Archive for July, 2010
Microsoft Working Around the Clock on Tablet OS
In a presentation to Wall Street analysts on Thursday, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer said that a Microsoft Windows-powered tablet is “job one urgency here, nobody’s sleeping at the switch.” He noted that Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) is nearing release of a processor that is specifically designed for low-power, low-weight devices. Ballmer believes that the Intel/Microsoft partnership can make a comeback [...]
Dividend Death Watch: “Champions” That Could Stumble
I noticed that Jay at Market Folly left a nice comment on my post on dividend champions. Good info. Always interesting to see which companies are able to raise dividends each year as occasionally some names fall off the list. Well it’s only been a few days, but it does look like one of the [...]
Euro Reaches Pre-sovereign Trouble High
The U.S. dollar fell to its lowest level against the euro in nearly 90 days as the eurozone currency moved above the psychologically important level of $1.30. Intraday, the euro traded at $1.3106. It last traded higher than that on May 10. The euro has benefited substantially from an improved confidence that the worst of [...]
Motorola Ships Fewer Phones, Makes Bigger Profit (MOT)
The Q2 earnings report from Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT) beat expectations and might have been even better if the company had been able to meet demand for its newest smartphones. The Droid phones, based on the Android operating system from Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), sold exclusively by Verizon Wireless, a joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) and Vodafone plc, have sold [...]
Sprint Loses Money, Gains Subscribers
The second quarter earnings report from Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE:S) is a mixed bag at best. The company reported an EPS loss of -$0.25, nearly double last year’s second quarter loss of -$0.13. Analysts were expecting an EPS loss of -$0.20. Revenue totaled $8.03 billion, in line with estimates, but less than last year’s revenue [...]
Depression Analysts in 1932: A Blast From the Past
Since the start of the “Great Recession”, you’ve probably seen charts on various blogs comparing the stock market over the past few years to the market of the 1930s. Here’s one that appeared at dshort.com (click here for larger view): The point? History can certainly repeat itself. But historical analysis repeats itself, too. On January [...]
$57 Crude Oil? Not Unless The Contango Rises
On Seeking Alpha, Wayne Corbitt asks if crude oil is headed back down to $57. He offers some technical analysis on how oil trades relative to the S&P 500 and discusses various retracement levels. I like my indicator better, though. While Wayne uses one chart to represent crude oil futures, I use four charts – [...]
MGM: When Options “Bets” Apply to Casinos
Some investors use options for hedging, and some use options for pure speculation. The latter appeared to be the case on Tuesday, July 27 when looking at MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM). The general market was mixed but MGM shares closed up 1.7% at $11.15 on above average volume. The added volume in stock options [...]
The “WP” Ratio: Three Above-Average Companies
What if you measured companies not by earnings per share – but by productivity per worker? We could call this the “Worker Productivity,” or WP ratio. In a recent SmartMoney article, Jack Hough highlights three companies that reported higher than average profits per employee. Jack doesn’t share any information on how he compiled the data, [...]
Weekly Options: Stocks “Pinned” Every Friday?
As an options expiration day arrives, traders note that stocks sometimes get “pinned” to a specific strike price. But now that every week is an expiration week for a select group of stocks and ETFs, will we see this phenomenon every Friday? As mentioned in an earlier post, the CBOE has added weekly options covering [...]
