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Monthly Archives: June 2012

‘Breastaurants’ Experiencing A Mini-Boom

via HuffingtonPost.com

Breastaurants

NEW YORK — The waitresses at Twin Peaks wear skimpy plaid tops that accentuate their chests. In case you didn’t catch the joke, the chain’s logo is an image of two pointy, snow-capped mountains. And the sports bar doesn’t stop there: It promises “scenic views.”

Twin Peaks owner Randy DeWitt downplays all of that and insists that the appeal of the restaurant goes beyond the obvious. Hearty meals and a focus on making customers feel special, he says, are what really keeps them coming back.

“We believe in feeding the ego before feeding the stomach,” he says. Or as the website of the mountain lodge-themed restaurant states, “Twin Peaks is about you, `cause you’re the man!”

Twin Peaks is part of a booming niche in the beleaguered restaurant industry known as “breastaurants,” or sports bars that feature scantily clad waitresses. These small chains operate in the tradition of Hooters, which pioneered the concept in the 1980s but has struggled in recent years to stay fresh.

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CNBC Ratings Now at 7-Year Lows

via Mark Hanna at marketmontage.com

Infotainment financial channel CNBC continues to see its ratings plummet.  I am sure part of this is just the general disgust towards equities by Joe 6Pack but the “shout at you” format (at least in the U.S. version) has to be contributing as well.  I continue to be amazed some of these “emergency weeks” the difference between CNBC Asia (cordial) v CNBC Europe (intelligent) v CNBC USA (interrupt guests, yell, make every topic center on how the Democrats are destroying the economy)…

  • Squawk Box (6-9 a.m.) is supposed to prime traders before the bell. The show posted its lowest rated its time block since Q4 2006.
  • The Closing Bell (3-5 p.m.) is supposed to wrap up the day’s action. The slot posted its fifth-lowest rating in total viewers and second-lowest ratings in the key 25-54 demographic since 1997.
  • Fast Money (5-6 p.m.) is focused almost specifically on swing trading stocks. That time slot showed the lowest rating for the 25-54 demo since 1997 — and lowest in total viewers since Fast Money launched in 2006.

READ FULL PIECE HERE 

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PNC Bank Settles Debit Card Overdraft Case for $90 Million – $PNC

“MIAMI (AP) —PNC Bank has reached a $90 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit over excessive overdraft fees, the latest of several big banks to do so.

The agreement was filed Tuesday in Miami federal court. It must be approved by Senior U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King, who is overseeing similar lawsuits that were consolidated against about 30 banks.

Lawyers say details in the PNC deal will be filed within 45 days.”

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Facebook U.S. Unique Users Down 4.8% in 6 Months

“(MoneyWatch) A recent report from analyst firm comScore said that unique U.S. visitors to Facebook (FB) dropped slightly in May compared to April and March. But an analysis of additional comScore data suggests that the slowdown could be more significant and longer lasting. Falling traffic could be a concern to investors, who justify Facebook’s high market value by pointing to its growth potential.”

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Senate Reaches Tentative Deal on Student Loans

“Senate leaders on Tuesday reached a deal to keep student loan interest rates at 3.4%, though Congressional leaders were still cautious as House Republicans haven’t yet signed on.”

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What’s Up Doc ? No……. Really ?

“NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — As the nation awaits the Supreme Court’s ruling on health care reform, America’s doctors are debating a serious issue of their own — the possibility of going out of business.”

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Former Obama Adviser Bernstein: US Can’t Avoid Falling Off ‘Fiscal Cliff’

“The U.S. economy won’t avoid falling over the edge of a fast-approaching fiscal cliff, when tax breaks expire at the same time automatic spending cuts kick in at the end of the year, says Jared Bernstein, a former adviser to President Barack Obama.

The outcome of the November presidential elections won’t make any difference at all, Bernstein adds.

“If you actually play out the difference scenarios here, the president wins, Romney wins — it’s hard to see that we don’t go off this fiscal cliff,” Bernstein tells CNBC. “Because I don’t see how this compromise gets made.”

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Top Fund Manager: No 2nd-Half Rally for China Stocks

“China’s economy will probably stay in the “doldrums” in coming months, preventing a second-half rally for the nation’s equities, according to the country’s best-performing fund manager.

The government will do just enough to prevent the world’s second-biggest economy from slowing further instead of taking more aggressive measures to boost growth, Yu Guang of Invesco Great Wall Fund Management Co. in Shenzhen, said in an e-mailed interview on June 21. Property, auto and household-appliance stocks may outperform even as the overall market stalls, said Yu, whose Core Competitiveness Fund has returned 25 percent this year, ranking it first among 714 China-based mutual funds, according to data compiled by Bloomberg as of June 25.”

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A Closer Look at Google’s Nexus Tablet and the Must Haves Features

“Google I/O is nearly upon us, and all signs point to Google revealing a tablet later today. The device leaked and then over the last few hours several high-level sources confirmed the device’s existence. It’s likely a low-end, 7-inch tablet powered by Google’s latest mobile operating system, Jelly Bean.

Try as they might, Google has yet to deliver an answer to the iPad. Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich tablets were a flop save, and it’s devices like the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet that have managed to make an impact though they hide their Android underpinnings beneath custom user interfaces. Apple is dominating in the tablet wars and with Microsoft officially throwing down with the high-priced Surface, the Google Nexus Tablet must be a success.”

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In Focus: LinkedIn – $LNKD

“LinkedIn’s chief executive, Jeff Weiner, doesn’t want to talk about Facebook. No, no, no. “I’m not going to get into comparisons with them,” he declares. And yet a few minutes later Weiner rises from his chair, walks over to a whiteboard and energetically sketches a diagram that the world’s other giant social network can’t match.

Weiner draws three concentric circles to show how LinkedIn makes its money. The outer one is subscriptions. Next, marketing and advertising. And in the center is LinkedIn’s richest and fastest-growing opportunity: turning the company’s 161 million member profiles into the 21st-century version of a “little black book” that no corporate recruiter can live without.”

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Will Anti Foreclosure Measures Backfire ?

“U.S. state and federal laws enacted to protect homeowners from eviction in the wake of the 2008 housing crash may be extending the slump, according to a growing number of economists and industry experts.”

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In Focus: Caterpillar – $CAT

Caterpillar Inc. (CAT), the largest maker of construction and mining equipment, has provided the best risk-adjusted return among its peers since financial markets hit bottom in 2009 as it made acquisitions and expanded in emerging markets such as China.

Caterpillar’s risk-adjusted gain of 4.5 percent in the three years through June 26 topped that of 20 competitors with sales of more than $2 billion in the Bloomberg Industries Construction & Mining Machinery Index, the BLOOMBERG RISKLESS RANKING shows. The Peoria, Illinois-based company also had the highest total return in the index at 157 percent and volatility below 75 percent of stocks.”

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Unlocking Shareholder Value in Banking

I’ll be a dick and say there is no value when the banks are using tax payer money to make free money. Add in lower M&A, trading, general lending profits, and potential derivative bombs and you have divisions that are undervalued, but not whole entities. I will only change my mind when there is complete transparency and the Eron style accounting has gone away. That’s my two cents.

“Seventeen years ago fund manager Michael F. Price spurred the merger of Chase Manhattan Corp. and Chemical Banking Corp., creating what was then the biggest U.S. bank and laying the foundation for JPMorgan (JPM) Chase & Co.

Now he has a new message: It’s time to break up.

The stocks of five of the six biggest U.S. banks — JPMorgan,Bank of America Corp. (BAC)Citigroup Inc. (C)Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS) — are languishing at or below tangible book value. That means the pieces are worth more than the whole, Price said.”

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