24/7 Wall St.

A lot happened this last week, even if many of you were still on holiday.  Here is a snippet of what happened:

The jobs numbers sucked on Friday and gave the first negative jobs growth since 2003, but the Thursday retailer numbers looked better than you would have imagined.  Although CostCo (COST) unfortunately stank up the store.

Countrywide Fincial (CFC) announced it was sending 12,000 more workers pink slips, and that is after the crummy jobs report.  Oddly enough, the stock went up atfer-hours.

If it is time to go defensive, here is a list of 17 DEFENSIVE STOCKS.  These only fell 0.85% on average, much less than the DJIA, S&P, and NASDAQ.

Get ready for VMware’s (VMW) VMWORLD 2007 CONFERENCE next week.  Both EMC (EMC) and VMware (VMW) were hit Friday by a quasi-downgrade from Goldman Sachs.

Amgen (AMGN) looks like it is repeating the history of Biogen-Idec (BIIB).  If so, this ex-biotech turned big pharma could go much higher.

Palm (PALM) lost the prestige of having Cisco Systems (CSCO) as a client.  The networking giant started switching phones out this week after dropping the Palm Treo, so Palm may now have to list "ill-will" instead of Goodwill on its books. H-P (HPQ) has determined it wants in the business class cell phone business.  Not smart.
Palm (PALM) also cancelled its Foleo launch.  Apple (AAPL) mistakenly cut its iPhone prices, and the reaction was severe enough that no one cared about the new iPods.  Cisco Systems (CSCO) kept its targets from last month and still maintains the best market in years.

Boeing (BA) delayed the initial flight for its Dreamliner mega-jumbo jet again, but kept its launch date static.

XM satellite Radio (XMSR) and Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI) may actually be closer to getting their merger closed.  Leap Wireless (LEAP) received a buyout offer from MetroPCS (PCS), in a move that may be the obvious.  Someone tell Qualcomm (QCOM) to settle with Broadcom (BRCM). Otherwise, Jacobs the Younger is going to see the corporate guillotine.

Jim Cramer has a new caffeine play.

Oil companies better be paying attention to how large General Electric (GE) is going to get in the oil and gas sector.  Speaking of which, Baker Hughes filed to sell $2 Billion in securities.  They are selfsufficient and don’t need the cash, so who on earth are they going toacquire next?

If you were out for the entire week before as well, here’s what you missed the week before Labor Day.

Jon C. Ogg
September 8, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at [email protected]; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.