Archives for January 2013

January 2013 - Page 3 of 20 - Money Morning - Only the News You Can Profit From

RIM BlackBerry 10: Enough Wow to Revive a Tech Zombie?

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The RIM BlackBerry 10 arrives tomorrow (Wednesday) as the smartphone pioneer's last best hope to reverse its decline, but at this point the most Research in Motion Ltd. (Nasdaq: RIMM) can hope for is survival.

The BlackBerry 10 is RIM's last chance to fight back against Apple Inc.'s (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone, as well the wealth of smartphones that run Google Inc.'s (Nasdaq: GOOG) Android operating system.

Research in Motion has steadily lost ground to its rivals since 2008, when it held 20% of the global smartphone market. According to research firm IDC, the BlackBerry was left with just 4.7% in 2012.

The loss of share is reflected in the company's earnings, particularly last year. RIM hasn't reported an operating profit for four consecutive quarters.

The change in fortune has wiped out the stock over the past several years. RIMM plunged from a high of $147.55 in mid-2008 to the $6-$7 range by late summer of last year.

But a preview of the BlackBerry 10 in September brought a little life back to the stock, driving it up over 180% to about $18 last week. RIMM has since slid back to $15.66 by Tuesday afternoon.

Several analysts have helped restore some faith in RIMM by expressing optimism about the prospects for the BlackBerry 10 to revive RIM's fortunes.

"While RIM has lost a huge amount of momentum and share, we also believe that the core installed base has been starved for a legitimate upgrade opportunity," Peter Misek of Jefferies & Co. wrote in a research note last week. He also upgraded RIMM to a buy.

Those who believe the BlackBerry 10 could be RIM's savior point to the installed base of nearly 80 million users.

"If only about a third of them buy this new phone, it will be a home run," Eric Jackson of Ironfire Capital said recently on CNBC. He suggested RIMM could double by the end of 2013. "Apple can't see that kind of return."

But while RIM could see some success with the BlackBerry 10, it faces steep challenges that will prevent it from doing much more than holding on to what's left of RIM's market share.

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Facebook Earnings Preview: Will Investors "Like" Q4 Earnings?

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Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) stock has staged an impressive rebound in recent months after the company's disastrous IPO.

Since mid-November, the social networking giant's stock has gained more than 68%, going from a near-low of $19 to more than $32.

Investors will be watching closely when Facebook releases Q4 earnings after close tomorrow (Wednesday) to see if the company can maintain its momentum.

Expectations are high, as a bevy of analysts have upgraded their outlooks for the stock, though it is still trading well below its IPO price of $38 and its high of $42.

Wall Street projections are for Facebook to report earnings of 15 cents per share on revenue of $1.52 billion.

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Will the Fed End QE This Summer?

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Amid all of the hoopla over the Standard & Poor's 500 Index touching 1,500 on Friday, it seems few people noticed that the yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds has risen to within a couple of basis points of 2%. That is nearly 30 basis points higher than it was one month ago and 10 basis points higher than one year ago.

It seems as if the bond market is beginning to price in higher inflation at the long end of the yield curve, and that is something that has got to be worrying the Fed.

Successive rounds of quantitative easing (QE) have added a lot of liquidity to the U.S. economy and this has been repeated globally with massive amounts of liquidity being pumped into the market by the Bank of Japan (BOJ), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of England (BOE).

The Bank of Japan has committed itself to further aggressive easing under pressure from the newly elected government headed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Even if BOJ Governor Masaaki Shirakawa has any second thoughts about additional easing, he will keep them to himself.

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Two Ways to Go Big on Gold Stocks Right Now

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There are plenty of reasons for you to have some gold stocks in your portfolio.

Governments are stockpiling record amounts of the shiny metal. Mints are pumping out new coins as fast as they can. And the Fed under "Helicopter" Ben Bernanke is wallpapering the world with greenbacks, pumping out $85 billion a month until…well, who knows when?

But there's more.

The Europeans have joined the party by bailing out their weak sisters with hundreds of billions of euros.

And the Bank of Japan just announced a $1.2 trillion bond purchase program for 2013 and $150 billion per month after that – almost twice the size of the Fed's folly.

Now the yahoos in Washington are threatening to spill more blood over the debt ceiling.

All this spells big upside for gold prices in 2013…and the companies that produce gold.

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Investing in 2013: How to Profit from the Expanding REIT Universe

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Income investing in 2013 means continuing the sometimes difficult quest for yield in a low interest-rate environment.

The environment has, of course, been created by the U.S. Federal Reserve and its adherence to zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) in an attempt to reignite the U.S. economy.

That search for yield, in many cases, has brought investors rushing to REITs or real estate investment trusts. These are securities that sell on a stock exchange like a stock and invest in real estate either directly by owning properties or through owning mortgages. They offer high yields above 3.5% .

The good news for those in search of income is that the universe of REITs is expanding rapidly, offering a myriad of enticing opportunities.

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Bull of the Day: Lions Gate (LGF) - Bull of the Day

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Higher earnings estimates and a big upside surprise in recent report make this stock a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). LIONS GATE ETMT (LGF): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research

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Buy, Sell or Hold: The Smart Money is Selling Amazon.com

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I love the super deals that I get from Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN). They always seem to beat the brick-and-mortar stores and I get two day-delivery for free.

It's no wonder to me that the online retail giant has ranked at the top of Foresee's E-Retailer Consumer Satisfaction index for eight straight years.

What I do have doubts about is Amazon's share price. It continues to make new highs while the company's core business is slowing and its new "growth" businesses aren't all they are cracked up to be.

With a P/E that has now reached astronomical levels, here's why the only money I'll be giving to Amazon will be what I spend on its merchandise.

Why Germany Wants its Gold Back

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After spending more than 50 years in foreign hands, Germany's gold is finally going home.

In a recent watershed decision the Bundesbank, Germany's central bank, has decided at least half of its gold should be held in its own vaults.

Since the Bundesbank is the second-largest gold holder in the world, that's going to mean moving 54,000 bars of the shiny metal.

Gold

So why does Germany want its gold back, and why now?

Part of it has to do with pressure from a grassroots group led by a group of economists, business executives, and lawyers, along with the German Precious Metals Association, who have put together a "Repatriate our Gold!" campaign.

But that's only part of the story…

Mary Jo White: SEC Pick Compromised By Links to Wall Street

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When President Barack Obama nominated Mary Jo White to be the next head of the SEC, he said he wanted someone who would be tough on Wall Street, but her past ties to many of the big banks will make that difficult, if not impossible.

President Obama nominated White to be the next chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday, emphasizing her storied background as a New York prosecutor in the 1990s.

"She helped prosecute white-collar criminals and money launderers," the president said. "In the early 1990s, she brought down John Gotti, the head of the Gambino crime syndicate. You don't want to mess with Mary Jo."

Getting less attention from President Obama was how White has spent the most recent decade – as a defense attorney for Debevoise & Plimpton LLP. There, she hasn't been going after Wall Street's transgressors – she's been defending them.

Her former clients include former Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) CEO Ken Lewis, who was involved in a civil fraud suit over his company's acquisition of Merrill Lynch.

White has also defended JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) in several cases related to the 2008 financial crisis and News Corp. (Nasdaq: NWS) in its phone-hacking scandal.

White was a member of the legal team that helped Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) board member Rajat Gupta fight insider trading charges and has done work for Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS).

"[She's been] Wall Street's protector-in-chief," former SEC investigator Gary Aguirre told The Wall Street Journal.

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