It just might be one of the biggest, far-reaching pacts of the decade — and I’m betting you’ve never heard of it. It will govern business in more than a dozen countries, influence the shopping patterns of 1.9 billion consumers and facilitate trade in a region whose annual… Read More

Among the biggest winners in Monday’s early trading are Amylin (Nasdaq: AMLN), Orexigen (Nasdaq: OREX) and PolyMet Minerals (AMEX: PLM). Top Percentage Gainers — Monday, June 28, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Gain 52-Week High 52-Week Low Orexigen (Nasdaq: OREX) $4.95 +19.3% $10.83 $4.00 PolyMet Mining (AMEX: PLM) $1.77 +14.2% $3.79 $1.10 Amilyn (Nasdaq: AMLN) $19.76 +2.3% $24.21 $11.01 *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 Monday’s early trading are Amylin (Nasdaq: AMLN), Orexigen (Nasdaq: OREX) and PolyMet Minerals (AMEX: PLM). Top Percentage Gainers — Monday, June 28, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Gain 52-Week High 52-Week Low Orexigen (Nasdaq: OREX) $4.95 +19.3% $10.83 $4.00 PolyMet Mining (AMEX: PLM) $1.77 +14.2% $3.79 $1.10 Amilyn (Nasdaq: AMLN) $19.76 +2.3% $24.21 $11.01 *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 11:45AM Eastern Standard Time. Click on ticker symbols for up-to-the-minute price quotes and percentage gain data. Amylin Produces a Safe Profile During the past few weeks, several biotech stocks that are focused on diabetes have been in the news as sharp gainers or losers. It’s no coincidence. This is the time of year when many of these firms update the clinical progress for their key drugs and devices, highlighting their respective efficacy and toxicity. Diabetes is already a large and growing problem in the United States, and… Read More

Among the biggest losers in Monday’s early trading are Cellcom Israel (NYSE: CEL), Sinovac (NYSE: SVA) and Microvision (Nasdaq: MVIS). Top Percentage Losers –Monday, June 28, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Loss 52-Week High 52-Week Low Sinovac (NYSE: SVA) $4.53 -9.1% $12.50 $3.60 Microvision  (Nasdaq: MVIS) $3.28 –8.9% $5.75 $1.92 Cellcom Israel (NYSE: CEL) $26.40 –2.9% $36.41 $25.00 *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 Cellcom Israel (NYSE: CEL), Sinovac (NYSE: SVA) and Microvision (Nasdaq: MVIS). Top Percentage Losers –Monday, June 28, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Loss 52-Week High 52-Week Low Sinovac (NYSE: SVA) $4.53 -9.1% $12.50 $3.60 Microvision  (Nasdaq: MVIS) $3.28 –8.9% $5.75 $1.92 Cellcom Israel (NYSE: CEL) $26.40 –2.9% $36.41 $25.00 *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 11:00AM Eastern Standard Time. Click on ticker symbols for up-to-the-minute price quotes and percentage gain data. For Cellcom, the Bad News Keeps on Coming It’s been a forgettable year for Israeli wireless communications firm Israel Cellcom (Nasdaq: CEL). Earlier in the year, analysts downgraded the stock, citing concerns that new firms would enter the race and steal market share. The market for Israeli voice and data services is nearly mature, so the key players… Read More

During the past few months, experts have been slowly ratcheting down their global economic growth forecasts. A robust first half rebound is likely to be followed by a second half slowdown. Where the global economy heads from there is a crucial question for… Read More

Heading into a long holiday weekend, company-specific news may be light. But Washington is gearing up to release a slew of important data. Here’s a look at three economic items to watch: Home Prices look for a Floor Here’s a sobering stat: As of the first quarter of 2010, average home prices across the United States are at levels similar to what they were in the spring of 2003. They rose sharply in the middle of the decade, but have given back all of those gains during the past three years. On Tuesday,… Read More

Heading into a long holiday weekend, company-specific news may be light. But Washington is gearing up to release a slew of important data. Here’s a look at three economic items to watch: Home Prices look for a Floor Here’s a sobering stat: As of the first quarter of 2010, average home prices across the United States are at levels similar to what they were in the spring of 2003. They rose sharply in the middle of the decade, but have given back all of those gains during the past three years. On Tuesday, we’ll get the latest reading on housing prices from the S&P Case Shiller Home Price Index. So many potential home buyers are sitting on the sidelines waiting to see when housing prices will turn up. They know that prices are cheap, they just don’t want to see a newly acquired asset become even cheaper. But an upturn in housing prices could be a big motivator to get in the game, and trigger a long-awaited rebound in demand. Analysts at Case Shiller noted in their last report that “housing prices rebounded from crisis lows, but recently have… Read More

Each Friday we highlight the most compelling investment ideas that our research has uncovered from the 30 or so stocks that made it into our daily “winners” and “losers” write-ups during the week… Perfect World (Nasdaq: PWRD) Investors jumped into China-related stocks on Monday, looking for companies that would benefit from a stronger yuan and/or more robust Chinese consumer spending. Perfect World was seen as a play on that latter factor, and shares rose sharply Monday morning. #-ad_banner-#But after briefly touching $26 mid-day on Monday,… Read More

Each Friday we highlight the most compelling investment ideas that our research has uncovered from the 30 or so stocks that made it into our daily “winners” and “losers” write-ups during the week… Perfect World (Nasdaq: PWRD) Investors jumped into China-related stocks on Monday, looking for companies that would benefit from a stronger yuan and/or more robust Chinese consumer spending. Perfect World was seen as a play on that latter factor, and shares rose sharply Monday morning. #-ad_banner-#But after briefly touching $26 mid-day on Monday, they’ve been in freefall since, trading down to $22. There’s no good reason for the sell-off, though as we’ve noted before, Chinese gaming stocks may not be very timely as the industry is going through one of its once-every-few years no-growth modes. The industry — and Perfect World — are suffering from a dearth of hot new titles at the moment. The company’s quarterly earnings per share have been flat in the $0.70 to $0.80 range during the past four quarters. And it probably won’t be until the December quarter before they bust out… Read More

If someone told you two hundred years ago that an inherently worthless item would be hocked to generations of people, and that the asking price for this item would be several thousand dollars per gram, you probably wouldn’t believe it. But as an investor, you’d probably want a piece of… Read More

Among the biggest losers in Friday’s early trading are Research in Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM), Aerovironment (Nasdaq: AVAV) and BP (NYSE: BP). Top Percentage Losers — Friday, June 25, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Loss 52-Week High 52-Week Low Research in Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) $25.90 -8.3% $88.08 $53.55 Aerovironment (Nasdaq: AVAV) $69.68 -3.9% $35.38 $20.90 BP (NYSE: BP) $39.87 -3.8% $62.38 $27.07 *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 Friday’s early trading are Research in Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM), Aerovironment (Nasdaq: AVAV) and BP (NYSE: BP). Top Percentage Losers — Friday, June 25, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Loss 52-Week High 52-Week Low Research in Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) $25.90 -8.3% $88.08 $53.55 Aerovironment (Nasdaq: AVAV) $69.68 -3.9% $35.38 $20.90 BP (NYSE: BP) $39.87 -3.8% $62.38 $27.07 *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 11:29AM Eastern Standard Time. Click on ticker symbols for up-to-the-minute price quotes and percentage gain data. RIMM can’t Defy Critics Heading into Thursday evening’s earnings report, an increasing number of investors had been grumbling that Research in Motion’s (Nasdaq: RIMM) Blackberry line of smartphones is losing cachet, and that Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone and Google’s (Nasdaq: GOOG) Android would start to steal market share. Quarterly results were… Read More

Among the biggest winners in Friday’s early trading are Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL), Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and MannKind (Nasdaq: MNKD). Top Percentage Gainers — Friday, June 25, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Gain 52-Week High 52-Week Low Accenture (NYSE: ACN) $39.62 +5.5% $44.67 $17.74 MannKind (Nasdaq: MNKD) $42.06 +5.4% $12.30 $4.76 Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) $22.83 +2.7% $26.63 $19.79 *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 winners in Friday’s early trading are Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL), Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and MannKind (Nasdaq: MNKD). Top Percentage Gainers — Friday, June 25, 2010 Company Name (Ticker) Intra-Day Price Intra-Day % Gain 52-Week High 52-Week Low Accenture (NYSE: ACN) $39.62 +5.5% $44.67 $17.74 MannKind (Nasdaq: MNKD) $42.06 +5.4% $12.30 $4.76 Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) $22.83 +2.7% $26.63 $19.79 *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 10:49AM Eastern Standard Time. Click on ticker symbols for up-to-the-minute price quotes and percentage gain data. Oracle makes Quick Progress with Sun When software developer Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) announced plans to acquire Sun Microsystems last year, most thought that CEO Larry Ellison had finally gone too far with the company’s growth-through-acquisition strategy. After all, Oracle is a software giant, and had little experience selling the kinds of hardware that Sun Micro sold. Moreover, Sun had become a no-growth platform that was barely profitable. Read More

Every portfolio needs a strong foundation of stable and dependable investments. Solid income producers and tried and true equities are the hallmark of a prudent retirement plan.   But is that enough?   Those of us heading into retirement may have to do more with our… Read More