Make it seven straight. Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has reeled off a winning streak that has seen its shares rise every day thus far in September. The surge comes amid a pair of analyst upgrades and a change in the corner office. The rebound is also due to the fact that this unloved stock had become so cheap that it had nowhere to go but up. As I wrote last month: “shares have fallen so far, and the company’s balance sheet is so strong,… Read More

Make it seven straight. Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has reeled off a winning streak that has seen its shares rise every day thus far in September. The surge comes amid a pair of analyst upgrades and a change in the corner office. The rebound is also due to the fact that this unloved stock had become so cheap that it had nowhere to go but up. As I wrote last month: “shares have fallen so far, and the company’s balance sheet is so strong, that any further share price weakness looks unlikely.” [Read: 3 Stocks That Can Survive a Bear Market ]   But is this just a head fake, or are shares really on the road to recovery? Let’s take a look. It can’t get worse Both Morgan Stanley (U.K.) and Merrill Lynch boosted their rating on Nokia this week with a fairly unusual investment thesis: business is so lousy and expectations for a rebound are so low that any positive news would be a real surprise. Morgan Stanley notes that Nokia’s latest line of smart… Read More

Soon after the tech bubble burst in 2000, investors searched for a new industry that could replicate some of the massive gains seen by investors just a few years earlier. The major investment magazines helped to boost the hype into the stratosphere. The hot technology? Nanotechnology. The… Read More

A cool $7 billion. That’s how much Priceline.com (Nasdaq: PCLN) has picked up in value during the past three months on the heels of a stunning +81% gain in the shares. Don’t feel bad for rivals Travelzoo (Nasdaq: TZOO), Expedia (Nasdaq: EXPE) and Orbitz Worldwide (NYSE: OWW) — they’ve risen anywhere from +15% to +40% as well. In the most recent quarter, Priceline saw a +60% jump in international bookings and a +20% jump in domestic bookings compared to a year ago. The other online travel firms had similar bullish… Read More

A cool $7 billion. That’s how much Priceline.com (Nasdaq: PCLN) has picked up in value during the past three months on the heels of a stunning +81% gain in the shares. Don’t feel bad for rivals Travelzoo (Nasdaq: TZOO), Expedia (Nasdaq: EXPE) and Orbitz Worldwide (NYSE: OWW) — they’ve risen anywhere from +15% to +40% as well. In the most recent quarter, Priceline saw a +60% jump in international bookings and a +20% jump in domestic bookings compared to a year ago. The other online travel firms had similar bullish results. So if things are looking much brighter than a year ago in the world of business and leisure travel, why have shares of Hertz (NYSE: HTZ) and Avis Budget (NYSE: CAR) slipped roughly -6% in the past three months? Blame it on a summer-long saga that has seen these rivals try to win the affection of Dollar Thrifty (NYSE: DTG). Both firms would stand to gain significant synergies by winning this prize. But the loser would also win, as the whole industry benefits from fewer rental car outlets and fewer price wars. [Read my earlier take… Read More

Back in the 1970s, with interest rates hovering above 10%, investors could earn a lot more money by simply owning bonds instead of stocks. Now, with interest rates at all-time lows in the modern era, the bonds vs. stocks debate is getting turned on its head. With bond yields stuck at low levels, stocks are comparatively much more attractive. That point has been noted by the Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) at a wide range of blue-chip companies. These companies are increasingly realizing that they can alter their balance sheets to… Read More

Back in the 1970s, with interest rates hovering above 10%, investors could earn a lot more money by simply owning bonds instead of stocks. Now, with interest rates at all-time lows in the modern era, the bonds vs. stocks debate is getting turned on its head. With bond yields stuck at low levels, stocks are comparatively much more attractive. That point has been noted by the Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) at a wide range of blue-chip companies. These companies are increasingly realizing that they can alter their balance sheets to provide some much-needed support to their flagging stock prices. And that’s a buy signal you shouldn’t ignore. When leverage is appropriate For a long time, many companies (especially in the field of high-tech) preferred to hold lots of cash and carry no debt. High cash balances were seen as a sign of strength in case any major economic slowdowns forced companies to burn cash to keep afloat. (Memories of the imploding dot-com bubble of a decade ago die hard.) Yet as we saw in the recent economic crisis, most large tech companies such as Microsoft… Read More

Investors often look for stocks that are “selling below book value.” That’s a fancy way of saying that the company’s stock market value is even lower than the assets (minus debts) it has sitting on its… Read More

Talk about great timing. Major casino operators decided a decade ago to build massive new casinos in Macau, just a stone’s throw from Hong Kong and mainland China. Those new gambling halls are now packed to the gills, thanks to the region’s ever-rising tide of freshly-minted millionaires. Meanwhile, traffic at casinos in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Biloxi and elsewhere in the United States remains in a funk. The fact that shares of Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS) and Wynn Resorts (Nasdaq: WYNN) are up +110% and +50% year-to-date, respectively, is solely… Read More

Talk about great timing. Major casino operators decided a decade ago to build massive new casinos in Macau, just a stone’s throw from Hong Kong and mainland China. Those new gambling halls are now packed to the gills, thanks to the region’s ever-rising tide of freshly-minted millionaires. Meanwhile, traffic at casinos in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Biloxi and elsewhere in the United States remains in a funk. The fact that shares of Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS) and Wynn Resorts (Nasdaq: WYNN) are up +110% and +50% year-to-date, respectively, is solely due to their exposure to Macau. U.S.-focused Casino operators like Isle of Capri (Nasdaq: ISLE) can only look on with envy. That firm announced very tepid quarterly results August 31st, pushing shares down -14%. If you think you missed the Macau surge, fret not. There is a way to play the region with a stock that is only starting to find appreciation among investors. #-ad_banner-#Building boom After years of construction, new casinos have been opening at a frenzied pace during the past few years in Macau. Industry revenue rose more than +50%… Read More

Carl Icahn just can’t help himself. Rather than sit patiently and wait for his large investment in Motorola (NYSE: MOT) to ripen, he keeps pulling out his check book to buy another large block of the telecom giant’s stock. In late August, he bought another $111 million… Read More

As the U.S. economy tries to sputter back to life, one important fact is increasingly clear: any rebound is likely to be muted as the country wrestles with persistently high unemployment and confidence-sapping budget deficits. That’s why it’s more important than ever to… Read More

To pull off a successful initial public offering (IPO), bankers need to drum up lots of interest. That’s bad news for companies that went public last month. Many investors and traders tend to take time off in August, and demand for… Read More

Executives at Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC), Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) and privately-held Cox Communications have taken their customers for granted for far too long. Even as consumer income has barely kept up with inflation in recent years, cable bills soar ever higher. Here in upstate New York, Time Warner gets $130 from me every month so I can get high-speed Internet access, a DVR and far more channels than I ever bother to watch. I have long vowed to cut the cord, as soon as it was practical. Read More

Executives at Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC), Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA) and privately-held Cox Communications have taken their customers for granted for far too long. Even as consumer income has barely kept up with inflation in recent years, cable bills soar ever higher. Here in upstate New York, Time Warner gets $130 from me every month so I can get high-speed Internet access, a DVR and far more channels than I ever bother to watch. I have long vowed to cut the cord, as soon as it was practical. That day is finally here. Technologies are rolling out that will expand consumer’s choices. And most ominously for those big cable companies, many of those choices will be either free or far cheaper. Breaking it down As I look over my monthly cable bill, a few things stand out. I like to record shows and watch them when it’s convenient. Time Warner charges me $13 a month for the service. Trouble is, to get a DVR, I also need to get digital cable ($7) and the “Standard Service” ($43), which is largely comprised of obscure channels… Read More