jackieduvall writes “Medical gauze has received its first upgrade since World War I. Chemists have infused it with nanoparticles derived from kaolin clay, which somehow give it an astounding ability to stop severe bleeding. It was developed when the Navy approached a team of inorganic chemists at the University of California Santa Barbara to solve a problem with QuikClot, a zeolite-based hemostatic agent that became way too hot and caused burns when it came in contact with water or blood. While performing blood clotting tests, they realized that kaolin clay, which has been used as a control for clotting experiments since the 1950’s, could also be used as a first aid product.” There’s a video demonstration alongside the article. It shows the gauze halting the bleeding from a pig’s aorta. The blood isn’t excessive, but if you’re bothered by that sort of thing, you may want to skip the video.

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fyc brings us some information from Universe This day about what happened to Soyuz TMA-11 when it re-entered the atmosphere late last week. Reports indicate that a failure of explosive bolts to separate the Soyuz modules delayed the re-entry and oriented the capsule so the hatch was taking most of the heat, rather than the heat shields. CNN reports that the crew was in ’severe danger.’ They experienced forces of up to 8.2 gravities. NASA officials have voiced their approval of how Russia handled the crisis. They anticipate to rely heavily on Soyuz spacecraft once the shuttles are retired in 2010.

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Loether writes “Space.com has a fun article about how astronauts aboard the ISS play ’sports’ in zero gravity. It speaks about learning how to throw in a straight line instead of the arc we all take for granted, relay races, and using large water filled bags as medicine balls. ‘We realized that you could toss and catch and then go for a ride on this massive thing as it takes you away.’ The astronauts also put out a request for new ideas for space sports. Have any suggestions?”

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Filed under: Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Apple Inc (AAPL), General Electric (GE), Indices, AT and T (T), Citigroup Inc. (C), DJIA, Housing, Recession, NASDAQ

In the stock market, there are the indexes of consequence.

Certainly, the closely-watched Dow Jones Industrial Average is perhaps the world’s best-known stock market index, as it serves as an indicator of both U.S. economic conditions, and the nation’s economic prospects, 6-9 months ahead.

Market participants also closely monitor the S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite, and the Russell 2000, among other averages.

For those who are suggests of technical analysis, including yours truly, the DJIA’s 50-day moving average and 200-day moving average, also are important, among other technical measures.

Stocks, as barometers

But let’s state you want a quick-read on the market, besides looking at the DJIA. Are there any shorthand reads on the market, any stocks that serve as a snapshot of the market and general economic conditions? That can vary by era. Historically, General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) has served as a rough barometer of industrial strength, and AT&T, Inc. (NYSE: T) of utilities/telecom strength. More recently, Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT), Apple, Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL), and Google, Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG), have served as quick-reads on software, innovation, and the economic transformations driven by the Internet, respectively.

Still, this era in the land of the free has been characterized recently by the housing slump, mortgage and related asset-backed securities problems, and financial services/credit market stress. A quick read for the health (or lack thereof) in those markets, and by extension, in the U.S. economy? Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C).

Keep an eye on C

Keep an eye on good old C. If Citigroup is falling, chances are there’s trouble ahead for the market, and for the U.S. economy, among others. If C has bottomed and is rising, chances are, superior days are ahead. For the record, C closed Friday, April 25, 2008 up 84 cents to $26.60, and the stock appears to have formed a bottom in the $18-21 range.

With operations nearly everywhere in world, and with involvement in seemingly every financial services revenue stream possible, giant (and now recently much-maligned) Citibank is considered ‘too big to fail.’ Actually, it’s too interconnected to fail: very bad news for C would mean there’s very unpleasant news up ahead for the market, and for the U.S. economy, among others. Hence, in addition to the aforementioned indexes and stocks, keep an eye on C.

Disclosure: Lazzaro has no positions in stocks. In addition to private real estate holdings, he owns corporate and municipal bonds, and cash certificates of deposit.

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Filed under: Forecasts, Bad news, Economic data, Housing, Recession

The United States is an enormous, diverse nation, and there’s perhaps no better evidence of that than the U.S.’s current economic cycle.

The finances of many says have deteriorated to such a degree that they appear to be in recession, although the nation as a whole may not be, a survey of 50 say fiscal directors concluded.

The states: budget deficits abound

The National Conference of Say Legislatures’ survey states that “arguing whether the national economy is in recession is nearly beside the point” because the fiscal condition of some states has declined so much that they appear to be in a recession.

In all, 23 says, including hard-hit housing slump states Florida, California, and Nevada, expect to report budget deficits in the next fiscal year, fiscal 2009, with the aggregate revenue shortfall reaching $26 billion. Further, more than two-thirds of the says stated they are concerned or pessimistic regarding their F2009 revenue outlook.

Historically, most says experience a decline in revenue as the U.S. economy contracts, as the economic slowdown results in lower retail sales, which lowers sales tax revenue — a major source of revenue for many states. Job layoffs also decrease state income tax revenue. Further, state social service costs typically increase, as unemployment claims increase and applications for income/food/energy assistance rise.

Florida, California hard hit

Economist Peter Dawson told BloggingStocks Friday the NCSL data is in-line with the profile of this cycle’s economic slowdown. “From the research we can see that the states under most stress are those that rank very high regarding mortgage default and housing foreclosure lists, with Florida and California being the most obvious examples,” Dawson said. “These says are going to be under fiscal stress for a considerable period of time due to the size of their housing correction.”

Moreover, Dawson said because of California’s and Florida’s size, “it will be very hard for the nation to grow at capacity until these states have started to grow.” Hence, a return to robust economic conditions nationally, “could be a year to 18 months off, assuming growth resumes nationally by late 2008,” he stated.

Bright spots: Texas, Oklahoma

The NCSL stated there was one bright spot concerning the say fiscal survey: economic conditions in oil- producing/energy services states: Texas, Oklahoma and Alaska.

For energy-producing says, the fiscal situation is strong and the outlook is good, the NCSL stated, particularly for those states pumping oil at record-high, plus-$100 oil prices.

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Filed under: Products and services, Google (GOOG), Marketing and advertising

Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is rolling out another serious swipe at advertising in a relatively new category: mobile phone screens. Even though mobile advertising is nothing new, Google’s intense focus on this new platform for display ads is ramping up excitement in some circles. After all, there are lots of more cellphones with mobile web capability than there are Computers worldwide. The trick is to get consumers and businesses using the mobile web. The iPhone has helped kickstart interest in this that had been pretty much dormant before last year for a range of reasons.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin even said at Google’s recent quarterly results conference call that “The mobile ads work very well … there’s nothing to dissuade me it would be any worse than traditional desktop search.” If that holds true — and we all know how desktop search has panned out — mobile search might be a massive blockbuster.

Faster data connections are available with many wireless carriers now, smartphone shipments are increasing, and attention to the mobile web has gained a big amount of steam due to the iPhone and its full web browsing abilities. Once Google’s Android operating system begins shipping and the mobile web is a single button press away, Google’s next frontier to attack will be the mobile search market. And, of course, selling display ads along with all those searches.

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Filed under: Before the bell, International markets, Earnings reports, Good news, Products and services, Management, Competitive strategy, Marketing and advertising, Goodyear Tire and Rubber (GT)

Shares of tire maker Goodyear Tire and Rubber (NYSE: GT) are trading up nicely in the premarket after the Akron, Ohio based company posted a profit of 60 cents a share for its first quarter, easily surpassing analyst estimates.

During its first quarter last year, the company posted a $174 million dollar loss, or -94 cents a share, and going into today’s earnings report Wall Street had been looking to see the company show Q1 earnings of 47 cents. So with the actual numbers, Goodyear is looking for a good day in today’s action. Excluding one-time items, the company stated that it had earned 67 cents per share.

Currently the stock has moved up 4.5% in premarket trading following its earnings release.

One of the factors contributing to the dramatic reversal of fortunes from last year’s first quarter was the 12-week United Steelworkers strike that impacted its Q1 2007 quarter. To refresh your memory, the strike started in October 2006 and ran into the begin of 2007. Another difference is that the 2007 quarter contained the company’s engineered products business. Goodyear sold off almost all of this division in August to The Carlyle Group for a reported $1.4 billion.

The company noted that a big reason for this quarter’s knockout numbers was its focus on higher-end tire products which enabled it able to thrive despite the current economic slowdown in America. While the company sold fewer tires world wide, the average price per tire rose by an impressive 7%.

All in all a great quarter for America’s largest tire maker.

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.

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esocid alerts us to news that scientists from the University of Texas at Austin have created a microbe capable of making cellulose, which can then be turned into ethanol. The bacteria use sunlight as an energy source, and the cellulose can be harvested without destroying them. Quoting: “The new cyanobacteria produce a relatively pure, gel-like form of cellulose that can be broken down easily into glucose. ‘The problem with cellulose harvested from plants is that it’s difficult to break down because it’s highly crystalline and blended with lignins [for structure] and other compounds,’ Nobles says. He was surprised to discover that the cyanobacteria also secrete large amounts of glucose or sucrose, sugars that can be directly harvested from the organisms.”

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Filed under: Major movement, Earnings reports, Other issues, Products and services, Amazon.com (AMZN), Serious Money

Each time I see a story about Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) I am infuriated and bewildered. How in the world can a 13 year old company have a P/E ratio of 70 and $32 billion capitalization on 37% year over year growth. The top line growth is great and so is the growth in net earnings but does it justify a P/E of 70?

Yesterday Amazon impressed Wall Street by beating expectations in many areas. However, two areas that disappointed were it’s reduced earnings projections for the year and a lack of transparency or specifics in certain segments of its enterprise. Also if earnings were lowered by 4% to 6% then why is the stock only down 3%?

The stock is down about $2 from yesterday’s close of $81 fluctuating in the the high 70’s. From my perspective the stock is way too high and the limited number of shareholders is still holding up the price. Last year I wrote Who owns Amazon.com - really? and not much has changed in this regard.

When I look at Amazon’s metrics I see some very good things and some that are highly suspect. You’ve to love the ROE of nearly 58% and the ROIC just under 25%, but how can one support a price-to-book (no pun intended) of 32?

The company has growing cash-flow, something that’s very important to each investor, but its P/CF is a multiple of 60! This seems scary. Some have argued that it is still early in the game. Okay, I’ll give them one better; let’s say it’s game — set — match in Amazon’s favor. They have been at this game a long time already.

Before anyone rants about why I hate Amazon.com, let me stop you be stating clearly that I love Amazon and the service they provide, and I am a long time customer. It’s just that I don’t think the stock is fairly priced. I like milk too, but I would think twice before paying $20 a bottle (at least today). For all the joy about the company and its potential, I am starving for information from anyone that can explain the valuation.

It isn’t enough to state that I just don’t get it. Obviously that’s the case, but who can make the specific case about why it is worth $75 to $80 a share instead of half that? I still need convincing. Amazon has only reported any significant profits in recent quarters and that’s in the 3% to 4% range. That does not seem very high for the category killer on the Internet.

Update: closing stock price $77.69 down $3.31..so it did go down in line with projected earnings short fall

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money. Disclosure: I hold no position in AMZN.

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Hugh Pickens writes “Researchers report that brain activity can be used to predict the likelihood of someone making an error about six seconds in advance, with gradual changes starting as much as 30 seconds ahead of time. The team used an imaging machine to scan the brains of a group of volunteers who performed a task in the presence of distracting information. When performing correctly the volunteers’ brains showed increased levels of activity in those parts associated with cognitive effort, as would be expected. However, these areas gradually became less active before errors were made and at the same time another set of regions in the brain became more active. These regions are part of a so-called “default mode network” and show increased use when people are relaxing or asleep[PDF]. While imaging machines are far too big and complex to be used in workplaces to monitor the brain activity of people engaged in important tasks, the team hopes to correlate errors to changes in electrical activity in the brain with electroencephalography (EEG), using electrodes placed on the scalp. If EEG features can be found that correspond to the change in brain activity, then a hat that gives warning of an imminent mistake might one day become reality. We’ve previously discussed similar studies of brain activity.”

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