SHOCKER! Apple Got More Cash Flow Than The US Government!!!!

With all this debt ceiling talk taking over the news, the federal government might want to borrow some money from Apple Inc.

Come to find out, Apple's most recent earnings topped the U.S. Treasury. As of July 27, the government is holding $73.768 billion compared to Apple's $76.156 billion.

Apple's business practices, at least when it comes to money, is handled differently than the federal government.

Apple takes in more money than it spends, while the government spends more money than it takes in and that's why the lucrative company has way more cash on hand than Uncle Sam

Hedge Fund Regulation. Is it good or bad for the markets and economy overall?

Yesterday, we learned that one of the prominent investors of our time George Soros was closing his fund to outside investors, the same path legendary investors chose, such as Stanley Druckenmiller, and Carl Icahn.

Today we learn that Stevie Cohen, the founder of SAC capital, is closing his fund to outside investors. He hasn't yet decided to refund their capital.

Is Dodd-Frank bill impacting the hedge funds to weigh the risks carefully this time?
Is it a beginning of a new era of  investing?


Source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/43909683

The LinkedIn pop

Why is LinkedIn doing so well on the stock exchange today? At $100 per share, by one measure it’s the most expensive stock in America. Evan Newmark has one theory: it’s because the IPO price was raised, by Morgan Stanley, by $10 per share shortly before the offering was launched. By doing that, he says, they increased the size of the pop:

Strangely, jacking the price by 30% made the offering even more enticing for lots of prospective IPO buyers.

The laws of supply and demand may say the higher the price, the less the demand. But again, that’s common sense and this is Wall Street, where a higher price equals more demand, where if the other guy wants something, then you want it even more.

Does this explain why the shares rose as high as $122 apiece this morning? No: that’s mainly just a function of the fact that it’s all in the hands of the day traders and the speculators right now. And the fact that if you buy the right hot internet stock even at the very top tick of the day, you can still make a fortune over the long term.

Take Baidu, for instance, the post-bubble record holder when it comes to first-day pops. It went public in 2005 at $27 per share, and closed that day at $122.54 — a gain of more than 350%. Today, it’s trading at $134 per share. Which might not seem like much of a gain, until you realize that there was a ten-for-one stock split last year: it’s up more than ten times from that IPO-day high point.

My feeling is that LinkedIn is going to remain hot until Facebook goes public and it’s no longer the only way for most investors to buy shares in a social network. I’ve had two conversations with LinkedIn fans over the past couple of days, and I still don’t really understand what they see in the company, or the website, beyond the fact that it’s a good way of finding and vetting possible employees or business partners. Which, admittedly, is a great niche to be in, if you can monetize it somehow.

And even at a capitalization of $10 billion, LinkedIn could still be acquired quite easily by Facebook, especially after Facebook goes public. And that is going to be a hot IPO. Maybe if they price it at a $70 billion valuation, it’ll be worth $150 billion by the time the day is out. Source:http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/05/19/the-linkedin-pop/

Thoughts: 

Forgive me for popping the lunacy of Wall Street, but LinkedIn is nothing more than a few weeks’ work of coding at the Googleplex, to make the necessary sql databases, forms, search algorithms, et voila.

Has the world gone mad? It feels like we’re headed towards the Web2.0 bubble.

Real Madrid - Barcelona May 3rd 2011

03.05.11 | Barcelona 0 - 0 Real Madrid:

LIVE: http://play.tuteve.tv/

http://livesport21.com/0503/watch-barcelona-vs-real-madrid.html

Facebook Stakeholder Usmanov Says Web Investment Returns Peaked

Alisher Usmanov, who together with fellow Russian billionaire Yuri Milner owns about 10 percent of Facebook Inc., said he’s cautious to invest more money into Internet companies as prices may have peaked.

“Investments in Internet companies start to bring less profits compared with two or three years ago when we began to invest in them almost at a startup level,” Usmanov said in a phone interview. The $500 million March acquisition of a 5 percent stake in Chinese Web retailer 360buy.com through Usmanov and Milner’s DST Global may have been his last big direct Web investment for some time, he said.

Usmanov and Milner are among Internet investors that have been backing some of Silicon Valley’s fastest growing businesses. Their firm led a $135 million investment in daily- deals site Groupon Inc. last year and was part of a group that put $180 million into Zynga Game Network Inc., a social-gaming service, in 2009.

“There’s certainly a lot of concern that we’re getting into a real bubble around Internet companies, and I can understand that some people are getting cautious,” said Keith Arundale, a London-based venture capital consultant and former director in PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP’s global technology group. Very high valuations “seem to be extending to a lot of Internet companies” both large and small, he said. Source: bloomberg.com

Eh Alisheraka, bubbles are bubbles, when are they going to pop is the question, if you say bubbles with your roubles market should react is what you might be expecting, GS analysts talk alot....

Erdoğan invites Arab capital to invest in Turkey

Attending the Jeddah Economic Forum for the third time, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called on Arab investors to invest in Turkey.

In his speech Sunday, Erdoğan said annual gross domestic product in Turkey has tripled in the past eight years, from $230 billion to $730 billion. He also described the government’s success in cutting inflation and interest rates.

“We wish to see all our Arab brothers in our country,” Erdoğan said. “We want them to invest in every area, from health care to tourism, from energy to construction and from industry to agriculture. The doors will be fully open for you, do not have any concerns.”

The Turkish government aims to put Turkey among the biggest 10 economies in the world by the year 2023, the 100th anniversary of the Turkish Republic, the prime minister said, adding that the number of Saudi-partnered companies in Turkey has surpassed 200, while the total volume of Saudi capital has reached $2.5 billion.

Erdoğan also told Saudi businesspeople and officials that visa requirements have been abolished between Turkey and Syria, Jordan and Libya. “I hope we will abolish the requirements with Saudi Arabia,” he said.

Sourceh: Hurriyet Turkish news

==============================================

What does this mean? Obviously pro-Islamic state leader wants to get more funds from Arabs instead of the World Bank.

Turkey which needed about $53 billion in loans from the IMF, declined IMF's funding last year based on their solid economic growth factors, Turkey's gross domestic product explanded 6 percent on an annual basis during final three months of 2009, even though Turkey used to get funding from IMF an annual basis prior years. It is clear country needs some sort of investment but chooses to get it from Arab brothers. Now the question is whether Arab brothers would want to invest in booming Turkey's economy or not after the crisis burn in Dubai of 2008-09. The fact that visa requirements were abolished between Saudis and Turkey is a big move towards collaboration and it could very well serve the best interests of both countries.

IBM settles with SEC, pays $10 million for accusations of bribery

WOW!!! Even major international corporation getting in trouble for bribery, and it is not some other Asian company this time, it is a Big Blue of the West, chose to settle it down with SEC over allegations that over the 15 years or so IBM's employees were illegally bribing foreign officials to score themselves bigger contracts. Ultimately $10 million is little more than a slap on the wrist for the company size of IBM.

Exclusive: Goldman cuts 5 percent of trading desk: sources

"SIX SIGMA"

The company's whittling away of poor performers involves an elaborate peer review process. Employees are reviewed by supervisors, co-workers and employees they supervise "in a 360-degree review process," according to the company's annual report.

Poor performers are known internally as being on the "Z-List," according to the sources. Those employees typically get an early signal about their status with a disappointing bonus in January.

Many poor performers tend to quit ahead of layoffs and seek other jobs, the sources said. The rest are eventually let go.

The company's review process is legendary on Wall Street, according to Steven Gerbel, founder of Chicago Capital Management, a hedge fund that has used Goldman as a brokerage for several years. He likens it to the "Six Sigma" quality control process first established by Motorola.

Goldman shares fell 60 cents to $155.15 in after-hours trading.

Source: reuters.com

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it's like if you don't know what you are doing why da heck are you even trading... oh wait how can you know or do you just bet and get lucky?

Bank of America say oil price could hit 240 USD a barrel

Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) have upgraded their outlook for the oil price.

A morning call from Bank of America Merrill Lynch says:

"Following the recent Libyan oil supply disruptions our oil price expectations have been upgraded. Our 2Q11 forecast for Brent moves up to $122/bbl from $86/bbl.

"On average for 2011, Brent crude oil prices are projected to be at $108/bbl, up from our prior forecast of $88/bbl.

"As the situation in the Middle East remains volatile, we see larger than normal risks around our base case scenario, with a 30% chance for higher oil prices if the situation worsens, and focus on Bahrain and Iran."

And, this 30% chance of oil price rises could see the $125 - $160 barrel range being met.

"It is worth highlighting that even after lifting their price profile, we still see a 30% probability for an oil price overshoot, which could take quotations to $240/bbl over the coming 12 months," say Bank of America.

Implications for global growth

Should oil prices surge higher to these levels, then a global slow down is highly likely.

Higher oil prices reduce domestic demand; reduce global growth, affecting export demand; worsen the balance of payments; and boost inflation, complicating interest rate policy.

"In a recent Global Energy Weekly, we calculated that average Brent crude oil prices of around $115/bbl in 2011 and $130/bbl next year would have scope to severely damage the global economy and hence also metals demand. Looking at this from another angle, our economics team estimates that a $10/bbl increase in oil prices reduces GDP growth in developed oil consuming nations by 0.1% to 0.5% over the following four quarters," says the note from Bank of America. Source: http://www.economy-news.co.uk/oil-prices-16201103-2.html

Really?!

TED: Khan Academy

A glimpse to the future of the education!

The Top 50 Venture-Backed Companies

Start-ups with potential for technological breakthroughs in health care, mobile communications and business software topped The Wall Street Journal's second annual Next Big Thing list.

The ranking — compiled by research firm VentureSource, a unit of Journal owner News Corp. — seeks to pinpoint the 50 U.S. venture-backed companies with the greatest promise to succeed. To be eligible, companies must have received an equity round of financing in the past three years and be valued at less than $1 billion, as the aim is to identify lesser-known contenders.

Source: http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/st_VCRankMy_20110308.html

OSI model

"Be a Dividend Millionaire" by Paul Rubillo

Be a Dividend Millionare by Paul Rubillo is not just a book about dividend investing, there are a million of those. This is a book about personal finance management which shows you how to integrate dividend investing as a way of building wealth on top of a solid foundation that everyone needs to have.

I like Paul Rubillo's background, which he describes in details in preface of the book. He isn't some classroom educated CFP who analyzed stocks for thirty years and felt like putting out a book on dividend investing. He's a regular guy who worked regular jobs from delivering mail to collecting trash to running a successful deli in NYC. He started to learn about financial planning and investing, turning that expertise into dividend.com and now his book. These are lessons borne out of experience, not a textbook, he makes it easy for regular folks like me and you regular people.

When I looked at the book's name, my first impression was, "Oh another book about dividends and dividend stocks", but I was actually surprised to discover that it is much broader than that. It starts with more basics like day-to-day household finances and discussion of The Ten Step plan which establishes a strong financial foundation that anyone needs before you look towards investing in more general terms, how to watch Wall Street. Then he gets into stocks deeper in Chapter 5.

I really like the fact that it is written in very easy to understand language without monotony of million charts and tables that are old.

Overall, this book is a good guidebook for anyone who is starting to learn to invest or even manage your money smartly. You can learn how without building a solid financial base and you can't invest in anything. Actual book comes out on May 12, 2011.

Woman tries, fails to smuggle 44 iPhones into Israel

Sigh. We don't know whether to congratulate the enterprising spirit of this venture or to bemoan the sad state of a world where a 60-something-year old lady feels compelled to turn into an iPhone smuggler. Either way, Israel's Ben-Gurion International Airport has given us a pretty good reason for the use of full body scanners, which revealed the woman in question was strapped with 44 iPhone 4s all around her body. Dressed in traditional Georgian attire, the lady had some struggles walking around, which raised suspicion and got the officials to run her through the machines. Guess this gives us a whole new definition to the phrase "stocking stuffer," eh? [Original image credit: buystoreshelving.com] Source: Haaretz

Second-gen Apple Peel 520 caught on video doing GPRS, looking like an iPhone 4

Last year's Apple Peel 520 turned your iPod Touch into an iPhone mostly, accepting a SIM card and allowing you to send and receive calls, texts, and even throwing a little extra battery life your way. Now we're looking at the next generation device and, which certainly looks a lot more sleek and less bulky than the previous model -- from a distance it could be confused for an iPhone 4. This version also allows the use of GPRS data, as you can see demonstrated in the video below. No mention of price or availability just yet, but review units are said to en route to other news sites, so hold that phone -- or iPod as it were. Source: engadget.com

BlackRock doubles profits with asset growth

BlackRock, the world’s largest money manager, more than in the fourth quarter as rallying markets lifted assets under management.

Boosted by the $13.5bn takeover of Barclays Global Investors in late 2009, BlackRock reported earnings well ahead of Wall Street expectations.

Net income jumped from $256m in the fourth quarter of 2009 to $657m in the last three months of 2010 as revenues rose from $1.54bn to $2.49bn.

Larry Fink, chairman and chief executive of BlackRock, attributed the improvement in operating margins for the year to a combination of the benefits of the BGI acquisition, improved markets and positive investment performance

Source: ft.com

Average Joe Shmoe says: Ughh, "Somebody" is making money! They must know a lot about investment banking?

Sure is Joe. Sure is. Just go to school and learn how to make some for yourself....

Economist Karl Case: U.S. Home Prices `Bouncing Around' Bottom

Today was the date to get Case-Shiller home prices since the last November of 2010. Case thinks prices are at the bottom and some are bouncing back. It is somewhat good "news" yet some of the major Blue Chip companies' earnings reports have disappointed and affected the market big time. Most of my valuable holdings are down, CHK($27.39); KOG($5.49);BAC ($13.55) GE($19.85) 3:24PM ET. Crude is down to 86ish. Good time to get right back in for some sitting on cash.

Of course if you look at fundamentals most of the market is overbought, but after the latest research on Global Investors confidence level being high on US mostly, is inspiring to daytrader/investor Joe Shmoes like us. :)

Visualized stats smartphone users

As AT&T's iPhone exclusivity reluctantly teeters on the brink of oblivion, it seems a good time to take one last look at the smartphone playground, the way it is before V-Day. The New York Times has handily done that job for us with the above chart, which simultaneously gives us a sense of scale when comparing US carriers and lays out the concentration of Android devices across those networks. It also shows a big fat bump of iOS on AT&T, making it the biggest carrier in terms of combined iPhone and Android users -- nothing shocking there, but the real fun will be in taking a look at this same data a few months from now. Will the iPhone fragment itself all over the four major networks? Will AT&T's Android stable ever be respectable? Tune in to your next installment of "fun, but mostly irrelevant statistics" to find out.

Goldman Sachs Bond Sale Signals Inflation Concerns Waning: Credit Market

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s offering of 30-year bonds, its first in more than three years, signals waning concern among investors that inflation is accelerating.

The fifth-biggest U.S. bank by assets received $9 billion in orders for its $2.5 billion of debentures sold on Jan. 21, according to Mizuho Securities USA. The 6.25 percent senior bonds yield 170 basis points more than similar-maturity Treasuries, at the low end of a 5-basis-point range marketed by the New York-based firm, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

“People aren’t too worried about inflation,” said Anthony Valeri, market strategist with LPL Financial Corp. in San Diego, which oversees $293 billion. “Goldman was noticing there’s some demand here and they could get that deal done.”

- One way or the other Feds are trying to keep the markets up by advising "biggos" to use different strategies to keep the dollar's value. I bet Hu Jintao's visit has something to do with it. America can't loose the number one spot in being the largest economy and strongest currency. Yen, or aka Renmimbi or something like that, would beat the crap out of the US dollar in no time since Feds don't stop printing the shit out of this currency. In my humble opinion, US dollar will weaken further and we will see some vivid points of irrefutable inflation in US.

Audi commissions four US universities to research urban mobility issues

Audi and 4 US universities tackle urban mobility challenges in 3-year research initiative

A new research initiative launched by Audi, its Electronics Research Laboratory (ERL) in Silicon Valley and four top US universities—University of Southern California; UC Berkeley; UC San Diego; and the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI)—will develop technologies aimed at easing the congestion, dangers and inconveniences that often confront drivers in the world’s biggest cities.