The Euro is off by 0.0022 @ 1.311. Weakness is attributed to the ECB providing stimulus amid recent downbeat economic data.
Comments »Monthly Archives: May 2012
Asia Trades Down, Europe Higher, and U.S. Futures Reach for Upside
Why Dig For Gold? Mom Finds Meteorite Worth 20K
Who knew that hunting for meteorites was such big business?
Meteorites landed in California’s Gold Country several days ago, creating a modern day gold rush.
“I’ve been out here my third day now,” said Robert Clark of Grass Valley. “Found one piece, one gram.”
Gold is so 1840s out here. Meteorites are the new treasure.
“I was really excited for this much,” said Rick Nelson of Grass Valley, who found some gold. “I was more excited for my wife’s find. She found a meteor.”
A couple thousand or so people from as far as Australia and Canada have descended to the area, practically doubling the population of Lotus.
Geologists, treasure hunters and scientists all took a look at Brenda’s find.
“As I opened my hand, there was a huge gasp,” she said.
Scientists have told her what she had in her hands could be 4 to 6 billion years old.
Read the article here.
Comments »Movers Under $10
Top Ranked Stocks
Here are some of the top ranked stocks in The PPT, click here for charts.
Comments »Industry Movers, Weekly Change
SAN DIEGO STUPID: INNOCENT MAN LEFT IN HOLDING CELL FOR 5 DAYS WITHOUT FOOD OR WATER: FORCED TO DRINK HIS OWN URINE
Chong, 23, was never arrested, was not going to be charged with a crime and should have been released, said a law enforcement official who was briefed on the DEA case and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Chong told U-T San Diego that he drank his own urine to survive and that he bit into his glasses to break them and tried to use a shard to scratch “Sorry Mom” into his arm.
Comments »China’s Stocks Rise Most in Two Weeks on Manufacturing, Fee Cut
An expansion in manufacturing and news of the fee cut for stock trading sent the Shanghai composite up almost 2%.
Read the article here.
Comments »China to Lower Stock Trading Fees by 25%
The move was announced as part of a reform package for the Chinese security markets.
Read the article here.
Comments »An $AAPL CEO-in-waiting Sells 95% of His Company Shares
The head of iPhone and iPad software sold 64,151 shares Friday worth $38.7 million
Read the details of the sale here.
Comments »Why the New York Times’s Paul Krugman Is Clueless about the European Economic Crisis
Nile Gardiner presents the facts concerning the real implementation of austerity measures (not much) in Europe.
Read the article here.
Comments »Trading What You See
The Stock Sage presents a good example of how to trade what you see, applied to recent $AAPL action.
Read the rest here.
Comments »Blankfein’s Gay Rights Support Shows Wall Street’s Obama Dilemma
What will Blankfein pick? Lighter regulation and lower taxes or progressive social issues?
Read the article here.
Comments »Lower Gas Prices: This Summer’s Coming Blockbuster?
Read Bespoke’s take on current and future gas prices here.
Comments »HUGH HENDRY: My Greatest Fear Is That Europe Will Confiscate My Assets
Ron Paul: Our Central Bankers are Intellectually Bankrupt
Paul explains, “The financial crisis has fully exposed the intellectual bankruptcy of the world’s central bankers.”
Read the article here.
Comments »Obama’s Not-So-Hot Date With Wall Street
Here is the money quote:
“You call some people on Wall Street up, and they’re undecided,” one Obama bundler said. “They’re ‘waiting for clarity’ — that’s the term they use. Or they say the administration ‘hasn’t led sufficiently’ on an issue.”
And why are they undecided?
For the next hour, the donors relayed to Messina what their friends had been saying. They felt unfairly demonized for being wealthy. They felt scapegoated for the recession. It was a few weeks into the Occupy Wall Street movement, with mass protests against the 1 percent springing up all around the country, and they blamed the president and his party for the public’s nasty mood. The administration, some suggested, had created a hostile environment for job creators.
Read the rest of the article here.
Comments »AUDIO: GMCR and The Case of the Killer Hot Cocoa
Highlights from the GMCR call.
Comments »Whitney Genius Tilson Shorts $GMCR in the $80s and Plans to Stay Short (watch his comments)
Summary of $YELP’s Conference Call
Yelp Conference Call Commentary
During the conference call, YELP commented that mobile remains a top priority and focus and that the company is very encouraged with the trends it is seeing. On average, 6.3 million mobile devices accessed YELP per month during the quarter, which is up 80% from a year ago. In terms of monetization, YELP says that mobile is even better than on the web, and it is already monetizing this traffic. It says that the performance of ads is actually better than on the internet.
Regarding its expansion into new markets, YELP said it is now in 80 markets and that it added 11 new cities in the quarter, 8 of which were international. Later this year, the company is planning on launching a European sales force to support its growth in that geography. Overall, YELP says that there are 180 markets in the U.S. with over 250,000 people — which it believes is a good benchmark for markets it wants to be in — and says that there are more than 1,000 of these markets in the world. Over the long-term, it would like to consider all of these markets, but in the near-term, mangement stated that it is difficult forecast how many it will enter. Generally speaking, the company says that it wants to grow at a healthy clip, but not outgrow themselves.
From a longer-term perspective, YELP says that it is striving to achieve 30-35% adjusted EBITDA margins. In the shorter term, though, the company will continue to invest in new markets and will remain focused on growing the topline. This suggests that sales & marketing expense will remain elevated in coming quarters. For this quarter, sales & marketing, as a percent of sales, was 69% compared to 68% a year ago.
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