“The New York Times Co. is selling its About.com website to Answers.com for $270 million, according to a person with knowledge of the deal.”

Full article

Gapping up

DF +26.8%, WFR +16.5%, EVOL +13%, CHTP +12.2%, IILG +10.4%,

KNXA +9.9%, ENOC +9.8%, CSGS +7.9%, ESRX +6.9%, RAX +6.1%,

TSEM +5.8%, ACTS +4.8%, POWL +4.7%, SAPE +4.2%, MAXY +4%,

DMD +3.2%, RIO +3.1%, MNTX +2.9%, JAZZ +2.8%, ACHN +2.2%,

CVS +0.4% , CLWR +16.7%,

Gapping down 

PRMW -21.2%, PCLN -15.1%, XOMA -10.1%, Z -9.6%, WG -8.7%,

NVTL -7.5%, IDSY -5.6%, EXAS -4.8%, AYR -4.3%, WPZ -3.5%,

EXPE -3.2%, KRC -2.2%, UBS -2.2%, VVUS -1.9%, PLAB -1.1%,

GRPN -3% , PAY -2.1%, WIN -2% , PAY -2.1%,

via poltiico.com

Pizza chain Papa Johns told shareholders that President Obama’s health care law will cost consumers more on their pizza.

On a conference call last week, CEO and founder John Schnatter (a Mitt Romney supporter and fundraiser) said the health care law’s changes — set to go into effect in 2014 — will result in higher costs for the company — which they vowed to pass onto consumers.

“Our best estimate is that the Obamacare will cost 11 to 14 cents per pizza, or 15 to 20 cents per order from a corporate basis,” Schnatter said.

“We’re not supportive of Obamacare, like most businesses in our industry. But our business model and unit economics are about as ideal as you can get for a food company to absorb Obamacare,” he said.

KEEP READING

AA, BAC, CAT, CSCO, HPQ, JPM, MSFT, UTX, BA, AAPL, IBM)

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Amazon has released a social game called Living Classics which is in direct competition with Zynga. This is Amazon’s first release in this realm and is totally free on the $FB platform.

Full article

“For the last three quarters, Facebook has beenstruggling to move the needle on its payments business, but today a new game has launched that could provide a clue to how that could change that in the future: the social network has, for the first time, allowed a gaming app on its platform that allows users to play with real money — not Facebook Credits.

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Apple has plans to pull their youtube app from its devices.

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“Feeling lucky, Google Inc. GOOG +0.23% has found a new place to park some of its $40 billion cash hoard: bonds backed by car loans.

The Mountain View, Calif., company has plowed hundreds of millions of dollars in recent months into asset-backed securities, tied largely to automobile loans and consumer credit-card payments. Among Google’s recent purchases: triple-A-rated debt from car makers Honda Motor Co. 7267.TO +1.17% and Hyundai Corp. 011760.SE +3.27%Google had previously restricted itself to U.S. Treasurys, high-quality corporate bonds and other low-risk securities.”

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For the love of money….

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The suit claims of unlawful actions taken by GM to avoid competition for SAAB in the Chinese markets. Further the suit claims that this action led to the bankruptcy of SAAB.

Full article

$BBY shareholders are smiling all the way to the bank this am…unless of course they bot in a while back. Better to get some of your money back rather than watch is slowly disappear.

Full article

Knight Capital is get whacked this am despite a capital infusion. Investors still worry over the fate of this company.

Full article

Gapping up

ACLS +41%, NILE +22.1%, OPEN +14.2%, MELI +13.5%, LNKD +9.2%,

STEM +7.1%, KOG +7.1%, MTZ +6.4%, DB +6%, MT +5.6%, IMGN +5.1%,

BCS +5%, LPS +4.2%, SKUL +4%, RIO +3.4%, LPS +3.1%, NOK +3.1%, EOG +3%,

BHP +1.8%, PG +1.7%, GS +1.6%, JPM +1.4%, KFT +1.2%, BAC +1.1%

Gapping down 

ZIP -22.9%, BODY -17.2%, MCP -15.5%, XIDE -13.2%, DLB -12.8%,

ROSG -12.2%, SCOR -11.1%, KCG -10.9%, TST -9.3%, GLUU -6.9%,

ONNN -6.4%, KYN -5.5%, VCLK -5%, OMPI -4%, SYNA -3.8%,

SVM -3.1%, ARR -2.3%, MODL -1.1%

$FB has done nothing but disappoint from it IPO debut. After hitting a fresh 52 week low yesterday we have to ask how will $FB turn it all around ?

Full article

“A J.P. Morgan Chase JPM -2.36% & Co. executive encouraged the trader known as the “London whale” to boost valuations on some trades, said a person who reviewed communications emerging from the bank’s internal probe of recent trading losses.

After reviewing emails and voice-mail messages, the bank has concluded that Bruno Iksil, the J.P. Morgan trader nicknamed for the large positions he took in the credit markets, was urged by his boss to put higher values on some positions than they might have fetched in the open market at the time, people familiar with the probe said.”

Full article

The Knight Capital trading fiasco, bad as it is, looms even worse because similar high-speed trading problems are likely to keep on roiling the markets and fueling investor mistrust.

Anger and gloom swept across trading floors Thursday, the day after the New York-based trading firm reported a software malfunction that caused a surge in volume at the market open Wednesday and violent price swings for nearly 150 stocks.

Few if any were cheering the misfortunes of Knight (KCG), whose very survival is challenged by the scandal.

But the biggest concerns were for the retail investors who are likely to continue to flee the market.

“You can only assume that these glitches are going to continue into the future,” says Todd Schoenberger, managing director of the BlackBay Group in New York. “This is a huge, huge negative. It’s another black eye for Wall Street. This is not good for the retail investor. How are they supposed to trust what we do?”

Knight blamed the malfunctions on a software upgrade and said the episode would cost a whopping $440 million, a burden that will force the company to raise capital to cover.

The price tag on a market that already had been bleeding investor money is yet to be determined.

“So many good people are getting hurt in a very bad way, so many people in many industries. This hurts all of us,” says Sal Arnuk, partner at Themis Trading, an independent brokerage in Chatham N.J. “It hurts folks like us because when confidence is diminished people pull their money out of the market. When people pull their money out of the market my customers – institutions, mutual funds – trade less.”

Read here:

via sfgate.com

There may be more than 83 million fake users on Facebook, the giant social network has revealed.

In company filings published this week, it said 8.7% of its 955 million active users might not be real,according to the BBC.com.

Duplicate accounts, people who have an account in addition to a principal account, make up 4.8 percent of the “fake” accounts, as of June 30, 2012.

There are also “user-misclassified accounts” (2.4 percent) — pet accounts or a personal profile for business — and “undesirable accounts” (1.5 percent) that are intended for spamming, etc.

Fake users are a huge concern to Facebook because it generates a majority of its revenue from advertising. BBC.com says Facebook is coming under increased scrutiny over the worth of its advertising model which promotes the gathering of “likes” from users.

Knight Capital says it is now exploring strategic moves for shareholders.

Egan Jones Cut the stock this morning to B-

“Toyota issued a voluntary recall of 760,000 model-year 2006-11 versions of the RAV4 compact crossover and 18,000 model-year 2010 versions of the Lexus HS 250h hybrid sedan because of problems with the rear suspension nuts.

“Toyota has determined that if the nuts on the rear suspension arm are not tightened following the proper procedure and torque specification during a rear wheel alignment service, excessive play may occur at the threaded portion of the arm, followed by rust formation,” the automaker said in a statement. The rear suspension arm could separate, increasing the risk of an accident.”

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“NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Abercrombie & Fitch Co. ANF +0.65% shares slumped 16% before the bell Thursday. After Wednesday trading closed, the New Albany, Ohio, retailer of clothing for teenagers estimated fiscal second-quarter earnings at 15 cents to 18 cents a share, compared with the 25-cent-a share consensus estimate of analysts surveyed by FactSet.”

Full report