Tag Archives: DJIA

News, Politics, Government

Google Trends Big Data For Predicting the Market: Deep Dive and Current Predictions

Leave a comment

By David Leinweber, Contributor

Last Friday’s post, “Big Data Gets Bigger: Now Google Trends Can Predict the Market”, sleuthed out a likely reason why almost the same approach tried by the new paper’s authors a few years back just sucked air, and the new version, released last week, was a butt-kicker on relative to the buying the DJIA stocks and holding.  The Google Trends data itself had changed – getting bigger and better by becoming more timely and reported much more often, according to descriptions published by Google a few years apart.

Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

New York Manufacturing Slides Lower but Remains Positive

Leave a comment

By 24/7 Wall St.

Filed under:

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has released its Empire Manufacturing Survey for the month of April. While conditions improved slightly, the overall index posted a drop of about six points to 3.1 for the month. March was up at 9.24, and Bloomberg had a consensus of 7.5 for the April report.

Today’s report showed that the new orders index was also positive but lower after falling by six points to 2.2. The shipments index fell seven points to 0.8. Today’s report also showed that the unfilled orders index fell by a point to −3.4, while the delivery time index also fell one point to −3.4. The inventories index was shown to have held steady at −4.6 in April.

Some 25% of respondents reported that conditions had improved over the month, while 22% said that conditions had worsened. Firms now also expect wages to increase by 2.5% over the next 12 months on average.

Our take on today’s Empire Manufacturing data is much the same of what have seen of late. Positive reports are out, but they continue to be less positive, and often are barely hanging up in positive territory.

S&P 500 futures are down about seven points and the DJIA futures are down about 42 points.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Economy

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

From: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/04/15/new-york-manufacturing-slides-lower-but-remains-positive/

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Revisiting 3 "Pigs of the Dow"

Leave a comment

By Doug Ehrman, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

The Pigs of the Dow investing strategy “aims to do what the original intent was for the Dogs: identifying the worst-performing stocks of the DJIA from the year before.” On Dec. 31, I reviewed and recommended three such stocks that looked attractive heading into 2013. As the first quarter comes to a close, it’s a great time to revisit these names, see how they have done thus far, and re-evaluate whether they still belong in your portfolio.

The distinction between the Pigs and the Dogs of the Dow is that the Dogs focus on the components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average with the highest dividend yields at the end of the year, while the Pigs consider only stock performance. This is a more pure form of mean-reversion — the idea that the stocks in the average will trend toward that average performance. So according to the Pigs theory, those stocks that underperformed last year are likely to outperform this year. While Fools are not statistical or technical traders in general, we consider this type of strategy a great place to look for investing ideas.

Below are the three stocks that I first discussed and that I will follow with you for the rest of the year.

Intel
Intel is in the midst of a period of transition that, given the major paradigm shift it represents, makes the company’s progress thus far admirable. According to Gartner Research, the fourth quarter saw PC sales falls by 5% from the previous year as the market continued to contract. Against this backdrop, Intel is working to develop new products and push into new markets. One such innovation is called “perceptual computing.” In the most general sense, it allows laptops to interact with users across input devices such as keyboards, voice commands, touch screens, and more. As the newest video game consoles allow users to “become the joystick,” perceptual computing is introducing this idea to the productive world of laptops.

While Intel is essentially flat for the year, it continues to drive its business forward, looking to become a player in wireless. The company has joined Samsung, Huawei, and others to develop a new mobile operating system called Tizen that is set to debut this year. If the OS can gain some traction — particularly overseas, where Intel’s mobile chips do better in the non-4G LTE world — Intel will have built itself the makings of a new empire. Given Intel‘s dividend yield of more than 4%, you can afford to wait as Tizen makes its way to market.

McDonald‘s
So far this year, McDonald’s is up 9%. In one of the more bizarre stories of the week, the restaurant chain has introduced a new meat-filled oddity in China, one of its most important markets: the Sausage Double Beef burger, which includes two beef patties and two sausages plus condiments. As you might imagine, speculation has abounded, but the …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Cyprus Moves from Taxation to Theft

Leave a comment

By 24/7 Wall St.

Skeleton

Filed under: , , , , , , ,

What we are seeing is in Cyprus an instance when taxation becomes theft. When depositors place money in banks, they assume that their deposits are safe as long as the banks do not implode. That is a risk in Cyprus, but depositors were not assuming that the government would hoist a “tax” upon their backs by seizing deposited assets. That is called theft, and investors now must be wondering if the great European effort to raise more funds ultimately will put risk on other deposits around the troubled spots of Europe.

As part of the condition of a eurozone bailout, Cypriot bank depositors may take a hit of close to 6 billion euros. The move sounds like it will only hit the wealthy, but it is aimed at all deposits to a degree, with a 6.75% “tax” on deposits up to 100,000 euros and a “tax” of 9.9% on deposits above the 100,000 euro balance.

When deposits in banks are taxed as a whole, that is a seizure of assets. One of the excuses we have heard is that this taxes a bunch of Russian depositors. The problem with this logic is that it hurts anyone and everyone in this tiny nation with deposits in their local banks.

European officials have tried emphasize that this is a one-time event and will not be replicated elsewhere in the eurozone. The question to ask is whether you believe it. Another question to ask is how many politicians with left-bent ideas of taxing the wealthy will look at this and think it was a good idea.

It used to be that most Americans and international investors became resentful that a nation as small as Greece could matter so much globally. Cyprus is even smaller, at only about 800,000 inhabitants and an economy of less than 20 billion euros per year. It does have a cloudy bank system that has been used by Russians and other offshore wealthy depositors.

The problem is that this effort is not targeting tax dodgers and offshore depositors. It hits everyone locally in Cyprus. This is an instance when taxation has become theft. Even if the levy gets reduced, it is still nothing short of an asset seizure.

The stock market needed a reason to sell off, and now we have one. S&P futures are down over 12 points and DJIA futures are down close to 75 points.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Accounting, Banking & Finance, Bankruptcy, Bonds, Brokerage Firms, Compensation, Corporate Governance, Earnings, Economy, International Markets, Regulation

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Producer Prices and Weekly Jobless Claims Support the Market Rally Again

Leave a comment

By 24/7 Wall St.

US_Dept_of_Labor

Filed under: ,

Two bits of data were released from the Labor Department today. Weekly jobless claims is a live reading, and producer prices measuring wholesale inflation is a February reading. With the DJIA up nine straight days, traders and investors are going to be looking at each number handily to keep the momentum alive.

We already expected an uptick in prices on the wholesale level from the Producer Price Index due to higher energy costs. The headline figure rose by 0.7% in February, versus 0.2% in January, and Dow Jones was calling for estimates of 0.7%. The core reading, which takes out food and energy, came in with a gain of 0.2% in February. That core reading was 0.2% in January and it was expected to be only 0.1% for February according to Dow Jones. We would go on and on about the big uptick in the headline wholesale inflation, but the reality is that it was obvious. considering that energy prices were on a rampage at the time.

The weekly jobless claims is where the somewhat good news is. Weekly claims fell by 10,000 to 332,000, versus a Dow Jones and Bloomberg expectations of about 350,000. So sequestration did not crush the numbers. The prior week’s claims were revised upward by 2,000 to 342,000. The army of unemployed, measured by the continuing claims with a one week lag, fell by 89,000 to 3,024,000.

Today’s weekly jobless claims is better than expected, but the PPI reading should have been seen from about 10 miles away. S&P futures are up three points and the DJIA futures are up 27 points. Keep in mind that the DJIA is now up nine days in a row and is trying to go to 10 days.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Economy, Labor, Labor & Unions

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Retail Sales Make Sigificant Recovery in February Data

Leave a comment

By 24/7 Wall St.

100267991

Filed under: , ,

So remember the very real impact from the payroll taxes on retail sales and consumer spending? The latest round of retail sales is magically showing that somehow the impact might have been very temporary and the market has responded to it.

The Commerce Department reported that retail sales in the month of February rose by 1.1%, and even the ex-autos retail sales rose by 1.0% in February. Bloomberg was calling for a gain of only 0.5% and the highest call was 1.0% on the headline figure. The Bloomberg consensus on an ex-autos retail sales figure was only 0.6%, with 1.1% being the highest projection.

Today’s news may not seem massive on the surface, but it really helps to show the resilience of Joe Consumer. You can blame higher gasoline prices, as those prices peaked at the end of the month in February, for some of the lift as gasoline station sales were up a sharp 5%. Retail sales were down at department stores, furniture stores and at restaurants. Even if you back out gasoline sales, the gain was 0.6% for the month.

If you wanted a first guess, it shows that perhaps pay increases or job growth may have offset the lower post-payroll tax impact. S&P futures are still in the red, but they are down only 2.75 points after the news. DJIA futures have ticked up into positive territory.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Consumer Product, Economy, Retail

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

4 Crazy Market Statistics: DJIA, VIX, Crude & Treasuries

Leave a comment

By 24/7 Wall St.

NYSE-flag

Filed under: , ,

The DJIA winning streak continues, S&P 500 does not… The S&P 500 Index might have closed down slightly with a 3.74 drop breaking its 7 day winning streak, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average barely closed up on the day but at yet another record high closing price and that makes eight days in a row for the DJIA. The last negative day on the DJIA was February 28 at a close of 14,054.49 versus a closing bell price of 14,450.06 on Tuesday, March 12 for a streak of 2.8%. The NIKKEI 225 in Japan broke an 8-day winning streak.

The CBOE Volatility Index finally went back up as the S&P was negative and the index rose 6.3% to 12.29. That is historically very low and perhaps should be called “The Complacency Index” rather than “The Fear Index.” We would note that the new 52-week range for the VIX is 11.50 to 27.73. Since the latest consecutive stock rally, the VIX fell from 15.50 down to under 12 before Tuesday’s gain.

West Texas Crude is up 2.6% since bottoming out 7 trading sessions ago around $90.50 per barrel at the close of $92.80 today. What happens if the recovery manages to continue recovering?

Bonds may have pulled back down in yield from the near-term highs, but in the last 90 days interest rates have continued to rise. The 10-Year Treasury Note is up over 30 basis points at about 2.02%. The 30-Year Treasury Bond is also still up more than 30 basis from 90 days ago, at 3.22% versus 2.89%. You are seeing rates tick up in mortgages as well with Zillow saying, “The Thirty year fixed mortgage rate on March 12, 2013, is up 12 basis points from the previous week’s average rate of 3.46% and up 38 basis points from the average rate of 3.20% from three months ago.”

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Active Trader, Economy, Index, Personal Finance

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

VIX Hits Almost 6 Year Lows, Complacency Replaces Fear

Leave a comment

By 24/7 Wall St.

Stock Split Image

Filed under: , , , ,

The Volatility Index, a.k.a. the VIX, just hit a 52-week low. Make that a multi-year low, all the way back to April of 2007. Is the “fear index” showing a market that is overly bought and ripe for a correction? It may just be signaling that we are in the midst of one major rally that can keep running and running. The move we are seeing is being confirmed by the iPath S&P 500 VIX ST Futures ETN (NYSEMKT: VXX). This exchange-traded note is also at a 52-week low.

Some market observers may start to say that this alone may be marking some seriously overbought territory for the broad stock market. 2013 has been a great year for stocks with record inflows for the first two months of the year. The problem is that as the VIX gets lower and lower it signals extreme complacency. The good news for the bulls (and bad news for the bears) is that the VIX can theoretically remain extremely low indefinitely (or until all the stock buying money runs out).

The prior 52-week range in the VIX was $12.08 to $27.73. The low on Monday was $11.68 and the reading is now just over 11.75. If you have some serious gains you want to protect, it needs to be said that buying put options to hedge against downside is generally as cheap as it can get right now.

After reviewing the historical charts, the low on the VIX has now been under 13 for three consecutive calendar months. That takes us back to the end of 2007 before you can find a reading of that sort. The last time the reading was this low for an extended period was what led to the bull market before the great recession. We would note that a low VIX can go even lower as there were times that the index dropped to under 10 briefly in 2005, 2006, and again in 2007. It was in April of 2005 that the DJIA was as low as 10,000 and it was up at 14,000 by July of 2007.

The VIX is a great tool for finding seriously oversold markets that at a minimum need a serious technical trading bounce. Evaluating it down at the lows sometimes has been followed only by lower lows. The good news for any chicken-bulls is simple: put options to hedge new positions or to lock in gains are currently dirt cheap.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Active Trader, Banking & Finance, Economy, ETFs & Mutual Funds, Index, Personal Finance Tagged: VXX

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Reality Check: The DJIA Highs Are Partly a Sham, Five Big Drags with Runner-Up Drags

Leave a comment

By 24/7 Wall St.

NYSE-flag

Filed under: , , , ,

The news of the Dow Jones Industrial Average hitting new highs this week is certainly good news. The problem is that the news comes with some serious caveats. We just featured that there are really only seven of the 30 DJIA component stocks that would be needed to take the DJIA up even higher to 15,000. The rest of the market could stay the same, but there are some serious DJIA laggards that have to be considered when you see that the market is back to all-time highs.

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) is perhaps the biggest disappointment of all DJIA stocks. After all, GE probably represents the broad economy more than any other single DJIA stock. It has business and personal finance, oil, power, energy, appliances, health care and many other aspects covering each sector of the economy. At $23.75, and with a market cap of about $245 billion, GE‘s stock is barely half of its share price from late 2007, and on the chart its stock would have to rise about 150% before taking out the 2001 highs back when valuations were silly at about 30 times earnings. GE has recovered well over 200% from its lows, but it its share price and market value are a fraction of the peak before the recession.

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) may have been the best DJIA stock of 2012, but it is a shell of its former glory, if you count the price of the stock after the recession. In 2006 and in 2007 Bank of America was a $40 and $50 stock. Even after doubling from its lows, and even backing out a few dollars worth of dividends since then, has the stock at $11.84. It is very possible that Bank of America may not see its old highs for a generation or more, even if Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) have a large stake. Its market cap is $128 billion, and it seems hard to imagine that shares would rise 200% to 300% further in any short period without hyperinflation.

Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) cannot win for losing, and it has been losing. This is not even due to the recession, but due to a change in technology demand toward Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and to smartphones and mobile computing. Mismanagement was another nail in the coffin, and even Meg Whitman has warned that the turnaround might not be seen fully until 2015 or so. The good news is that shares are actually back above $20, and that is approaching a double off of the lows of 2012. The bad news is that HP was basically a $50 stock back in 2010 and early 2011, when Mark Hurd was in charge. That company has been lost ever since Hurd was canned.

Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) is another huge drag on the DJIA. Its stock is around $8.50 now and only has a …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

January Factory Orders Dragging on Growth

Leave a comment

By 24/7 Wall St.

car_production_line

Filed under:

The Commerce Department has released its factory orders figures for the month of January showing a drop of -2.0%. If you back out transportation, the gain would have actually been 1.3%, and if you back out defense that would have been a gain of 0.3%.

Bloomberg had a consensus estimate of -2.2% on the headline reading from its pool of economists, with a range of -4.5% to a gain of 0.5%. Dow Jones was calling for a headline consensus of -2.3% for January factory orders. The December report initially was shown to be up by 1.8%, so the drop was expected.

What is interesting is that the coming spending sequestration was not as much of a very negative issue in January compared with the fiscal cliff resolution that happened in the final hours of December. Still, as we saw with durable goods, there had been some serious channel stuffing in November and December based on the expectation that spending may slow.

Today’s report was delayed a couple of minutes from the usual 10:00 a.m. EST posting time. We do not expect this report to have much of an impact, even at the DJIA hitting new highs. The DJIA is up 50 points at 14,304 and the S&P 500 is up 3.50 at 1,543.29.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Economy, Industry

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Seven Stocks That Will Take the DJIA to 15,000 (IBM, CVX, MMM, MCD, UTX, CAT, XOM)

Leave a comment

By 24/7 Wall St.

Wall St Bull statue

Filed under: , , , , , , ,

The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a new high this week, and the new closing high is 14,253.77. We originally came up with a top price target for the DJIA of 14,590 for 2013 based upon our own DJIA analysis and methodology. We now expect that number to be surpassed, even if we have not officially raised the target. The reality is that by our take it will only require the top seven of the 30 DJIA stocks to perform this year for the DJIA to hit 15,000.

International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM), Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX), 3M Co. (NYSE: MMM), McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD), United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX), Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) and Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) will likely be the seven stocks of the 30 DJIA components that lead the index to 15,000. At issue is that the DJIA is a price-weighted index that does not care about the market capitalization. These seven DJIA stocks account for 43% of the entire weighting of the 30 DJIA components.

For instance, General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) has a $245 billion market cap, yet its $23.59 share price generates a weighing of only 1.27%. Then you have 3M Co. (NYSE: MMM) with a 5.63% weighting because its price is $104.45, and United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) has a 4.9% weighting in the DJIA because its price is $89.13. Combined, two these companies have a market cap of $159 billion. So GE is worth almost 150% of the market cap, but its weighting in the DJIA at 1.27% compares to the combined weighting of 10.73% for 3M and United Tech. Now you know how silly the DJIA can be as an index, even if investors are usually referring to the DJIA when they say “the market.”

If you took the bottom seven DJIA components, you barely get a 7% combined weighting in the DJIA. These stocks could all double in a static scenario, where the other stocks remain the same, and you would barely get close to the 15,000 mark.

A review at IndexArb.com shows just how much these weightings matter, with a cumulative weighting after each component:

1) IBM 11.13; 11.13
2) Chevron 6.35; 17.48
3) 3M 5.63; 23.11
4) McDonald’s 5.16; 28.27
5) United Technologies 4.90; 33.17
6) Caterpillar 4.86; 38.03
7) Exxon Mobil 4.83; 42.86

International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) is at $206.53, against a 52-week range of $181.85 to $211.79. The consensus target price is $225.75, implying an expected gain of 9.3%. IBM‘s dividend yield is 1.7% but has been rising, and the company keeps buying back stock. Warren Buffett has bought a large stake that is likely to rise as well.

Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) trades at $117.93, against a 52-week range of $95.73 to $118.53. Its consensus target price is $124.51, implying upside of 5.6%, and it has a 3.1% …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

The Value of All Oil at Exxon Mobil: Over $2.2 Trillion!

Leave a comment

By 24/7 Wall St.

Oil price rise graphic

Filed under:

Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) was just featured as one of our seven DJIA stocks that would lead the DJIA to 15,000 and the company is delivering its production and capital spending estimates to analysts today. The oil and gas giant projects that its new major project start-ups will deliver 1 million oil-equivalent barrels over the next five years. What the company did not show you is that its proved reserves has a current snapshot market value of more than $2.2 trillion.

CEO Rex Tillerson tells analysts that the company’s crude oil production and other liquids should increase by 4% per year between 2013 and 2017, based on the new production analysis of 28 major oil and gas projects. Tillerson also said that 24 of those projects are liquids or liquids-linked projects. Twenty-two major projects will start production over the next three years, including an expansion of the Kearl Oil Sands Project in Alberta, Canada, and a liquefied natural gas export project in Papua New Guinea.

In a presentation to investment analysts, Tillerson said the company has a “growing global portfolio of high-quality resource opportunities with exploration success most recently in Romania and Tanzania.” Tillerson also said that the company is planning to more than double its exploration acreage in a range of proven and emerging locations that includes Russia by name to feed its inventory in the coming years. Its capital spending plan is to invest roughly $190 billion over the next five years.

Exxon Mobil said that it replaced 115% of 2012 production and has replaced 174% of its crude oil and other liquids, making it the 19th consecutive year the company replaced more than 100% of its production, with proved reserve additions of 1.8 billion oil-equivalent barrels.

Here is the figure that you need to know about the largest oil company: its proved reserves are at 25.2 billion oil equivalent barrels. Imagine what this translates to in real dollars at $90.00 a barrel oil. That is $2.268 trillion worth of oil in its proved reserves.

Exxon Mobil‘s market cap is $403 billion. If Exxon Mobil was merely treated as a closed-end fund, investors would say that the company trades at only about 18% of its net asset value. Things are far more complicated than that, but it is an interesting way for investors to look at this. If you just consider what Exxon Mobil is expected to make in profits this year, Exxon trades at about 11 times earnings. That is the real way to look at the company.

We are sticking with our prediction that both Exxon Mobil and Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) will hike their dividends in the coming weeks.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Annual Report, Oil & Gas Tagged: CVX, XOM

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

DJIA Crosses 14,200 to New All-Time High! More Gains to Come

Leave a comment

By 24/7 Wall St.

Wall St Bull statue

Filed under: , ,

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has now hit a new high, and it did it on a day where there is actually very little news acting as the driving force. The prior closing high was 14,164.53 from October 2007. The intraday highest price was 14,198.10 at the time. Now on Tuesday you know what the deadlines will say in every print edition on Wednesday.

DJIA HITS NEW ALL-TIME HIGH!

The DJIA is up more than 75 points after the market open and is at 14,219 this morning. Our readers should not be surprised at all by the new high. We have been calling for unofficial upside to our 14,590 target we set as the peak DJIA price for 2013.

We have not yet issued a DJIA 15,000 alert nor have we formally lifted our price target to that level. The key word is “yet,” but we are in no real hurry right now. The DJIA saw record inflows in January and February, and the DJIA is up 8.5% in just over the first two months of 2013.

Today’s gains are being tied to better news out of China, but we would remain somewhat subdued in getting too excited there until the promises actually happen.

The last thing we would advise readers to consider here is that the entire gain in 2013 has hardly seen any real pullback that shook out the bulls. That being said, do not be too shocked if a market sell-off comes up sometime soon. The reason may be nothing more than profit taking.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Economy, ETFs & Mutual Funds, Index, Personal Finance

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

New H-P Tablet May Be Too Little, And Too Late To Matter

Leave a comment

By 24/7 Wall St.

Stock Split Image

Filed under:

Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) wants back into the tablet market, an effort which the company previously jettisoned under prior misguided leadership. What is so different about this effort here is that the move is coming at a price so cheap that you have to wonder about the profitability metrics.

Its 7-inch tablet is called the Slate 7 and H-P plans to sell it for a low-low price of only $169. Here is where it gets complicated. It is using Android from Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), but the price is $30 less than the Kindle Fire by Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and the Nexus 7 tablet from Google. It is almost half of the price of the iPad mini from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) at $329 per unit. This looks to be a race to zero on the proposed tablet pricing.

Maybe it is aimed more at unseating the Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) Surface tablet that starts at about $500. CNET reported earlier that WebOS is being acquired by LG but for televisions rather than for smartphones. Meg Whitman said last week that she wants to take share away from Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL), and Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) also missed the boat on the tablet market.

It is hard to trust whether or not H-P can adequately make a comeback in the tablet market. Its other efforts cost more than that of Apple, yet the younger generation only wants Apple (or Android) and says that Apple is a far better product. If H-P really wanted this market it should have just stuck with its initial efforts. Oh well, missteps and misdirection from H-P’s leadership at the time.

Maybe H-P should just keep WebOS, the old Palm, and try to get back into the smartphone market too. Or not.

H-P shares closed down 0.7% at $19.07 on the day, but that is a win considering how the DJIA closed down by 216 points or by -1.55%.

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Consumer Electronics, PC Companies, Technology, Technology Companies Tagged: AAPL, DELL, GOOG, HPQ, MSFT

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

News, Politics, Government

Venture Capital Returns Are Beaten By NASDAQ, S&P and DJIA

Leave a comment

By Tim Worstall, Contributor This is a fascinating little revelation about the returns from Venture Capital funds over the past decade. Their performance numbers are getting beaten by the public indexes. What jumps out at me is there are no venture capital returns in this set of numbers that break double digits. When I got into the business in the mid 80s, I was schooled that you needed to produce at least 20% annual returns net to the limited partners to stay in business. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Huge Opportunity Coming in Bankrate Shares — for the Patient Investor

Leave a comment

By 24/7 Wall St.

Stock Split Image

Filed under: , ,

Bankrate Inc. (NYSE: RATE) was downgraded by analysts after the personal finance website had poor earnings and guidance. What 24/7 Wall St. wants to know is whether this is the sign of worse things to come or whether this fire-sale is creating a great opportunity as the stock challenges a new low.

Earnings tanked the stock on Wednesday after the night before brought the news that revenue came in at only $93.2 million. That is down from $113.8 million a year ago and was well less than the consensus of about $106.3 million. The reported earnings came to only $0.06 per share as well, and that was versus a consensus of $0.11 per share. To add insult to injury, Bankrate projected that 2013 would see flattish revenues over 2012′s $457.2 million. That is much less than the nearly $503 million expected by Wall St.

So here is where the dilemma comes into play. Bankrate hit a 52-week low of $10.00. This represents a post-IPO low since mid-2011. The company’s CEO said that this is the bottom of a transition curve in the insurance side of the business that will lead to higher quality and better margin leads. The CEO also said that credit card advertisers are starting to increase advertising as well. We wonder how much these gains will help since the company’s guidance is for flat revenues.

The chart has not yet confirmed the trend toward only lower and lower share prices. Generally one bad reaction like this (-18%) is followed by more drops, but the company is trying to signal a transition. Trust is hard to come by in companies, and it is amazing that this company still has a market cap of $1 billion.

Bankrate shares are down close to 19% at $10.05 on more than 2 million shares, and the stock hit a new 52-week low of $10.00 on Wednesday morning. The prior 52-week range was $10.01 to $25.95.

The chart from Stockcharts.com below is one that encourages patience rather than anything aggressive. Hitting a 52-week low when the DJIA and S&P are within striking distance of new highs is no great signal.

RATE 2 year chart

Filed under: 24/7 Wall St. Wire, Banking & Finance, Earnings, Earnings Warning, Internet Tagged: RATE

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance