Is Amazon About to Raise the Stakes Against Netflix?

At $79 a pop per year, Amazon Prime is a steal. Maybe even a little too good. Full story.

Today’s high volume / high hybrid movers, click here for charts

The rematch of the 2008 thriller between the Giants and the Patriots is attracting huge interest on ticket resale websites, where thousands of seats originally priced at $900 and $1,200 are selling for $2,500 to $15,000. StubHub even listed a street level suite for $882,375 today, hours after the Giants defeated the San Francisco 49ers for a berth in the big game. Full Article

Silver and gold miners just got some great news today after having lost so much luster in recent months.  The FOMC has now telegraphed that it expects that interest rates will remain exceptionally low through at least the end of 2014. Full Story.

Apple is preparing to produce its next iPhone model for release this summer, according to unnamed source at the China-based supplier Foxconn. While a number of varying sample devices are floating around, the next iPhone could include a 4-inch screen with a form factor unlike the current iPhone 4S.

Full Story.

Potash announces its Board has approved an increase of the co’s quarterly cash dividend from $0.07 per share to $0.14 per share, and declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.14 per common share payable May 3, 2012 to shareholders of record on April 12, 2012. (POT) 45.23 +0.80

UNG sets record daily trading vol. @ +52.8M as the ETF gains +7% on the day (UNG) 5.93 +0.39 :

Only an hour remains in today’s trade, so many market participants are preparing for the next round of earnings results. Following the close, E*TRADE (ETFC 9.35, -0.19), Netflix (NFLX 94.47, +1.80), and SanDisk (SNDK 51.80, +0.61) are expected to report. Tomorrow morning brings 3M (MMM 86.31, +0.38), AT&T (T 30.15, +0.06), Bristol-Meyers Squibb (BMY 32.66, +0.41), Caterpillar (CAT 108.65, +2.56), and Colgate-Palmolive (CL 89.19, +0.94).DJ30 +55.17 NASDAQ +25.06 SP500 +7.85 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1500/1.38 bln/978 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2050/503 mln/905

Via Yahoo

Pending news.

Stocks have drifted off of session highs. Gains remain solid, though.

Fed Chairman Bernanke is currently engaged in a question-and-answer session. He stated that although the economy has showed some positive signs, there have been mixed results in such areas as retail sales. He also added that if inflation remains below target and employment remains slow there is a case for further policy action.

Before Bernanke took the podium, the Fed released a downwardly revised economic outlook for 2012. The Fed now expects GDP to grow in a range of 2.2% to 2.7% this year, down from a range of 2.5% to 2.9%

Market Update

Here are today’s top industries via The PPT:

Apple will start selling its long-awaited TV before year-end says top analyst Gene Munster. Click here for video

Check out all the chatter for Tuesday, January 24th

It might be par for the course with Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), but investors certainly still enjoy seeing the maker of iPhones and iPads crush Wall Street estimates come earnings time. And that’s exactly what Apple did after the bell Tuesday when it posted a fiscal first-quarter EPS of $13.87 on sales of $46.3 billion. Analysts were expecting $10.08 a share on revenue of $38.85 billion.

Better yet, Apple said it sold 37 million iPhones, 15.4 million iPads and 5.2 million Macs during the quarter. Before the earnings report, analysts were saying numbers above 31 million iPhones and 13.5 million iPads sold would please investors. Full Story

Of 52 such addresses since 1961, the Dow Industrials DJIA -0.26% have risen 26 times the day after and fallen 26 times, according to data compiled by the WSJ Market Data Group and Dow Jones Indexes.  (Some years have seen both the outgoing president, and the newly elected president address Congress.)

The best market performance came the day after the elder President Bush’s address in 1991. The Dow rose 50.5 points, or 1.9% the next day, to 2,713.

The second best performance was after the younger President Bush’s address in January, 2002 when the index rose 145 points, or 1.5%, to 9763.

The worst market performance after a State of the Union Address came following President Clinton’s speech in January 2000. The Dow fell 2.6% the next day to 10,739.

Click here for the top 10 and bottom 10 market reactions following major presidential speeches to Congress since 1961.

Apple’s stockpile of cash and reserves grew another $16 billion in the holiday quarter, reaching $97.6 billion, as executives hinted they are considering big plans with their money, even though they aren’t in a hurry to spend it. Full Article.  

Hearing Brazil petrobras buying 30% stake

BMO Capital is upgrading Southwestern Energy (NYSE:SWN) to Outperform from Mkt Perform with a $40 price target calling for Peak in negativity.

Notablecalls: Today is natty day. This comes after Chesapeake (CHK) vowed to curtail Marcellus drilling, sending natural gas prices way higher in minutes. One glimpse at US Natural Gas Fund (UNG) and you see it’s a coiled spring.

Full article here

You weren’t the only one who Googled that smoking hot NBA cheerleader from “American Idol” this week — THOUSANDS of other people did too … and TMZ has learned, the massive surge in traffic crashed her manager’s website.

In case you missed Wednesday’s episode, the smokeshow’s name is Brittany Kerr — a cheerleader for the Charlotte Bobcats. J.Lo wasn’t that impressed with her audition, but Steven Tyler and Randy Jackson eagerly handed the girl a ticket to Hollywood.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=I3aloXCc0tU

But the fanfare didn’t end there … a rep for Kerr’s management company — which hosts multiple photos of her on its website — tells TMZ, its site was forced to shut down for hours after a massive surge in traffic crippled its servers.

But Kerr’s management company wasn’t the only thing affected … photographer Jim Merrill — who recently snapped Kerr in a bikini shoot — tells TMZ, he had to scramble to buy additional bandwidth for his website to accommodate all the voyeurs.

Via TMZ

 

GE earns 38 cents vs. 39 cent est. Revenue of $38b vs $40b. Cites slowing environment in Europe and tough U.S. appliance mkt.