Archive for March 5th, 2008You can read it pretty much anywhere, but Clinton took Ohio and Texas meaning that the democratic primaries are far from over. Unlike the Dems, McCain has locked his nomination for the Republicans by breaking the 1,191 delegates necessary. So there it is. Talk amongst yourselves. Read more of this story at Slashdot. Reservoir Hill writes “Four hundred years after it put Galileo on trial for heresy the Vatican is to complete its rehabilitation of the scientist by erecting a statue of him inside Vatican walls. The planned statue is to stand in the Vatican gardens near the apartment in which Galileo was incarcerated. He was held there while awaiting trial in 1633 for advocating heliocentrism, the Copernican doctrine that the Earth revolves around the Sun. The move coincides with a series of celebrations in the run-up to next year’s 400th anniversary of Galileo’s development of the telescope. In January Pope Benedict XVI called off a visit to Sapienza University, Rome, after staff and students accused him of defending the Inquisition’s condemnation of Galileo. The Vatican stated that the Pope had been misquoted and since the episode, several of the professors have retracted their protest.” Read more of this story at Slashdot. Filed under: Earnings reports, Good news, Products and services, Walgreen Co (WAG)
Excluding the extra shopping day due to Leap Year, same-store sales were up 4.2%. Same-store sales in the chain’s pharmacies rose 8.3% and climbed 4.1% excluding February 29. Sales from the pharmacy were modestly impacted by the transition of popular allergy medicine Zyrtec to an over-the-counter version. In turn, the appearance of Zyrtec on the regular shelves positively impacted general-merchandise (or front-end) sales, which rose 8.2% in February, or 4.6% excluding the extra shopping day. The impact of these sales on the bottom line will be more apparent late this month; WAG is currently scheduled to report its quarterly earnings results on March 24. According to First Call estimates, Wall Street is expecting per-share results of 67 cents, or two pennies superior than year-ago figures. In late-morning trading, WAG shares have risen 0.8%. The shares have shown current strength, tacking on almost 13% since their late-January nadir. Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer’s Investment Research. Filed under: Products and services, General Motors (GM), Marketing and advertising, Toyota Motor Corp. (TM)
Last year, GM introduced three crossovers, according to The Wall Street Journal– the Saturn Outlook and GMC Acadia, which are all but identical, and the more luxurious Buick Enclave. There are, of course, only a limited number of crossover buyers. Strong sales for the GMC crossover may injured Buick. GM thinks it can manage all of its brands but in a falling domestic automobile market there is little evidence to show that the company’s plan will work. It is time to kill some of GM’s brands, save marketing money, and stop most of the competition among cars built by the same parent company. The firm’s weakest brands by sales and falling units are Buick and Saturn. Most of their models are matched by automobiles in the Chevy, GMC, and Pontiac lines. Shutting down brands is hard, an admission of defeat. But it is time for GM to let some of its model lines go. Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com. Filed under: Press releases, Products and services, Pfizer (PFE), Procter and Gamble (PG) This is why Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) is one of my favorite stocks that I don’t currently own. In a current press release, the consumer-products giant talks about Americans and its quest not to become ill via bacterial/viral infections. And, as you can imagine, the company offers up a solution, one that sounds enjoy it will become yet another viable brand extension to its vast portfolio of popular products. The product being promoted in the release is Vicks Early Defense Foaming Hand Sanitizer. The claim here is that it can afford germ-protection for a few hours after use. It sounds like an interesting item, but I must say, the press release isn’t only hilarious, but it’s downright frightening, especially to someone like myself; yes, I admit it — I’m a germaphobe. I carry Pfizer’s (NYSE: PFE) Purell everywhere I go, and I have emergency stashes in my vehicle and jacket pockets; I wipe down keyboards, faucets, the whole bit (I even do this at my workplace in a proactive manner). I use almost an entire bottle a day. The release talks about people refusing to shake hands and even being so frightened of sickness that some go so far as to avoid kissing! Let me tell you — I’m one of those people who hates doorknobs and shaking hands with others, so I think P&G has hit upon a nice product here; it’s very marketable, at least. And again, this is why I love P&G and believe it to be a great long-term play — it’s all about a great product portfolio driving dividend increases over time. Companies like Clorox (NYSE: CLX), Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL), and Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB) also are worth a look, but P&G is definitely an icon in this sector. Filed under: Products and services, Launches, Industry, Intel (INTC), Research in Motion (RIMM) Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) is introducing a new set of ultra-small chips [subscription required], some of them to power mini-computers that are unusually portable for consumers. According to The Wall Street Journal, “One chip, previously known by the code name Silverthorne, is designed to be the calculating engine for pocket-sized gadgets that Intel calls MIDs, for mobile World wide web devices.” Contrary to Intel’s hopes, the market may be a little opportunity. Smartphones are already taking on most of the functions that could be found on a mini-computer. They’ve e-mail, navigation, web access and texting capacity. Some allow for the download of documents and other data. For most effects, Research-In-Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM)’s Blackberry and high-end smartphones coming to market from a number of handset companies already serve the massive majority of the needs of people who want a portable computing device. Intel may be entering a market that’s already very crowded and has tiny interest in adopting its technology. Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com. Filed under: International markets, Rumors, Products and services, Consumer experience, Middle East, Economic data, Oil, Recession
So what exactly is OPEC looking at? The most obvious factor that the group must contend with is all time highs in oil, and a current cost per barrel of $102.50. For so long we kept wondering if / when we would be seeing $100 oil, and that time has come, and now it seems like oil has formed a pretty solid base of support above the psychological $100 barrier. This would typically lead you to believe that OPEC would come in and lift production in order to cool off prices. But, on the other hand, OPEC also has to contend with a weakening dollar, fears over a possible recession, and rising inventories in America. All three of these, by themselves alone, would be enough to put pressure on OPEC to actually look at tightening its supplies. The group definitely doesn’t want to see a recession spread across America and put a serious crimp in the nation’s appetite for oil. Up until the past few weeks we were getting signals from OPEC that we would be seeing some cuts coming in the near future, but now I believe it to be highly doubtful that any cuts are coming in the next several months. Politically it just would not look right to see the group lower its output will prices are at all-time highs. But then again, OPEC typically does what OPEC wants to do. OPEC has argued that the current surge in prices has nothing to do with fundamentals. They point to the rising inventories in America as evidence that demand is not up to the levels that would justify opening up the pumps a little more. In fact, they’ve estimated that demand this year will fall 400,000 barrels a day under that of 2007. So what will OPEC ultimately decide to focus on? Should it look at the current record high prices and look to put some oil into the market? Or can we anticipate it to pay more attention to the inventory levels in the U.S.? In the end, I think that OPEC will lean more towards cutting back supplies to prevent over saturating the market in the event of a recession down the road, but for now, I wouldn’t anticipate to see any changes coming out of the group. What are your thoughts? Does OPEC need to step in a lift its quotas in order to cool prices down, or should they stand by and let the market figure it out for itself for the time being? What would you do in their shoes? Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last four years working as an analyst for the on the web investment advisory service Investor’s Observer. Filed under: Press releases, Products and services, Apple Inc (AAPL), Starbucks (SBUX), Marketing and advertising Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX)’s Hear Music has signed another veteran artist into its ranks, reports Billboard today. Carly Simon is joining the label to release new album This Kind of Love, her first of original material in eight years. Preceding artists to sign the label have been Paul McCartney, Joni Mitchell, and James Taylor, and Billboard notes that McCartney and Mitchell both scored hits with Hear Music in 2007. The trade newspaper also notes that Hear Music “seems to be a natural fit for Simon, who has bounced around labels throughout her nearly 40-year career.” What kind of longevity with the label that leaves for Simon is questionable, but as Billboard noted, Hear Music fits for these artists and makes the new albums hits via in-store promotions and massive marketing platforms. That being said, virtually nothing has been revealed about Starbucks’ plans for any new artists that haven’t seen long careers or recorded for other labels in the past. There was some talk of an artist named Hillary McRae, but no update has been announced since Starbucks gave away free songs for Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) ’s iTunes last fall. In any case, news that another veteran artist has joined with Hear Music is in no way unsatisfactory. It’s clear that the label is marketing these artists in ways that attract new listeners where traditional labels failed. This Kind of Love is released April 29.
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Apple (AAPL) confident it would hit its 2008 iPhone targetsPosted by: in Products and ServicesFiled under: Rumors, Products and services, Consumer experience, Apple Inc (AAPL), Marketing and advertising, iPhone
The company has stated that its goal for overall iPhone sales by the end of 2008 was 10 million units, and according to Apple’s COO, Tim Cook, the company remains confident in hitting that hefty goal. Since the highly anticipated release of the iPhone last year, there have been a couple of points that Apple has taken a bit of heat over, the first being that outside programmers weren’t allowed to write programs for the iPhone, and the second being the company’s decision to allow individual carriers rights to sell their phones in their respective countries. Both of these shortcomings may soon change according to Cook. Speaking to to a Goldman Sachs investor group in Las Vegas, Cook hinted that starting on March 6 the company would give programmers the tools that they need to start creating outside programs for iPhones. This could open untold numbers of new applications for iPhone users, and will definitely spark even more interest in the $400 smartphone. The second area that has brought criticism to the company is the individual carrier restriction that it selected to adopt. This restriction might be coming to an end sooner than later, as Cook acknowledged that the company was “not married to the single, exclusive-carrier model.” Many iPhone users have already managed to get around the single carrier restriction, and it has been estimated by Bernstein Research that as many as 25% of all the iPhones in use out there are “unlocked” so that they can utilize non-approved networks. The problem for Apple is that for these users the company does not get its cut of carrier fees. I don’t have an iPhone (although I have played with many of them) but I’ve to state that they really do impress me. Everyone that I have met who has an iPhone, has fallen immediately in love with the unit. I have to think then, that by allowing a wider selection of carriers along with a wider selection of programs, Apple will easily be able to hit its 2008 goal, and probably easily surpass it. How about our BloggingStocks readers out there? How many of you own an iPhone, and what are your thoughts on the product? Will more of you purchase one if / when the company starts allowing outside programmers to write programs for the phones? And if so, what applications would you really like to see being offered for the phones? Filed under: Products and services, India, China, Harley-Davidson (HOG), Chasing Value
For the last 20 years, buying a Harley has been a buy of status far more than an expenditure of need. As much as 85% of the Harley Davidson fleet has been bought by pleasure riders rather than commuters or hard-core biker types. This reality puts those classy machines into the realm of consumer toys rather than consumer needs. Add to this the fact that Harley riders are getting older. They say: If you won’t be able to pick up your bike when you lay it down, it’s time to give up the ride. My point here’s that more and more Harley Davidson motorcycles are entering the secondary phase of their life cycles. First phase owners are beginning to sell off their bikes. I noticed the increase of used Harleys for sale beginning two years ago, and last year I noticed the start of a very slight decline in asking prices. This does spell good news if you’re in the market for one, and if that’s the case, I envy you. However, this signals tougher marketing domestically for that classic American icon, hence the Harley Davidson push into India and China. |
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Even when the economy struggles, people still need medicine, diapers, personal-care products, and large boxes of candy. This explains the continued sales growth at 
GM
With the current surge in oil prices, many of you out there might be hoping to see OPEC come in and cool the market with a production increase, but that is far from likely to occur. In fact, OPEC now finds itself 
Apple
I don’t normally watch the stock of 
