293 Posted Topics
 | Sometimes the financial media should just, well, shut up. This week, using Apple’s most recent guidance statements, is good proof of that. By any measure, Apple just had one of its best quarters ever. The new Apple iPhone is a mega-hit. Consumers love the brand. Even Mac PC and iPod … |
| | A host of tech earnings results are pouring in from all corners, with some confidence-building numbers coming from United Technologies, Nokia and (especially) IBM. Others were a mixed bag. Microsoft checked in with better-than-expected sales of $15.84 billion for the quarter and earnings-per-share (46 cents) was in the range of … |
| | Oh, my - eBay shares dropped 7% in Wednesday trading. That after the company announced in a wide-ranging conference call with analysts that it wouldn’t meet current quarterly sales and revenue projections. That throws cold water on eBay’s reputation as a company that constantly delivers a positive earnings outlook every … |
| | Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is between a rock and a hard place. Bernanke, who spends another day in front of a congressional panel defending his handling of the Fed during a tough economic period, is stuck with a Hobson’s choice. Lower interest rates to help the economy but risk … |
| | I noticed that Market Pulse stock picking guru Bernard Schmitt put Sun Microsystems on his “closely watched” list, ultimately tagging Sun’s stock as a “bearish” one. Why? He says he doesn’t like the company’s fundamentals; doesn’t like the stability of the software server market, where Sun historically makes it hay; … |
| | Will the new iPhone chomp into Blackberry’s market share? Some thoughts on the subject are bubbling up on Wall Street, with the sentiment leaning toward Research in Motion, the company that manufacturers the Blackberry, being in good shape for the short term. After all, the iPhone is great if you’re … |
| | News on the markets focused on President Bush’s removal of a 30-year-old ban on offshore drilling off the coast of the United States. But that’s only one step – he needs Congress to remove the ban completely and so far that’s showing no sign of happening. But there was some … |
| | It's a busy Monday morning for tech companies on Wall Street, with Apple announcing that over one million new G3 iPhones were sold last week (despite a public relations black eye over a downed Apple server that kept the new phones dark for thousands of new customers). Apple's stock is … |
| | Looking for a “relief rally”? That’s what Wall Street calls a temporary lull in selling that could lead to a more sustainable uptick in broad-based stock prices. Usually, it’s one industry that feeds the bounce-back and Kevin DePew, an analyst and editor at Minyanville.com, which tracks the stock market, says … |
| | Technology stocks received something of a boost yesterday, with the NASDAQ rising 21 points to 2,266. Traders were buzzing about Microsoft’s admission that it would re-open talks with Yahoo, but only if less-than-subtle co-conspirator Carl Icahn can manage to unseat the Yahoo board of directors. Icahn, the famed corporate raider, … |
| | Dish Network is looking a bit chipped, if not actually cracked or even broken – and maybe Direct TV is poised to pick up all the pieces and put the second-place satellite TV provider back together again. That’s the picture I’m seeing with Dish, which saw it’s shares drop by … |
| | A decent day in tech trading, with both the Morgan Stanley “Big 35” tech benchmark and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up from week-long lows. Maybe it’s the first day of the quarter and people are just glad the last one is over, or maybe the July 4th margaritas are going … |
| | Amidst the carnage that is Wall Street this year (the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 20% since last October, classifying the stock market as being in official “bear” territory), there are glimmers of good news, and a good portion of it is coming from the tech sector. The latest … |
| | The market recouped some of its gains today, but tight credit and – here we go again – high energy prices are scaring the hell out of investors and keeping them out of the market. My gut tells me we haven’t hit bottom yet, even at a Dow Jones average … |
| | With the stock market down 300 points, once again thanks to high oil prices (now over $140 per barrel), technology stocks should be directly in the line of fire. But they’re not – and some big shot investors think the technology sector might even be a good defensive stop-gap until … |
| | The big news on Wall Street today is the Federal Reserve’s decision to keep the Fed Funds rate at 2% - a move designed to keep rising inflation at bay. When the Fed cuts rates, the idea is that nation’s money supply will be loosened up, and money becomes easier … |
| | The stock market is taking another major hit today after consumer confidence numbers came in well below expectations. The Conference Board, which measures the monthly consumer confidence number, reports that June’s number fell to 50.4%, down from 57% in May. Big investors had been anticipating consumer confidence numbers in the … |
| | Is AT&T pricing itself out of a good profit margin with the new iPhone? A growing number of Wall Street onlookers seem to think so. A few weeks back I wrote that AT&T would be charging $200 for the new iPhone 3G – that’s down from up to $500 for … |
| | Nasdaq is up nine points to 2,463 in Monday afternoon trading, with a slew of encouraging news from the technology sector, especially good news on the cell phone front and news that federal regulators will okay the Sirius/XM Satellite merger. Sirius is up five percent, to $2.68 while XM rose … |
| | I'd hate to be Jerry Yang's therapist today. The Yahoo CEO turned down a $33 per share buyout offer from Microsoft several months ago, with some saying the price could have gone as high as $37 per share. But that was then and this is now. The Associated Press is … |
| | Browsing through the trading numbers early this morning reveals that the chip sector, which I wrote about on Monday, took a hit with the news that Texas Instruments might come in with lower revenues than expected. TI tightened its revenue outlook Monday, slightly raising its midpoint but also pointing to … |
| | No doubt you’ve been reading a lot about the shiny new iPhone 3G. The gurus on this site can help you with the gizmos and gadgets way better than I can, so I’ll focus on the business side – and iPhone carrier AT&T has just announced an interesting new strategy. … |
| | Everybody's touting Intel as being the trigger for a run-up in chip stocks late last week, although I like the numbers that National Semiconductor is showing. What's beyond debate, however, is that the semiconductor market is on the rebound amid signs that the sector's long decline may finally be over. … |
| | Oh boy, just when we thought we were out of the woods, high oil prices are pulling us back in again. Oil prices skyrocketed by $7 a barrel today to $135 a barrel, gathering even more momentum after Thursday's big bump-up, and that, unfortunately, is the good news. A new … |
| | RIMM and its ubiquitous Blackberry is back in the financial news this week, after Goldman Sachs raised its target price on the Research in Motion to $163 from $148. Why not? Cell phones, especially multi-functional ones like the Blackberry, are the bumper crop of this year's tech toy marketplace. And … |
| | Today's edition of TechWeb poses an interesting question. With digital movie rentals coming on strong, is Netflix in a good position to grab a big slice of market share? The mail-a-movie giant hasn't impressed Wall Street with its efforts so far, although it does have a box-top digital set that … |
| | Tom Wolfe once wrote that “you can’t go home again.” In the computer world, at least, Wolfe has been proven wrong. Prodigal son Steve Jobs was shown the door at Apple and returned to strike gold with the PowerMaC, the iPod, and the iPhone. Now it’s Michael Dell’s turn to … |
| | I know that, technically speaking, airline stocks aren't technology stocks (although I can't think of a more amazing technology that one which enables a 10-ton tube of metal to become airborne in New York and drop you safely in Chicago two hours later) but hear me out. This could be … |
| | Want to take a second look at a former high-flying tech stock? How about CA, the information technology giant, whose slow-and-steady growth is occurring mostly under the radar of most Wall Street observers? But that might not last too long, especially as CA’s most recent quarterly financials, released last Friday, … |
| | Taxes, inflation, oil prices – even the price of corn are dominating the economic headlines these days. But should they overshadow the story of the (briefly resurgent) U.S. dollar? I don't think so - and I don't think anyone in the tech sector should sell the dollar story short, either. … |
| | Is the Tel-Com industry going the way of the dinosaur? If worldwide trends in 2008 are any indication, that very well could be the case. Speaking of case, the tech industry research and analytical firm Heavy Reading is on it. In a study released this week entitled “Reinventing the Telco: …  |
| | I've been following the career arch of corporate raider Carl Icahn for years. The billionaire investor specializes in buying up huge chunks of stocks of volatile companies, then going after the company's board of directors to get the deals he wants. It's worked pretty well with Icahn's investments in companies … |
| | Is the Yahoo deal done yet? The stock market thinks so, slicing Yahoo’s financial value by 15% in the last two trading sessions. If the deal were still alive, then the stock would be moving the other way around. Yahoo’s chief Jerry Yang says the $37-per-share demand wasn’t etched in … |
| | Okay, let the finger-pointing begin. Should Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer take the heat for the proposed Microsoft-Yahoo merger falling apart? After all, didn't he say that Microsoft wouldn't raise its $45.7 billion bid for Yahoo, then weeks later, say he'd raise the bid, from $31 per share to $33 per … |
| | Samsung Electronics had good news for the world equity markets, telling investors that it would post a 37% increasing earnings over the first quarter of 2008. The news wasn't so hot at consumer electronics competitor Toshiba Corp., which announced a 95% drop in profits. So why the disparity? Let's tackle … |
| | Harris Associates is typically one of the better value strategists out there - especially when it comes to finding value in technology stocks. One reason is why is the stock-picking acumen of chief information officer David Herro. He was interviewed on Tech Ticker this morning and had some interesting things … |
| | There's a lot of pressure on CEO's to keep costs down in a struggling economy. One way they can do that is by outsourcing their IT services to overseas firms, especially to India. Now, this isn't exactly breaking news, but the rate that company's are turning to lower cost outsourcing …  |
| | Tech stocks have been lagging along with the rest of the stock market so far in 2008, but its long-term prospects are much, much better. So says Imran Khan, a JP Morgan senior analysts who specializes in the telecom and Internet markets. Khan is one of my favorite analysts and … |
| | Kind of a quiet day on Wall Street, with traders wondering if Bank of America's less-than-expected Q1 forecast was a bump on the road to a bull market or a legitimate roadblock. With the market off 35 points in Monday trading (as of 3 PM EST), after rising four percent … |
| | This morning's Tech Ticker drew a bead on short-sellers who saw a wounded beast in Google and bet that the stock would go down this month - even though sellers weren't really sure what Google's 1st quarter financials would look like. Well, they know now. As I said yesterday, Google … |
| | I’ve been tough on Google this year, and with good reason. Part of what I do is write about how technology impacts the financial fortunes of companies and Google has been losing market share to the lousy economy and to other web portal developers in recent months. Look at online … |
| | It’s a big day for semiconductor stocks, with an upbeat forecast from chip giant Intel boosting stocks in other semiconductor companies and giving the overall market a nice bounce, as well. Through mid-morning trading, Intel is up $1, to $22 per share. Other chip companies are following suit . . … |
| | The roller coaster ride for tech stocks grew even wilder today, but in a good, adrenaline-rush kind of way. The news is mostly all good, with Banc of America Securities issuing a report that boosted semiconductor companies, stating that "a modest inventory build-up has eased". That's all investors needed to … |
| | Surprising news from the Yahoo camp late this afternoon, with Yahoo announcing that it will begin a limited test of Google Inc.'s AdSense for Search service, which will deliver relevant Google ads alongside Yahoo’s own search results. According to a statement from Yahoo, the test will apply only to traffic … |
| | With the semiconductor market on the ropes, Intel is doing all it can to stay relevant - financially and globally. To that end, today's news that Intel has "doubled down" on China by rolling out its second venture fund in the burgeoning Far East Tiger. The fund, to be called … |
| | Today's trading was flat, with most of the tech news coming from the Yahoo & Microsoft camps. Microsoft seems to be getting all Tony Soprano-like on the Yahoo board, issuing a pointed letter that emphasized an April 26 deadline for accepting its $44.6 billion takeover bid for the mega-web portal. … |
| | It’s been a lousy first quarter for tech stocks but the outlook for the second quarter of 2008 looks brighter and shinier. So say the investment gurus at Tech Ticker – specifically former Wall Street tech analyst Henry Blodget and Barons West Coast editor Eric Savitz. Savitz says there are … |
| | It's kind of a quiet Monday morning on Wall Street, with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsen's proposal to further regulate and consolidate the U.S.'s financial markets (by bringing heavier Federal Reserve oversight over bank lending, hedge fund risk assessment, stricter controls over the stocks market and currencies market - even tighter …  |
| | In case you hadn’t heard, and you probably have, Blu-ray has come out on top over HD-DVD in the new age video consumer marketplace. I thought that the higher prices for Blu-ray DVD players would work against it, but the superior technology and the always important “look-and-feel” quotient for Blu-ray … |
| | I wrote about Motorola last year, when the consumer technology provider was struggling to keep up with tougher Asian market competitors like Samsung and Nokia. The Associated Press reports that shares of Motorola, which has a market value of about $22 billion, have fallen more than 60 percent since October … |
The End.