One-Stop Shopping (setravis)

[setravis]

Liberty drops Barnes & Noble bid, to invest $204M
Liberty Media makes $204 million investment in Barnes & Noble, drops $1 billion takeover bid

Thursday August 18, 2011, 7:50 pm EDT
NEW YORK (AP) -- Barnes & Noble Inc. said Thursday that Liberty Media, the conglomerate controlled by John Malone, has dropped its $1 billion bid to buy the bookseller and instead will invest $204 million in the company.

In May, Liberty Media Corp. offered to buy all of Barnes & Noble, apparently enticed by the potential of the company's Nook electronic reader.

But Barnes & Noble said the takeover talks had been ditched in light of the investment agreement unveiled Thursday.

Under the terms of the deal, Liberty Media bought preferred stock convertible into about 12 million Barnes & Noble shares at $17 apiece, giving it about a 17 percent stake in the company. The preferred shares will pay an annual dividend of 7.75 percent.

Liberty Media will also get two seats on the company's board of directors, which is being expanded to 11 members. It has nominated Greg Maffei, its president and CEO, and Mark Carleton, a senior vice president at the media company, to take the seats on Barnes & Noble's board.

The investment is another boost for New York-based Barnes & Noble, which recently lost a major competitor with rival Borders Group going out of business.

Barnes & Noble had put itself up for sale last year in response to pressure from billionaire activist shareholder Ron Burkle, but the company didn't strike a deal. Burkle has since significantly trimmed his Barnes & Noble stake.

Barnes & Noble has struggled along with other traditional book sellers facing heightened competition from online retailers like Amazon.com and discounters like Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Leonard Riggio, chairman of Barnes & Noble, said the capital injection from Liberty Media will go toward expanding the company's digital business.

Maffei said Liberty Media is "excited about Barnes & Noble's prospects as the leading bookseller in the U.S. and its growth opportunities in the digital world."

Malone's Liberty Media empire operates three publicly traded companies -- Liberty Interactive Inc., Liberty Starz Group and Liberty Capital Group -- through which it runs home-shopping network QVC and movie channel Starz. It also holds stakes in online, media and communications companies.

Some industry analysts have speculated that QVC could be used as a marketing vehicle for Barnes & Noble's Nook. The company's reader also has the potential to go beyond books to deliver all types of digital products, including music, magazines, TV shows and movies. That makes it a competitor not just to Amazon.com's Kindle but also to Apple Inc.'s iPad.

Barnes & Noble shares rose 41 cents, or 3.4 percent, to $12.50 in after-hours trading. During the regular session, the stock lost 90 cents, or 6.9 percent, as part of the market-wide decline.

Shares in Liberty Media, which is based in Englewood, Colo., were unchanged in extended trading. They ended the regular session down $4.92, or 6.8 percent, at $67.65.

[setravis]

Car dealers fear economy could scare off buyers
Stock market swings, jittery buyers threaten to stall US car and truck sales

Thursday August 18, 2011, 2:07 pm EDT
STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. (AP) -- Jeff Swanson was in the market for a new car just a few weeks ago. Then the stock market went crazy.

So Swanson, 25, decided to keep his 10-year-old Pontiac Grand Prix for at least another year. Gyrations in stocks and talk of a weakening economy rattled Swanson's confidence about taking on another payment, even though his new job running a home for mentally disabled people seems to be secure.

"Everywhere you turn, other people are saying `Oh, I lost my job this week. I lost my job last week,'" says Swanson, who works for a non-profit that gets money from the state. "I want to be a little bit financially set in case something like that happens."

It's an increasingly common reaction among would-be car buyers that has dealers and automakers worried. In May, many believed sales would reach a healthy 13.5 million this year -- halfway between their peak in 2005 and their 30-year low in 2009. Now, such forecasts seem overly optimistic. Analysts say the swoon in financial markets and economic uncertainty could reduce auto sales by a few percentage points, shrink earnings and delay hiring in an industry that has been a recent leader in job creation.

"If it keeps going this way, yes, it's going to hurt business," says Jerry Seiner, who runs a group of dealerships in the Salt Lake City area that includes General Motors, Nissan and Kia.

Any reduction in sales would be especially painful for Toyota and Honda dealers, who are just starting to restock their showrooms after months of shortages brought on by Japan's earthquake.

In a sign of how sensitive buyers have become to stock swings, showrooms are active on days the market is up, but empty when it's down, Seiner says. The Dow Jones industrial average has fallen 10 percent since July 22, with wild swings up and down along the way.

Gilbert Baldwin, 66, a retired auto worker from Ypsilanti, Mich., decided to wait for the market to stabilize before replacing his 2002 Ford Explorer. He was shopping for a new car last month, but now he's worried about higher gas and food prices and the possibility of Social Security cuts as Congress looks for ways to cut the deficit.

The lack of confidence isn't what car dealers want to hear, especially in August, usually a strong sales month as dealers clear lots of 2011 models to make room for 2012 cars and trucks. Carmakers report August sales in the U.S. on Sept. 1.

In the Washington, D.C., area, which is likely to be hit by government spending cuts, sales at Tammy Darvish's chain of about two-dozen dealerships fell by more than 2 percent in early August. She's worried the slow pace could continue for the rest of the month.

But dealers say sales likely won't collapse in the second half of 2011, as they did in 2009. That's because banks are lending more freely, and lease deals, which went away during the recession, are making a comeback. Also, older cars will still need to be replaced. The average age of a car in the U.S. is 10.6 years, up more than a full year from 2008, according to the research firm Polk.

Indeed, the turmoil in financial markets isn't scaring off everyone.

Jason Ashton, 38, of Shelby Township, Mich., plans to trade in his 2006 Dodge Ram pickup for a roomier SUV that will fit his wife, two kids and equipment.

"You've got to have room for the family," he says, trying to swing a deal for a Durango at Van Dyke Dodge in Warren, Mich.

But Ashton, who installs software for auto companies, will buy only if he gets a price low enough to keep his monthly payment steady. He also won't spend as much on options as in the past, forgoing leather seats, for example.

J.D. Power and Associates cut its 2011 sales forecast last week by 2 percent, to 12.6 million new cars and trucks. It cut its 2012 forecast by 3 percent, to 14.1 million. Ford Motor Co. is sticking with its sales forecast of around 13 million for the year.

"We're not getting back to what was considered normal or healthy as quickly as possible, but it's still a pretty strong progression," says Jeff Schuster, executive director of global forecasting for J.D. Power. Sales bottomed at 10.4 million in 2009.

Since that year, the U.S. auto industry has grown remarkably, adding jobs faster than the economy as a whole. The industry has added about 77,000 jobs since June of 2009. That's an increase of 12 percent, compared with a rise of 0.2 percent for the economy overall.

People looking to buy a car later this year could benefit from any reduced demand today.

Carmakers are likely to roll out sweeter deals, Schuster says, "just to keep buyers active and give them another reason to come in."

[setravis]

Is the Fed Preventing a Housing Market Rebound?

Thursday August 18, 2011, 12:04 pm EDT

Its latest policy to keep interest rates near zero through mid-2013 could backfire and prevent home sales instead of encouraging them


Basic economic theory says that when mortgage interest rates are low, consumers should feel more encouraged to buy a home. But right now, that intuitive theory might not hold. Kathleen Madigan at Real Time Economics proposes that the Federal Reserve's latest proclamation -- that short-term interest rates would be kept near zero through mid-2013 - might discourage home buying. Could this be possible?

When Certainty Can Hurt

This might seem like a backwards idea. To be sure, the last thing that the Fed would aim for is to make the housing market worse off. So why would it allow one of its policies to keep home sales artificially low? This might be an unfortunate and unintended consequence of its desire to calm the broader market.

The logic works here because home prices are declining. Nobody is sure how far they might fall or when they'll finally hit bottom. But we can feel fairly confident that prices aren't there yet. But what do we now know? Interest rates will be low for another two years. So why hurry to buy a home now?

Savvy potential home buyers who can wait the market out now have a good reason to do so. They don't have to worry about interest rates rising before the market bottoms. Instead, they can wait for the market to continue to decline. If it appears to bottom out in the next two years, then they can step in and finally buy at that time. But if prices keep declining over this period, then they'll be smart to buy in the first half of 2013, just before interest rates might begin rising. In the near-term, you might be better off waiting.

This actually makes a lot of sense. Prior to the Fed's August revelation, one of the best arguments for why it might make sense to buy a home in the near future was that interest rates will rise. As long as the Fed is holding them down, then this argument begins to disintegrate.

Some Reasons to be Skeptical

But there are a couple of reasons why the Fed's action might not endanger home sales.

Mortgage Interest Tracks Long-Term Rates

First, the Fed's action specifically targets short-term interest rates. They'll certainly be very low through mid-2013. But a 15-, 20-, or 30-year mortgage will face prevailing long-term interest rates. While short-term interest rates often have some influence over longer-term rates, the two aren't always directly correlated. In other words, we could see longer-term interest rates begin to rise even as short-term rates are kept low.

For example, in October, the government may no longer guarantee very large mortgages in some markets. That should cause their interest rates to rise a little, since banks and investors will add a default risk premium to those rates. These and other market shocks specific to housing or longer-term rates could still affect mortgage interest rates.

Home Price Movements Are Regional

Second, home prices may continue to decline nationally, but some markets will stabilize faster than others. Some already appear to be healing. So the question of whether to take advantage of low interest rates really depends on where you want to buy a home. In worse-off markets, it may be wise to wait. But in markets showing signs of recovery, low rates might make now the perfect time to buy.

Will the Fed's Words Do More Harm Than Good?

Are we seeing this theory in action? We actually might be. On Wednesday, the Mortgage Bankers Association revealed that mortgage purchase applications plummeted 9% last week to their lowest level in more than a year. While they explained the reason for this decline as general consumer nervousness, what if the Fed was partially responsible? It did, after all, announce its new policy on Tuesday afternoon last week.

If this counterintuitive theory holds, then the Fed might want to revisit its decision. The U.S. economy would benefit significantly if home sales began to rebound. Residential investment is providing very little support to the nation's economic growth at this time, and the construction sector remains one of the hardest hit by layoffs. Perhaps in this case, a little uncertainty could have been a good thing.

[setravis]

With 9 million people unemployed why don't the Obama loving Unions recruit a million or two of them?
You know train them, and give them work.
Oh, that's right, silly me, Unions don't create jobs, its businesses that create jobs. They are the ones that employ union workers. So keep following your savior and continue bashing businesses until your part of the 9 million.
Dumb asses better be glad to have a job in this obama run economy ! I'm 100% sure that the people standing in those unemployment lines would love to take their place...

Verizon workers going back to work, without deal...
Striking Verizon workers agree to head back to work without deal, will keep negotiating

Thousands of striking Verizon workers will return to work Tuesday, though their contract dispute isn't over yet. The 45,000 employees, who have been on strike since Aug. 7, agreed to return to work while they negotiate with Verizon Communications Inc. on the terms of a new contract.

Verizon workers picket outside one of the company's central offices in Philadelphia. The Communication Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers issued a statement saying they have agreed to come back to work while they continue to negotiate with Verizon Communications Inc. About 45,000 Verizon landline workers from Massachusetts to Virginia went on strike on Aug. 7, fighting management demands for contract givebacks. At issue is the company's declining landline business in an age of mobile phones.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Thousands of striking Verizon workers will return to work Tuesday, though their contract dispute isn't over yet.

The 45,000 employees, who have been on strike since Aug. 7, agreed to return to work while they negotiate with Verizon Communications Inc. on the terms of a new contract. The workers are employed in nine states from Massachusetts to Virginia in the landline division.

Among the issues in dispute is the company's move to freeze pensions and its demand that workers contribute to their health insurance premiums. The company argues that it has to reduce benefits as the landline business deteriorates. More Americans are forgoing such lines in favor of mobile phones.

The employees' unions say the company is profitable and can afford to maintain the benefits.

For now, the two sides say they have narrowed their disagreements and have agreed on a structure for the negotiations. The workers will return to work under the terms of a contract that expired Aug. 6.

"The major issues remain to be discussed, but overall, issues now are focused and narrowed," the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers said in a statement.

Marc Reed, Verizon's executive vice president of human resources, credited the company's managers with "ably meeting the needs of our customers" during the 14-day strike. This enabled the company to "withstand the strike without significant disruption to customer service," he said.

The company said it will "quickly address any backlog in repairs and unfulfilled requests for service."

[setravis]

The key to making money in the stock market is buying right before
a big move happens.  That means knowing how to spot key market
turning points.
It also means not losing in a bear market and knowing to buy when a
bull market starts.
Do your DD!!!

Do your own DD and invest based on your DD, not mine !

[sara123]

The Indian market witnessed a sharp rally in 2012. The Sensex gained a whooping 24.5 percent. In our report the reforms will be pushed through and that will accelerate the economic growth in India. It doesnt mean that we are going to get another year like this year, but we think we could get 15 percent, including dividends, in the Sensex next year.
There is stabilisation in Chinese economy, continued recovery in US and European, while still in a recession, in much safer territory than it was few months ago. I am optimistic going into 2013.

Please Visit here for more info @ Stock Tips For Tomorrow

[setravis]

CONGRATULATIONS!!! This Stock is our Big Play this Week!!!

Last Trade: .0322
Long Term Target Price: $1.40
Company Name: Biostem Corp.
Trade Date: Thu, July 25, 2013
Symbol traded: H_A IR

The rally could be coming (Must Read)! Released Huge news!

[setravis]

Global Economy: Stakes start rising over Washington gridlock

LONDON (Reuters) - The world is watching Washington's showdown over the federal budget and debt ceiling with the same feelings of horror, disbelief and ghoulish fascination that a slow-motion car crash produces.

The Republican-led House of Representatives is on a collision course with the Democratic White House. Both sides know the damage that would be inflicted on the country if the Treasury runs out of money later this month, risking an unprecedented debt default.

So one of them is sure to blink and swerve away. Aren't they?

Well, they haven't yet. Hard-line Republicans opposed to Obama's healthcare reform have already forced a shutdown of non-essential government functions since October 1 by blocking new spending authority.

"They're doing that, I would say, at the great expense of the average American, the U.S. economy and, to some degree, the global economy," said Jason Ware, chief analyst at Albion Financial Group in Salt Lake City.

After media reports that House Speaker John Boehner would work to avoid default, even if it meant relying on the votes of Democrats, as he did in August 2011, Boehner stressed that his party would continue to insist on budget cuts as a condition of raising the borrowing authority.

For the issuer of the world's reserve currency, whose interest rates form a global benchmark, to default would be nothing short of catastrophic, according to the U.S. Treasury.

That is why investors, though they have been selling stocks as a precaution, still believe a deal will be struck.

"You can come back from a government shutdown. You cannot come back from a default on the debt," said Ware.

[setravis]

The key to making money in the stock market is buying right before
a big move happens.  That means knowing how to spot key market
turning points.
It also means not losing in a bear market and knowing to buy when a
bull market starts.
Do your DD!!!

Do your own DD and invest based on your DD, not mine !

[setravis]

Capstone isn't the only company set to profit from a booming energy market. These three stock have the potential to soar!

3 Stocks to Get on Your Watch List
I follow quite a lot of companies, so the usefulness of a watch list for me cannot be overstated. Without my watch list, I'd be unable to keep up with my favorite sectors and see what's really moving the market. Even worse, I'd be lost when the time came to choose which stock I'm buying or shorting next.

Capstone Turbine (NASDAQ: CPST)
Speaking of companies with highly volatile hit-and-miss potential, microturbine developer Capstone Turbine has to come to mind.

Shares of Capstone have been extremely volatile lately as anything resembling an alternative energy system has shot through the roof, from fuel-cell systems and ethanol producers to turbine and microturbine developers.

For Capstone, sales growth has been no issue. A week ago today Capstone secured an order for 50 Captsone C65 microturbines for oil and gas shale companies around the country, raising the total number of microturbines in use via its distributor Horizon Power Systems to 550. This order came just one week after securing a 2.6 MW order for two of Capstone's natural gas-powered microturbines from Regatta Solutions to be used in select California hospitals.

For more evidence we can turn to Capstone's third-quarter highlights, released in February, where it delivered record product revenue of $29.9 million, boosted its backlog 7% to $160.4 million, and, more importantly, produced a six percentage point improvement in gross margin to 20%.

Of course, the one monkey on Capstone's back has been that it still hasn't reached breakeven EBITDA despite its rapid top-line growth and cost controls. However, I suspect that could change in either the fourth or first quarter. Although Capstone's profits won't be much to admire for the next year or two, as long as it can continue to push margins healthfully in the 20%-25% range there's a strong possibility that it could head much higher over the long run. Yet again, this isn't a company for the faint of heart -- but it has all the makings of a solid growth candidate.


Novavax (NASDAQ: NVAX)
The biotechnology sector offers a number of wildcard, predominantly clinical-stage stocks that have the potential to double -- or halve -- their value depending on the outcome of a single trial or two. One company that tends to fit the mold here is Novavax.

Novavax is a developer of vaccines designed to treat infectious diseases around the globe. The good news for shareholders is that Novavax is already generating revenue thanks to an influenza vaccine research contract through BARDA, as well as a handful of collaborative partnerships. Although Novavax could be giving up some of its earning potential by partnering up, it can also spread its costs and risks, allowing it more opportunities to find that elusive home run in the biotech sector.

Currently, the most exciting research ongoing for Novavax is a phase 2 study for respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, a disease that infects a patient's lungs and breathing passages. Most people can recover from RSV infection, but it can be more serious for infants and the elderly. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly all children will be infected with RSV by age two, hence the need for additional research.

However, investors may also want to consider that even though Novavax's pipeline is still young and predominantly unproven, the company is being valued at more than $1 billion in terms of overall value. It's quite possible that Novavax will continue to burn cash for the foreseeable future as it invests in new development programs and moves forward with its ongoing phase 1 and phase 2 studies. This doesn't necessarily mean the company won't succeed, but it does put downside pressure on a company that has historically produced losses and had a cumulative free-cash outflow of $279 million over the past decade.

It also wouldn't take much for Novavax to be knocked off its high horse if one of its primary studies in either RSV or influenza didn't meet its goals. I would personally guess that more than half of Novavax's current value is built into the success of its RSV and influenza platform, so a disappointment in either of these studies could seriously affect Novavax's share price.

One way or another, this has big-move potential, and risk-friendly investors should have this company on their watch lists.


White Mountains Insurance Group (NYSE: WTM)
The property and casualty reinsurance business is far from glamorous, but if a relatively conservative and nearly rock-steady investment exists within the sector, I would contend that White Mountains Insurance just might be it.

White Mountains is engaged in underwriting property and casualty insurance, as well as reinsuring products through the U.S. As you might imagine, this means that White Mountains can occasionally find itself at the mercy of Mother Nature. Events like Hurricane Sandy have a way of heavily impacting P&C insurers and reinsurers, and there's unfortunately very little these companies can do to predict when and where a natural disaster will strike.

However, one aspect that does work in favor of P&C insurers is that they possess the pricing power to boost premiums for existing customers on an as needed basis to ensure that they cover the catastrophe costs. The past year was incredibly kind to White Mountains, with very little in the way of catastrophe losses. Overall, this helped push the company's book value higher by 9.5% to $642 per share. With White Mountains operating out of four primary segments it noted significant strength from OneBeacon Insurance (NYSE: OB  ) , whose book value grew 17.3% and whose combined ratio (a measure of margin for insurers) came in at a steady 92% compared to this quarter last year.

If I could nitpick one aspect of White Mountains' generally conservative approach to running a business, it's that its dividend is far too conservative. At just $1 annually, yielding less than 0.2%, dividend-seeking investors had best consider looking elsewhere.

That aside, White Mountains is currently valued at around 10% of its book value, which, historically, makes this a good time to buy. Don't expect miraculous growth with a diversified insurance company, but do expect to sleep well at night. I'd suggest giving White Mountains a closer inspection.

Add these companies to your personalized Watch List to keep up on the latest news with each company:
• Add Novavax to My Watch List.
• Add Capstone Turbine to My Watch List.
• Add White Mountains Insurance Group to My Watch List.