The past weekend’s news that China will allow its currency, the yuan, to appreciate against the dollar sent positive waves through the market for much of Monday’s trading session. Aluminum and steel stocks were up, as were domestic consumer plays in mainland China. But,… Read More

Among the biggest losers in Tuesday’s early trading are Patriot Coal (NYSE: PCX), Walgreen (NYSE: WAG) and USG (NYSE: USG). Top Percentage Losers — Tuesday, June 22, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Loss 52-Week High 52-Week Low Patriot Coal (NYSE: PCX) $13.98 -13.7% $24.25 $4.97 Walgreen (NYSE: WAG) $28.33 -6.0% $40.69 $12.29 USG (NYSE: USG) $14.20 -5.4% $25.59 $8.71 *Table includes companies with minimum market capitalizations of $200 million and three month trading volumes of at least 100,000 shares. All percentage returns… Read More

Among the biggest losers in Tuesday’s early trading are Patriot Coal (NYSE: PCX), Walgreen (NYSE: WAG) and USG (NYSE: USG). Top Percentage Losers — Tuesday, June 22, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Loss 52-Week High 52-Week Low Patriot Coal (NYSE: PCX) $13.98 -13.7% $24.25 $4.97 Walgreen (NYSE: WAG) $28.33 -6.0% $40.69 $12.29 USG (NYSE: USG) $14.20 -5.4% $25.59 $8.71 *Table includes companies with minimum market capitalizations of $200 million and three month trading volumes of at least 100,000 shares. All percentage returns are listed as of 12:20PM Eastern Standard Time. Click on ticker symbols for up-to-the-minute price quotes and percentage gain data. Another Shoe drops for Walgreen Fast on the heels of a dust-up with rival and partner CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS), Walgreen (NYSE: WAG) just delivered a sobering bit of news Tuesday morning: Quarterly sales are weak and expenses are too high. That combination led to a profit shortfall, pushing shares down -6%. #-ad_banner-#Some of the weakness is beyond management’s control. For example, it… Read More

Among the biggest winners in Tuesday’s early trading are Jefferies (NYSE: JEF), Lloyd’s (NYSE: LYG) and Lincare (Nasdaq: LNCR). Top Percentage Gainers — Tuesday, June 22, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Gain 52-Week High 52-Week Low Jefferies (NYSE: JEF) $24.79 +8.4% $30.99 $17.82 Lincare (Nasdaq: LNCR) $32.83 +6.7% $33.45 $13.88 Lloyd’s Group (NYSE: LYG) $3.48 +4.2% $7.47 $2.88 *Table includes companies with minimum market capitalizations of $200 million and three month trading volumes of at least 100,000 shares. All percentage… Read More

Among the biggest winners in Tuesday’s early trading are Jefferies (NYSE: JEF), Lloyd’s (NYSE: LYG) and Lincare (Nasdaq: LNCR). Top Percentage Gainers — Tuesday, June 22, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Gain 52-Week High 52-Week Low Jefferies (NYSE: JEF) $24.79 +8.4% $30.99 $17.82 Lincare (Nasdaq: LNCR) $32.83 +6.7% $33.45 $13.88 Lloyd’s Group (NYSE: LYG) $3.48 +4.2% $7.47 $2.88 *Table includes companies with minimum market capitalizations of $200 million and three month trading volumes of at least 100,000 shares. All percentage returns are listed as of 10:52AM Eastern Standard Time. Click on ticker symbols for up-to-the-minute price quotes and percentage gain data. Jefferies Posts a Great Quarter, but… Investment bank Jefferies (NYSE: JEF) delivered impressive quarterly results on Tuesday morning, and shares up +8%. Sales rose a moderate +13% from a year ago, while net income jumped a hefty +37%. Per-share profits of $0.41 were more than +10% ahead of forecasts. All of the upside came… Read More

At a weekend get together, I heard from many family members and friends about what they consider to be must-reads to stay up to speed on a daily basis. All seemed to agree that weekly news magazines such as Time and Newsweek seemed to be losing their relevance, moving too slowly in a world that has ever-shortening news cycles. Others noted that the Internet keeps them informed, but acknowledged that there is still a large credibility gap between journalism and blogging. And a few others noted that their local papers in cities such as Minneapolis or Miami were losing their… Read More

At a weekend get together, I heard from many family members and friends about what they consider to be must-reads to stay up to speed on a daily basis. All seemed to agree that weekly news magazines such as Time and Newsweek seemed to be losing their relevance, moving too slowly in a world that has ever-shortening news cycles. Others noted that the Internet keeps them informed, but acknowledged that there is still a large credibility gap between journalism and blogging. And a few others noted that their local papers in cities such as Minneapolis or Miami were losing their ability to broadly cover important events as they continue to gut their newsrooms. And all seemed to agree that News Corp.’s (Nasdaq: NWS) The Wall Street Journal, New York Times Company’s (NYSE: NYT) The New York Times, and Gannett’s (NYSE: GCI)  USA Today  still managed to maintain devotees with their respective foci on business news (WSJ), international and domestic politics and policy (NYT), and consumer-friendly sports, entertainment and “light news” (USA). Yet many investors have concluded that these publishing powerhouses are facing a mortal decline, and are still dubious of these stocks, even as… Read More

If you read my article from late last week, you know about my family farm in Kansas. And you’ll also remember that I work out of the StreetAuthority offices in Austin, Texas. So what do those two places have to do with today’s investment idea? One word:… Read More

In the early 1970s, the concept of “light beer” hadn’t yet caught on with most beer drinkers, particularly men. So to help promote its new Miller-Lite brand, Miller Brewing turned to ad agency McCann-Erickson — which came up with an ingenious idea. The company began running a… Read More

As the second quarter winds down, investors are shifting their sights to macro themes. We’re about to get a better sense of whether the economy is building steam, or stalling out. Here’s a look at three economic items to watch this week: Housing: New vs. Used On Tuesday, we’ll get the latest reading on sales of existing homes for the month of May. A day later, sales of new homes will be in the spotlight. Economists think existing sales rose +5% sequentially, thanks to tax credits (that… Read More

As the second quarter winds down, investors are shifting their sights to macro themes. We’re about to get a better sense of whether the economy is building steam, or stalling out. Here’s a look at three economic items to watch this week: Housing: New vs. Used On Tuesday, we’ll get the latest reading on sales of existing homes for the month of May. A day later, sales of new homes will be in the spotlight. Economists think existing sales rose +5% sequentially, thanks to tax credits (that have since expired). But new home sales likely fell sharply, according to a consensus of economists’ forecasts. The ratio of existing homes for sale compared with the number of new homes has never been larger. The glut of unsold existing homes on the market needs to be whittled down before more new homes get built. Of these two data points, the existing homes figure is the one to track. If the number shows a surprising dip in the inventory of existing homes, then home builders may start to identify the time… Read More

Put that cork back in the champagne bottle. As the dust has settled, it’s increasingly clear that China’s bold actions this weekend regarding its currency may be less bold than it seems. Clearly, the Chinese yuan will get stronger and the U.S. dollar will get weaker, but it will take several years — or longer — for any real positive benefits to be felt. Nevertheless, you can identify the long-term winners and losers from a stronger Chinese currency. Watching Paint Dry The Chinese government announced over the weekend… Read More

Put that cork back in the champagne bottle. As the dust has settled, it’s increasingly clear that China’s bold actions this weekend regarding its currency may be less bold than it seems. Clearly, the Chinese yuan will get stronger and the U.S. dollar will get weaker, but it will take several years — or longer — for any real positive benefits to be felt. Nevertheless, you can identify the long-term winners and losers from a stronger Chinese currency. Watching Paint Dry The Chinese government announced over the weekend that it would loosen the fixed rate at which dollars and the yuan can be exchanged, responding to increasing pressure from lawmakers in the United States and elsewhere. That led to a quick +0.4% gain in Monday trading for the yuan. And that’s all you should expect for the near-term. From time to time, the Chinese government will slightly loosen the band further, and the currency will make another quick +0.4% to +0.5% move. But we may not see more than a handful of those moves each year. Translation: it may be several years before the yuan gains +10% from… Read More

Among the biggest losers in Monday’s early trading are California Pizza Kitchen (Nasdaq: CPKI), Ralcorp (NYSE: RAH) and BP (NYSE: BP). Top Percentage Losers — Monday, June 21, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Loss 52-Week High 52-Week Low California Pizza Kitchen (Nasdaq: CPKI) $17.02 -9.9% $22.92 $12.29 Ralcorp (NYSE: RAH) $57.71 -7.2% $69.86 $52.66 BP (NYSE: BP) $30.86 -2.8% $62.38 $29.00 *Table includes companies with minimum market capitalizations of $200 million and three month trading volumes of at least 100,000… Read More

Among the biggest losers in Monday’s early trading are California Pizza Kitchen (Nasdaq: CPKI), Ralcorp (NYSE: RAH) and BP (NYSE: BP). Top Percentage Losers — Monday, June 21, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Loss 52-Week High 52-Week Low California Pizza Kitchen (Nasdaq: CPKI) $17.02 -9.9% $22.92 $12.29 Ralcorp (NYSE: RAH) $57.71 -7.2% $69.86 $52.66 BP (NYSE: BP) $30.86 -2.8% $62.38 $29.00 *Table includes companies with minimum market capitalizations of $200 million and three month trading volumes of at least 100,000 shares. All percentage returns are listed as of 1:14PM Eastern Standard Time. Click on ticker symbols for up-to-the-minute price quotes and percentage gain data. A Bad Time for a Sales Slowdown Shares of California Pizza Kitchen (Nasdaq: CPKI) are slumping neary -10% after noting early Monday morning that May sales trends were sharply negative, pushing down second-quarter sales and earnings guidance. The company notes that May 2009 sales trends were notably strong thanks to a promotion, so a -7% drop in May… Read More

After surging to a new all-time high of $1,258.58 an ounce on Friday, the yellow metal certainly could come under pressure from profit-taking or some other yet unknown exogenous event. However, for lots and lots of reasons, I like gold in this market. Here’s why: To begin… Read More