Davis Freeberg submits: I know that I’ve been critical of DivX’s (DIVX) efforts to woo Hollywood in the past, but I’ve also got to give them credit for a win when I see one, and I think they knocked it out of the park when it comes to Paramount. Recently, Paramount announced that they were going to be distributing content on USB sticks. At the time, they didn’t say what format it would be in and even on DivX’s conference call, there was no mention of this realization of their strategic vision, but Electric Pig is reporting that the Paramount movies will in fact be encoded in DivX.Complete Story »

  Saj Karsan submits:On my site, we have at times made fun of the findings of various stock market analysts. In the book Managing Investor Portfolios: A Dynamic Process, the esteemed authors discuss some of the traps analysts fall into when making their forecasts. 1) Anchoring trap. The mind gives a disproportionate amount of weight to the first information received on a topic. Keeping an open mind and avoiding premature conclusions is a way to avoid this trap.Complete Story »

  Dividends4Life submits: It is a well-documented fact that a significant portion of the historical equity returns are a result of reinvested dividends. In Triumph of the Optimists: 101 Years of Global Investment Returns (2002), the authors looked at equity returns from capital gains anddividends from 1900 to 2000. They determined that performance in any given year was driven by capital appreciation, but long-term returns were largely the result of reinvested dividends. Complete Story »

  Mike Havrilla submits:On 11/19/09, AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) announced the submission of a New Drug Application (NDA) to the FDA for ticagrelor, an investigational oral antiplatelet treatment for the reduction of majoradverse cardiac events in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). The proposed trade name for ticagrelor is BRILINTA, pending approval from the FDA. This submission is based on the results of a comprehensive program, including data from PLATO (A Study of Platelet Inhibition and Patient Outcomes), the Phase 3 head-to-head trial comparing ticagrelor plus aspirin with clopidogrel (Plavix) plus aspirin. Ticagrelor is the first reversibly binding oral P2Y12 adenosine diphosphate (ADP) receptor antagonist. The mode of action involves inhibiting the action of platelets in the blood to prevent platelets from sticking together, thereby reducing recurrent thrombotic (blood clot) events. On 5/11/09, AZN announced top line results from the phase III trial, PLATO (A Study of Platelet Inhibition and Patient Outcomes), which demonstrate that BRILINTA (ticagrelor), the investigational oral antiplatelet treatment for acute coronary syndromes (ACS), has achieved a statistically significant primary efficacy endpoint versus Plavix (clopidogrel), in the prevention of cardiovascular (CV) events in patients with ACS. The primary efficacy measure was time to first occurrence of any event from the composite of myocardial infarction, stroke, and CV death. In PLATO, the overall safety profile for BRILINTA was in line with the safety data observed in the Phase 2 studies.Complete Story »

  William Smead submits:The current circumstances in the U.S. stock market remind me of one of my favorite bands from college, Supertramp, and their song “Nothing But a Dreamer”. It appears that individual investors and many of the financial advisors that take care of them “have their head in their hands, oh no!” This was pointed out to us in one of Mark Hulbert’s columns in the New York Times on Nov. 8th and in a piece put out on Nov. 12th by Hays Advisory’s Mark Dodson. Mark Hulbert’s column explained that the lack of buying interest (in fact recent net selling) of U.S. equity mutual funds and Exchange-Traded Funds could be useful as a short-term contrarian indicator, but is disconcerting from the standpoint of his long-term view of the market. His research, assisted by Ned Davis’s research, concludes that this bull market must see net inflows into equity funds and ETFs at some point to be anything more than the bounce-back rally from the steep decline of October 2007 to March of 2009. The research showed that the stock market generally performs better after inflows into equity funds.Complete Story »

  The United States government has spent trillions of dollars in order to weather the financial crisis. On one hand, the massive fiscal and monetary stimulus has been stimulating the world’s largest economy. But on the other hand it is also likely to undermine long-term growth prospects as the nation will have to take on the burden of a rising federal deficit and national debt.Indeed, the national debt has recently reached $12 trillion, and with the current pace of growth, will probably overpass the overall size of the economy as measured by Gross Domestic Product. Complete Story »

  John Jansen submits: Prices of Treasury coupon securities are registering, on balance, modest changes in overseas trading. The massive wall of liquidity sloshing through the market has driven short rates lower while the longer maturities are unchanged. Against that background, the yield on the 2 year note has edged lower by 2 basis points to 0.68 percent. The yield on the 3 year note has declined 3 basis points to 1.20 percent. The yield on the 5 year note has slipped 1 basis point to 2.14 percent. The yield on the 7 year note has also declined a basis point and rests at 2.85 percent. The 10 year note and the Long Bond are unchanged in yield and are currently at 3.33 percent and 4. 28 percent, respectively.Complete Story »

  Michael Terry submits:Good news for DDR and the CMBS market. DDR has announced their TALF eligible CMBS deal. This should help DDR with their capital raising program as it follows their equity raise through BNY. While it will increase secured debt and reduce unencumbered assets, they have the head room under their debt covenants and this shouldn't push the limits. Unfortunately for unsecured investors, this does encumber some of their best assets.Complete Story »

  Tom Armistead submits:Ben Graham has become associated with a tangible book style of stock picking, where the investor looks to physical assets, particularly cash, for value and margin of security. While he was fascinated by the market inefficiencies that made it possible at times to buy real companies for less than net cash, he also was also aware of the merits of what he called “goodwill giants.”From “The Intelligent Investor,” here is a brief discussion:Complete Story »

  If Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner doesn’t know how to get appropriately compensated for the loans / bailouts that he keeps approving on behalf of the United States Government then he shouldn’t be giving out these loans at all. His mismanagement of these negotiations is wasting our money.For instance last year, when Geithner, then operating through the New York Fed, decided to bailout AIG, the ailing insurance giant was already in negotiations with banks that would have retired their Credit Default Swaps with AIG paying 40 cents on the dollar. Once Geithner took over the negotiations, he instructed AIG to pay 100 cents on the dollar. The flubbed negotiations cost American taxpayers at least $19 billion (i.e. 60% of the $32.5 billion that AIG paid to retire the swaps).Complete Story »

  The debate continues over the direction the Euro will take when it finally breaks out of the current pennant formation. After edging close to the 1.50 level in the European session, the pair has now sold off to the 1.4860 area. There were no significant European economic reports overnight, but we did have the US initial jobless claims report which came in about unchanged, and as expected. Later, we had the index of leading indicators and which was reported by Market Watch: "The index of leading economic indicators rose for the seventh consecutive month in October, showing that a recovery is "unfolding" in the U.S. economy, the private Conference Board said Thursday.Complete Story »

  Jeff Nielson submits:Like all commentators, I am somewhat constrained in what I write about: it has to be a subject in which people have interest. Sure, I could write about Greek mythology or backpacking in Bolivia, but if no one reads it, it becomes a fruitless exercise – and raises that cliché question “if a tree falls in a forest...?” Regular readers will have noticed that I have been writing about precious metals mining companies more often in the last few months – and this is no accident. In my interaction with readers/investors there has been a sharp rise in awareness of and interest in these companies. Complete Story »

  Jim Delaney submits: There is a scene in the movie “Animal House” (which completely rips off Dr. Suess’ “Horton Hears a Who” in one fell swoop but that’s a story for a different day) where a small group is at Professor Riegert’s house and after the room fills with a certain scent the discussion gets a bit heady and the concept that our entire universe could be on the head of a pin in another, larger, universe is proposed. Grand stuff for sure but in the good professor’s case merely an attempt to raise Pinto’s awareness of a world outside of his own “Private Idaho”. So with the perspective one probably only gets while riding in the space shuttle, and I am right here on earth I can assure you, I would present to you this morning a cure for world hunger and it all starts, if can imagine it, with pancakes.Complete Story »

  Dividend Inc. submits: One of the most challenging chart patterns is now upon the Dow Jones Transportation Index (IYT). That chart pattern is the triple top formation. Triple tops can be considered challenging because they imply a three strikes rule of baseball. If the batter swings and misses three times then they're out for that at bat.The triple top usually indicates that investors have, or are about to give up on the particular stock or index. This could be an instance of the market bulls capitulating to whatever forces are at play. One thing is certain, if the downtrend of the Transports continues then we could expect the index to go to the previous low of 3600, which implies a Dow Industrials (DIA) of 9700.Complete Story »