7/28/10 Midevening Report: Rally comes to an end and unfortunately it's not Jessica Biel's

The market sold off today as it couldn't keep ignoring the data and finally had to come to grips with where the bad macro news had touched it.  The biggest negative was the Fed's Beige Book report which failed to titillate the market like either Money McBags' book report on the Kama Sutra (which he described as both thought provoking and delicious) or Fonzie's little black book.

In Bernanke's beige book we found out that economic activity has slowed in some areas and that Federal Reserve Bank President of Cleveland Sandra Painalto doesn't let you get to second base on the first date (Newsflash Sandy:  If you ever want to get out of Cleveland, you're going to need to loosen up a bit, lower your reserve standards, and give Bennie B. some of that gold you've been hoarding).  Eight of the twelve regions tracked by the Fed saw growth including New York, Richmond, and Andy Roddick's pants (he is married to her, you know that right?), while Atlanta and Chicago saw a slowdown, and Cleveland and Kansas City held steady.  The Fed cited high unemployment, an ailing housing market, and consumers being more fucked than Lisa Ann in I'm a MILFaholic as reasons for the slower than hoped for recovery.

In other macro news, durable goods orders fell by 1% in June while analysts had guessed they would rise by 1% which makes guesses just an absolute value sign away from being correct which is a fuckload better than usual.  Orders for long lasting goods like machinery, metals, and herpes were down the most they have been in almost a year and a half.  Even worse, non-defense aircraft orders tumbled 25.6% after falling 30.2% last month as airlines brace for the continuing growth of staycations and poverty. 

Finally, mortgage applications fell 4.4% last week but were led by a 5.9% drop in refinancings as rates ticked up 10bps and anyone who still owns a non-foreclosed upon home has pretty much already refinanced it.  Surprisingly new home purchase mortgage applications were up 2% but since the majority of those will likely be rejected, that 2% number is more fictitious than the easter bunny, santa claus, or male affectionate lesbians.

In stock news, RIMM jobbed it's way up today despite the bad taste it has left in investors' mouths as of late.  Rumors are that the company will be launching a new operating system and potentially a new keypad before officially giving up to AAPL and thus becoming the second biggest thing to ever be defeated at Waterloo (fyi, RIMM's headquarters are in Waterloo, Ontario).

Also, BA nosedived a bit after reporting a strong bottom line but a weak topline which was down 10% from last year.  The company did reaffirm guidance which was slightly below analyst guesses but BA promised their new 787 would be more spacious and thus allow more opportunities for flyers to join the mile high club.  And finally, Moody's lowered their ratings on banks BAC, C, and WFC from stable to negative citing lessened government support for banks under new regulations and something about shitty track records which means those banks are going to eventually need that lessened government support.  And if any company knows what a poorly run company who sucks at their jobs looks like, it is certainly Moody's who never saw a huge market collapse it couldn't misinterpret.

In small cap news, beta sold off as these stocks had run strongly over the past week or so as if they were trying to catch a glimpse of the delightful Melissa Archer and thus it's not surprising that investors would want to take profits.  CTGX reported last night and results were pretty much inline with Money McBags' expectations.  The company grew revenue 21% thanks to both strong staffing and health care services businesses.  Health care services is now 27% of revenues and should start driving this business like Nipsey Russell drove all of the housevies crazy on the Hollywood game show circuit in the 1970s.  In addition to a solid topline, SG&A was down 120bps, operating margins were up from 3.6% to 4.3%, and EPS went from $.09 to $.12.

The stock sold off on the day though due to the general market taking it in the yingus and lowered full year EPS guidance by CTGX due to a reduction in demand for solutions work from one of their large customers in their energy practice.  Excuse me while Money McBags yawns on this one.  Full year revenue guidance was increased to $320MM to $328MM from $314MM to $322MM (which is 18% growth) while eps guidance was reduced to $0.45 to $0.51 from $0.47 to $0.55 and although it is down, it is still a 26% increase from 2009.  But the point is, Money McBags gives less of a shit about 2010 guidance than he does about Alan Greenspan's thoughts on the housing, Nassim Taleb's thoughts on lyrical prose, or Audrina Patridge's thoughts on anything other than which hole to enter.

As said frequently in this space, the coming electronic medical records implementations (and they are coming because the government has mandated them, not just because they ran in to Sonya Kraus in the hallway) are going to be huge for CTGX.  As the CEO said in the press release: "We believe we are still in the early stages of the significant increases in demand expected for EMR assessments, systems implementation, and development work." 

This Q, EMR was 1/2 of their health care business which was ~$10MM in revenue and means they were working on 13-20 installations at ~$2MM-$3MM a project annually.  But the thing is, only ~10% of  hosptials have EMR and they are MANDATED by the fucking government to have them at least underway by 2014 so this business should scale faster than a business selling bronzer, or Valtrex, on the Jersey Shore.

Money McBags has gone through his valuation on CTGX here on When Genius Prevailed many times, so feel free to throw it in the search box, but this company is set for strong growth over the next few years so use this sell off as a potential buying opportunity.  Obviously the lack of trading volume and the fact that CTGX's boring staffing business is still ~70% of their revenues is a concern, but as long as EMR is on the way and this company isn't full of shit about their ability to service that sector as aplombly as Bunny De La Cruz services the ding dong sector, the company should see solid growth.

And remember, When Genius Prevailed is on Facebook and Twitter.

6/24/10 Midnight Report: Market dials up LifeCall as it has fallen and can't get up

The market tanked at the end of the session like Money McBags' day which has caused today's column to be late, short, and in need of one more read through, but it is what it is.  You see, Money McBags was cranking away at his terminal, busily breaking down the news, perusing 10Ks for cheap stocks, and most importantly scouring the interweb for just the right picture of Kelly Brook, when life got in the way and he was called out to the cruel cruel world to fix some dumb shit.  With dumb shit marginally fixed, Money McBags is drained of his energy and thus will be publishing his halfway done column today.  It ain't Shakespeare or Fante, but luckily it also isn't Santelli, Colmes, or Bartiromo, and so it goes...

New claims for unemployment came out today and they were down 19k, or 15k, depending on if you want to use the number reported last week as your baseline or the "revised/manipulated" number released today.  Last week new claims were 472k and this week claims were supposedly down 19k to 457k.  Once again, if you do the math you get an equal sign more confused than Helen Keller's dogs (because how the fuck would they know to sit, stay, or roll over when every command sounded like "arhgahgaha.").  Analysts guessed new claims would come in at 460k, so they were close enough that one might be deluded in to thinking their regression models actually regress to something believable and that this week's close call was not just luck caused by a random fluctuation, but Money McBags knows better and knows that those models have no clothes (though he is usually in favor of clothes-less models).  Either way, the job market remains more challenged than a bus driver in El Salvador or a color blind synesthiac.  4.55MM people remain on traditional unemployment, another 5.3MM remain on extended unemployment, and another 10MM remain on no employment and must subsist off the heat generated from their dying hopes and dreams.  Luckily there was news out today that was portrayed as slightly positive with durable goods orders excluding transportation (and durable goods are anything expected to last for 3+ years like cars, machinery, and Savannah Stern's chest) rising by .9% after a .8% decrease in April bringing orders slightly above where they were in March.  So in honor of tonight's NBA Draft and the great Derrick Coleman, "whoop-de-dam-do."  Additionally, orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, rose by 2.1% which gives a bit of confidence to the markets that businesses will still be operating in a month.

Internationally, Greek default swaps reached record highs as common sense creeps back in to the market.  Eventually Greece isn't going to be able to roll over their debt so we can either make like math doesn't exist and time doesn't move linearly (Einstein's relativity be damned) and live in a happy world where Greece can function in perpetuity despite a debt level so fuck awful that even Stephen Baldwin laughs at it, or we can just buy the fuck out of Greek CDS and get our fiddles ready so we can pull a Nero when Athens burns.  In other international news, Australia elected their first female prime minister in Julia Gillard who was born in Wales, is a lawyer by trade, and though never married, dates a male hairdresser which I believe makes him a well trimmed beard.  Gillard promises to work with mining companies and be tough on spending to keep Australia's economy from going down under (eat your heart out on that one Jay Leno).

In earnings news, Nike just did it, well that is if "it" is missing analyst guesses of revenues.  NKE profit was up 53% which was inline with guesses but revenues of $5.08B were up only 4% (ex. currency flucutations) and missed analyst guesses of $5.15B.  Orders were up 9% though and the company did earn $1.04 per share so while the stock sold off ~4% today, it's not like they totally shit the bed or perhaps more appropriately, it's not like they shit on the cold floor in the corner of the room where 20 sweat shop workers sleep on the hour they have off in between shifts of sewing fucking swooshes on canvas sneakers.  In other earnings news, Discover found their way to a strong quarter with profit up 14% thanks to improving credit trends, increased customer spend, and the House financial reform bill not having been passed yet.  Charge-offs were up year over year to 8% from 7.5% but down sequentially from 8.5% so depending on what trend you want to use, card users are acting better or worse.

In small cap news today KIRK was down ~7% today and as Money McBags said yesterday, he thinks this is a good entry point (though not as good of an entry point as the gap in Jessica Hart's teef).  That said, Money McBags refuses to catch falling knives and this stock is clearly falling as investors take profits on shit that has gone up as the market now falls, so wait for this to settle before jumping in as fundamentally it remains as strong as Money McBags' belief in truth, honesty, and Hayley Atwell.

5/26/10 Midevening Report: Market diagnosed with Meniere's disease as it can't stop falling

The market tried to rally today like a drunken hobo lying in a pool of his own vomit reaching for the discarded fifth of whiskey by his side to try to taste one last drop.  Unfortunately the last drop turned out to be another hobo's urine as Money McBags hasn't seen a rally less believable since John Edwards' ended his presidential campaign.  Yesterday's reversal had given investors confidence that perhaps the market had reached a technical support level (until that technical support level fails again), while common sense should have told them that shit is still worse than Stephen Hawking's time in the 40 yard dash.  Helping the market today, other than cognitive dissonance, was the report on new home sales which showed sales climbed 15% in April, triple analyst guesses which makes it one of their most accurate guesses of the year.  Of course sales were once again helped by government tax incentives and bedrooms being wallpapered with posters of Olivia Munn.  Also helping sales was the median home price dropping 10% to $198k which is the lowest it has been since December 2003 and means people are not just losing money in the market but also in real estate.  Finally orders for durable goods jumped 2.9% to their highest level since September 2008 but they fell by 1% excluding transportation and the 228% rise in bookings for aircraft.  The number was less impressive than a George Will stand-up routine and does note bode well for continued economic recovery.

Internationally, European markets rose a bit even with the EU talking about taxing banks to pay for their future fuck ups.  Money McBags applauds the move but wonders why the EU doesn't just better regulate them or find a more efficient financial system.  They are basically saying, "you can't be trusted not to fuck shit up again, and even though we already require you to hold reserves because there is systematic risk in what you do, you do it so poorly that unsystematic risk is less diversifiable than the crowd at a Charlie Daniels Band concert, so we're going to proactively make you pay for the shit you are inevitably going to fuck up."  So good for the EU.  Also, noted economists are out saying Greece is going to either need a debt restructuring, is going to default, or is going to have to start charging for sodas.  Economist Steve Hanke and Nobel Prize winning economist (which is a bit like being the world's tallest midget or the Kardashian with the fewest STDs) Robert Mundell were both on record talking about Greece's problems.  Mundell, who was one of the leaders in the development of supply side economics and the creation of the Euro which gives him all of the credibility to speak about Europe's debt situation as Mr. T,  Professor John Frink, and my left nut said a Greek default may be "inevitable."  Now look, Money McBags hates to nitpick (unless the nit resides on Imogen Thomas' and he is doing the picking) especially as Money McBags treats the english language like Joan Crawford treated her kids as he splits his infinitives more frequently than a diarrhetic splits their butt cheeks, but how is it possible that something "may be inevitable?"   By definition, the word inevitable mean "unable to be avoided."  So how the fuck can something maybe be avoided if one is unable to avoid it?  Chicken meet egg, egg meet chicken, now go screw.  It's just not logically possible, like a funny Dane Cook stand up routine or an MC Esher designed house.  Instead of saying it "may be inevitable" the great supply sider should have just said the debt restructuring is evitable which is the correct fucking word for what he was describing.  Ugh.  And yet someone listened to this dickbag enough to give him a prize other than a booby prize (though to be fair, Money McBags hopes to one day win a booby prize)?  Anyway, Mundell thinks the Euro needs to be strengthened rather than put out to pasture like Nell Carter after Gimme a Break, while Mr. Hanke thinks that Greece is likely going to default and thus all of the Euro bailouts will have been for naught.  Money McBags isn't sure what to think other than that everything is currently more fucked than a rent boy in George Rekers' european vacation suite.

In stock news, who cares, it's all going down.

4/23/10 Midday Report: Crash of the Titan as Greece requests bailout

The market is up today as sales of new homes were up 27% blowing past analyst guesses and rising by the most in five decades which is so long ago that baby boomers were still in grade school, man had yet to reach the moon, and full muff was still in style (like the very very NSFW 1561).  Sales were spurred by the government tax credit which runs out next week, milder weather, and improved construction techniques.  Additionally, orders for US manufactured durable goods were strong excluding the drop in commercial aircraft (no pun intended).  Taking out transportation (and if you are going to take out transportation, be sure to grease it up with plenty of oil at dinner if you want to make sure you get a proper ride later on), orders rose by the most since December 2007 when the sale of wrecking balls spiked during the "Make Detroit Beautiful" phase of the recession.  Driving up orders for durable goods was business spend on computers and electronics as companies are either gearing up for the recovery or trying to get enough computing memory to store all of the videos they have been downloading from spankwire.  And the SEC is back in the news today as Goldman is choosing to press their luck (no whammies, no whammies, and stop) rather than settle with them over fraud allegations and a report is out showing SEC regulators spent more time downloading porn than they did trying to actually, you know, regulate the fucking markets (though if they were doing it as a way to research whether Heather Vandeven was causing investors to drop their shorts and get longer, Money McBags totally understands).

Internationally, Greece is activating their bailout plan while Prime Minister George Papandreou called the economy a "sinking ship" and with the bailout he hopes to avoid the fate of the Dokos.  The bailout will give Greece 30B euros from Eurozone countries, another 15B from the IMF, and free two for one coupons at their local Red Lobster.  The Greek requested bailout is the biggest test for the Euro since it had to guess French Economic Minister Christine LaGarde's gender.  With the premium on Greek 2 year bonds approaching the premiums on both Pakistani bonds and Lindsay Lohan's life insurance, Greece needed to finally cry "theios" and get the aid promised them.  Of course getting the aid may be a lot harder than asking for it as German politicians are wavering on their desire to bailout Greece citing Greece's manipulation of economic statistics, the language in the EU treaty which forbids bailouts, and the potential for any funds to help energize Nia Vardalos's movie career (though we hear she is working on a new movie titled:  My Big Fat Greek Debt Spreading).

In stock news AMZN beat forecasts but like other tech companies, guidance was a bit lacking.  Revenue guidance for next Q was $6.1B to $6.7B and analysts guesses were more in the middle than lucky Pierre at  $6.4B so the Street is worried they could miss.  That said, AMZN earned $.66 per share which beat analyst guesses by $.05 thanks to a 46% increase in revenue as people still hate going outside to buy shit.  It will be interesting to see how long it takes for the iPad to make the Kindle obsolete and thus put further strain on AMZN stock.  Also, MSFT put up a nice Q as sales rose 6% and net income was up 35% thanks to Windows 7 and  businesses starting to spend again.  That said, the Street was hoping for better growth, especially after INTC's numbers, and as a result MSFT is trading down off of a pretty stellar quarter for them.  Money McBags hates everything about Microsoft from their clunky operating system which allows in more Trojan Horses than Troy and more viruses than Paris Hilton's vagina to that stupid fucking paper clip that pops up in word everytime one mis-hits one of those F keys, but the cycle should be good for them and they are relatively cheap at around 12x 2011 estimates.  So Money McBags bought a little in this dip and is going to try to get a quick 10% before puking it out like a KFC Double Down.

In small cap news, RICK had a big day yesterday on no news.  Two weeks ago they announced that March sales were up 11% with 3.5% same club sales growth and revenue for the Q up 21%. Of course it's not RICK's top line that we're worried about as they have proven to be literally and figuratively extremely top heavy, it is their bottom line that needs work.

Money McBags will be back next week with some interestng stock ideas.  Until then, enjoy the weekend and follow Money McBags on twitter.

3/24/10 Midday Report: Port-Ugh-al

The market is down a bit today on news that some country in Europe named Portugal has had their debt rating lowered by a whole minus sign (yikes, imagine if it had been a minus sign and a frowny face) and slightly negative US macro news.  New home sales came out today and boy were existing home sales surprised by that, though it does explain why their come-ons were never returned and why new homes have so many closets.  Sales in february fell to a record low partially due to blizzards and partially due to people not having any fucking jobs.  Puchases were down 2.2% and were projected to moderately increase, so once again, nice job economists, don't let the assumed door hit you on the way out.  In other macro news, US durable good orders rose by .5%, but less than expected by economists.  However, exlcuding aircraft, military orders, and wrecking balls to demolish foreclosed upon houses, durable goods were down .6%.  Once again the economy is putting out marginally good data followed by marginally bad data and thus remaining at more of a stand still than a value destruction debate between John Meriwether and Bernie Madoff.  It's good that we appear to be at a new equilibrium, though it's bad that that equilibrium appears to be stagnant growth and no dessert after dinner.

In international news, Japan passed a $1T budget to stimulate growth while hoping to avoid fiscal hari kari as their debt is twice the size of their economy.  As part of the legislation, the government is trying to create more jobs by building more pachinko centers (they are now required to have three on every block instead of just two), hiring Mr. Miyagi to help train youngsters on how to paint fences, and by requiring 10 "shooters" in all future bukakke films as opposed to the usual 5.  In Europe, Portugal was downgraded by Fitch ratings from a country to I guess a principality.  Their debt moved from AA to AA- and we all know how drastic that - is from Fitch ratings, in fact Money McBags has nightmares about getting a - from Fitch like he has nightmares about losing his Michelin Star or about waking up next to Lady Gaga with the Ellen Degeneres show blasting on his TV.  So now we're going from Greece to Portugal, with their tasty sweet bread, their delicious salt cod, and their lovely export Vanessa Marcil.  Look, what Money McBags knows about Portugal can fit into an empty bottle of Taylor Fladgate or a small Portuguese hot plate, in fact, though he is a world traveler, Money McBags has never actually been to Portugal or it's capital Lisbon (though he hopes to find it's mythical sister city of Lesbian one day), but he does know that Fitch ratings are about as relevant as the Know-Nothing party, the steady state theory of the universe, or Robert Guillaume, so who cares.

Starbucks announced a $.10 cent dividend which will allow shareholders to finally have something to drop in to the tip jars when ordering their grande mocachino lattofcrape.  Dick Bove is out today saying bank stocks may quadruple by 2012 due to reduced loan losses and new math (where quadruple means something at least four times less than it does now).  Of course this is the same Dick who raised Lehman Brothers to a buy 3 weeks before their bankruptcy so either that was a glaring typo or nobody should give a fuck what Mr. Bove guesses.  Also, MF Global is rallying on news that John Corzine, the former head of Goldman Sachs and New Jersey governor will be taking over as CEO.  MF board members are hoping Corzine can bring the kind of profitability to MF Global that he brought to Trenton, Newark, and every other near bankrupt place in New Jersey.  More importantly, his Goldman background will now assure MF of a government bail out should they ever experience another rogue trader.

In small cap news RICK continues to get hammered after hitting Money McBags' $16 sell point several weeks ago.   Unfortunately Money McBags did not not sell and for the first time in his life he is regretting a decision involving Rick's Cabaret that didn't center around leaving or not getting another dance.  There was a lot of momentum in the stock and their quarter was pretty awful on top of a questionable acquisition, so the sell off is not unwarranted.  Money McBags will likely lock in his gains and buy back later when the stock settles back down.  Also, long time value trap IBKR was downgraded to underperform by Zack's, though luckily for IBKR Slater and Screech still have them at Market Perform (while Money McBags has Kelly Kapowski at a Strong Buy).  Their downgrade was based on lower options trading volumes in the next few quarters and the recent piss poor performance.  IBKR's CEO still maintains that the company has $2 of annual earnings power if you smooth out their performance over the long run (though that long run is looking like Eons as opposed to years) and the company is trading at 8x that.  They get hit when volatility works against them as their hedges become more expensive when implied volatility is much different from actual volatility.  Money McBags mentioned this name the other week and it is worth keeping an eye on, though it is worth keeping two eyes on Olivia Munn, so not sure where you'll get the extra eye to follow IBKR.

And readers, if there are small names you would like Money McBags to look in to, let him know.  He's here for you, well for you and Riley Steele.

2/25/10 Midfternoon Report: Goldman Sachs seeks nobel prize for literature after (under)writing biggest Greek tragedy since Euripides

Greece's debt issues are once again scaring the market like the snake ridden visage of the famous gorgon from ancient Greek mythology known more familiarly as Lady GaGa.  Rising debt, a spiraling deficit, and a massive bidding up of CDS by traders betting against Greece has created somewhat of a Foucault current around the Greek islands which is now threatening to pull the entire EU and global economy in with it.  Greece hasn't been in such imminent trouble since the Battle of Thermopylae and they can only hope that the bankers whom they used for currency swaps did not run to the other side and push up the price of CDS with their inside knowledge of the obfuscated rising Greek debt and hence betray them like Ephialtes did in that same battle.  Moodys is now threatening to downgrade Greece (perhaps to Jamaica, or maybe even Puerto Rico), so the global markets are very skittish today, since we all know how great Moodys is at predicting debt defaults (except when they happened to miss something called the entire global financial system meltdown).  As if the Greek issue weren't bad enough, the EU came out today (luckily their parents already knew) and forecast 2010 to be a year of fragile growth, even more fragile than the tears of a newborn unicorn upon learning it is just the figment of someone's imagination.

In US macro news, orders for durable goods excluding transportation fell .6% which was below estimates of a 1% gain though they rose 3% when including the jump in aircraft orders.  While durable good orders may have been down, non-durable goods orders or as their better known as, "shit made in China," appear to still be doing very well.  The new claims for unemployment number was also out today and it was much worse than expectations as it was up by 22k to 496k people filing first time claims.  Luckily the labor department shrugged it off as being partially inflated by poor weather in the Northeast causing construction jobs to be cancelled over the past few weeks and also partially being inflated due to something else called employers laying a lot of fucking people off.  They said without the weather, new claims would have been down by a "healthy" 10k to 440k jobs lost and if 440k job losses is considered healthy, then the labor department must think Michael Jackson has "just a little breathing problem."

In stock news, CCE is up 33% on a takeout offer from KO, while KO is down 4% on that same news.  KO's CEO and Chairman said the move was a way to convert "passive capital into active capital" and when asked to clarify what exactly he meant by that, he simply said "Chewbacca was a wookie."  While Money McBags is an owner of KO, and thus 4% less happy today than he was yesterday, the global sales growth trends and brand equity have not changed at all by the deal and thus he is content to hold and potentially add a bit as soon as he can get a hold of some numbers on the deal.  In other stocks reporting, SIRI somehow turned a profit this last quarter even if it was still less than $.01 per share.  Subscriber growth in satellite radio has largely been stagnant due to the recession and the hundreds of other ways to get music for cheaper prices.  With Howard Stern's contract ending at the end of the year, Sirius may be more fucked than Houston during her 500 man gang bang.  This company sells a product that is becoming outdated faster than the eight track or Jennifer Aniston (and take a few seconds on that pun, it will hit you in a bit, but e-mail me if you need help) as the prevelance of iPods, smart phones, and internet radio make paying a monthly fee for that same content as bad of a financial decision as the Olympics were for NBC or plastic surgery was for Greta Van Susteren.  Money McBags would stay further away from SIRI stock than he would a hemophiliac AIDS patient in the throes of leprosy.

In small cap news PALM annouced their smartphones aren't selling as well as they hoped as they have seemingly failed to put a dent in the duopoly that is the iPhone and the Blackberry (and honestly, taking on those two behemoths was about as smart of a move as introducing a soft drink to compete with Coke and Pepsi, a search engine to compete with Google and Yahoo!, or a cure for herpes to compete with Valtrex and staying 100 feet away from Paris Hilton).  Palm also said their sales will be "well below" their forecasts like Vern Troyer is "well below" the clown's hand to ride the roller coaster as apparently even a color blind lepidopterist is better at his/her job than Palm's head of strategy is at his.  Also Money McBags favorite WILC is up 10% today after a ridiculous and unwarranted sell-off over the past week.  WILC remains the most ridiculous, cheapest name Money McBags has ever run across which is a bit worrisome because the last thing he thought was too good to be true was marriage, so buyer beware.  And finally SMSI put up a decent Q and is up 14%.  SMSI is a pretty interesting name in that they sell software that allows netbooks internet connectivity and net books continue to grow faster than a steroid user also suffering from pituitary gigantism.  While the Board of Directors looks like they are waiting for the comet Hale-Bopp to hit the Earth, the company has done a decent job over the years of buying technologies in growing markets.  SMSI is pretty much a one-trick pony right now with that one trick being connectivity and the pony having been purchased, but they are relatively cheap.  Their wireless business grew 22% this year, though the pace slowed as the year wore on while overall topline growth was 9%.  They guided to around 20% top line growth for 2009 and estimates are for them to earn in low $.70s per share which is about what they earned this year but their tax rate will be going up.  The company has a nice balance sheet with $45MM of cash and no debt and is only trading at 12x estimates despite growing the topline 20%ish (again, profit growth may be negligible due to the tax rate increase).  The issue with this company is that they have missed guidance before, have really only one product/area of focus, and rely on acquisitions to find the next new technology.  While they have already wrapped up most of the big netbook producers as clients, competition is getting fiercer.  So it's not the best business model but it is moderately cheap with good prospects.  The jump today is likely short covering but it is worth reading the transcript of the call and figuring out if a good entry point will exist once the short covering is over.

1/28/10 Midday Report: Global economy still more fragile than faberge egg wrapped in Donald Trump's ego

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

12/24/09 Mid-Morning Report: It's Christmas Eve, can a jew get a table dance?

Yes Money McBags lights the menorah and it looks like the market wants him to get those table dances tonight as it is up again on positively mixed news.  Durable goods orders rose, though missed expectations with weakness in autos and airplanes which is not suurprising since "Cash for Clunkers" went away like Tom DeLay's dignity.  Taking out transportation, durable goods demand demolished estimates like Kirstie Alley demolishes her Christmas ham (and it is reasons like this that NTRI has been absolutely killing it lately).  Orders were up 2% ex-transportation, led by demand for machinery, metals, computers, and stripper poles.  The question remains whether this is real demand or just inventory build back, so we're trying to temper our excitement and make it last longer by just thinking about baseball.

In other positive market news today, initial jobless claims fell to their lowest level since September 2008 as eventually you run out of people to fire.  So if you made it through and stayed employed this long, you might be ok, but if you're looking for a job, you may be fucked worse than the lovely Houston at her 620 man gangbang.

In stock news, Money McBags' long time favorite QCOR is up 20% on news that the FDA will give a ruling on Achtar for IS by June (and hopefully the ruling is more than just finding it delicious).  Seeing as how it took QCOR about 3 years and several  "do-overs" to get this filing accepted (and you'd think they were trying to prove P=NP with how long it took them to simply get a filing complete), this is positive news, but the FDA still has to approve this drug which is used by the majority of doctors anyway (so one would think it would be approved, but then again, one also thought Lindsay Lohan would have had a long and profitable career and Evolution would not have been contested in the 21st Century).  Money McBags wouldn't be buying into this rally though.  It seems more like short covering than anything because the company is still going through growing pains and there is some uncertainty to their medicare reimbursement as they currently have to pay more than they get from medicare and didn't reserve enough for late/non-payments last Q.  The company is probably at a ~$.08-$.10 quarterly run rate right now, but they have cash and give back to shareholders through buybacks.  They could have real upside if they continue to penetrate the MS market and can get on-label IS approval while overcoming the sticker shock from doctors/patients/insurance companies on the price of a vial of Achtar which currently runs at $23k a pop (and that is enough to cure spasms from MS/IS but create spasms from having to pay that price).