A key sign of a real rally…but then again it has often marked tops.
Comments »Monthly Archives: February 2012
AT&T Customers Confused Over ‘Unlimited Data’ Limit
Santorum is Actually the Biggest Threat to Romney’s Inevitability as the Republican Nominee
Watch Jeremy Siegel Explain How We May Get to DOW 15-17k in the Next two Years
STUDY: Businesses Who Employ Undocumented Workers Do Better
Here’s Why Gold Bugs Are Such Thin-Skinned Misanthropes Who Are Constantly Lashing Out At Critics
This morning, our editor Henry Blodget wrote a post on Warren Buffett’s brilliant explanation of the absurdity of gold.
The gist is this: If you had $10 trillion, you could buy a cube of all the gold in the world, or you could buy boatloads of productive assets
Read the rest here.
Comments »
Residential Remodeling Index increases 22.8% Year-over-Year in December
An interesting read from Calculated Risk which analyzes the recent publication of The BuildFax Residential Remodeling Index.
Comments »An American Budget for the Rich and Powerful
By Jeffrey Sachs
President Barack Obama’s budget for 2013 will set off a vitriolic battle. Republicans will rail against the Democrats’ “class warfare” and Democrats will rail against the Republicans’ “coddling of the rich”. Yet it is mostly for show. The rich will win in their fund balances while probably losing at November’s presidential polls, and the poor and working class will probably re-elect Obama but suffer a continuing decline in relative and perhaps absolute incomes.
Read the rest here.
Comments »BREAKING: Moody’s Adjusts Ratings of 9 European Sovereigns to Capture Downside Risks
Global Credit Research – 13 Feb 2012
London, 13 February 2012 — As anticipated in November 2011, Moody’s Investors Service has today adjusted the sovereign debt ratings of selected EU countries in order to reflect their susceptibility to the growing financial and macroeconomic risks emanating from the euro area crisis and how these risks exacerbate the affected countries’ own specific challenges.
Moody’s actions can be summarised as follows:
– Austria: outlook on Aaa rating changed to negative
– France: outlook on Aaa rating changed to negative
– Italy: downgraded to A3 from A2, negative outlook
– Malta: downgraded to A3 from A2, negative outlook
– Portugal: downgraded to Ba3 from Ba2, negative outlook
– Slovakia: downgraded to A2 from A1, negative outlook
– Slovenia: downgraded to A2 from A1, negative outlook
– Spain: downgraded to A3 from A1, negative outlook
– United Kingdom: outlook on Aaa rating changed to negative
Read the rest here.
Comments »Malinvestment: Are central bankers seeding the next crisis?
Comments »FRANKFURT — Few would begrudge Mario Draghi his boast last week that he and the European Central Bank had prevented a disastrous credit crisis by showering banks with cheap loans in December.
But beneath the gratitude toward Mr. Draghi, the president of the central bank, lurks a fear that the easy money could simply be creating the conditions for another banking crisis several years from now.
Because of the central bank’s cheap financing, some economists warn, sick banks now face less pressure to confront their problems — to clean out bad loans and other impaired assets, or even wind down operations if there is no hope of a turnaround. The European Central Bank, they say, could inadvertently spawn a cohort of “zombie banks,” burdened by nonperforming loans and assets that remain on the books, like the ones that helped make the 1990s a lost decade for Japan.
“It’s a huge bet,” said Charles Wyplosz, a professor of economics at the Graduate Institute in Geneva. “If the crisis ends up well, the E.C.B. will have pulled off a miracle. If things go wrong, then commercial banks will be in a much worse situation than they were before.”
Professor Wyplosz said the central bank might be making the banking system more fragile by encouraging institutions to load up on risky assets, especially government bonds from troubled euro zone countries like Spain or Italy. Banks can use those assets as collateral for more loans from the central bank.
In December, the European Central Bank invited banks to borrow money at the benchmark interest rate of 1 percent for three years, compared with a previous maximum maturity of one year. Banks could borrow as much as they wanted provided they posted collateral. They jumped at the opportunity: 523 banks borrowed 489 billion euros, or $647 billion.
The central bank will offer another round of three-year loans at the end of this month, and last Thursday it loosened its collateral rules to encourage smaller banks to join in. According to some predictions, banks may draw on the cheap credit even more enthusiastically than they did in December.
Last Thursday, Mr. Draghi urged banks to take the money, and even ridiculed top bankers who have bragged they did not need the central bank’s charity. “I would describe some of the statements made as ‘statements of virility,’ ” Mr. Draghi said at a news conference in Frankfurt. “The three-year facilities are there to be used.”
The cascade of cash has lifted sentiment in the euro zone, and may even help the region avoid a serious economic downturn. But it is not yet clear how banks are using the money, and whether they will spend it wisely. Some banks — no one knows how many — are bound to use it to cover up past mismanagement and books full of bad assets.
“It’s like taking medicine, it sometimes has side effects,” said João Soares, a partner at Bain & Company, the management consulting firm, who specializes in financial services. “One side effect that is not good,” he said of the central bank’s lending, “is that it removes pressure to clean up balance sheets.”
Europe’s left dreads what living standards are becoming
Comments »PARIS (Reuters) – Europe’s left is torn between outrage and anxiety over drastic cuts in living standards and working conditions being imposed on Greeks by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
Indignation at sweeping pay and pension reductions and public sector job cuts dictated by official creditors in return for a second bailout of the debt-ridden euro zone state is strongest in south European countries that fear a similar rod.
Yet there is scant sympathy from centre-left politicians and labor leaders in northern Europe, where voters are more worried at the potential cost of bailouts, nor in former communist central Europe, where people are more inured to hardship.
“What if we all became Greeks?” left-wing French daily Liberation asked on Monday. “Is what is being imposed today on this pressured and humiliated country a foretaste of what will one day be prescribed for Italy, Portugal, and why not France?”
A planned 22 percent cut in the Greek minimum wage, with a 32 percent cut for workers under age 25, is among the most radical steps backwards inflicted in peacetime in modern Europe. Only Latvia has endured a similar EU/IMF-mandated “internal devaluation” cutting living standards.
Public sector pay in Ireland has fallen on average by 15.9 percent since 2009 due to wage cuts and a pension levy, but a 12 percent cut in the minimum wage agreed with lenders was reversed after the government found savings elsewhere.
The leader of Portugal’s largest trade union, Armenio Carlos of the CGTP, praised Greek workers’ “heroic resistance” against austerity measures and warned that his own country could face a similar social explosion.
“If the results in Greece were disastrous, without a doubt they will be no different here,” Carlos said last week.
French Socialist politician Segolene Royal, the defeated presidential candidate in 2007, voiced outrage at the way austerity was targeting the poorest Greeks while the rich were still able to evade taxes with impunity.
Accusing European leaders of “cowardice,” she singled out European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso for criticism.
“Athens is burning … Where is Mr Barroso? – the ultra-liberal politician chosen to head the Commission – that was a very grave error. Where is the Council of Ministers? What is the European parliament doing?” Royal asked in a radio interview.
Apple confronts PR problem, scrutinizes Foxconn
Comments »SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Apple Inc said on Monday that a U.S. non-profit labor group has begun an “unprecedented” inspection of working conditions at its main contract manufacturers, including Foxconn’s plants in southern China, as the maker of the IPhone continues to grapple with persistent image problems there.
“The inspections now underway are unprecedented in the electronics industry, both in scale and scope,” Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said in a statement.
The world’s most valuable technology corporation had agreed to let the D.C.-based Fair Labor Association monitor conditions at the factories of its suppliers, hoping to counter criticism that it was glossing over problems at these facilities.
The group began on Monday to interview thousands of employees, inspect manufacturing areas, dormitories and do an extensive review of documents relating to employment, Apple said.
Critics say the biggest blemish on Apple in recent years has been signs of harsh working conditions at its manufacturing partners, particularly in China.
DMND: Let the lawsuits begin
Read here:
Last week the stock of San Francisco walnut company Diamond Foods (DMND) dropped nearly 40% after the company’s CEO and CFO were dismissed after an internal review discovered accounting irregularities.
In a statement released after the close of trading on Wednesday the company said it had exposed some $80 million in unusual payments to walnut farmers; payments not accounted for correctly in prior financial statements. The revelation will require a restatement of the company’s 2010 and 2011 earnings results.
In the attached clip Trademonster.com co-founder Jon Najarian and I discuss what happened and why last week’s news may be only mark the beginning of Diamond’s troubles. The company fired it’s top two executives on Tuesday evening yet allowed Diamond’s stock to trade all day Wednesday. Bad idea.
“The board seems to have had really bad legal advice,” understates Najarian. “Anything you know that’s material and non-public you’re supposed to disperse that information in as wide an area as possible.” Such a practice is called Fair Disclosure one of the few securities laws with a straight forward definition.
Last Wednesday as DMND’s board crafted a statement for after the bell, the stock traded 6.9 million shares, more than all the other days of February combined and the highest volume the stock had seen since last December 12th.
Najarian says his service, which triggers alerts when unusually high levels of puts or calls are traded on a security, also flagged curiously aggressive put buying in Diamond during Wednesday’s trading session. The following day Diamond’s stock fell nearly 40%. There are those who may think the high volume of trading in puts and stocks ahead of DMND’s announcement was coincidental.
“This is the definition of insider information,” says Najarian. Such trading is illegal, even for members of Congress.
It’s within the realm of the possible that the trading on Wednesday was organic. Perhaps there was a downgrade, a walnut weather problem, or one lucky fund dumping shares in one day immediately prior to disastrous news.
Regardless the trading in Diamond last week is exactly what illegal trading looks like.
If you held Diamond last week you were at a disadvantage. If you actually bought last Wednesday it’s extremely likely you were flat-out robbed.
Diamond Foods is yet another opportunity for the regulatory agencies to help restore American’s confidence in markets by enforcing the rules we have rather than harrumphing about the need for new securities laws. It’s a lot to ask in an election year but maybe, just maybe, this can be one time when protecting shareholders is the government’s top priority.
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Comments »Obama budget taxes: AMT 2.0
Read here:
Comments »We’ve heard a lot of talk about the one percent and the 99 percent. With the release of his proposed budget for fiscal 2013, President Obama has opened a new front in the class war. He’s pitting yuppies against the overclass, the struggling well-off against the very rich.
This declaration of class warfare can be found on page 39 of the section on cutting waste and reducing the deficit. President Obama’s deficit-cutting proposals rest in part on making life more expensive for the very rich. He wants to let the Bush-era marginal tax cuts for those making $250,000 or more (about 3 percent of American households) expire, and limit the amount of deductions they can take. He proposes to end the loophole through which “carried interest” —the money private equity magnates are paid for managing other people’s money — is taxed at a low, long-term capital gains rate. And he’s proposing to codify what’s come to be known as the Buffett Rule, the notion that “those making over X million $ should pay no less than 30 percent of their income in taxes.” That’s a proposal that would really impact the tiniest minority of American households. As Jonathan Karl of ABC News notes, “There were 236,883 taxpayers who earned more than $1 million in 2009. That’s less than two-tenths of one percent of all filers.”
The funds raised from soaking the ultra-rich won’t all be used for deficit reduction. No, a good chunk of the money raised will be used to help keep the merely rich a little more dry. As the budget message notes, Obama is “proposing that the Buffett rule should replace the Alternative Minimum Tax, which now burdens middle-class Americans rather than stopping the richest Americans from paying too little as was originally intended.” In other words, Obama is proposing to stick it to a few hundred thousand extremely rich people for the sake of making life somewhat easier for tens of millions of people who may make $100,000 or more.
A bit of background is in order. (Here’s a good primer from SmartMoney) The Alternative Minimum Tax was created in the 1970s to try to prevent really rich people from taking massive deductions to avoid paying taxes. The thinking was relatively simple: Above a certain amount, people should pay a 28 percent marginal rate on income, regardless of the amount or number of deductions they’ve taken. So taxpayers must calculate how much they owe under the regular tax regime, and then calculate how much they owe under the AMT scenario, which limits the ability to deduct items like state, local and property taxes from taxable income. They have to pay whichever is higher.
Over time, as frequently happens, the tax aimed squarely at plutocrats caught up more and more people. The AMT wasn’t indexed for inflation, and didn’t account for rising tax rates and levels. As time went on, people who lived in certain areas — high-income districts in states with income taxes — and who have high property values and property taxes have come to expect that they’ll get hit by the AMT. Since many of the AMT hot zones are on the coasts — places like New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, California — the AMT may be considered a tax on yuppies or, as I dubbed several years ago, a Tax on Democrats. Those screams you hear while driving through Fairfield County, Connecticut, in early April are thousands of members of the top five percent confronting the AMT yet again.
The AMT, which ensures that people pay a 28 percent rate on marginal income above $175,000, falls heavily on people who are wealthy by any standard — i.e. they earn a multiple of the national and state and even local median income. But these folks don’t feel by wealthy because they’ve chosen to live in zip codes where housing prices are high and lots of other rich people live. The AMT thus contributes to one of the big ironies in American politics. It’s been a great mystery to many on the political right that so many people who live in high income areas aren’t more enthusiastic about voting for candidates that aim to preserve the Bush-era tax levels. (President Obama won a majority of the votes in 2008 in Greenwich, Connecticut.) Attitudes toward social policy have a lot to do with it. But the reality is that many people who live in high-income areas and who derive their income predominantly from wages never really felt the full benefit of the Bush tax cuts thanks to the AMT.
With each passing year, more and more people fall into this category. (Here’s some background data from Tax Policy Center.) But because their income tends to come more from wages than from lightly taxed capital gains or dividends, the merely rich are more likely to get sucker-punched by the AMT than the very rich. As the Tax Policy Center notes, “In 2011, 42 percent of tax filers with cash income greater than $1 million were affected by the AMT, compared with nearly 52 percent of those with cash income between $200,000 and $500,000.”
Almost every year, Congress passes a “patch” that prevents the AMT from ensnaring vastly more people. Had Congress not acted, as the Tax Policy Center points out, in 2012, “45 percent of all tax filers with cash income between $75,000 and $100,000 will pay the AMT, up from 0.4 percent in 2011, when the temporary AMT fix or ‘patch’ is in place.”
For politicians, the AMT has become a double-edged sword. With each passing year, it gets more annoying to constituents and more expensive to fix. On the other hand, with each passing year the AMT brings in more revenues, which means it would be difficult to replace. So it’s not surprising that the AMT hasn’t been permanently “fixed.”
So, here’s the deal Obama is proposing in this budget: Better and simpler tax treatment for millions of people in exchange for ensuring that a few hundred thousand others aren’t able to use their resources and ingenuity to avoid paying a significant chunk of their annual earnings in taxes. It sounds like a winner.
What could go wrong? Well, this budget proposal, like every other presidential budget proposal in recent memory, has been pronounced dead upon its arrival in Congress. What’s more, this is precisely how the AMT got started in the first place. Note that Obama isn’t proposing indexing the AMT to inflation. Twenty years from now, there will likely be many more people making $1 million than there are today, and they’ll begin to argue that they, too, are simply middle-class.
What do you think? Do you favor swapping the Buffett Rule for the AMT fix? Give us your thoughts in the comment section below.
Market Update
Comments »The major market averages hold just off their best levels of the session a quiet trade progresses. An advance of 0.8% has the Nasdaq leading the way while the S&P 500 and Dow trail with gains of 0.6% and 0.5% respectively. Volume has been rather uninspiring, and is on track to fall short of Friday’s 650 million shares on the NYSE. European financials are seeing modest gains after last night’s Greek vote on austerity measures received Parliamentary approval and paved the way for the troubled country to receive a second bailout from the Troika. German bank Deutsche Bank (DB 44.58, +0.45) is higher by 1.1% while Britain’s Barclays (BCS 14.95, +0.14) lags with a 0.8% gains. The European banks are trailing their American counterparts as Bank of America (BAC 8.28, +0.21) and Citigroup (C 33.40, +0.48) are higher by 2.7% and 1.5% respectively.
Today’s Hybrid Movers
Here are today’s hybrid movers, click here for charts
Comments »People are Stupid: 25 Extremely Upsetting Reactions To Chris Brown At The Grammys
via Buzzfeed.com
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Jerry Sandusky Gets Home Cookin’ from Local Judge
JUDGE TO JERRY SANDUSKY:You Can See Your Grandkids… If Parents Consent via TMZ.com
Alleged serial child rapist Jerry Sandusky — former Penn State asst. football coach — has been cleared by a judge to visit with his grandkids … as long as the parents arepresent during the encounter.
The judge also ruled that Sandusky can receive visits from adults.
The judge was clearly feeling generous to the former football coach … because he also shot down an attempt by prosecutors to have Sandusky confined indoors as he awaits trial due to a fear that he might rape local children.
Sandusky is already on home confinement … but prosecutors wanted Sandusky locked indoors over fears that he might make an effort to contact kids at an elementary schoolbehind his home.
Seriously, elementary school behind his home. Your stomach turning yet?
But the judge ruled there was not enough evidence to prove Sandusky was making “any effort to contact any of the children by signaling or calling to them, or that he made any gestures directed toward them, or that he acted in any inappropriate way whatsoever.”
Sandusky is due back in court in May … when he will face 52 counts of sexually assaulting boys over a 15-year span.
BUNNY BEATER: HUGH HEFNER’S SON Arrested for Attacking Playmate of the Year
Hugh Hefner‘s oldest son Marston Hefner was arrested last night after he allegedly attacked his Playmate of the Year girlfriend Claire Sinclair … TMZ has learned.
Law enforcement sources tell TMZ … cops were called to the pad Marston shares with Sinclair in Pasadena, CA after one of Sinclair’s family members called 911, claiming Marston had attacked her.
Cops arrived to the scene … and we’re told officers observed visible injuries on Sinclair’s body … including bruises and red marks.
Law enforcement sources tell TMZ … Marston admitted the two had gotten into an argument … but did not cop to striking Sinclair.
Sources tell us … Sinclair told cops Marston had punched her, kicked her in the stomach and then refused to let her leave the residence. We’re told Sinclair called family members after the alleged attack … and her family called the cops.
After a brief investigation, Marston was arrested for misdemeanor domestic violence at around 11:15 PM … and hauled to a nearby police station where he was booked.
Marston was released on $20,000 bail a few hours later.
20-year-old Sinclair was named PMOY in 2011. She has been dating Marston on-and-off since August 2010.
Comments »Today’s 52 Week Highs and Lows
NYSE
New Highs 98 COMPANY SYMBOL HIGH VOLUME ------- ------ ---- ------ ACCO Brands ABD 11.40 31,200 Advance Auto Parts AAP 80.39 75,619 Aetna AET 46.27 313,769 Alliance Data Sys ADS 119.13 102,485 Anworth Mtge Asset 8.625% ANHpA 26.28 300 Applied Indus Tech AIT 41.59 20,496 Asbury Automotive ABG 25.12 9,360 Assurant AIZ 44.00 41,847 Atwood Oceanic ATW 48.86 255,139 WR Berkley WRB 36.72 39,025 BlackRock Mun BAF 16.11 1,547 Blkrck MunHl NJ Qlty MUJ 16.09 5,450 BlkRk MuniHldgs Qlty II MUE 14.93 8,642 BlkRk MuniHldgs Quality MUS 15.04 10,687 BlkRd MuniYld Michigan II MYM 15.80 5,550 BlkRk MuniYld NJ Fd MYJ 16.34 6,552 BlRk Muyld NJ Qlty MJI 16.59 1,829 CBS Corp B CBS 30.38 603,374 CBS Corp A CBS/A 30.96 2,004 CPFL Energia ADS CPL 31.34 39,345 Campus Crest Communities CCGpA 25.44 2,825 Cedar Fair LP FUN 27.69 20,662 Centene CNC 48.22 29,063 Chipotle Mexican Grill CMG 379.00 44,355 Coach COH 75.10 304,799 CompanhiaSBEDP SBS 71.86 57,044 Energ Gerais-Cemig CIG 21.90 315,558 Copa Hldgs Cl A CPA 73.72 66,897 CoreSite Realty COR 21.44 1,737 Crown Castle Intl CCI 49.67 33,266 Cummins CMI 121.90 278,309 Cutwater Select Incm Fd CSI 19.44 4,240 Drdgold Limited ADS DRD 7.42 25,285 DWS Hi Incm Opps Fd DHG 15.43 16,711 Diageo PLC DEO 94.36 137,693 Dick's Sporting Goods DKS 44.74 262,991 Diebold Inc DBD 38.50 487,822 Dollar General DG 43.15 303,567 EV National Municipal Opp EOT 21.62 4,347 Ecopetrol EC 53.63 40,259 Ethan Allen ETH 26.32 16,829 FMC Tech FTI 55.19 352,375 Federated Premier FMN 16.17 1,661 First Tr Strat High Fd II FHY 17.08 18,741 GSE Holding GSE 13.46 68,670 Gallagher AJG 35.60 30,459 Gazit-Globe GZT 10.56 2,071 GE Cap 6.625% PINES GEA 26.72 2,813 Genesis Energy GEL 30.10 30,640 WW Grainger GWW 204.98 56,221 Guidewire Software GWRE 23.38 28,869 John Hancock Income Secs JHS 15.58 7,185 Hlth Cr REIT 7.625% F HCNpF 26.49 5,269 Heartland Payment HPY 28.09 50,184 Hexcel Corp HXL 26.97 65,333 Home Depot HD 45.74 691,361 Huaneng Power HNP 25.41 24,255 Hubbell B HUB/B 75.68 12,324 Jabil Circuit JBL 25.00 319,745 LSI Corp LSI 8.40 1,896,058 Laredo Petroleum Hldgs LPI 25.58 11,053 LeapFrog Cl A LF 7.10 497,936 Limited Brands LTD 45.51 276,954 Lithia Motors LAD 26.96 105,764 MSC Indust Direct MSM 80.00 31,187 Magellan Midstream MMP 69.73 13,234 Main Street Capital MAIN 22.85 18,099 Michael Kors Holdings KORS 34.87 506,972 Novo Nordisk NVO 136.62 19,916 Nuveen CA Muni Value NCA 10.00 6,154 Nuveen NC Premium Income NNC 15.69 750 Oceaneering Intl OII 53.98 112,394 PS Bus Parks Dep. Shs PSBpI 25.41 266 Pall Corp PLL 63.85 54,171 Plains All Amer Pipeline PAA 80.00 76,147 Polaris Indus PII 69.36 35,994 Pros Hldg PRO 20.59 17,175 Provident Energy PVX 12.15 92,988 Roundys RNDY 10.73 59,798 Ryland Group RYL 20.81 162,447 Sally Beauty Hldgs SBH 23.30 255,449 SeaDrill SDRL 39.94 295,395 Six Flags Entertainment SIX 47.80 63,932 SolarWinds SWI 37.93 103,072 Standard Motor SMP 23.47 29,747 SYNNEX SNX 38.70 17,543 Systemax SYX 20.92 6,109 Targa Resources Partners NGLS 40.41 16,616 Tesoro Logistics LP TLLP 35.00 5,358 TortoiseCapRes TTO 9.44 18,930 Transatlantic Hldgs TRH 58.61 16,140 VF Corp VFC 142.61 98,966 Vulcan Materials VMC 47.62 53,379 WP Carey & Co. LLC WPC 45.66 14,970 Wells Fargo Cap IX 5.625% JWF 25.61 87,284 Wstrn Asset Gl Def Opp Fd GDO 19.27 28,838 Western Asset Premier WEA 16.54 4,617 Western Gas Partners LP WES 43.69 26,928 New Lows 1 COMPANY SYMBOL LOW VOLUME ------- ------ ---- ------ CARBO Ceramics CRR 85.68 154,446
NASDAQ
New Highs 64 COMPANY SYMBOL HIGH VOLUME ------- ------ ---- ------ AEP Industries AEPI 34.67 3,296 Abiomed ABMD 23.92 79,672 Acorn Energy ACFN 7.98 51,774 Akorn AKRX 12.88 221,497 Alexion Pharm ALXN 84.83 257,229 Amer Cap Mortgage Invt MTGE 21.38 141,516 Apple AAPL 503.83 5,668,481 Arctic Cat ACAT 35.25 63,960 Ascena Retail Group ASNA 36.45 29,281 Aspen Technology AZPN 21.23 28,351 BSB Bancorp BLMT 11.28 500 BioMarin Pharmaceutical BMRN 38.95 305,199 CE Franklin CFK 10.50 1,742 Cincinnati Fincl CINF 34.79 55,537 Comcast A Sp CMCSK 26.34 170,343 Conn Bank and Trust CTBC 8.65 550 Conn's CONN 14.44 28,301 Delta Natural Gas Co DGAS 34.78 103 Dollar Tree DLTR 87.30 91,087 Edgewater Tech EDGW 3.85 60,816 Fastenal Co FAST 49.45 291,378 First Merchants FRME 10.65 17,166 Guidance Software GUID 11.34 101,393 Harleysville Savss Fincl HARL 17.47 500 Homeownrs Choice HCII 10.97 3,500 IRIS Intl IRIS 10.70 918 Inhibitex INHX 26.00 234,502 InnerWorkings INWK 12.24 15,704 Intuitive Surgical ISRG 506.01 113,640 Jive Software JIVE 18.45 230,882 Liberty Global Cl A LBTYA 49.29 61,966 Liberty Global Cl B LBTYB 48.90 2,000 Liberty Global Cl C LBTYK 47.00 11,373 Liquidity Services LQDT 41.82 357,312 lululemon athletica LULU 65.88 162,611 Madison Square Garden MSG 32.99 147,255 Mattel Inc MAT 32.50 329,666 Mercantile Bank MBWM 12.90 4,680 Multimedia Games Holding MGAM 10.94 101,809 Old Dominion Freight Line ODFL 45.02 36,685 Parametric Tech PMTC 27.73 118,933 Pharmacyclics PCYC 24.20 612,723 PwrShrs QQQ Tr Series 1 QQQ 63.00 5,370,574 pricelinecom PCLN 566.99 345,082 Primoris Services PRIM 16.68 18,167 Procera Networks PKT 18.82 38,174 ProShares UltraPro QQQ TQQQ 97.15 168,392 QAD Cl A QADA 14.24 2,654 Regeneron Pharmaceuticals REGN 115.50 1,072,597 Retail Opp Investment ROIC 12.08 7,112 Rush Enterprises A RUSHA 23.98 4,890 Russ SmCp Aggressive Gwth SGGG 63.32 300 Saba Software SABA 11.75 120,134 A Schulman SHLM 26.96 24,030 Select Comfort SCSS 29.62 170,938 Shire PLC SHPGY 106.60 200,046 Spirit Airlines SAVE 19.64 560,388 US Home Systems USHS 10.40 62,608 Ulta Salon Cosmetics ULTA 82.36 109,445 VOXX International VOXX 14.15 84,606 ViroPharma VPHM 31.49 193,862 Westport Innovations WPRT 44.44 448,202 Zoll Medical ZOLL 74.00 28,490 Zygo ZIGO 19.50 20,302 New Lows 6 COMPANY SYMBOL LOW VOLUME ------- ------ ---- ------ Amyris AMRS 6.75 155,754 Chelsea Therapeutics Intl CHTP 2.95 3,006,882 D Medical Industries DMED 0.69 9,000 ProShr Ul Sh QQQ SQQQ 13.56 299,731 Silicon Graphics Intl SGI 9.51 403,539 TBS Intl Cl A TBSI 0.11 109,132Comments »
