Market Update

Chatter that a deal may have been struck between Greece and its creditors has helped take the euro higher. In fact, the euro is now flat against the greenback after it was down about 0.5% only a couple of hours ago. The stock market hasn’t shown much of a response to that headline, however. That’s likely because market participants have been repeatedly disappointed during recent weeks as just about every report has been hardly more than rumor. The lack of results has frustrated many, and undermined confidence in the country’s ability and willingness to take steps necessary in shoring up fiscal and economic conditions.

Market Update

Monday:

• Anadarko Petroleum Corp    APC
• Changyou.com Ltd    CYOU
• Coinstar, Inc.    CSTR
• Energy Conversion Devices Inc    ENER
• Quepasa Corp    QPSA
• Rex Energy Corp    REXX
• Veeco Instruments Inc    VECO
• Yum! Brands Inc    YUM

Tuesday:

• Buffalo Wild Wings Inc    BWLD
• China Bak Battery Inc    CBAK
• Coca-Cola Co    KO
• Compass Minerals International Inc    CMP
• Formfactor Inc    FORM
• Glu Mobile Inc    GLUU
• OpenTable Inc    OPEN
• Panera Bread Co    PNRA
• Valueclick Inc    VCLK
• Walt Disney Co    DIS
• Western Union Co    WU

Wednesday:

• Akamai Technologies Inc    AKAM
• Andersons Inc    ANDE
• CISCO Systems Inc    CSCO
• Groupon Inc    GRPN
• Level 3 Communications Inc    LVLT
• Nanometrics Inc    NANO
• Ralph Lauren Corp    RL
• Sprint Nextel Corp    S
• TripAdvisor Inc    TRIP
• TriQuint Semiconductor Inc    TQNT
• Visa Inc    V
• Whole Foods Market Inc    WFM

Thursday:

• Activision Blizzard Inc    ATVI
• American Superconductor Corp    AMSC
• Bunge Ltd    BG
• Capstone Turbine Corp    CPST
• Dunkin Brands Group Inc    DNKN
• Expedia Inc    EXPE
• LinkedIn Corp    LNKD
• Nuance Communications Inc    NUAN
• PepsiCo, Inc.    PEP
• Sirius XM Radio Inc    SIRI
• Stamps.com Inc    STMP
• True Religion Apparel Inc    TRLG

Friday:

• Arch Coal Inc    ACI

Earnings date are subject to change, please check dates for accuracy.

Here were Friday’s high hybrid/volume movers, click here for charts.

Eli Manning is America’s quarterback — among the Twitter-using public at least.

IBM analyzed more than one million Super Bowl-related tweets to determine how people feel about Manning andNew England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady — and the New York Giants quarterback was the winner.

Manning earned 66-percent positive sentiment compared to Brady’s 61 percent, according to the report.

IBM called this a “digital upset” because “many would assume that Brady should be far ahead given his lofty status as an elite quarterback for many years and three championship rings,” Business Insider reported.

The company’s scientists attributed Manning’s positive sentiment to two factors.

First, New York fans are confident in their team and loyal to Big Blue. Second, there’s a backlash against the Colts’ treatment of Eli’s big brother Peyton.

The analysis also found that coach Tom Coughlin has more of a positive sentiment than Patriots coach Bill Belichick, 76 to 68.

NEWSCORE

Once known as “TheFacebook” when it launched on Feb. 4, 2004, the site will turn eight years old on Saturday. It’s expected to celebrate its birthday week with the filing of an initial public offering, which could value the company at around $100 billion.

The move would make the social network about four times the value of Google at the time it went public in 2004 with a valuation at $23 billion the day after.

The site has come a long way since it launched in Mark Zuckerberg’s dorm room. First limited to just Harvard University undergrads, the site later opened up to other schools and raked in about 5 million members in just two years. Now, it boasts more than 800 million users worldwide — or 40% of all Internet users — and is on track to reach 1 billion members by August. Behind Google, it’s the number one most-visited site worldwide.

Facebook caught the attention of investors since its beginnings, but declined bids from various companies from NBC and the Washington Post Group to MySpace and Viacom. In 2008, Zuckerberg was reportedly in talks with Yahoo for a potential sale, but he turned down an offer for $1.6 billion, saying the bid was too low.

Four years later, the company could be worth nearly 100 times that number.

Where do you think Facebook will be in the next 10 years? Do you think it has more long-term staying power? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

[Mashable]

Labor groups are teaming up with the Occupy movement for a series of high-profile protests in Indianapolis, where Super Bowl XLVI will take place this Sunday. The demonstrations are centered on Indiana’s new right-to-work law, which critics say will hamstring unions and leave the state’s workers in a vulnerable position.

The Indiana chapter of the AFL-CIO, one of the largest union federations in the country, will be passing out literature at and around Lucas Oil Stadium, the site of Sunday’s game, according to ThinkProgress. The hotel workers’ union UNITE HERE will stage a demonstration on Friday, and local Occupy activists are said to be planning a protest of their own — an extension of the rabble-rousing that took place this past weekend, when union members and Occupy demonstrators joined forces for several marches and rallies around Indianapolis.

Indiana’s new law, which makes it impossible for employers to require their workers to join a union or pay membership dues, is only the latest in a string of recent setbacks for American labor. Union membership has fallen off dramatically since the 1980s, and 2009 and 2010 saw especially steep declines in participation. (In what some analysts say is likely not a coincidence, paychecks for most Americans have barely grown since the 1980s.)

Over the past year, conservative politicians from Wisconsin to Arizona have proposed or passed laws that aim to reduce the power of organized labor, and Republicans at the federal level have been voicing steadily louder opposition to the National Labor Relations Board, claiming that the agency advocates for union members in a way that harms the interests of the business community.

Labor advocates say that Indiana’s right-to-work law, which Governor Mitch Daniels signed on Wednesday, will erode the political and financial strength of unions in that state. Supporters of the law say it will attract more companies to Indiana and kick-start job growth. Indiana is the 23rd state with a right-to-work law on the books, and the first in the Rust Belt, the central-northeastern part of the country historically associated with heavy industry.

This weekend’s protests are part of what right-to-work opponents call an ongoing campaign to get the law repealed. They also represent a continuation of the alliance between organized labor and the Occupy movement, groups that share an interest in preserving working- and middle-class power. The visibility of Occupy protesters has dropped somewhat in recent months, with more and more cities taking measures to dispel long-term encampments, though the movement is still conspicuously active in New York, D.C., Miami, Oakland and other places.

SOURCE

Classic Krull.

To clear things up, in case you were wondering, here is the definition from Urban Dictionary.

And, don’t forget to check out iBC’s dictionary, click here for Epic book

Bespoke

Today’s Industry Highlights

The major equity averages continue to trade near session highs amid steady, broad-based support.

Financials have held a strong lead over the broad market for the entire day. The sector’s 2.5% gain is head and shoulders above even the next best performing sector, which happens to be Industrials. Industrials are up 1.7% as a group.

Among financial plays, Genworth Financial (GNW 9.19, +1.15) is a top performer by percent gained following the firm’s latest quarterly report. Even though Genworth’s earnings came short of the consensus estimate, its top line exceeded expectations. Meanwhile, diversified financial services heavyweights Citigroup (C 33.39, +1.40) and Bank of America (BAC 7.82, +0.37) are also helping to drive the sector higher.

SOURCE

Once you are in a trade, only one of three outcomes can be the result:

1. Sell for a profit
2. Sell for a loss
3. The trade just sits there

Click here for a great article on Position Management.

The NFL wants to add even more fans to the millions already following the sport — and is willing to pay $1 million to do it.

The league will run an ad during the Super Bowl introducing the ”Perfect Challenge,” a deceptively simple new fantasy game.

Each week, participants must pick an eight-player lineup out of the entire NFL. If every selection earns the most fantasy points at their position in a given week, the owner wins $1 million.

The lineups must feature one quarterback, two running backs, two wide receivers, one tight end, one kicker and one defense/special-teams unit. The game is free.

For a sense of the difficulty of picking the perfect lineup, consider that last season 16 different kickers earned the most points (including ties) for at least one week under the standard NFL.com scoring system.

Yes, the hugely popular NFL believes it’s missing out on potential fans, so it’s making a splash with the $1 million prize. An estimated 15 million to 20 million people already play fantasy football, but then again, last year’s Super Bowl was watched by 111 million viewers.

Regular fantasy football requires the organization to set up a league at the start of the season and the commitment to attend a draft and update a lineup every week. The Perfect Challenge requires less time and knowledge, and fans can play as many or as few weeks as they’d like.

For those avid fans already hooked on fantasy, it’s an opportunity to compete for something even if that team they drafted in early September is already eliminated from playoff contention.

”Male, female, younger, older — this appeals across the board,” said Jeff Berman, the NFL’s digital media chief. ”Obviously, having the prize component gives an extra reason.”

The league’s hope is that the people who play fantasy for the first time through the Challenge start paying more attention to the sport — maybe they watch the Thursday night game on NFL Network, or buy official merchandise.

”Bringing new players into the fold is good for football overall,” Berman said.

Organizations can offer $1 million prizes in initiatives like this with the help of the insurance. For the NFL, having to distribute the big payday would carry the kind of buzz the league wants from this program.

”We’d be thrilled for somebody to pick the perfect lineup and win the prize,” Berman said. ”That would be a terrific outcome.”

-AP

NEW YORK (TheStreet) — Facebook’s $5 billion IPO won’t just impact its thousands of employees and corporate culture. The effects will be much more far reaching, touching hundreds of companies that rely on the platform — many of which are already benefiting from buzz surrounding the year’s most talked about public offering.

READ MORE

Here are some stocks, under $5, picked up by one of my PPT screens, click here for charts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DPQKZd0XJMg

Shame.

Stocks Rising on Unusual Volume:
YOKU, MA, NIHD, SINA, TLK, GMCR, HAIN, OTEX, CNQR, CDNS, AMLN, EXXI, EA, CME, HAIN, BMC, IPXL, CDNS, SWM, GPS, RLD, ZNGA, MDC, GRPN, ANR, CMI, PPO, WBC, LNKD, ACI, RAX, SLE, ALL and WHR

Click here for full list

Stocks Falling on Unusual Volume:
CI, UL, UN, AZN, TV, GSK, EGOV, UIS, ININ, RSTI, TRCR, JDSU, CELL, KELYA, ISIL, PENN, TSCO, ABCO, MEAS, FNSR, EDMC, PCAR, COHU, ARMH, GNTX, BODY, ATMI, UCO, AGN , ATK, HOT, CHKM, ROP, CSL, AMP, R, JDSU, ANN, FTK, BCO and ANF

Full list here

Here is the current list of Weekly options in chart form, click here for charts

When ticking off the benefits of physical activity, few of us would include intracellular housecleaning. But a new study suggests that the ability of exercise to speed the removal of garbage from inside our body’s cells may be one of its most valuable, if least visible, effects. Full Story