief and monetary damages through its complaint.”

What Hertz did not say is the it is wasting shareholder money by drawing attention to something that most people who hold it stock would almost certainly have forgotten within a short period.  Its institutional holders have already drawn their own conclusions, long ago.

And, the Hertz SEC attorneys made the company put in those risk factors, which describe a company which is financially unsound.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: September 28, 2009 – 4:44 pm in Law,

52-Week High Club

3Com Corporation (NASDAQ: COMS) rallies over 6% to $5.39 following a positive earnings release on Thursday.

Aspect Medical Systems (NASDAQ: ASPM) rallies over 55% to $11.91 on news that Covidien had agreed to buy the company for $210 million.

Green Mountain Coffee (NASDAQ: GMCR) rallied over 6% today to $75, leading gains among its coffee-vending peers.

BanColombia S.A. (NSYS: CIB) hit a year high of $42.66 on no news but amid a continuing rally in Latin American bank ADRs.

Greenhill (NYSE: GHL) hits a new yearly high of $88.28 as boutique M&A firms continue to benefit from the instability of larger rivals.  

Garrett W. McIntyre

Posted on: September 28, 2009 – 4:42 pm in ADR, Autos, Banking, Biotech, Commodities, Cult Stock, Emerging Markets, Financial Stocks, Telecom, , , , ,

Apple (AAPL) Apps Hit Two Billion Downloads

appleClose to one out of three people in the world has downloaded an app from the Apple (AAPL) App store. Or, a much smaller number of people have downloaded ten or twenty apps on their iPhones or iPods.

Apple announced today that it has hit two billion downloads. The electronics and computer firm also said that there are now more than 85,000 apps available to the more than 50 million iPhone and iPod touch customers worldwide and over 125,000 developers in Apple’s iPhone Developer Program.

The store may be helping Apple, but does it help anyone else? Read More »

Posted on: September 28, 2009 – 11:24 am in Software, Technology Companies,

Some Shade Falls Over Solar Shares (WFR, C, AMAT, AONE, FSLR)

Shares in MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. (NYSE:WFR) have been downgraded from ‘Buy’ to ‘Hold’ by Citigroup (NYSE:C). MEMC makes crystalline polysilicon wafers used in some photovoltaic solar cells, and the market appears to be oversupplied for both this year and next.

Prices for polysilicon could fall by as much as 50%, which would really squeeze MEMC’s revenues and margins.

Another wafer maker, Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT), got an upgrade from Citigroup, from ‘Hold’ to ‘Buy’. Applied also makes crystalline polysilicon wafers, but its thin-film products could easily pick up the slack if the market for polysilicon takes the expected tumble.

And while alternative energy shares were hot last week, primarily due to the IPO of A123 Systems Inc. (NYSE:AONE), things have cooled a bit today. Even A123 is down nearly 3% in early trading today.

Nearly all the solar players are moving downward this morning. MEMC is off about 3.5% to around $16.69, and First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ:FSLR) is off nearly 3.75% to $149.15. The big winner so far is Applied Materials, which is up more than 3.25% to $13.53.

Paul Ausick

Posted on: September 28, 2009 – 11:13 am in Alternative Energy, Green Biz, , , , ,

Chesapeake Trades More Assets for Cash (CHK, KMP, EPD)

bearChesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) has created a 50/50 midstream joint venture with Global Infrastructure Partners that includes a significant portion of Chesapeake’s midstream assets in exchange for $588 million in cash. The new venture is called Chesapeake Midstream Partners, L.L.C. Read More »

Posted on: September 28, 2009 – 10:26 am in Oil & Gas, , ,