David M. Gordon submits: In God We Trust… To invest requires faith: faith that the markets are fair for all, faith that company executives do not abscond with corporate assets, faith that share prices, in general, trend higher over time. A breach of any one of these beliefs can cause a rupture in systemic confidence, and, as a result, share prices would tumble. This is one reason that, in the wake of The Great Panic of 2008, the balance sheets and income statements of all companies are more closely scrutinized than perhaps ever before, which represents a positive change. … All Others Pay Cash Global security, in the form of lessened societal risk (not increased surveillance) is of paramount importance today. With the fabric of global society frayed, financial investments play the important role of canary in the coal-mine, warbling of increased risk. To purchase shares as price approaches or touches the drawn line of price support remains a buying opportunity; until, that is, the market averages break down beneath the circumscribed crucial line of support. Intra-trend volatility is the process of pricing in all known (current) and unknown (future) risk -- which notion includes financial markets woes such as declining earnings, high PEs, negative chart patterns, even exogenous events such as acts of terrorism, increased trade tariffs, or even World War III (as has been mooted elsewhere) -- until the moment the market averages and indices finally break out (up or down) from their high level consolidations. (Today's high level consolidation is now 12 years, and counting.) The news response syndrome would dictate financial market reaction: Buy on the rumor; sell on the fact. No market prediction inheres in that comment; certainly everyone is aware of the dire state of global affairs and financial markets. That said, the US$ finds itself at a critical juncture. From an investor’s perspective, a continued decline could usher in an increasing investment preference for big-cap consumer companies with a multi-national, international, or global bias. I note the increasing strength of institutional blue chips such as Coca-Cola (KO), Colgate-Palmolive (CL), McDonalds (MCD), etc. For these companies’ shares, a lower US$ value equals potential and probable higher earnings; thus, a rising share price. As global buyers of last resort, American consumers receive the windfall benefit of lower prices via the greater purchasing power of a rising US$. (Americans who travel abroad would realize cheaper prices as well.) Unfortunately, a falling US$, especially should that decline become precipitous, has the potential to create global financial havoc.Complete Story »

  Fred Wilson submits: Back in the early days of web video, it wasn't clear who would win the competition for video upload to the web. There was YouTube, Vimeo, and the big dog was Google Video (GOOG). I tried all of them. YouTube was by far and away the best experience.Google Video required you to wait for days to see the video you uploaded. It was so annoying that I wrote this post exactly four years ago today (how's that for a coincidence?). This line sort of sums it up:Complete Story »

  Macro Man submits: It's been raining cats and dogs for most of the last week (though sadly not during this turgid display, which might have excused the unappetizing fare on offer), so Macro Man has domestic pets on the mind.After a brief respite last week, it feels like every man, woman, cat and and dog in the world has put in a bid for gold, taking the shiny metal/only "real" currency/barbarous relic (delete as appropriate) to fresh all time highs. Or at least, fresh nominal highs.Complete Story »

  George Spritzer submits: H&Q Healthcare Investors (HQH) appears to a be a decent value now within the closed-end fund universe. It is broadly diversified, and primarily invests in biotechnology, medical devices, pharmaceuticals and medical delivery. It also invests a limited portion of the portfolio in smaller, emerging companies and some restricted securities. In their last SEC filing (as of June 30), the top five holdings were: Teva (TEVA), Gilead (GILD), Celgene (CELG), Amgen (AMGN) and Biogen (BIIB). On August 4, the fund discontinued their managed distribution policy. HQH had been paying out 2% of NAV in capital gains distributions every quarter for many years. The purpose of this policy was to narrow the discount to NAV, but the policy was not fully successful and mainly just reduced the NAV of the fund. On August 5, the day after the press release, the discount to NAV jumped up three percent from -17.78% to -20.73%.Complete Story »

  Tom Lydon (ETF Trends) submits: In an effort to differentiate itself from competitors in its line of exchange traded funds, RevenueShares has opted to focus on factors that determine the health of a company in the long run. As the name might imply, revenue is the end-all, be-all in RevenueShares ETFs. Most ETFs weigh holdings by market capitalization, but RevenueShares weights stocks based on sales, reports Alexandra Zendrian of Forbes. Its funds are rebalanced once each year on Sept. 30, because quarterly rebalancing could lead to too many fluctuations.Complete Story »

  Tom Lydon (ETF Trends) submits: Growth in the Middle East is not just limited to its oil industry. Countries in the region are branching out to many different areas of the global market and Middle East related ETFs may soon mirror the economic expansion that comes with diversification.In Dubai, United Arab Emirates, fighter jets will be the focus at an upcoming airshow as Arab countries update their military might, reports Stefania Bianchi for The Wall Street Journal. According to consultancy Frost & Sullivan, defense spending in the Middle East could go above $100 billion by 2010, or 11% of global arms deals. Many leading arms companies believe the region is the up-and-coming place for defense spending.Complete Story »

  Tom Lydon (ETF Trends) submits: Usually relying on a weak currency to improve growth, China is thinking about reversing its stance and strengthening its domestic currency. If China goes through with it, currency traders may soon see an appreciating yuan and currency-related ETF.The Chinese government may let the Chinese yuan appreciate against other currencies, which means better exports and better growth for everyone – except China, reports Jeff Cox for CNBC.Complete Story »

  TechCrunch submits: By Leena RaoDuring IBM’s Q3 earnings call a few weeks ago, IBM CFO Mark Loughridge highlighted business analytics as a sector where Big Blue is investing significant amounts of cash. The company recently acquired data analytics company SPSS for $1.2 billion and business analytics firm RedPill. Tonight, IBM is unveiling a new internal analytics product that the company is touting as the “largest private cloud computing environment for business analytics in the world,” which launches internally with more than a petabyte of information. Along with this internal product, IBM will launch a companion product for clients to build upon this cloud-based architecture, called IBM Smart Analytics Cloud.Complete Story »

  John Jansen submits: Prices of Treasury coupon securities have posted mixed (and seemingly random) results in overseas trading. I am not sure which particular factors influenced trading but there is more data and information to absorb this morning, today and this week than in any similar period recently. The yield on the 2 year note has climbed 2 basis points to 0.82 percent. The yield on the 3 year note has remained staticat 1.35 percent. The 5 year note is also unmoved at 2.25 percent. The yield on the 7 year note declined a basis point to 2.94 percent. The yield on the 7 year note slipped 2 basis points to 3.40 percent. The relative value winner of the session is the Long Bond which has seen its yield fall 3 basis points to 4.32 percent.Complete Story »

  Investor Nirav submits: Gold hit another record last week and was trading over $1,100. However, that didn't prevent several news stories from coming out about how gold is a lousy investment. Investment stalwarts from Warren Buffett to Monish Pabrai have all denounced gold as an investment. And despite the decent performance of gold over the past 10 years, they’re correct. Gold is a lousy investment. It creates no income and just barely keeps up with inflation.Complete Story »

  John Nyaradi submits:The markets remained mixed this week as the general indexes bounced off their recent lows and tried again to challenge, but failed to break out of the upside of the recent trading range. Looking back at the past 30 days, we see leadership in diverse sectors such as China and Short Financials so it’s easy to see the cross currents flowing through this market as people try to figure out if the rally is dying out or gathering new force to break higher above the 1100 level on the S&P 500.Complete Story »

  TechCrunch submits: By Robin WautersNetworking and security services provider 3Com (COMS) got hit by a shareholder class action suit seeking to block the $2.7 billion merger agreement with HP (HPQ) that was announced last week. The core allegation: 3Com was sold off too early, for too little.Complete Story »

  Greentech Media submits: By Ucilia WangSuntech Power (STP) plans to build a factory in the Phoenix area and start production in the third quarter of 2010.Complete Story »

  Michael Johnston submits:Thanks to strong economic recoveries in Germany and France, the 16-country euro zone has now officially exited its worst recession in a half century. According to data released on Friday, the euro zone grew by 0.4% in the third quarter, compared with a 0.2% decline in the second quarter. Although the news strengthened hopes of a sustained global recovery, many European economies continue to contract, facing strong headwinds on their recovery track. While the official end to the recession is welcome news, the economic woes of the continent have not disappeared altogether. Several nations, most notably England, Ireland, and Spain, remain mired in pronounced and prolonged downturns. Even in Germany, which posted a 0.7% gain in GDP, unemployment is expected to increase as the government eases off of programs that have subsidized short-hours shifts at German companies. Last week, Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that “the problems will become bigger before things get better,” anticipating that the German economy will face significant challenges through 2010.Complete Story »