Posted Oct 9th 2007 7:04PM by Barry Summerlin
Filed under: Bad news, Consumer experience, Starbucks (SBUX), China
The latest from the China-linked recall department: The federal Consumer Product Safety Commission on Tuesday announced that
Starbucks (NASDAQ:
SBUX) has
voluntarily recalled 250,000 children's mugs, which it sold from last May until this August. Apparently the colorful plastic faces of Dot the ladybug and Dash the turtle can break off, posing an inviting and pointy choking hazard for your youngest. The latte empire has so far gotten just seven reports of the cups breaking. No injuries have been reported, thankfully.
Were you even aware that
Starbucks was marketing to children?
No one will be surprised to learn that the mugs were of course manufactured in China, adding to the long list of Chinese-made toys, scooters, and knickknacks that have been recalled for choking hazards, high lead levels, electrical shock risks, likelihood of catching fire and so forth.
Dating back just to Thursday, 14 of the CPSC's last 15 recall announcements concern products manufactured in China (the P3 IonizAir air purifier was made in Taiwan). And, your favorite domestic companies are surely striking new contracts for Chinese outsourcing right now, so start your boycotts or brace for more recalls going forward.
(This is not terribly related, but it's worth wondering whether recalls of products that might find their way into higher-class homes get more press than cheap tchotchkes, such as these
fun but excessively leaden keyrings, which sold for a buck at the
KKR-held Dollar General.)
Posted Oct 9th 2007 5:09PM by Barry Summerlin
Filed under: Rumors, Launches, Competitive strategy, Google (GOOG)
Expanding on a
TechCrunch post last month,
BusinessWeek has joined speculation that Google is planning an
open-source debutante ball for its 67 million-user Orkut social networking site. Wait, what?
Yes indeed --
Google (NASDAQ:
GOOG) runs its own Friendster/MySpace/Facebook.
Orkut has been around since early 2004, though you'd have trouble finding any users among your own friends. However, the site does a mean, market-leading business in Asia and Latin America, particularly Brazil (Orkut's forums are nearly dominated by Portuguese). If you believe the chatter, Google will make Orkut's source code available to outside programmers, duplicating the third-party-widget blueprint largely fueling the ascension of privately-held
Facebook.
Does this do anything to explain Google's recent run-up on the Nasdaq?
GOOG crossed $600 yesterday, joining five other shares trading higher than $600 (which just equals six shares aching for splits) and climbed further today, trading in uncharted territory for the search giant.
Call me a party-pooper, or maybe just unimaginative, but GOOG's current climb seems uncalled for, particularly now when Facebook seems poised to change all the online rules, just as it apparently has changed Google's plans. I mean, Google is a dynamite search engine, but don't give it undue credit. Its history is one of
acquisitions, tinkering and positioning, and lately it's playing a lot of catch-up, what with Orkut's speculated run at Facebook and
all the hubbub about a Gphone platform.
Am I the only one baffled by Google's recent rise?
Posted Oct 5th 2007 4:25PM by Barry Summerlin
Filed under: General Electric (GE), Starbucks (SBUX), Coca-Cola (KO), Market matters, Target Corp. (TGT), Bank of America (BAC), Boeing Co (BA), Huaneng Power Intl ADS (HNP), Anadarko Petroleum (APC), Stocks to Buy, POSCO (PKX)
Back on August 16, with the Dow opening under 13,000 for the first time since April, our BloggingStocks experts outlined a number of stock plays to ride out this volatile market. Picks ranged from Dow components and other household names to obscure business-to-business giants and foreign market leaders. Here, we review our picks weekly.In the seventh week since our Volatile Markets stock recommendations, only a few of our picks have seen significant movement.
After stalling last week, South Korean steelmaker
Posco (NYSE:
PKX), has jumped another $7.39. The 4.08% gain brings Peter Cohan's tip to
$188.52, 52.02% higher than its August 16 opening price of $124.01.
Sheldon Liber's recommendation,
Huaneng Power International Inc. (NYSE:
HNP), gave back some of last week's 18.08% gain this week. Despite the Chinese utility's 6.53% knock, Huaneng still stands a formidable
30.40% higher since our volatile markets feature ran.
Continue reading Volatile Markets: Checking our stock picks, Week 7
Posted Oct 5th 2007 2:50PM by Barry Summerlin
Filed under: Forecasts, China, Canada, Personal finance, Oil, Videos
Got gold? In this edition of
StockWatch: Between the Bells, Thomas Winmill of the
Midas Funds outlines his strategy for broadening your portfolio with investments in precious metals and foreign energy concerns.
Echoing the sentiments of recent
StockWatch contributors, Tom says we're currently in a
bull market, and can expect growth to continue, thanks in part to recently lowered interest rates.
Tom recommends investors check into foreign equities -- he favors overseas energy companies like Hong Kong's
CNOOC (NYSE: CEO), and
EnCana Corporation (NYSE: ECA) of Canada. CNOOC manages China's offshore oil and gas exploration, and currently traded in the $160s, gushing up from around $100 in mid-August. EnCana is one of North America's largest oil and gas distributors, and trades about $20 higher than at the start of 2007.
Tom also urges investors to
look beyond stocks and bonds, and suggests devoting between
five and ten percent of your portfolio to
gold and other precious metals.
If you enjoyed this clip, check out recent
StockWatch interviews with
MSN Money host and author Timothy Sykes and
AOL Money Coach Hilary Kramer.
Posted Oct 2nd 2007 2:30PM by Barry Summerlin
Filed under: Consumer experience, Internet, Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Marketing and advertising, News Corp'B' (NWS), Technology
Every year or so, some old roommate or a close friend's fiancee or somebody drags me onto yet another social networking site like a kid pulled off the bleachers at a middle school dance. This year, it was the very popular
Facebook, one of the web's hottest private properties, which
Microsoft (NASDAQ:
MSFT) has appraised
somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 billion clams.
From my charming, handsome Facebook profile, you can get a pretty solid idea of my consumer habits, or at least the habits of the consumer I want you to think I am (Do I secretly love Nicholas Sparks novels? Do I burn through fungal creams? I'll never te-- I mean NO! No. Of course not!). I spill all my beans -- what I do with my free time, what books I read, what CDs I dig on, what TV shows I'd TiVo ... if I had a TiVo ... or a television. And I've never been private about it. Through the
MySpaces and the
Friendsters -- even ten years ago on my HotWired.com member page (
remember these?) -- all that choice information has always been there since the beginning.
And, lucky me, so has the University of Phoenix.
Why, when I log on to Facebook in the year 2007, is glorious old UoP still hassling me to go get my GED or whatever learn-at-home hustle it's running,
particularly when the actual, genuine university that graduated me way back when is
right there on the page, pulsing in Carolina blue beneath my favorite hilarious and insightful quotes?
Continue reading Facebook: I am your target audience -- target me already!
Posted Sep 28th 2007 5:09PM by Barry Summerlin
Filed under: Market matters, Personal finance, Stocks to Buy, Videos
Ready to make some serious money?
Wall Street Warrior Timothy Sykes isn't playing around -- he wants to make you rich. In this edition of
StockWatch: Between the Bells, the MSN Money host and author of
An American Hedge Fund: How I Made $2 Million as a Stock Operator & Created a Hedge Fund riffs -- and dances -- on a fistful of market strategies.
Tim has three daring tips for you. Digital content storage provider
Isilon Systems (NASDAQ:
ISLN) is sitting at an all-time low, more than 70% off its high at the start of the year, and looks priced to buy. Genetics biotech
Illumina Inc. (NASDAQ:
ILMN) is currently trading around $52; Tim sees ILMN climbing to $60. Sound a little
too risky? Tim suggests checking out
The Bruce Fund (
BRUFX), a mutual fund focusing on domestic common stock, convertible bonds and zero-coupon government bonds.
Considering a short-selling strategy? Tim calls out
China Precision Steel (NASDAQ:
CPSL), which has jumped more than three-fold in little more than a week and looks set to slide.
Jamba Juice (NASDAQ:
JMBA), meanwhile, is giving Tim fits -- revenues are up while same-store sales are slipping. He advises to stay away from JMBA.
Enjoy the clip, and let us know which of your favorite stock gurus you'd like to hear from in the next
StockWatch: Between the Bells!
Posted Sep 28th 2007 11:55AM by Barry Summerlin
Filed under: General Electric (GE), Starbucks (SBUX), Coca-Cola (KO), Market matters, Target Corp. (TGT), Bank of America (BAC), Boeing Co (BA), Huaneng Power Intl ADS (HNP), Anadarko Petroleum (APC), Stocks to Buy, POSCO (PKX)
Back on August 16, with the Dow opening under 13,000 for the first time since April, our BloggingStocks experts outlined a number of stock plays to ride out this volatile market. Picks ranged from Dow components and other household names to obscure business-to-business giants and foreign market leaders. Here, we review our picks weekly.Week six was rough for a couple of our stock picks -- chiefly
Target Corp. (NYSE:
TGT) -- but
Huaneng Power International Inc. (NYSE:
HNP) just had a
phenomenal week. Read on.
Posco (NYSE:
PKX)'s gains have tapered a bit -- Peter Cohan's pick followed up last week's 10.41% run with a modest 1.30% rise this week. Still, just six weeks since our Volatile Markets feature, the South Korean steelmaker stands
46.06% higher! Incredible.
This week's big story, however, is
Huaneng Power International Inc. (NYSE:
HNP), recommended by Sheldon Liber. The Chinese utility nearly doubled its gains as of last week,
shooting 18.08% higher, closing Thursday
up 39.51% in the last six weeks! Continue reading Volatile Markets: Checking our stock picks - Week 6
Posted Sep 25th 2007 12:49PM by Barry Summerlin
Filed under: Personal finance
Are you meticulous about closing out old bank accounts? Diligent about reclaiming utility deposits? Always cash your refund checks promptly? Sorry, this post probably isn't for you -- for once, the hopelessly complacent among us are more likely to come out on top (finally!).
On Tuesday's
Good Morning America, contributor Mellody Hobson of Ariel Capital Management discussed options to track down your share of the nation's $32.8 billion in unclaimed assets, chiefly citing
www.unclaimed.org.
Unclaimed.org, run by the non-profit National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators, explains how to search for left-behind assets, and offers links to individual state databases of outstanding cash and property.
Continue reading Claim your forgotten assets at unclaimed.org
Posted Sep 20th 2007 7:05PM by Barry Summerlin
Filed under: General Electric (GE), Starbucks (SBUX), Coca-Cola (KO), Market matters, Target Corp. (TGT), Bank of America (BAC), Boeing Co (BA), Huaneng Power Intl ADS (HNP), Anadarko Petroleum (APC), Stocks to Buy
Back on August 16, with the Dow opening under 13,000 for the first time since April, our BloggingStocks experts outlined a number of stock plays to ride out this volatile market. Picks ranged from Dow components and other household names to obscure business-to-business giants and foreign market leaders. Here, we review our picks weekly.Wow! I hope you looked into Peter Cohan's pick,
Posco (NYSE:
PKX), when our feature ran. Like a broken record, again I ask how long the South Korean steelmaker can continue these fantastic gains --
44.37% higher in just five weeks! Even if you bought in last week,
you'd already be up 10.41%. Phenomenal.
Also performing handily are two of Sheldon Liber's picks,
Huaneng Power International Inc. (NYSE:
HNP) and
Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE:
APC). China's Huaneng rose 1 1/2% since last week to close at $44.99 Thursday, putting it up 18.43% since our virtual purchase August 16. Texas energy concern Anadarko has gushed 4.48% higher since last Thursday, climbing to $52.96, a total gain of 11.54% since our August 16 Volatile Markets feature.
Continue reading Volatile Markets: Checking our stock picks - Week 5
Posted Sep 20th 2007 11:10AM by Barry Summerlin
Filed under: Internet, Google (GOOG), Next big thing, Small business, Technology
Web watcher comScore Inc. has reported that last month, the new site
GodTube.com saw traffic climb
973% --
growth unprecedented in the web's history. GodTube welcomed 1.7 million unique visitors between its official August 8 launch and month's end, debuting in comScore's list of top 1,000 internet properties.
Owned and operated by Big Jump Media, Inc., GodTube is exactly what you might guess -- a Christian alternative to
Google (NASDAQ:
GOOG)'s YouTube. Similar to its secular counterpart, GodTube visitors can upload, view and comment on sermons, music videos and performances, testimonials, skits and sketches, rants, raves and what have you. In six weeks, it has accumulated more than 20,000 user-submitted clips and streamed more than 800,000 hours of video.
It's fascinating that here we are nearly two decades into the internet, and only now does a dominant faith-oriented web destination start to take shape. Sure, denominations and sects have their own predominant web resources -- some even run dynamic, regularly updated web portals. But your web search for religion will mostly yield a lot of domain squatting (www.religion.com, www.god.org) and last century's web design (www.jesuschrist.com, www.yhwh.com).
Continue reading The ascension of GodTube: What took this long?
Posted Sep 18th 2007 8:00AM by Barry Summerlin
Filed under: Products and services, Consumer experience, Internet, Microsoft (MSFT), Apple Inc (AAPL), Amazon.com (AMZN), Technology
Free music downloads, sweet! Digital music newcomer
SpiralFrog went live yesterday, giving away tunes to all us Thifty McLintpockets, sticking it to
iTunes, asking only that we show a little love to its sponsors. Are we back in the
Napster shopping-spree days of 2000, ready to grind our employers' networks to a standstill?
Not quite. The tragically titled SpiralFrog -- run by the private Mohen Inc., whose interests appear to be solely this venture -- bills itself as "the market-driven solution to illicit pirate file-sharing sites." It claims to be gunning not so much for
Apple (NASDAQ:
AAPL)'s iTunes or
Amazon (NASDAQ:
AMZN)'s forthcoming MP3 site, but instead challenging amorphous peer-to-peer MP3 networks like LimeWire and Soulseek, priding itself on being free of viruses, spyware and other nasties.
Not that this is a bad idea -- it's actually a very good, very natural idea. No need to point out that well before websites gave away content for a smattering of
mortgage lenders' ads, radio, network television, magazines and newspapers were all available freely or at least affordably as advertisers footed the bills. So why couldn't music downloads work as well?
Continue reading SpiralFrog's free music: Should Apple (AAPL) worry?
Posted Sep 14th 2007 2:00PM by Barry Summerlin
Filed under: General Electric (GE), Starbucks (SBUX), Coca-Cola (KO), Market matters, Target Corp. (TGT), Bank of America (BAC), Boeing Co (BA), Huaneng Power Intl ADS (HNP), Anadarko Petroleum (APC), Stocks to Buy, POSCO (PKX)
Back on August 16, with the Dow opening under 13,000 for the first time since April, our BloggingStocks experts outlined a number of stock plays to ride out this volatile market. Picks ranged from Dow components and other household names to obscure business-to-business giants and foreign market leaders. Here, we review our picks weekly.Four weeks into our
Stocks for a Volatile Market feature, our index has fallen just behind the Nasdaq, grounded mostly by shoe and apparel maker
Steven Madden (NASDAQ:
SHOO), picked by Kevin Kelly. After giving up $2.51 in week three, Madden dropped $3.39 in week four, falling 14.7% and leaving SHOO at $19.67, 17.77% under its August 16 price of $23.92.
Might as well get all the bad news out of the way -- it looks like Sheldon Liber's call,
FreightCar America Inc. (NYSE:
RAIL), has temporarily derailed. After strong gains in previous weeks, RAIL dropped $3.78 in week four -- a loss of 8.35% -- and slipped to $41.49, 4.4% under its initial price.
Continue reading Volatile Markets: Checking our stock picks - Week 4
Posted Sep 12th 2007 4:45PM by Barry Summerlin
Filed under: Rants and raves, Google (GOOG), Yahoo! (YHOO), Starbucks (SBUX), Marketing and advertising, Countrywide Financial (CFC)
In true blogger fashion, I'm walking into a
Starbucks (NASDAQ:
SBUX) to drop some pseudo-science over the WiFi last night, when I'm drawn to a busy ad on the side of a phone booth. A mess of white folks (hey, some of us check for that sort of thing) are spread around a park, picnicking and sunbathing, playing Frisbee -- you know, doing park-y stuff.
One gentleman, alone on his blanket, is framed by some cubic bubbles (or perhaps he's about to be jumped by a gang of marshmallows). The ad copy instructs, "MARKETING DOLLARS ARE TOO EXPENSIVE TO WASTE ON EVERYONE." No revelation that, but sure, it's a lesson that bears repeating.
So who's the advertiser?
Experian Group (LSE:
EXPN).
Continue reading Experian (EXPN): Dancing mortgage girls pay our bills!
Posted Sep 7th 2007 8:00PM by Barry Summerlin
Filed under: Good news, Internet, Scandals, Walt Disney (DIS)
Oh reality, it's not for me
And it makes me laugh
Oh, fantasy world and Disney girls
I'm coming back-- The Beach Boys, "Disney Girls"
Boy,
Disney (NYSE:
DIS) had a rough week. First the
Marie Digby flap, and now this: In case it's not in your job description to pay mind to such things, the internet right now is all atwitter about a circulating photo of starlet
Vanessa Hudgens baring her mouse ears, and then some. Miss Hudgens is one of the stars from Disney's very massive
High School Musical franchise, and girlfriend of
HSM co-star (and perhaps budding shutterbug?)
Zac Efron.
But we're not here to judge -- well,
I'm not here to judge.
The boss is bothered though -- she had to explain to her seven-year-old what "nude" means (daughter's insightful reply: "Isn't she embarrassed?" From the mouths of babes...).
Continue reading Disney's (DIS) Vanessa Hudgens nude? What'd you expect?
Posted Sep 7th 2007 6:02PM by Barry Summerlin
Filed under: General Electric (GE), Starbucks (SBUX), Coca-Cola (KO), Market matters, Target Corp. (TGT), Bank of America (BAC), Boeing Co (BA), Huaneng Power Intl ADS (HNP), Anadarko Petroleum (APC), Stocks to Buy
Back on August 16, with the Dow opening under 13,000 for the first time since April, our BloggingStocks experts outlined a number of stock plays to ride out this volatile market. Picks ranged from Dow components and other household names to obscure business-to-business giants and foreign market leaders. Here, we review our picks weekly.Our third week following our "
Stocks for a Volatile Market" feature finds a couple of our volatile market picks bruised, but as an index, our selections continue to lead both the Dow and Nasdaq.
At the front of the pack: How much longer can Peter Cohan's pick
Posco (NYSE:
PKX) keep up its fortunes? Already sitting 19% higher as of last Thursday's close, the South Korean steelmaker has since
climbed 6.5% further, closing yesterday at $157.69,
$33.68 higher than its August 15 closing price.
China's
Huaneng Power International Inc. (NYSE:
HNP), Sheldon Liber's tip, gave back some gains in the last week, retreating 1.71%, but remaining a healthy
18% higher than its August 16 opening price. Another pick from Sheldon,
Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE:
APC), is our last recommendation that's outperforming the Nasdaq -- since trailing both the Dow and the Nasdaq last week, Anadarko has padded its shares by $2.07, and fetches 6.57% more than on August 16.
Continue reading Volatile Markets: Checking our stock picks - Week 3
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