Filed under: International markets, Newsletters, Bargain stocks, Stocks to Buy

“If you are missing exposure to infrastructure, please head straight for the closed-end Macquarie First Trust Global Infrastructure Fund (NYSE: MFD),” says Vivian Lewis, editor of Global Investing.

Macquarie/First Trust invests only in infrastructure and utilities stocks. The advisor explains, “By prospectus, it is a a non-diversified portfolio of equity, debt, preferred or convertible securities, and other instruments (which may include Canadian income trusts and Australian stapled securities).”

She continues, “These holdings produce income or assets from managing, owning or operating infrastructure and utilities assets in a group of ’safe’ countries. MFD also invests in infrastructure senior secured floating-rate loans.”

Lewis points out the the parent company, Macquarie, has been an Australian victim of U.S. sub-prime housing loans gone sour. She notes, “The parent company may have to cover losses from two funds for Australians invested in the U.S. sub-prime market.”

However, she emphasizes, “The U.S. fund that we are recommending is protected from these problems. This fund is not investing in real estate but rather in infrastructure. The sub-prime issues are bad for the management company, the Australian financial sector, and even the Austrailian dollar. But not for MFD, which is a screaming bargain.”

Each day, Steven Halpern’s TheStockAdvisors.com features the latest investment ideas and market commentary from the financial newsletter community.

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Filed under: International markets, Rumors, Consumer experience, Rants and raves, Competitive strategy, India, China, Russia, Employees, Scandals, Target Corp. (TGT), Politics

Stop whining about China. Stop looking for scapegoats. Maybe the problem isn’t with them, but us.

It’s time to get some perspective. I just received a flier from Target Corp (NYSE: TGT) advertising a Euro futon / contemporary sofa for $99, a Haier under counter stainless steal refrigerator for $99 and a microwave for $30. These prices are so low I had to check three times to make sure I was reading them correctly. No gimmicks were found.

Consider this, it would be a waste of our resources to have Warren Buffett or Steve Jobs mowing lawns. That is not the highest and best use of capital should we choose to pay the millions it would cost to hire them. Conversely, it would be an extreme waste of their talent if they worked for your average gardeners’ wages. Our highest and best use of resources is to pay foreigners to do the work.

Continue reading Stop blaming China - partners win, whiners lose

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Filed under: Deals, Products and services, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, eBay (EBAY), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Lockheed Martin (LMT), Dow Chemical (DOW), Entrepreneurs

Founded in 2000, SelectMinds’ original mission was to develop an online system for alumni. Well, it hasn’t had much traction. Besides, Facebook is the dominant player in the academic space.

Well, SelectMinds is taking another tact; that is, the company is developing a system to allow for social networking in the corporate environment.

In fact, this week the firm obtained $5.5 million in venture capital. The investor is the venerable Bessemer Venture Partners.

Actually, SelectMinds has snagged some top customer references like JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW), and Ernst & Young.

I had a chance to interview Robb Hecht, who is an expert on social networking and operates MEDIA 2.0. According to him:

Continue reading SelectMinds: social networking goes corporate?

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Filed under: Analyst reports, Google (GOOG), Options, Technical Analysis

CNBC’s Jim Cramer loves tech for the second half of this year, and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) really impresses him now. Cramer says YouTube’s ad margins are incredible, and there may be another revenue explosion before the year’s end.

If you agree with Cramer, then for a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a September bull-put credit spread below the $460 range. A bull-put credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of put options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn’t do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make a 4.2% return in just 1 month as long as Google is above $460 at September expiration. Google would have to fall by more than 10% before we would start to lose money.

Google hasn’t been below $460 for more than a day or two since March and has shown support around $481 recently. This trade could be risky if the stock breaks below its 200-day moving average which is currently $485, but the company doesn’t report earnings until October after this position expires/ That should make this trade a little safer.

Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer.

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Filed under: Deals, Products and services, Time Warner (TWX), Film

According to Variety Magazine (subscription), Time Warner, (NYSE: TWX), has purchased the rights to the 15 Oz (the fantasy land, not the prison) stories of L. Frank Baum from Ted Turner. In partnership with Village Roadshow Pictures, the company’s Warner Bros. division plans to bring the world back to the big screen. Among those involved in the project are Todd McFarlane of “Spawn” and screenwriter Josh Olson.

The movie industry has found a great deal of success with franchises such as Batman and Spiderman, as well as Lord of the Rings, so reaching into the past for another iconic work seems like a shrewd move.

McFarlane and Olson are looking to bring the cinematic version closer to the tone of the original series, which were darker than the Judy Garland classic. Variety quotes Olson as saying “I want this to be ‘Harry Potter‘ dark, not ‘Seven‘ dark.

Not as dark, I hope, as the vision behind McFarlane’s 2003 McFarlane Toys Twisted Land of Oz Action Figures, a disturbing reimagining of the world featuring Dorothy in bondage and other gruesome scenes and characters.

Nonetheless, I’m counting the days, my pretty, until flying monkeys return to the screen.

Thanks to SliceofSciFi for the lead.

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Filed under: Major movement, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Forecasts, Bad news, Competitive strategy, Merrill Lynch (MER), Economic data, Housing

There are several financial stocks that are taking a beating today after a rash of downgrades by Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) this morning.

It has definitely been a couple of tough months for the financials as investors worried about what impact the declining housing market would have on their bottom lines. In the past week or so things have seemed to at least level off,, but according to Merrill Lynch there may still be some troubles ahead for a handful of Mid-Cap banks out there.

The banks that Merrill discussed today are those that the company views as being vulnerable to margin deterioration in the face of lowered earnings expectations and the possibility of future rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. Banks that Merrill views as possessing “asset sensitive” balance sheets (meaning their assets reprice quicker than their liabilities) were on the top of the list of downgrades.

Here are a couple of the banks to Merrill lowered today:

• City National Corp (NYSE: CYN) - downgraded to a sell from a neutral; stock is down 1.5%
• Cullen/Frost Bankers Inc. (NYSE: CFR) - downgraded to a sell from a neutral; stock is down 3.3%
• First Midwest Bancorp (NASDAQ: FMBI) - downgraded to a sell from a neutral; stock is down 3.1%
• Texas Capital Bancshares (NASDAQ: TCBI) - downgraded to a sell from a neutral; stock is down 6.7%

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last two years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor’s Observer.

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Filed under: Options, Technical Analysis, Goldcorp Inc (GG), Commodities

Goldcorp Inc. (NYSE: GG) is higher this morning as gold futures have been rising over the past few days, bringing the entire gold sector up as the front-month contract trades near the $665 mark. If you think gold won’t fall by too much in the coming months, now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on GG.

After hitting a one-year high of $31.47 in December, the stock has been trending relatively flat over the past nine months. This morning, GG opened at $23.20. So far today, the stock has hit a low of $22.77 and a high of $23.45. As of 11:00, GG is trading at $23.19, up $0.58 (2.6%). The chart for GG looks bearish and steady.

For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider an October bull-put credit spread below the $20 range. A bull-put credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of put options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn’t do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make an 8.7% return in just 2 months as long as GG is above $20 at October expiration. Goldcorp would have to fall by more than 13% before we would start to lose money.

GG hasn’t been below $20.35 at all in the past year and has shown support around $21 recently. This trade could be risky if gold prices drop, but with economic uncertainty surrounding the markets, gold could be one area of strength.

Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer. DISCLOSURE: At publication time, Brent neither owns nor controls positions in GG.

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Filed under: Bad news, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Scandals, Canada

It seems like almost every day, when I turn on my computer, I read about yet another kids’ product being recalled due to high lead content. Today was no different. Today’s news involved another 300,000 or so Chinese made products that have been found to posses excess levels of lead paint and recalled.

You really have to wonder just how far does this problem stretch? How long has this been going on? I, for one, have a hard time believing that this problem has just started; it has probably been going on for a long time and only now is being watched. It is a scary thought to say the least.

Today’s recall involves around a quarter million pairs of SpongeBob SquarePants address books and journals that contain harmful amounts of lead in their spiral bindings. The books were sold between June 2006 and July 2007 in stores across the U.S. Late is better than never, but for the kids who had bought the books LAST JUNE, I hate to say that the damage has probably already been done. Why did it take over a year to figure this out?

Continue reading More children’s products join the Chinese recall list

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Filed under: Bad news, Products and services, Ford Motor (F), General Motors (GM), Toyota Motor Corp. (TM)

General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) has announced plans to cut back vehicle production at six plants inside its N.American operations. GM plant scale backs are not really news anymore (as they happen all the time), but this recent announcement has to do with GM’s perennial best-sellers: large pickup trucks and SUVs. We all know that SUV sales have plummeted in the last 24 months as gas prices have made American consumers opt for more gas-efficient vehicles, but large trucks are one of the most profitable and popular GM products.

So, what is going on with GM’s truck sales? Possibly nothing, as the automaker says that it just wants to decrease the amount of inventory on dealer lots. This reduction in truck and SUV building at six U.S. plants will speed that goal along. Once national dealer inventory returns to ‘normal’ (whatever that may be), will GM resume full production of large-model trucks under its various brands?

Hard to say, but when questions pop up every single month about how Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) Tundra is taking market share away from GM’s larger trucks, one has to wonder. The Tundra does not have the track record of GM’s reliable truck lines, but overly aggressive customer incentives and consumer marketing are causing more truck customers to take notice. This steals attention away from GM’s truck products as well as Ford’s F150 truck series, currently the best-selling truck line in the U.S. Is GM’s “no-interest” loan strategy along with large customer rebates going to help move more trucks off lots during the remainder of 2007? It may help, but more action is apparently needed. Hence, we have production cutbacks on some of GM’s best overall vehicle sellers.

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Filed under: Good news, Consumer experience, Apple Inc (AAPL), AT and T (T)

For all of you that are in love with your Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone but a bit disturbed by AT&T Inc.’s (NYSE: T) hefty monthly bills, has heard your outcry, and is making changes to its billing system. Let’s be clear, the problem was not the monetary size of the bills … it was the actual physical size that had some users wondering what exactly was going on.

The first time I heard about this was a few weeks back when I saw a video on YouTube of one iPhone user, Justine Ezarik, going through her first monthly bill.

Continue reading AT&T (T) gets the message over iPhone bills

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