Shares of Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) fell during the premarket session after Bernstein downgraded the company from Market perform to underperfom.The company fell 4.5% to $2.76Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) has potential upside of 14% based on a current price of $2.81 and an average consensus analyst price target of $3.2.
Chevron (NYSE:CVX) announced Monday that it filed a temporary suspension of production at their Frade field in Brazil after it detected a small oil seep within the region.The company is also facing issues in the country with an $11 billion lawsuit and fines for a leak that occurred last November.Chevron (NYSE:CVX) has potential upside of 13.5% based on a current price of $110.66 and an average consensus analyst price target of $125.61.Chevron is currently above its 50-day moving average (MA) of $107.52 and above its 200-day of $102.40.
Bargain hunters are wise to pay careful attention to insider buying, because although there are many various reasons for an insider to sell a stock, presumably the only reason they would use their hard-earned cash to make a purchase, is that they expect to make money. Today we look at two noteworthy recent insider buys.
This morning, Citigroup lowered its EPS estimates on shares of Verizon (VZ) through 2013 as wireline margins could weigh on earnings. In the report, Citigroup maintained its neutral rating and its $39 price target.
This morning, Morgan Stanley increased its price target on shares of Qualcomm (QCOM) to $78 as new product offerings will drive growth at the company. With the higher price target, Morgan Stanley raised its EPS estimates and reiterated its overweight rating.
Source: ForexYard
The dollar fell and the euro hit its highest point in almost 4 weeks after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke voiced some doubts regarding the pace of job creation in the United States, this could perhaps mean that the central bank could still resort to a new round of bond-buying to support the economy.
Not a good day for the Greenback as the world’s biggest currency weakened against the Euro and just about made a gain over the Japanese Yen. The Euro corrected its losses against the Dollar to trade at $1.3329, from a low of $1.3190 and versus $1.3265 late Friday Afternoon.
In his speech, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke,warned that faster economic growth was required to ensure further declines in unemployment. Bernanke also mentioned that accommodative monetary policy is still needed to reduce unemployment in the U.S.
The Euro also strengthened against the Greenback as Germany said it may back plans to increase the debt-crisis rescue funds before a meeting at the end of the Month where all the finance ministers are due to attend.If Germany decide to increase the size of the bailout fund, it would have a positive impact on the 17- nation currency.
However, there are still growing concerns over the stability of the Euro as Spain are having problems with placing their budget in order.Spains’ Budget plan is due to be announced this coming Friday.
Forex Market Analysis provided by ForexYard.
© 2006 by FxYard Ltd
Disclaimer: Trading Foreign Exchange carries a high level of risk and may not be suitable for all investors. There is a possibility that you could sustain a loss of all of your investment and therefore you should not invest money that you cannot afford to lose. You should be aware of all the risks associated with Foreign Exchange trading.
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In focus this week; $1 natural gas, new EM plays called the next 11, Apple’s top and the sitfa
According to the Journal, natural gas in the Rockies and the Louisiana hub are below $2 per million BTU’s. The April delivery price is around $2.35.
In fact the cash handle, an industry term, is already showing some gas in the $1 range.
But many gas analysts, the CME group in particular, say we should see a rally to the $4.00 range by sometime in 2013. Some contracts for the fall heating season are already trading in the $3.00 range.
The key to any price appreciation lies in slowing gas production, the glut we have now is monstrous. But developers have to drill to hold on to their leases, so despite the conflict the journal reports gas production cuts will be the new normal, and that will be bad news for earnings.
With the exception of Chesapeake and Southwest Energy, most gas developers are showing a respectable gain in share prices over 2011. But as storage capacity shrinks and the gas glut continues to grow we could see a big reversal in what had been a booming industry for several years.
There has been talk recently about gas becoming more of a transportation fuel but until that demand shift happens we will have to wait for production cuts and the next winter season to kick the price up to a reasonable level.
For now look for higher prices in the fall, but I wouldn’t hold your breath.
That’s what the new BRIC’s are being called, the next 11.
According to Karen Wood, Sr. Global Economist at HSBC lesser known emerging economies like Egypt, Bangladesh, the Philippines, and Iran have great demographic profiles that are essential for strong growth; an increasing working population.
The other factors that HSBC sees as driving really big GDP growth in these new emergers that will make countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Viet Nam and Mexico the next big plays are; openness to technology, expanding educational opportunities, political reforms, a focus on patent rights and the rule of law.
Of course, as with the BRIC’s over the last 20 years, there are real risks here. HSBC’s Wood urges investors to find the countries that fit their risk profile rather than buying a cross section of them. The risk levels vary greatly.
Malaysia and Indonesia for example have shown more stability and are further along in the process than some of the others and should offer more stability and lower risk.
The really big growth of course will come from the still less developed areas like Egypt, which is undergoing structural changes and Iran which is sorting out its nuclear future and struggling with geo political issues.
In fact, HSBC sees political stability as the one key risk issue with all of the “next 11” countries. Patent rights, and their enforcement, and the rule of law will the big limiting factors in all of them.
There’s a lot of money to be made here, but you’d better be able to ride out the ups and downs for as long as the next couple of decades. These are definitely long term plays with lots of volatility.
To get a better idea of what kind of volatility you can expect, go back and look at the ups and downs of just about any long term India or China fund, use one that has at least 15 to 20 years under its belt.The ups and downs might surprise you.
A few months ago when AAPL was at $385 I called for $600, but never this fast. I thought it would take a year or so.
But Peter Misek, the Sr. Tech Analyst at Jefferies, says it can’t last much longer, unless Apple TV comes sooner than expected. That could be a game changer on the upside. He didn’t say how much.
Right now, according to Jefferies and Company, Apple alone is worth 20% of the total increase in the entire Nasdaq 100 this year and 4.3% of the total return of the S&P 500. One stock is driving a lot of this whole market move.
Misek says he sees $700 as the near term top and would start taking money off the table around $650, unless, again, Apple TV arrives earlier than expected. He’s looking for it this fall.
One of the interesting plays Misek mentioned is to short the Nasdaq 100 when Apple hits the $650 to $700 range, not if, when! Since it is 20% of the whole move this year on that index we should expect a sizable drop when Apple finally corrects.
But, with the recent announcement of the stock buy back, and a dividend, as small as it is on a percentage basis, the whole picture changed.
From my perspective, this recent move has obviously been huge but the combination of the dividend, the stock buy back and the eventual roll out of their TV concept, $750 to $1000 is very realistic and lots of analysts were calling for 800 to 1000 before the dividend was announced.
My take on this one, stick with the stock and tighten your trailing stops as we approach the $650 to $700 range, and wait for the TV announcement.
As I have said in the past, Steve Jobs did the best selling job with this company in the history of business and the momentum here is unparalleled. Ride your winners, dump the losers, and this might be one of the biggest winners of all time.
As far as anyone can see, there is no bad news in this stock. The only short term fluctuation we may see is from profit taking or a political event, neither of which will be permanent.
What a ride.
This is a really funny one, it goes to the guy who came up with this offer. It appeared in business opportunity homepage.
“How to get one million people to send you $2.00! Method plus proof it really works. Rush $2.00 and SASE to…”
This guy has some real gumption! I wonder how many responses he got?
Article by Investment U
Tiffany (NYSE:TIF) reported Q4 EPS of $1.39, missing estimates of $1.41.Revenues in the quarter rose 8% to $1.19 billion, vs. estimates of $1.18 billion.The company sees annual EPS of $3.95 – $4.05, vs. estimates of $3.92.The company sees annual sales of about $4.01 billion, vs. estimates of $3.91 billion.
Cloud computing is simply any technology service, such as an application, infrastructure or platform that is offered to customers over the internet.
[Editor’s Note: I’d like to introduce our readers to one of our new writers, Gary Spivak. Gary has almost 20 years of I.T. experience along with about 15 more as a tech and software analyst for a handful of Wall Street firms. He also holds a programming degree from NYU and an MBA from Columbia Univerity. Needless to say, he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to investing in the technology and computing sectors.
But Gary was tired of all his top research going to fatten the pockets of wealthy institutional investors, so he’s decided to share his expertise with individual investors like us. I hope you enjoy his insight.]
When I started in IT in the mid 1980’s, all computer applications ran on the mainframe – a large computer that was efficient and well-managed.
I recall watching “in horror” in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s as individual departments began to embrace “client-server” computing, where a “server”, which was equivalent to a large PC, began to run critical applications.
There were some benefits – better, graphical user interfaces and greater control – but distributing the computing power to hundreds of locations was destined to be a maintenance nightmare.
As individual devices became more powerful, the computing power got pushed further down to the end-user – PC’s, laptops and now smartphones and tablets.
But put everyone on the same network and it seems destined that the pendulum would have swung back to the centralized environment.
From the perspective of a former IT guy with plenty of gray hair, cloud computing is a natural progression…
Cloud computing is simply any technology service, such as an application, infrastructure or platform that is offered to customers over the internet.
With the proliferation of devices connected to the internet, why not keep key resources in a centralized location? This centralization allows everyone to use the “public utility” called the internet to access these resources. There are certain benefits to centralized resources – such as cost efficiencies and a better customer experience.
But what does that mean to me?
The typical Internet-savvy consumer has been using services in the cloud for years. If you’ve ever bought anything from Amazon.com, you used your browser and the Internet to get on that site and order your goods. That was a transaction occurring in the cloud.
So, it is easy to see how consumer-facing businesses have already adopted cloud computing for their own purposes.
But what is now changing is a migration of business-to-business (B2B) transactions also occurring in the cloud. Also, greater trust in the cloud leads to more activity.
The question is – if a company sells products over the cloud, are they a cloud company? The answer is, in this writer’s opinion, no.
When a mining company loaded coal onto a railroad car, were they a railroad company? No! When PETS.COM – now part of Petsmart (Nasdaq: PETM) – began selling pet supplies over the Internet, were they an Internet company? No! They were a pet supply company.
Investors typically want to find the winner in “the war”. Will Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) sell more books over the internet than Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) ? If yes, then Amazon is the winner, right?
The smarter investor will look to the “arms suppliers” in “the war”. Don’t pick a side in the war, pick companies that sell services to all of the war’s participants.
And THIS is what makes cloud computing so interesting. There are many different levels of “arms suppliers” in these wars.
What are some of the weapons required?
Beware of companies that claim, “We are a cloud company.” Look at what they offer and see if it takes advantage of this secular shift and is not just using the latest jargon to inflate its market capitalization.
Good Investing,
Gary Spivak
P.S. Of all the companies I’ve listed above, there’s one that I think has the best potential for investors looking to take advantage of the cloud. It benefits from a number of the trends listed above.
To find out which company is leading the charge in my opinion, click here.
Article by Investment U
This morning, Goldman Sachs increased its price target on shares of GNC (GNC) to $37 as sales momentum remains strong. With the higher price target, Goldman upped its EPS estimates and reiterated its buy rating.
