tech stocks
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How to Really Make a Fortune on the "Mobile Wave"
If you've been riding along with me for any length of time, you know I get really revved up whenever I talk about the "Mobile Wave" in technology.
The truth is, I can't help it: I look at the forecasts, calculate all the money that can be made, and end up feeling as jazzed as can be about the windfall profits we can reap from this transformational trend.
And I'm not the only one who's feeling this technology-fueled ebullience: The folks over at Amazon.com are clearly experiencing the same adrenalin-driven affliction.
Amazon, you see, is coming out with its own smartphone.
And not just any smartphone. Amazon's entry into smartphone derby is going to be one cool mobile device - highlighted by a 3D screen that will display photos so realistically that you'll want to just reach out and touch them.
Why in the world, you might ask, is an "e-tailer" entering the wireless-phone business?
Just look at the numbers.
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Apple Bond Offering is Proof It'll Do Anything to Avoid Taxes
The record $17 billion Apple bond offering this week will do more than just placate shareholders eager to get some benefit from the company's $144.7 billion in cash.
It will help Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) avoid paying taxes, a feat that the Cupertino, CA tech giant has elevated to a high art.
The company has kept the bulk of its cash - some $102 billion - in overseas accounts to avoid paying the 35% corporate tax rate here in the United States.
Borrowing money to fund its plans for dividend increases and stock buybacks allows Apple to reward its shareholders without repatriating those foreign profits and paying U.S. taxes.
Better yet, the interest Apple will pay out in its bonds is tax deductible, which will reduce the company's tax bill even more.
It's all so elegantly devious - and perfectly legal.
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Apple Stock is Up After Earnings – But Are Gains Here to Stay?
Apple stock was up 5% in after-hours trading Tuesday when its earnings report turned out to be better than expected - but, not great.
Everyone was bracing for the worst when Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) released second-quarter earnings Tuesday after the close. The big question was just how bad things were going to be.
The answer turned out to be... not so awful. The iPhone maker surprised Wall Street with better than expected numbers, mostly because expectations were so low.
However, as expected, forward guidance was glum.
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Apple: Cash or Trash?
With Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) off nearly 50% from its $705.07 a share high set last September, many investors want to know if it's a buy.
Not in my book. Here's why:
1. The company has held on to its premium pricing strategy for too long. Going out on price as it has recently with iPhones, for example, is the death knell of competitive differentiation. Businesses that engage in price wars have a very difficult time climbing back up the proverbial ladder.
2. The present management team is having trouble fulfilling the late Steve Jobs' vision, and execution appears to be stumbling. The Maps thing, for instance, was an unmitigated disaster and shattered Apple's image of invincibility. The public noticed.
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Don't Underestimate This Leading Tech Giant
If you're a longtime reader, you know that I'm a "collector" of investing adages and aphorisms - you know, things like "Bulls make money, bears make money - but pigs get slaughtered" ... or "Buy on the cannons, sell on the trumpets."
These long-held sayings are usually clever, are often amusing and are always easy to remember. And they can really help you make money.
One of my favorite tech-investing adages holds that "You can always spot the pioneer - he's the one with the arrows in his back."
The message: If you're going to invest in a company whose technology is out on the cutting edge, you have to make sure your research is solid. Be as certain as you can that the technology isn't ahead of its time, will find a market and isn't about to be leapfrogged by a better, more-market-friendly technology.
That's just what we've found with EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC), the storage-and-security giant that we recommended earlier this year in the Private Briefing special report "Big Trends Equal Big Profits."
In that report, we predicted that EMC would continue to gain global market share in its core disk-storage business - putting additional distance between it and its rivals.
And that's just what's happened.
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Profit from the Breakthrough in Liquid-Cooled Computers
When Ray Harroun came out of retirement in 1911 to race in the first Indianapolis 500, he made one request: He wanted to ditch the ride-along mechanic that the rules required in order to save weight and give his yellow Marmon Wasp a racing edge.
The Indy organizers balked: The mechanic provided a big measure of safety, they said, acting as a spotter who could watch for cars behind or on either side of the racer.
Harroun bolted a mirror to a bracket on his dashboard, was permitted to race without a mechanic, and won the inaugural Indy race - leading 88 of the 200 laps, the most of anyone.
And the rear-view mirror that Harroun used to gain an advantage in a car race? It's now standard safety equipment on motor vehicles of all types - meaning it occupies the ranks of devices or substances that were designed to solve one problem, but were later found to solve others just as well.
Today I'm going to share a similar story, and show you how a fluid developed to keep aircraft parts clean or suppress fires is being used to solve one of the biggest computer problems we face today.
And I'm even going to show you how to make money from it.
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How to Double Your Money in the "New Space Race"
The New Space Race is still in its very early stages but a particular small-cap maker of rocket engines is already generating an amazing amount of thrust.
Here's the thing. While the stocks of the major U.S. aerospace ventures have generated miniscule returns over the past year, shares of this California firm have soared by nearly 105%.
And that's just a start.
Indeed, the shares of this company experienced a 6% surge in a single day last week when billionaire investor Mario Gabelli told viewers of the popular CNBC Squawk Box program that this company's shares could double from here.
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Four Ways to Play the "Cure" for the Flu
We've all seen the headlines.
The flu has made its annual visit to the U.S., reacquainting itself with your kids, spouse, parents, friends and co-workers.
But this strain has been especially nasty, resulting in shortages of the very vaccines that might have moderated its effects.
One of my colleagues here - an editor with a young son - finally got his just last week - only because he stubbornly went to the same Rite-Aid every single morning for an entire week.
I'm sure you have similar stories you could share.
When you think about it, this year's flu season illustrates one of the great ironies of our time.
Although advances in medical technology have enabled us to create the vaccines that so far have kept the yearly viral visit in check, the reality is that those advances have been leapfrogged by global travel, an advancement that makes a pandemic more likely than ever before.
Fortunately, there is an answer - an innovation worthy of the Era of Radical Change, and one that savvy investors can play for windfall profits. I'm going to show you four ways to grab those profits for yourself.
But first we need to really understand the challenge at hand.
Let me show you what I mean.
