SunEdison Announces Chilean Solar Plant Deal

On Thursday, MEMC Electronic Materials (NYSE: WFR  ) subsidiary SunEdison announced that it has signed an agreement to build Chilean iron miner-cum-steel producer CAP a new solar power plant. And not just any solar power plant, mind you, but "the largest solar photovoltaic power plant in Latin America and one of the largest in the world."

Clocking in at an impressive 100 MW worth of installed capacity, the new plant, to be built in the middle of Chile's Atacama Desert, is expected to supply 15% of CAP's annual energy consumption, cleanly, and at a lower cost than what CAP pays for its energy today.

Financial terms were not disclosed, nor did MEMC say when, precisely, it expects to have the new plant go online. But the "first phase" of the project is expected to be complete before the end of the year.

MEMC shares are up 3% on the news, at $4.14.

Thursday’s movers: Facebook down but pares losses

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) � Shares of JDS Uniphase, JDSU Constellation Brands Inc. and Dow Chemical Co. made big moves during U.S. trading Thursday, while Facebook Inc. and Research In Motion Ltd. were among top trending tickers.

Top tickers trending Reuters Facebook�s spending plan is sparking worries Thursday as stock falls.

$FB: Facebook FB �shares clawed back from steep losses and briefly traded higher before retreating on concerns about the social-media company�s big spending plan for 2013. See: Facebook is mobile, but investors want more

Several analysts downgraded the stock, citing concerns over Facebook�s plan to go on a spending spree. See more on Facebook�s fourth-quarter results.

�We view Facebook as a core long-term �Net stock,� Citigroup analyst Neil Doshi said in a note in which he downgraded its rating to neutral from buy.

�But with plans to invest heavily in the biz in 2013, and little expected contribution from new initiatives like Gifts or Graph Search, we don�t see any near-term catalysts for the stock. And Mobile Ads appear to be cannibalizing Desktop, which further concerns us.� See: Facebook�s spending plan triggers downgrades

TECH
Getty Images
Facebook tops forecasts, but here's what's worrying investors /conga/story/misc/teaser_facebook.html247706

@SkoalDaddy13: What exactly were people expecting from earnings, a miracle $ infusion from the sky?

$RIMM: Investors hoping that Research In Motion RIMM �CA:RIM �would stage a rebound in the wake of steep losses Wednesday were disappointed as U.S.-listed shares extending their decline. The BlackBerry 10, launched on Wednesday, was not the game-changer that the market has been hoping for and the dramatic move by the company to rename itself BlackBerry has not impressed many. See: BlackBerry has short window to prove itself

@lifeIZintrospec: funny move by $RIMM to change their ticker symbol. Investors will have a harder time selling if they cant find it

@asyurei3: People just figure it out now. That $Rimm brought a knife to a gun fight??!??

Gainers

AutoNation Inc. AN �shares rose 6.6% as the automotive retailer reported strong growth in new vehicle sales. The auto dealership chain said fourth-quarter earnings rose to $83.2 million, or 67 cents a share, from $69.4 million, or 49 cents, a year earlier. The company also plans a brand-unification program for its 210 domestic and import franchises. AutoNation profit up 20%

Citrix Systems Inc. CTXS �shares added 10% after the company�s earnings came in better than expected. The business software company said it earned 90 cents a share in the fourth quarter, excluding items. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast Citrix to earn 84 cents a share.

Shares of JDS Uniphase JDSU �jumped 19%. The broadband-products maker swung to a profit in the second quarter, beating the Street�s consensus. See: JDSU swings to profit on communications revenue

Click to Play Facebook lifted by strong ad sales

Facebook reported better-than-expected profit for the fourth quarter with revenue boosted as a result of stronger mobile ad sales. But higher costs dragged down the social network's profit.

Mead Johnson Nutrition Co. MJN �shares gained 12% on the back of a strong rise in quarterly earnings. The maker of nutritional products such as Enfamil said its fourth-quarter earnings jumped to 66 cents a share from 42 cents in the year-earlier quarter. See: Mead Johnson�s profit jumps 57%

Pitney Bowes Inc. PBI �rallied 16% even as the mail-services company reported a fall in fourth-quarter but managed to report record annual revenue growth in its management-services unit.

Decliners

Constellation Brands Inc. STZ �shares sank 18%, at one point triggering Nasdaq�s circuit breaker. The stock�s plunge came after the company said it is not expected to finalize its deal to buy Grupo Modelo�s GPMCY �stake in Crown Imports LLC in the first quarter as had been expected. The comments came in the wake of a move by the Justice Department to block the proposed takeover of Grupo Modelo by Anheuser-Busch InBev NV BUD �on antitrust concerns. Crown Imports distributes Corona beer in the U.S. Meanwhile, U.S.-listed shares of Anheuser-Busch InBev fell 6%. U.S. sues to block Anheuser-Busch deal for Modelo

Dow Chemical Co. DOW �shares fell 5.1% after the company said it swung to a loss in the fourth quarter on nearly $1 billion in restructuring charges. Dow Chemical swings to quarterly loss

Fusion-io Inc. FIO �shares tumbled 15%. The data-storage provider reported on Wednesday that it swung to a second-quarter profit, but released downbeat revenue outlook. Sterne Agee analysts, in a note dated Jan. 30, cut their price target on Fusion-io to $27 from $29.

Harman International Industries Inc. HAR �shares declined 13%. The automobile-stereo-equipment maker earlier Thursday reported a second-quarter profit that shrank to 68 cents a share from 82 cents a share in the same period during fiscal 2012.

Time Warner Cable Inc. TWC �shares shed 10% on weaker earnings. The cable television provider said its fourth-quarter profit fell to $513 million, or $1.68 a share, from $564 million, or $1.75 a share, in the year-earlier quarter. See: Time Warner Cable profit down 9%

Top Stocks To Buy For 1/31/2013-3

General Dynamics Corporation NYSE:GD reported the gain of 0.97%, closed at $69.56 and its total trading volume was 1.98 million shares during the last session. The trailing twelve month return on investment remained 12.24% while its earning per share reached $6.50.

 

Quanta Services, Inc. NYSE:PWR gained 1.01%, closed at $19.94 and its total trading volume was 1.86 million shares during the last session. The trailing twelve month return on investment remained 4.82% while its earning per share reached $0.77.

 

Fluor Corporation (NEW) NYSE:FLR grew 0.34%, closed at $62.24 and its total trading volume was 1.71 million shares during the last session. The trailing twelve month return on investment remained 11.96% while its earning per share reached $2.15.

 

Duoyuan Printing, Inc. NYSE:DYP advanced 13.31%, closed at $3.15 and its total trading volume was 1.59 million shares during the last session. The trailing twelve month return on investment remained 16.17% while its earning per share reached $0.97.

 

Harsco Corporation NYSE:HSC surged 2.70%, closed at $27.39 and its total trading volume was 1.54 million shares during the last session. The trailing twelve month return on investment remained 3.88% while its earning per share reached $1.26.

Tech King Cage Match: Who Wins?

With Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL  ) struggling, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT  ) charging hard, and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG  ) running smooth and steady, it seems like a good time to revisit which company is the true King of Tech. Each of these giants has a legitimate claim on the throne and each brings a different set of strengths and weakness to the table. While the title does not come with any special powers or privileges, the winner belongs in your portfolio.

Microsoft: The return of the king?
Microsoft was once the undisputed leader, with Windows and Office dominating the home and business arenas, but it's been years since the company was considered a real juggernaut. Lately, however, the company has made a significant push to get back in the race with the release of Windows 8 and the Surface tablet, as well as posting solid earnings. Has Microsoft done enough to retake the top spot?

In the most recent quarter, the company beat Bloomberg's average analyst expectation of $0.74 of earnings per share, reporting EPS of $0.76. While net income fell to $6.38 billion -- a 3.7% decline�on a year-over-year basis -- the company had solid results in most operating units on revenue of $21.46 billion. The hard numbers look solid and certainly stable, but not necessarily enough to garner the crown.

The company was reserved in sharing specific sales figures�for either the Surface tablet or Windows 8, but the device has received only a lukewarm response. One of the most important (but least covered) stories of 2013 is the need for many IT departments to finally upgrade beyond Windows XP. IDC analyst Bob O'Donnell�believes that these upgrades will be accomplished through the purchase of new machines -- a real positive for Microsoft, which will discontinue XP support soon.

Finally, with the Surface Pro due to be released on Feb. 9, Microsoft may finally be able to put up some big numbers on the hardware side. Until then, however, while Microsoft is fighting back, it has a ways to go before it should be considered the king. Still, the stock looks attractive at current levels and deserves an allocation.

Apple: A fall from grace
Since Apple hit its all-time high above $700, the stock has gotten slammed back to reality. The final hit came after the company announced that it had sold 47.8 million iPhones in the most recent quarter, a mere 29% increase on a year-over-year basis�. The market had been hoping to breach the 50 million unit level, and dropped the stock down an additional 12% on the news. The stock is now down over 35% since September.

On the positive side, the numbers out of China are promising. The company sold more than twice as many iPhones there that it did a year ago, and grew revenue to $7.3 billion, a 60% increase from a year earlier. The region promises to be a critical growth engine for the company, which reported it will now specifically break out the region when it reports critical statistics.

In its bid for the throne, however, Apple likely pulls up a little short. The precipitous drop in the price of the stock, coupled with letting down the market -- as unrealistic as those expectations may have been -- is not crown-worthy. While Apple had a brief glimpse at the title, it is not ready to be called the King of Tech.

Google: Slow and steady wins again
When Google reported earnings last week, the numbers were well received by the market. The company beat the Thompson Reuters consensus estimate of $10.42 of EPS on $12.34 billion of revenue;�the company reported EPS of $10.59. Net income was up to $2.89 billion from $2.71 billion a year ago. With a year-over-year increase in revenue of 36% based on consolidated Google-Motorola results, the stock climbed 5% on the news.

Google, which is highly reliant on advertising clicks for revenue, saw a 6% decline in the average cost per click it was able to command. While this is a reason for some concern, total clicks jumped 24% on a year-over-year basis and 9% sequentially. Google is finding growth in advertising, even as other critical areas continue to march ahead.

Google's Android is the landslide victor in smartphones, commanding a 68.3% market share as of IDC's 2012 report. Recently, the company's Nexus 7 tablet became the best-selling tablet in Japan, the first market in which the company was able to beat out Apple's iPad. A recent report put the Nexus 7 market share at 44.1% relative to 40.1% for iPad. Overall, Google seems to be firing on all cylinders with no signs of slowing.

The crown belongs to...
The combination of the above metrics and Google's increased presence in the cloud and beyond makes the company the veritable King of Tech. The victory feels somewhat anticlimactic given that Apple all but took itself out of contention on numbers that most companies would kill for. Still Google continues to keep plugging along and dominating wherever it competes. As such, Google is an absolute buy for your portfolio.

Dig deeper
As one of the most dominant Internet companies ever, Google has made a habit of driving strong returns for its shareholders. That's why it's more important than ever to understand each piece of Google's sprawling empire. In The Motley Fool's new premium research report on Google, we break down the risks and potential rewards for Google investors. Simply click here now to unlock your copy of this invaluable resource, and you'll receive a bonus year's worth of key updates and expert guidance as news continues to develop.

Energy Stocks: Energy stocks down, Chesapeake gains on CEO exit

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) � Energy stocks turned lower on Wednesday, with Chesapeake Energy Corp. holding on to gains on news its embattled chief executive announced his retirement.

Shares of Chesapeake CHK ended 6% higher, having rallied more than 10% in early trading. The natural gas producer announced late Tuesday that Chief Executive Aubrey McClendon has agreed to retire on April 1.

Chesapeake CEO Aubrey McClendon is retiring April 1

McClendon, a co-founder of the Oklahoma City-based company, stepped down as chairman last year amid allegations of conflict of interest. An investigation cleared him, but �the time has come for the company to select a new leader,� Chesapeake said.

Refiner Phillips 66 PSX also topped gainers on Wednesday, on the heels of a fourth-quarter profit decline. The company, however, raised its annual dividend by 25% and added a share buyback. Shares rose 1.5%.

Phillips 66 reported a profit of $708 million, or $1.11 a share, down from $2.01 billion, or $3.17 a share, a year earlier. Excluding write-downs and other items, earnings were up at $2.06 from 60 cents. Revenue decreased 11% to $44.67 billion on fewer asset-sale gains. Analysts projected per-share earnings around $1.68.

/quotes/zigman/185808/quotes/nls/pxd PXD 116.21, -1.16, -0.99% Pioneer Natural Resources Co.

Shares of Pioneer Natural Resources Co. PXD declined 1%. The company has agreed to sell 40% of its stake in the Wolfcamp shale field in Texas� Permian Basin to Chinese conglomerate Sinochem Group for $1.7 billion, a move Pioneer said will accelerate development in the area.

Marathon Petroleum Corp. MPC shares rose 1.3% after the company posted fourth-quarter results that beat analyst expectations. The company reported a profit of $755 million, or $2.24 a share, compared with a loss of $75 million, or 21 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding items such as pension settlement expenses, per-share earnings were $2.26. Analysts expected per-share results of $2.10.

Marathon Petroleum�s sales and revenue were up 6.5% year over year to $20.68 billion.

Shares of Hess Corp. HES were down 0.4%, after a two-day rally on Elliott Management�s push for a company shake-up and the announcement of asset sales.

Enlarge Image Hess Corp. Port Reading refinery and terminal in New Jersey

Hess on Wednesday reported a profit of $566 million, or $1.66 a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $131 million, or 39 cents a share.

Revenue increased 9.9% to $9.7 billion. Analysts expected earnings around $1.20 a share on revenue of $9.63 billion.

Hess was in the headlines Monday and Tuesday after it said it was planning to sell a New Jersey refinery and other assets. On Tuesday, the hedge fund sent a scathing letter to Hess shareholders calling for more changes at the oil and gas company and more focus on exploration.

Big Oil shares were also among the day�s laggards, with Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM down 1.2%. Macquarie has cut Exxon Mobil shares to neutral from outperform, Dow Jones Newswires reported.

Rival Chevron Corp. CVX was down 0.7%. ConocoPhillips COP shares were off 0.9%.

ConocoPhillips is slated to report fourth-quarter results later Wednesday. The company is seen reporting earnings of $1.42 a share, down from $1.54 a share in the same quarter of 2011, on revenue of nearly $12.7 billion.

Exxon and Chevron are expected to report Feb. 1, with Exxon seen posting a profit of $1.99 a share, up 2 cents from $1.97 a share in the same period of 2011. Revenue for the quarter is seen slipping to $117 billion from $121 billion.

Chevron is expected to report earnings of $3.07 per share, up from $2.58 a share a year earlier, on $68.3 billion in revenue.

The SPDR Energy Select Sector XLE , an exchange fund focused on energy names, declined 0.5%. Crude-oil futures CLH3 rose 0.4% at $97.94 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Samsung Q3 Profits Miss

Samsung Electronics today reported preliminary Q3 results that were short of Street expectations.

The company said it had sales in the quarter of 40 trillion won – about $35.9 billion – with operating income of 4.8 trillion won – about $4.3 billion. Bloomberg notes that the Street consensus was for profits of 5.03 trillion won.

The disappointing results are the latest signs that demand for technology products in the latest quarter was not as robust as investors had hoped.

In Korean trading, Samsung shares fell 23,000 won, or 2.9%, to 77,000.

Black Box Crushes Earnings Estimates

Black Box (Nasdaq: BBOX  ) reported earnings on Jan. 29. Here are the numbers you need to know.

The 10-second takeaway
For the quarter ended Dec. 29 (Q3), Black Box beat expectations on revenues and crushed expectations on earnings per share.

Compared to the prior-year quarter, revenue dropped and GAAP earnings per share grew.

Gross margins grew, operating margins dropped, net margins grew.

Revenue details
Black Box notched revenue of $252.1 million. The one analyst polled by S&P Capital IQ looked for sales of $244.0 million on the same basis. GAAP reported sales were 8.6% lower than the prior-year quarter's $275.9 million.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Dollar amounts in millions. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.

EPS details
EPS came in at $0.79. The one earnings estimate compiled by S&P Capital IQ predicted $0.64 per share. GAAP EPS were $0.52 for Q3 versus -$16.12 per share for the prior-year quarter.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.

Margin details
For the quarter, gross margin was 32.4%, 40 basis points better than the prior-year quarter. Operating margin was 5.9%, 220 basis points worse than the prior-year quarter. Net margin was 3.4%, 10,610 basis points better than the prior-year quarter.

Looking ahead
Next quarter's average estimate for revenue is $243.3 million. On the bottom line, the average EPS estimate is $0.63.

Next year's average estimate for revenue is $995.3 million. The average EPS estimate is $2.48.

Investor sentiment
The stock has a four-star rating (out of five) at Motley Fool CAPS, with 67 members out of 79 rating the stock outperform, and 12 members rating it underperform. Among 19 CAPS All-Star picks (recommendations by the highest-ranked CAPS members), 18 give Black Box a green thumbs-up, and one give it a red thumbs-down.

Of Wall Street recommendations tracked by S&P Capital IQ, the average opinion on Black Box is buy, with an average price target of $29.00.

Internet software and services are being consumed in radically different ways, on increasingly mobile devices. Does Black Box fit in anymore? Check out the company that Motley Fool analysts expect to lead the pack in "The Next Trillion-dollar Revolution." Click here for instant access to this free report.

• Add Black Box to My Watchlist.

How Technology Drives Inspiration

In the following video, Motley Fool analyst Brendan Byrnes sits down with Maynard Webb, author of Rebooting Work: Transform How You Work in the Age of Entrepreneurship.

Finding innovative companies to invest in for the new age of entrepreneurship can be as easy as investing in your own backyard. Our free report, "3 American Companies Set to Dominate the World," shows you how. Click here to get your free copy before it's gone.

Brendan Byrnes: So let's talk about how technology plays a role in that. How can technology help empower people to get to that, empower employers also to make that happen?

Maynard Webb: Well technology is -- I think technology is huge to this whole movement. If you take a look at what the net, social Cloud and mobile have done, we break all the boundaries. You no longer need to be only in one location. You can work from wherever you are and that lets you hire talent from all over the globe, and it also lets you live as an employee wherever you want and work from wherever you want. So you now have way more choice than ever before.

Goldman Sachs: The Vampire Squid is Back!

Goldman Sachs, who Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone memorably called a, “great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money,” is back up to its old tricks.

The day before Apple released its quarterly earnings report, lost $60 billion in market value and fell behind Exxon Mobil as the most valuable company, Goldman Sachs sold $30 million worth of structured bonds tied to Apple's stock performance.

The same day, Bill Shope, Goldman's Apple equities specialist, was predicting company shares would hit $760 in 2013. Two days later and a day after the earnings report, he revised his target down a whopping 20% to $600.

Unlike the housing bubble and collateralized debt obligations fiasco Taibbi referred to, there is at least some semblance of plausible deniability, whether by chance or design.

According to a Goldman Sachs spokesperson, the securities department that managed the sale is completely “walled off” from the research department for which Shope works.

As you can imagine, there is no word on whether there was any upper management knowledge or oversight of the conflicting research and securities department actions.

The securities were issued on January 22nd with a 10% per year yield, plus any gains of the stock up to 11.25% based on a share value of around $505. If Apple dropped, the notes provide no protection against losses.

Whoever bought the securities suffered through the 8% drop in share prices within two days and Goldman Sachs made $30 million betting against its own guidance. It looks like risk just happened to be perfectly managed with uncanny timing, if that can be believed.

 

Morgan Stanley Nabs 5 UBS Advisors

Morgan Stanley (MS) said late Tuesday that it recruited one advisor and one team from UBS (UBS) recently with close to $4.5 million in combined fees & commission and $750 million in total assets.

Kevin Cooper joined Morgan Stanley in Boca Raton, Fla. He has had $1.6 million in yearly production and prior assets of $400 million, and now reports to complex manager Bert White.

The Ryan Group -- John Ryan, David Nelson, James Gallagher and Philip Martinho – came on board Morgan Stanley in Shrewsbury, N.J. The team, which now reports to branch manager Todd Sacks, has combined production of $2.84 million and prior assets of $350 million.

In mid-January, Morgan Stanley -- which is led by James Gorman (left) -- said it would cut 1,600 jobs, mainly in its investment banking and other institutional-services operations in the United States and overseas.

In the fourth quarter, the firm said it had 16,780 FAs, down 29 reps from the prior quarter and off 4% from last year’s tally of 17,512. Average annualized revenue per rep, though, was $824,000, an improvement of 4% from the prior quarter and 13% from last year.

UBS is set to report its latest quarterly and annual earnings on Feb. 5. In late December, it agreed to pay more than $1.5 billion to authorities in the United States, United Kingdom and Switzerland over LIBOR manipulation and related charges. It also disclosed that the resolution of these regulatory and legal issues should result in a fourth-quarter net loss of up to $2.7 billion.

Despite these setbacks, UBS recruited a team with four advisors and about $2.8 million in production from Morgan Stanley in mid-January.

And Raymond James (RJF) grabbed two Morgan Stanley teams over the past week with a total of nearly $1.64 million in yearly fees and some $216 million in combined assets.

Best Stocks To Invest In 1/30/2013-1

LONDON, Oct. 10, 2012 (CRWENewswire) — TagLikeMe Corp. (“TagLikeMe” or “the Company”) (TAGG) announces that as a result of inquiries made by the British Columbia Securities Commission (“BCSC”), the Company is making the following news release:

1. The Company has experienced a significant increase in trading volume over the past week accounting for a total trading volume of 467,202,800 shares. During that same period there have been no changes in the Company’s affairs that warranted such an increase.

2. There are no promotional efforts being made by the issuer or its officers, directors or employees and all material information regarding the issuer and its product have been disclosed by the issuer in its public filings, in press releases, or on its website at www.taglikemecorp.com.

3. Neither the issuer, nor any of its officers and directors are aware of any activity (corporate or otherwise), investor relations activity or a promotional campaign that may be responsible for the increase.

4. Neither the issuer, nor any of its officers and directors are aware of anyone who is funding a promotional campaign, running a promotional campaign or proposing to do so in connection with the Company.

Under the request of the BCSC, the shares of TagLikeMe Corp. are halted for trading in British Columbia while the Commission carries out further investigation into the nature of the trading.

The Company cautions investors to rely only on information regarding the issuer coming from its public filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission and on SEDAR, in our press releases or on the corporate website.

For more information see www.TagLikeMeCorp.com.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This press release may contain certain “forward-looking statements” relating to the business of TagLikeMe Corp.. All statements, other than statements of historical fact included herein are “forward-looking statements” including statements regarding the advantages of TagLikeMe’s products and services, anticipated advantages resulting from the merger, whether funding anticipated from completing the merger will result,, successful completion and development of the social media component of the business and its market acceptance, the business strategy, plans and objectives of the Company and TagLikeMe Corp.; and any other statements of non-historical information. These forward-looking statements are often identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “believes,” “expects”, “intended” or similar expressions, involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, they do involve assumptions, risks and uncertainties, and these expectations may prove to be incorrect. Investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company’s actual results and ultimate corporate actions could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors, including the perception of investors of the newly merged company and their willingness to fund this newly public company, the demand for a social media site and viability of it for advertising, new products and services developed by other companies, market share garnered by competitors, ability to maintain customer and vendor relationships, and those factors discussed in the Company’s periodic reports that are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on its website (http://www.sec.gov), among other factors. All forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these factors. Other than as required under the securities laws, the Company does not assume a duty to update these forward-looking statements.

THIS IS NOT A RECOMMENDATION TO BUY OR SELL ANY SECURITY!

SDN is not OpenFlow, but OpenFlow is a real disruption - 08:00 AM

(gigaom.com) -- If 2012 was the year that software-defined networking sold out, then 2013 should be the year that the big players in the industry recognize that their efforts to neutralize the threat of OpenFlow and the coming commoditization of networking hardware are doomed to failure. I’m sure that many people will declare me wrong, but the promise of SDN and the promise of OpenFlow are different.

Software-defined networking doesn’t require OpenFlow. And it will still make a network programmable and responsive in ways that both scaled-out web-services providers and enterprise customers dealing with virtualization will appreciate. But it won’t necessarily affect the underlying networking hardware in the same way OpenFlow can. However, OpenFlow — the protocol that aims to separate the intelligence required to route a packet from the act of moving a packet– can commoditize the switches and routers. And it will have a big impact on the networking vendors such as Cisco, Arista and Juniper.

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But it’s early: the promise of real, commodity-based networking gear will not dissipate. Stu Bailey, the CTO of Infoblox told me last week as his company was launching new software-based networking products that the emphasis on specialized chips and networking hardware is doomed. Both cloud and the enterprise networks are becoming increasingly complicated; not just because of virtualization and scale, but also because of the increasing number of devices at the edge. Smartphones are pressuring networks, but adding sensors and other connected devices as integral business equipment, will require some serious thinking about networking hardware and cost.

“How quickly will a large healthcare org realize that the network is not the collection of routers and switches, but is instead these things connected to the network?” asked Bailey. “And how they interact fundamentally and how they are secured is responsible for the business. With that awareness they need SDN economics and OpenFlow will hasten that.” Hence InfoBlox’s decision to focus on software — software that is OpenFlow compatible.

Others, such as Jim Theodoras, director of technical marketing at ADVA, an optical provider to data centers, have expressed similar thoughts. Theodora has also expressed frustration that so far the message of router and hardware commoditization has been ignored. But for the most part, the existing products on the market and their associated marketing and product managers have been good at loudly shouting down the camp of people who see OpenFlow as a legitimate threat to the hardware makers. And it’s not just marketing. There are many obstacles to deploying an OpenFlow-based networking infrastructure.

One obstacle, other than just getting the gear to work, is that the current chips sold by merchant silicon providers aren’t ready to support the most recent and faster versions of OpenFlow. NoviFlow, a startup in Montreal, that just announced an OpenFlow compatible switch that processes information at 100 gigabits per second per second — a significant amount of capacity when we’re talking about the data center market — went with specialty networking processors. It couldn’t build such a high capacity OpenFlow switch with existing chips, so it used network processors from EZChip. It’s still using a specialty chip to make its boxes, much like Cisco and Juniper do.

Marc LeClerc, NoviFlow’s VP of strategy and marketing is anticipating that day, explaining that NoviFlow has a high-end switch, but that it expects customers to also purchase lower-end gear that they will expect will work with the NoviFlow products. And when that day comes, the question is what kind of shakeout we’ll see in the networking world.

“When the world went over from mainframes to client-server it was a huge shift and plenty of companies that used to play in that market like Wang and DEC are no longer around anymore,” Bailey said.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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• The promise of SDNs in the enterprise
• Cloud computing infrastructure: 2012 and beyond
• Infrastructure Q1: IaaS Comes Down to Earth; Big Data Takes Flight

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3 Stocks to Get on Your Watchlist

I follow quite a lot of companies, so the usefulness of a watchlist to me cannot be overstated. Without my watchlist, I'd be unable to keep up on my favorite sectors and see what's really moving the market. Even worse, I'd be lost when the time came to choose which stock I'm buying or shorting next.

Today is Watchlist Wednesday, so I'm discussing three companies that have crossed my radar in the past week -- and at what point I may consider taking action on these calls with my own money. Keep in mind that these aren't concrete buy or sell recommendations, nor do I guarantee I'll take action on the companies being discussed weekly. What I can promise is that you can follow my real-life transactions through my profile and that I, like everyone else here at The Motley Fool, will continue to hold the integrity of our disclosure policy in the highest regard.

Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM  )
If there was ever a perfect time to consider buying puts, this could be it!

Research In Motion has more than doubled from its lows as its cash burn has been lower than expected and its long-delayed BlackBerry 10 smartphones, which run on a new operating system, are set to make their debut in a matter of weeks. Optimism is high that RIM will be able to do with its BB10 what Nokia (NYSE: NOK  ) did with the Lumia and bite into an expanding market of nearly insatiable smartphone demand.

Unfortunately, I just don't see that happening and feel RIM could end up losing about half of its value if BB10 sales aren't absolutely phenomenal. A new smartphone should help RIM with a much-needed sales boost, but I figure on that being short-lived as faithful BlackBerry�consumers are few and far between. Even within the enterprise space, RIM is beginning to lose its stronghold.

Then there's that little bit about cash burn and profitability. Nokia, for instance, boasts $6.25 billion in net cash as compared to the $2.73 billion RIM boasts. Nokia has multiple other business segments to rely on -- networking and its Navteq mapping technology -- and, including the success it's had with the Lumia thus far, when combined with its restructuring efforts, should be profitable in the upcoming year. RIM, on the other hand, could burn cash as it spends heavily to promote the BB10, has no other businesses to rely on, isn't going to be profitable in the upcoming year, and would have to resort to patent sales if it wanted to raise cash. This has short-sale written all over it!

Arena Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ARNA  )
I've thought a few times about taking the dive into Arena because of its potential blockbuster chronic weight management drug, Belviq. Last week, the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use, or CHMP, raised concerns about a potential Belviq approval in Europe and could be setting Arena up for the same fate as its competitor, VIVUS (NASDAQ: VVUS  ) : a rejection.

The major concerns for the European panel revolved around tumors that developed in rats during trials, valvulopathy, and psychiatric events. Fool Keith Speights noted that the CHMP requested information on the tumors and valvulopathy in its Day 180 List of issues, but apparently the questions weren't answered to CHMP's satisfaction.

VIVUS' Qsymia was ultimately rejected because of CHMP's concerns and Belviq may be staring down a similar rejection if it can't properly address the panels' concerns. However, Belviq's also shown a relatively good safety profile -- at least from its studies -- that would suggest an ultimate approval in Europe, or at least an approval in the EU prior to Qsymia.

The big question mark in this sector has to do with insurance coverage. Aetna is already on board with VIVUS and Arena, and these two will need more insurers to join to reduce the out-of-pocket costs that patients seem unwilling to pay.

Overall, I'm not ready to pull the trigger on Arena just yet, but a few more drops like what we saw last week and I could be seriously interested. With the company having a solid partner in Eisai, I project Arena to be the leader in anti-obesity sales within a year.

Ebix (NASDAQ: EBIX  )
There are few certainties in the market; however, if you throw "insurance" anywhere in your business description, your earnings multiple gets repeatedly beaten back into the single digits.

OK, so perhaps that's a bit presumptuous, but Ebix, an on-demand software and e-commerce solutions provider that allows enterprises to process insurance information, just can't seem to catch a break despite an uptick in its bottom line. To be fair, Ebix went on an acquisition spree over the past year, so much of its growth is due to those acquisitions and not entirely organic.

Still, the prospect for growth is incredible if the company can somehow take advantage of the expected boom in the health care sector next year. Ebix's software seems perfectly tailored for creating the type of marketplace needed for consumers and enterprises to interact in order to create the fair-pricing that the Affordable Care Act hopes to achieve.

Ebix ended the quarter with $31 million in cash and appears ready to continue making purchases to drive growth. As my Foolish colleague Alex Planes points out, acquisitions of this magnitude rarely occur without hiccups, but Ebix is nonetheless an attractive value play worth watching at these levels.

Foolish roundup
Is my bullishness or bearishness misplaced? Share your thoughts in the comments section below, and consider following my cue by using these links to add these companies to your free personalized Watchlist to keep up on the latest news with each company:

• Add Research In Motion to My Watchlist.
• Add Arena Pharmaceuticals to My Watchlist.
• Add Ebix to My Watchlist.

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who has the fattest profits of them all?
The potential market for obesity drugs is massive, but so are the risks. If you're looking for more information on the top two obesity drug players, grab copies of our premium research reports on�Arena Pharmaceuticals�and�VIVUS�today. In the reports, our senior biotech analyst, Brian Orelli, Ph.D., breaks down each company's strengths and weaknesses, and explains the critical issues you need to know about. News in this space moves fast, so both reports come with a full year of updates.�Click now for exclusive information on Arena�and�VIVUS.

4 Red Flags for This Patent Troll

Investing in patent trolls -- companies that aggressively and opportunistically sue larger companies for patent infringement -- has become a popular strategy with investors recently. After seeing�Vringo's�stock rise almost 250% in 2012, investors are eager for exposure to more patent enforcement cases.�This has led them to bid up the shares of Parkervision� (NASDAQ: PRKR  ) 67% in the past three months.�

Parkervision, based in Jacksonville, Fla., designs radio frequency technologies for use in wireless semiconductor circuits. Presently, Parkervision is engaged in a legal battle with Qualcomm�over patent infringement, and some investors are seeing dollar signs. I'm less�enthusiastic, especially�after reviewing the history and financial metrics of the company. Below are four major red flags that investors need to consider before investing in Parkervision.

1. Cash burn
Parkervision generates no revenue and no profits. And, it's burning cash at an alarming rate. Over the past year, its operating cash was negative $13.4 million -- lawyers aren't cheap! �At that rate of cash burn, the company will exhaust its current supply of cash in a year.�If the company is to survive, it will need to raise additional capital, which leads into my second red flag.

2. Dilution
Management treats the company's shares like toilet paper. According to Capital IQ, the company's weighted average shares outstanding were 8.7 million in 1994. As�of its last 10-Q, the�company has 82.9 million shares outstanding -- an increase of almost 10 times. �In other words, if you owned 10% of the company 20 years ago, you'd own just over 1% of the company today. �And, it's not like you'd have gotten a smaller slice of a bigger pie -- you'd have a smaller slice of a smaller pie.

3. Management's 20-year track record
Management, led by CEO Jeffrey Parker, has done a horrendous job of creating shareholder value over 20 years. The company has generated losses every year since 1993. �It has never paid a dividend.�Since its IPO 20 years ago, the stock has lost 50% of its value while the S&P 500 index advanced 237%.�

4. Low CAPS rating
As Fool Brian D. Pacampara pointed out in September 2012, Parkervision�received�the dreaded one-star rating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community. Over 100 All-Star Players have rated Parkervision, and more than 90% predict that it will�underperform�the S&P 500. �Here's what member MMCapitalMgmt had to say:

Since 1993, the company has only lost money, both in the form of net income/earnings for shareholders and cash flow from operations.�How is this company even in business? It consistently burns cash and contributes losses for shareholders.�There isn't a possible way in which PRKR will not continue heading toward zero. By any valuation metric, the only value of the company is its existing assets.

Foolish bottom line
Parkervision has wantonly destroyed shareholder value over 20 years. The company has never been able to generate profits in the marketplace with its technology and patents. Now, management expects to monetize the patents via lawsuits. After reviewing the company's historical performance and management's track record, I'm very skeptical. I'd advise that Fools proceed with extreme caution.

2013 and beyond
The Motley Fool's chief investment officer has selected his No. 1 stock for the next year. Find out which stock it is in our brand-new free report: "The Motley Fool's Top Stock for 2013." I invite you to take a copy, free for a limited time. Just click here to access the report and find out the name of this under-the-radar company.

Amazon Jumps 10%: Q4 Misses, Q1 Rev View Misses

Amazon.com�(AMZN) this afternoon reported Q4 revenue and earnings per share that missed Street estimates, and forecast this quarter’s revenue lower as well.

Revenue in the three months ended in December rose 22%, year over year, to $21.27 billion, yielding EPS of 21 cents.

Analysts had been modeling $22.26 billion and 28 cents a share.

CEO Jeff Bezos�remarked, “�We�re now seeing the transition we�ve been expecting. After 5 years, eBooks is a multi-billion dollar category for us and growing fast � up approximately 70% last year.”

“In contrast, our physical book sales experienced the lowest December growth rate in our 17 years as a book seller, up just 5%. We’re excited and very grateful to our customers for their response to Kindle and our ever expanding ecosystem and selection.�

The company said its�Kindle Fire HD was once again the best-selling item of all items during the quarter, without disclosing unit sales:

For the second year in a row, Amazon�s tablet was the most popular item for customers � Kindle Fire HD continued its run as the #1 best-selling, most gifted, and most wished for product across the millions of items available on Amazon worldwide. At year-end, Kindle Fire HD, Kindle Fire, Kindle Paperwhite and Kindle held the top four spots on the Amazon worldwide best seller charts since launch.

For the�current quarter, the company sees revenue in a range of $15 billion to $16 billion, below the consensus for $16.9 billion.

The company expects�operating income in the quarter to decline from $192 million in the year-earlier period to a range of negative�$285 million to positive $65 million, it said.

Amazon management will host a�conference call with analysts at 5 pm, Eastern time, and you can catch the webcast of it here.

Amazon shares are up $15.68, or 7%, at $276.10 late trading.

Update:�The shares have added to gains and are now up $27.12, or 10.4%, at $287.47.

Has Viasystems Group Made You Any Real Money?

Although business headlines still tout earnings numbers, many investors have moved past net earnings as a measure of a company's economic output. That's because earnings are very often less trustworthy than cash flow, since earnings are more open to manipulation based on dubious judgment calls.

Earnings' unreliability is one of the reasons Foolish investors often flip straight past the income statement to check the cash flow statement. In general, by taking a close look at the cash moving in and out of the business, you can better understand whether the last batch of earnings brought money into the company, or merely disguised a cash gusher with a pretty headline.

Calling all cash flows
When you are trying to buy the market's best stocks, it's worth checking up on your companies' free cash flow once a quarter or so, to see whether it bears any relationship to the net income in the headlines. That's what we do with this series. Today, we're checking in on Viasystems Group (Nasdaq: VIAS  ) , whose recent revenue and earnings are plotted below.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Data is current as of last fully reported fiscal quarter. Dollar values in millions. FCF = free cash flow. FY = fiscal year. TTM = trailing 12 months.

Over the past 12 months, Viasystems Group burned $5.9 million cash while it booked a net loss of $32.8 million. That means it burned through all its revenue and more. That doesn't sound so great.

All cash is not equal
Unfortunately, the cash flow statement isn't immune from nonsense, either. That's why it pays to take a close look at the components of cash flow from operations, to make sure that the cash flows are of high quality. What does that mean? To me, it means they need to be real and replicable in the upcoming quarters, rather than being offset by continual cash outflows that don't appear on the income statement (such as major capital expenditures).

For instance, cash flow based on cash net income and adjustments for non-cash income-statement expenses (like depreciation) is generally favorable. An increase in cash flow based on stiffing your suppliers (by increasing accounts payable for the short term) or shortchanging Uncle Sam on taxes will come back to bite investors later. The same goes for decreasing accounts receivable; this is good to see, but it's ordinary in recessionary times, and you can only increase collections so much. Finally, adding stock-based compensation expense back to cash flows is questionable when a company hands out a lot of equity to employees and uses cash in later periods to buy back those shares.

So how does the cash flow at Viasystems Group look? Take a peek at the chart below, which flags questionable cash flow sources with a red bar.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Data is current as of last fully reported fiscal quarter. Dollar values in millions. TTM = trailing 12 months.

When I say "questionable cash flow sources," I mean items such as changes in taxes payable, tax benefits from stock options, and asset sales, among others. That's not to say that companies booking these as sources of cash flow are weak, or are engaging in any sort of wrongdoing, or that everything that comes up questionable in my graph is automatically bad news. But whenever a company is getting more than, say, 10% of its cash from operations from these dubious sources, investors ought to make sure to refer to the filings and dig in.

With 33.6% of operating cash flow coming from questionable sources, Viasystems Group investors should take a closer look at the underlying numbers. Within the questionable cash flow figure plotted in the TTM period above, other operating activities (which can include deferred income taxes, pension charges, and other one-off items) provided the biggest boost, at 22.0% of cash flow from operations. Overall, the biggest drag on FCF came from capital expenditures.

A Foolish final thought
Most investors don't keep tabs on their companies' cash flow. I think that's a mistake. If you take the time to read past the headlines and crack a filing now and then, you're in a much better position to spot potential trouble early. Better yet, you'll improve your odds of finding the underappreciated home-run stocks that provide the market's best returns.

Looking for alternatives to Viasystems Group? It takes more than great companies to build a fortune for the future. Learn the basic financial habits of millionaires next door and get focused stock ideas in our free report, "3 Stocks That Will Help You Retire Rich." Click here for instant access to this free report.

We can help you keep tabs on your companies with My Watchlist, our free, personalized stock tracking service.

• Add Viasystems Group to My Watchlist.

10-year Treasury yield testing 2% for first time since May

The new risk-on trade that has driven the S&P 500 above the 1,500 mark for the first time in more than five years also is forcing Treasury bond yields to move against the best intentions of central bankers.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond is hovering around 2%, which is a level it hasn't seen since May. It represents a huge recovery from the 1.4% bottom it hit in July.

However, while the Treasury yield bump does reflect a shifting of money toward riskier assets, it doesn't necessarily represent a major shift in the direction of interest rates, according to Robert Tipp, chief investment strategist for fixed income at Prudential Financial Inc.

“Everybody is clearly primed for that shift from bonds to stocks, but I think right now, we're still mostly seeing a shift from cash to stocks,” he said. “It's not surprising to see Treasury yields rise as people start to acknowledge the better news that's out there.”

Among the points driving the more bullish spirit are improved economic data from both Europe and the United States, as well as positive developments out of Washington related to taxing and spending policies, Mr. Tipp said.

However, the market previously has seen similar Treasury bond mini-rallies that ultimately fizzled out, he said.

“This is how it has been every year for the past few years,” Mr. Tipp said. “Things start off looking really good, but the last two years we've had a mid-year drop-off in the data.”

The Treasury market is expected to be particularly sensitive to a raft of economic data coming out this week, according to Dan Heckman, a senior fixed-income strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management.

The data stream kicked off Monday with durable-goods numbers coming in at a level about three times higher than the market was expecting.

On Tuesday, the market will absorb key housing and consumer confidence data, followed by employment data Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

“I've never seen a week so heavy in economic data, and I think the Treasury market will be sensitive to it,” said Mr. Heckman, who also will be watching the bond market's appetite for a new issuance of Treasury bonds, scheduled for this week.

“This week will be a good poll for how 2012 ended and for how 2013 will take off,” he said.

The consensus forecast, according to a Bloomberg survey, is for the 10-year Treasury to finish the year yielding 2.2%, which is about where the yield was in March.

That makes perfect sense to Russ Koesterich, global chief investment strategist at BlackRock Inc.

In a report released Monday morning, he described the rising Treasury bond yields as the start of the “long-awaited back-up in rates.”

“We expect yields to rise in a slow erratic process over 2013, climbing to perhaps 2.25%,” Mr. Koesterich wrote.

Of course, he also acknowledged the force preventing yields from taking off, which boils down to the continuing Treasury buying binge by central banks.

Any subtle move away from the safety of Treasury bonds by individuals and institutional investors is offset by the pace of central bank bond buying, including the purchase of $85 billion per month in Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities by the Federal Reserve.

The Fed's balance sheet is now at an all-time high of $3 trillion.

Another factor likely to keep Treasury yields in check indirectly is the new and still largely unrealized reality of higher taxes.

“There has been a lot of good economic data recently, but it's all backward-looking data,” Mr. Tipp said. “Keep in mind that we just had a tax increase in the U.S., and we will find out soon what kind of an impact that will have on retail sales.”

In essence, any indicators of slower economic growth could put the brakes on the risk-on move by investors, thus moving money back into the safety of Treasury bonds and bringing yields back down in short order.

Jeff BenjaminEmail Jeff@twitterLinkedIn
Jeff Benjamin covers investment strategies in his award-winning column, Investment Insights, and also dives deep into the minds of leading portfolio managers in his regular column, Portfolio Manager Perspectives.

Amazon earnings decline, but sales gain

MARKETWATCH FRONT PAGE

Amazon�s shares jump as operating profit, a key measure of online retailer�s business, climbs 56% in the fourth quarter. See full story.

Is your ergonomic desk trying to kill you?

Workstations designed for fitness can lead to typos and even falls. See full story.

RIM is betting the house on the BlackBerry 10

Research In Motion is hosting a big event in New York on Wednesday to lift the wraps on its new BlackBerry 10 smartphones. The company�s shares have run up hard ahead of the launch, which is a high-stakes gamble for RIM. See full story.

Best Buy�s Hail Mary: Amy Poehler

If hiring a celebrity pitchman is a corporate-balance-sheet booster, running a star-studded Super Bowl ad is a Hail Mary pass. Best Buy and 5 other companies that looked to stars to reverse their fortunes See full story.

Bove sees 30% rally for J.P. Morgan, Citi, BAC

Shares of Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. will rise more than 30% in the next 12 months, as stronger economic growth, higher asset quality and better liquidity drive their businesses, according to outspoken bank analyst Dick Bove. See full story.

MARKETWATCH PERSONAL FINANCE

If hiring a celebrity pitchman is a corporate-balance-sheet booster, running a star-studded Super Bowl ad is a Hail Mary pass. Best Buy and 5 other companies that looked to stars to reverse their fortunes See full story.

UK Considers Property Stamp Duty Increase

The United Kingdom (UK) is considering raising the Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) on properties priced below £250,000 from 1% to 3%, which has many citizens and experts petitioning the government to rethink the plan. The current SDLT has remained unchanged for 15 years and it’s argued that any increase will undermine the chance for a true real estate market recovery. Analysts point to the 7% SDLT charged on properties priced over £2 million and how the increase made last year drove down sales in that price bracket. For more on this continue reading the following article from Property Wire.

Around 80,000 people in England and Wales, 10% of the market, could find themselves paying three times more stamp duty this year as the average property price looks set to breach the £250,000 mark, it is claimed.

For these buyers, Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) will jump up from 1% to 3%, an increase from £2,500 to £7,500 and it has resulted in calls for the government to urgently re-evaluate the 1% stamp duty ceiling which has remained unchanged for over 15 years whilst the average price of a house has increased three fold from £79,242 to £249,958.

When first introduced in 1984 an average priced property, which was then £29,106, incurred no SDLT and properties over £30,000 were subject to a 1% charge. In 1997, stepped bands were introduced and, despite property prices having increased, the point at which the tax jumps from 1% to 3% has remained at £250,000 ever since.

HM Land Registry shows that, despite a lacklustre housing market, 2012 saw the average property price in the UK rise 0.75% to £249,958. A similar slight increase would bring the average property price above the £250,000 threshold.

‘Should the band not be reassessed, there are two possible consequences. A bunching will occur at £250,000 which will prohibit the fragile recovery of the market, depressing house prices with the frightening prospect for negative equity and even repossessions. Home owners might also choose not to trade up,’ said Naomi Heaton, chief executive officer of London Central Portfolio.

She pointed out that it is reported that the government base their analysis on data from the Halifax and Nationwide, who together only represent a third of the mortgage market. ‘These are mainstream high street lenders whose analysis puts average prices well below the actual averages demonstrated by HM Land Registry. As such, the Chancellor might be completely unaware of the Stamp Duty knife edge which average prices are teetering on,’ she explained.

In the run up to the March Budget stamp duty will be high on the agenda. Rumours are circulating though that, rather than re-evaluating the £250,000 threshold, Chancellor George Osborne might increase stamp duty by 1% across the higher bands as an additional revenue raiser and populist pleaser.

In last year’s Budget a new band was introduced at 7% for properties over £2 million and this has resulted in the over £2 million sector seeing sales fall. The preceding year also saw stamp duty increase by 1% for properties over £1 million to 5%. Some think it could be easily increased to 6% and at the same time target properties over £500,000 raising the 4% band to 5%.

 

Last year, the SDLT rise in the £2 million plus sector resulted in a 30% collapse in transactions. London Central Portfolio calculates that a similar fall in transactions of properties valued between £500,000 and £2 million on the back of a 1% increase in Stamp Duty, would result in a net loss of £202 million in tax receipts over one year for an already beleaguered UK economy.

Such a move would be felt most in London where 45% of the transactions over £500,000 occur. Property owners in prime London central locations already pay their fair share, according to Heaton. ‘They contribute 27 times more Stamp Duty to the Exchequer on each transaction, paying on average £67,505 compared with £2,500 in the rest of the country,’ she said.

‘The Chancellor must move quickly to reassess the UK’s Stamp Duty situation. A recovery in the domestic property market will only be good news if the 1% stamp duty ceiling is also raised. For any buyer, finding an additional £5,000 is a big ask, especially in the current climate, and for first time buyers, it could be the difference between renting and owning,’ she explained.

‘The government should not continue edging up stamp duty percentages, as they have over the last 16 years, without taking into account rising property prices, inflation or the impact on transactions, which have fallen by 33% since 1997. The stamp duty regime needs to be carefully scrutinised in the context of accurate market data to avoid another snap eve of the Budget decision leaving the British tax payer with even greater financial burdens and a languishing property market,’ she added.

RIMM Falls 7%: BB10 on Tap; Sell on The News?

Shares of Research in Motion (RIMM) are off $1.09, or almost 7%, at $15.09 in advance of tomorrow’s presentation in Manhattan of the long-awaited BB10 upgrade to the BlackBerry.

I’ll be on hand to blog the event live, and you can follow along with RIM’s live webcast, if you like, with the keynote starting at 10 am, Eastern time, which you will find at RIM’s news page tomorrow.

One of the nicest bits of commentary in recent days came from CIBC‘s Todd Coupland over the weekend. Though he has a Market Weight rating on the shares, he thinks even a modest success with BB10 could lift the outlook for the company.

And as evidence of lingering dedication to the platform, Coupland included in his report a pic snapped at the recent Detroit Auto Show, where, as he understands, all the Wall Streeters there to kick the tires were also crowding the BlackBerry chargers:

The Street, meanwhile, offered some skeptical notes this morning on RIM’s effort to revive the BlackBerry.

UBS’s Amitabh Passi and Phillip Huang this morning reiterated a Neutral rating on the shares and a $9.50 price target, writing that the “odds remain stacked against RIM”:

With a new tag line, �Re-designed. Re-engineered. Re-invented�, RIM is attempting a come back, but it appears late, at least in its current form [�] From a timing perspective, BB10 appears a couple of years too late. Further, for RIM to succeed, we believe it will need to energize and re-ignite the fire in its highly lucrative subscriber base in western markets (revenues down 50-65% y/y in F3Q13), where we believe both Apple (AAPL) (iOS) and Google (GOOG) (Android) have amassed significant momentum and subscriber lock-in (think iPhone, iPad, iTunes, iMac, iCloud). RIM will also need to contend with device vendors such as Samsung with tremendous scale, marketing muscle, and distribution prowess. In our opinion, Apple, Google, and Samsung all have a much broader and complete vision focused on multiple screens and content (e.g. Google Search, Google+, Google drive, maps, etc). While emerging markets are likely to remain relevant for RIM, we fear that BB10 price points will be beyond reach for many subscribers in these markets. As evidenced in FY12, RIM�s business model cannot be sustained simply on its success in emerging markets. As we wrote over a year ago, we still believe RIM�s best chance at success longer term would be to exit the hardware business and become a software and device independent mobile device management (MDM) company. Here again, time is against RIM but given its installed enterprise base and reputation for security, we believe it has a reasonable chance of success [�] With RIM�s stock having tripled off its lows in September 2012, and now trading at just around book value (tangible book just below $12/share) and with a market cap of $8.5 billion, we see limited upside to shares near-term.

Wedge Partners‘s Brian Blair is similarly skeptical, arguing that the Street “has erroneously baked in a very positive consumer response” and that tomorrow is “likely to be a sell-the-news event”:

RIM has rallied on the hopes that BB10 and the accompanying devices (6 this year, according to RIM execs) can stave off the company�s bleeding, and boost unit growth and lift ASPs and margins in the quarters to come. The problem is that the BB10 subscriber base remains at zero, with not a single unit sold. While we admit that many of the pictures and videos of the Blackberry Z10 device show a solid effort to meet the functionality of iOS and Android, we have yet to see a key BB10 feature that we feel will pull users away from those operating systems. Some bullish estimates are calling for 18 � 20 million units of BB10 devices in 2013; our expectation is for half of that. We think 8-9 million units globally is likely obtainable.

Among the things Blair is looking to hear about at the event tomorrow are whether,

RIM [is] advertising it or are carriers supporting it with heavy campaigns? [�] When it arrives in stores, are salespeople pushing it? Numerous carriers have said they will carry BB10, but sales will depend largely on how it is sold [�] It will likely launch at $199, but it may need to be less to entice users away from Android/iOS/Windows devices [�] What does RIM have to do to make it compelling to consumers/enterprise and what will that cost? A gross margin hit may happen out of the gate as RIM ramps the new devices, even if the ASP is initially higher than BB7 devices [�] Is there any indication that consumers are waiting for this device? This is a tough thing to gauge, but the first two months of sales will be telling [�] Better Mousetrap?: Does BB10 have a killer app or feature? Does the �peek� feature or multitasking make it a better Smartphone than what is on the market? This may be the most important question for the product.

Bitcoins Pose Major Threat to Central Banks

Last week we told you more about Bitcoins as they have swiftly taken the financial world by storm, becoming a popular and legitimate source of 'currency' for those who “need to transfer or launder their cash outside of the prying eyes of regulators,” according to CNN.

Today, data released from Mt. Gox, the world's largest Bitcoin exchange, shows just how dramatically Bitcoin use has risen in the past year...

The virtual online currency has strengthened from $5.88 all the way to an impressive $16.37, more than doubling in the past 12 months alone. 

As the demand for Bitcoins continues to rise, experts believe central banks are in trouble. People have begun to  stick it to the banks with Bitcoins.

From Bloomberg:

“I think the ECB obviously is concerned, and it’s not reputational,” said Steve Hanke, a professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore who helped to establish new currency regimes in countries such as Argentina and Bulgaria. “I think it’s a competitive threat. Maybe virtual currencies will be so convenient that they will pose a threat because of their ease of use.”

Virtual currencies “could have a negative impact on the reputation of central banks” if their use grows considerably, the Frankfurt-based ECB said in its research paper. “This risk should be considered when assessing the overall risk situation of central banks.”

To look more closely at the value of a Bitcoin in U.S. dollars, take a look at Bloomberg's chart of the day, which shows the rise and fall of the world's largest online currency from 2011-2013.

One Bitcoin processing company, Bitpay Inc., recently accumulated $510,000 in an investment round. It also said the number of companies using its service had increased by nearly 50 percent since November; more than 2,000 now use Bitpay after the blog management firm known as WordPress.com said it would accept the digital currency.

Despite some volatility in Bitcoin prices last year, Bitcoin users and bloggers say that Bitcoin prices have remained remarkably stable in the past six weeks. If Bitcoins could be used for things like real commerce, demand would explode and give central banks a real run for their money.

 

Seagate Q2 Net Beats Expectations; Dividend Raised

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ: STX  ) today reported a drop in quarterly earnings. According to GAAP standards, Q2 2013's net fell to $492 million ($1.30 per diluted share), but that was higher than the average analyst expectation of $1.27. Revenue came in at $3.7 billion.

The same figures for Q2 2012 were $563 million ($1.28 diluted EPS) on the bottom line on $3.2 billion in revenue.

Much of the year-over-year decline in the bottom line was due to costs related to a pair of acquisitions the company made during the quarter. It booked a non-cash $37 million expense for the purchases.

The company also announced a partnership with data storage equipment start-up Virident Systems, under which Seagate will invest $40 million in the young company.

More Expert Advice from The Motley Fool

While Seagate Technology pays a significant and growing dividend and seems able to generate the cash flow to support it, a global slowdown in demand for digital memory storage has begun to put pressure on margins. Is Seagate worthy of your investment consideration (and dollars)? The Motley Fool answers this question and more in our most in-depth Seagate research available for smart investors like you. Thousands have already claimed their own premium ticker coverage, and you can gain instant access to your own by clicking here now.

Will These Numbers from Virtusa Be Good Enough for You?

Virtusa (Nasdaq: VRTU  ) is expected to report Q3 earnings on Jan. 30. Here's what Wall Street wants to see:

The 10-second takeaway
Comparing the upcoming quarter to the prior-year quarter, average analyst estimates predict Virtusa's revenues will expand 18.5% and EPS will grow 27.3%.

The average estimate for revenue is $85.6 million. On the bottom line, the average EPS estimate is $0.28.

Revenue details
Last quarter, Virtusa reported revenue of $80.5 million. GAAP reported sales were 15% higher than the prior-year quarter's $70.3 million.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Dollar amounts in millions. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.

EPS details
Last quarter, EPS came in at $0.23. GAAP EPS of $0.23 for Q2 were 28% higher than the prior-year quarter's $0.18 per share.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.

Recent performance
For the preceding quarter, gross margin was 34.3%, 110 basis points worse than the prior-year quarter. Operating margin was 9.2%, 140 basis points better than the prior-year quarter. Net margin was 7.2%, 50 basis points better than the prior-year quarter.

Looking ahead

The full year's average estimate for revenue is $331.0 million. The average EPS estimate is $1.07.

Investor sentiment
The stock has a five-star rating (out of five) at Motley Fool CAPS, with 102 members out of 107 rating the stock outperform, and five members rating it underperform. Among 37 CAPS All-Star picks (recommendations by the highest-ranked CAPS members), 37 give Virtusa a green thumbs-up, and give it a red thumbs-down.

Of Wall Street recommendations tracked by S&P Capital IQ, the average opinion on Virtusa is buy, with an average price target of $20.33.

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How Far Can the Housing Rebound Go?

After five years passed out face-down in the mud, housing is rebounding. Not necessarily housing prices, mind you, but housing construction, which is a big historic driver of economic growth. This is good news for everyone, and the rebound could have a ways to run.

The story is simple. Housing construction fell to such low levels over the last few years that it has to now rise substantially just to keep up with population growth and household formation. As Michelle Meyer of Merrill Lynch pointed out last week, "from 2009 to 2011, housing starts only slightly exceeded the pace of demolitions." As the population grew, that dearth of new building soaked up the excess homes built during the bubble. Housing inventory is now the lowest it has been in almost a decade, and home builders are suddenly experiencing something they haven't known for years -- demand! -- as tight markets hasten the need for more homes. Housing starts�were up 37% in December from the year before.

How much longer does this rebound have to go? A ways, I think. Housing starts are still more than a third of what will be needed to keep up with current levels of household formation.

The impact returning to a more balanced level of construction, where as many new homes are built as new households are formed, would have a big impact on the economy. As Floyd Norris of the New York Times wrote last week:

Last year there was a total of 780,000 starts. That was the highest in four years, but it was still lower than would have seemed possible a few years ago. Imagine if that total rises this year to 1.28 million, an increase of 500,000, and that each house involves an investment by the builder of $250,000. That would add an additional $125 billion to the economy compared to 2012.

Another way to think about this is residential investment as a share of the economy. Here's how that's looked historically:

Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis, author's calculations.

This chart goes through the third quarter of 2012; when new data comes in, it will be slightly higher. But we're still far below average. And just returning to that average would be a huge tailwind to the economy, adding roughly $300 billion to economic output over 2012.

Compared with the last five years, that changes everything. It creates jobs, it lowers budget deficits, boosts confidence and generates wealth.

Home builders obviously enjoy the biggest boost from this trend. For investors, the problem is that most homebuilding stocks have already surged over the last year, some more than doubling in value. I'm hearing more and more from investors who think the run in homebuilder stocks has gone too far. They point not only to the explosion in share prices, but to what look like sky-high valuations. MDC Holdings (NYSE: MDC  ) trades at 26 times earnings. NVR (NYSE: NVR  ) , 30 times earnings. PulteGroup (NYSE: PHM  ) , more than 50 times earnings. These are normally the kind of multiples you'd expect to see at the top of a boom, with future good news (and more) already priced in.

But I think you have to be careful with that assumption.

Home builder stocks consistently looked cheap during the housing bubble. In 2005 and 2006, DR Horton (NYSE: DHI  ) rarely traded for more than 10 times earnings, causing some to think it and other home builders were bargains. Oops. While valuations looked cheap, earnings were grossly inflated as housing construction far exceeded long-term demand.

Today I think we're in the opposite situation. Valuations may look expensive, but earnings are still depressed as housing investment remains at a fraction of historic norms. If new home construction doubles from 2012 levels -- about what's needed to keep up with household formation -- some home building stocks that look expensive today could have plenty of room to run.

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Rare Earth Mining in Jamaica?

Jamaica's widespread red mud has long been a source for easy to extract bauxite and alumina. Now, it may find a new use. 

A team of Japanese researchers believe they have found high concentrations of rare-earth elements in the country's red bauxite residue that has been processed for aluminum production in the USA, Canada and other Atlantic nations.

In a statement to Jamaica's Parliament, Science, Technology, Energy & Mining Minister Philip Paulwell said researchers from Japan's Nippon Light Metal Co. Ltd. believe rare-earth elements can be efficiently extracted from the leftover earth.

Paulwell told lawmakers, "We are at the starting line of an opportunity that has the potential to redefine Jamaica's economic prospects in a positive way... The government of Jamaica perceives the extraction of the rare-earth elements that are present in Jamaica to be an exciting new opportunity to earn much needed foreign exchange and create jobs." 

The project will start on a small scale as Nippon Light Metal takes on operating costs and invests $3 million in buildings and equipment. If the project is successful, the company homes to extract 1,500 tonnes of rare earth oxides per year once production is at full speed. 

The small island nation was particularly hard hit by the recession. Tourism and services, which account for over half of the economy, dried up along with the global economy and bauxite mining operations suffered with aluminum prices and production.

Although the mining industry and government officials are optimistic, there is opposition to the rare earth extraction. The Jamaica Observer has run several articles detailing concerns of environmentalists and advocates that pollution controls are not in place to protect the citizens of the tiny island.

While the founder and CEO of the Jamaica Environment Trust tentatively supported the idea to use “what is essentially waste make it into something useful that can be sold,” the Trust is already calling for public meetings to discuss the implications of rare earth mining operations.

 

China Seen Driving Oil to 3-Day High

An expectation that China will increase financial stimulus led to a rise in the price of oil to a three-day high, as France advanced arguments for an embargo on Iranian oil. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia said it would try to stabilize the price of oil at around $100.

Bloomberg reported that slow economic expansion in China was expected to lead to a relaxing of monetary policy by Beijing, and therefore to higher demand for oil. Carsten Fritsch, an analyst at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt, was quoted saying, “Everything is rising because of China. It’s general market sentiment.”

Expected higher demand from China, coupled with France’s efforts to restrict the length of a delay before an embargo on Iranian oil is enforced, caused crude prices to rise. February delivery prices for crude were up as high as $100.97 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange; that was an increase of $2.27 from the Jan. 13 closing price. In late morning London trading, crude traded at $100.76. March Brent oil on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange gained as much 1.3% to $112.76 a barrel, with the European benchmark contract coming in at a premium of $11.52 to New York-traded West Texas Intermediate grade, also for March.

The European Union wants to delay for six months an embargo on Iranian oil so that member states can find alternative sources for oil. France, however, is pushing for no more than three months. The ban is supposed to be decided on at a meeting of EU ministers on Jan. 23, but there will probably be an exemption for Italy’s largest oil company, Eni.

David Lennox, an analyst at Fat Prophets in Sydney who forecasts U.S. crude will average $110 a barrel this year, was quoted saying, “The embargo story is certainly not going away. The Saudis came out and said they were looking to target oil at about $100 a barrel. I suspect that’s what the driver has been.”

According to Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi of Saudi Arabia, that country, the largest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, can make up for any loss of crude output if sanctions are placed on Iran, and it intends to stabilize the average of crude prices worldwide at $100 a barrel in 2012. Iran is the second-largest producer and has threatened to seal off the Strait of Hormuz, conduit for about a fifth of the world’s oil supply, in retaliation for international sanctions placed on it over its nuclear policies.

Top Stocks To Buy For 1/28/2013-4

Alliance HealthCare Services, Inc. (NYSE:AIQ) witnessed volume of 747,713 shares during last trade however it holds an average trading capacity of 282,914 shares. AIQ last trade opened at $1.61 reached intraday low of $1.56 and went +5.06% up to close at $1.66.

AIQ has a market capitalization $84.90 million and an enterprise value at $634.12 million. Trailing twelve months price to sales ratio of the stock was 0.17 while price to book ratio in most recent quarter was 65.83. In profitability ratios, net profit margin in past twelve months appeared at -6.87% whereas operating profit margin for the same period at 8.37%.

The company made a return on asset of 2.96% in past twelve months and return on equity of -123.29% for similar period. In the period of trailing 12 months it generated revenue amounted to $478.62 million gaining $9.06 revenue per share. Its year over year, quarterly growth of revenue was -0.20%.

According to preceding quarter balance sheet results, the company had $101.87 million cash in hand making cash per share at 1.99. The total debt was $651.09 million. Moreover its current ratio according to same quarter results was 2.21 and book value per share was 0.02.

Looking at the trading information, the stock price history displayed that its S&P500 52 Week Change illustrated 9.22% where the stock current price exhibited down beat from its 50 day moving average price of $3.29 and remained below from its 200 Day Moving Average price of $3.97.

AIQ holds 51.15 million outstanding shares where insider possessed 6.71% and institutions kept 86.70%.

Top Stocks For 1/27/2013-5

Power3 Medical Products, Inc. (OTC.BB:PWRM) is a leading bio-technology company focused on the development of innovative diagnostic tests in the fields of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer�s disease, Parkinson�s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (commonly known as ALS or Lou Gehrig�s disease).

Alzheimer�s disease isn�t an ordinary part of getting older, even though greatest known risk factor is increasing age, along with the largest part of people today with Alzheimer�s tend to be 65 and older. But Alzheimer�s is not just a sickness of old age. Up to 5 % of people with the sickness currently have early-onset Alzheimer�s (also referred to as younger-onset), which frequently appears in people in their 40s or 50s.

Soon after cancer of the skin, breast cancer is easily the most well-known cancer diagnosed in females in the USA. However breast cancer rates have gone down, though doctors aren�t certain why. Even now, for many females, breast cancer may be the health probem that they fear most.

Parkinson�s disease is really a problem that affects nerve cells, or neurons, inside of a section of the brain of which controls muscle motions. In Parkinson�s, nerves which make an important chemical called dopamine die or do not work properly. Dopamine generally delivers impulses that assist synchronize a person�s activities.

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American Video Teleconferencing Corp. (PINK:AVOT) is pleased to announce that it has hired a French speaking geologist to search the archives of the Quebec Department of Mines for Rare Earths showings not on a current computer file. American Video believes the rare earths industry is where it wants to maintain a very strong focus and is looking to expand its holdings.

Contrary to their name, rare-earth metals are abundant in our planet’s crust, and substantial reserves are concentrated the US, Australia, Brazil, and several other countries. As per the U.S. Geological Survey, there are 13 million tons of extractable rare earths in the US, 5.4 million in Australia, and 19 million in Russia and nearby countries. All of 2009, China had 36 million.

Rare earths are essential components of future energy technologies and important to greenhouse gas abatement techniques. There is also been known as the vitamins for the electronics industry. These are the essential ingredients in making products smaller, faster and smarter and their demand is growing as our desire for technological progression continues. In fact, demand for rare earths currently outstrips supply, particularly from major product manufacturers in Japan along with the USA.

As neither the Federal nor Quebec Governments have carried out any air borne surveys in this area, American Video will seek a contractor to do an air borne Mag-EM radiometric survey. This survey will cover its present holdings and the immediate surrounding area looking for future acquisitions. American Video is pleased to be working in the Province of Quebec as it is rated the number one jurisdiction in the world to carry out mineral exploration. The Quebec Government gives a rebate up to 45% for property expenditures.

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Chyron Corporation (Nasdaq:CHYR) announced on Dec 14, 2010 that two HyperX(3) on-air graphics systems were used in Canada’s first 3D hockey broadcast, a matchup between longtime rivals, the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs, on CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada. During the Dec. 11th game at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre, the Chyron systems allowed for use of a dynamic 3D score bug and other graphics with 3D objects and animation in this landmark broadcast.

Chyron Corporation supplies graphics hardware, software, and workflow solutions to the television and multimedia industries worldwide.

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Giga-tronics Inc. (Nasdaq:GIGA) announced that it has received orders in excess of $4.8M to supply microwave test equipment for the automation of production at contract manufacturers in China. The products supplied are part of Giga-tronics’ microwave signal switching family. These orders are expected to ship this Fiscal Year.

Giga-tronics Incorporated designs, manufactures, and markets various test and measurement equipment used in the development, test, and maintenance of wireless communications products and systems, flight navigational equipment, electronic defense systems, and automatic testing systems worldwide.

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Active Power Inc. (Nasdaq:ACPW) will deploy two of its CleanSource UPS (uninterruptible power supply) systems at a law enforcement command center located in the northeast United States. The 600 kVA and 130 kVA UPS systems will provide complete power protection to the center�s surveillance and communications equipment. The equipment has been installed and will be commissioned later this month.

Active Power, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, and markets critical power quality solutions.

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Qualcomm Ends FLO TV Device Sales; Service Until Spring 2011

Qualcomm (QCOM) confirmed in a statement that it has suspended sales of direct-to-consumer FLO TV devices, but will maintain the network for now, with service to continue into Spring 2011.

Service provided through wireless carriers – the company has deals with both Verizon Wireless and AT&T -is “unaffected at this time,” the company said. “In the event of a discontinuance of service, FLO TV will make appropriate refunds, the details of which will be communicated prior to discontinuation.”

Qualcomm said it is “working to redeploy impacted employees,” but that some layoffs are likely.

The company added that it has been holding talks with “a wide range of parties” on both the network and the spectrum on which the service operates. “We are seeing strong interest in using the FLO TV network or spectrum to capitalize on the growing imbalance between mobile data supply and demand, the growth of tablets, and consumer demand for high quality video and print content, and a richer user experience,” the company said.

QCOM is up 43 cents, or 1%, to $44.32.

Top Stocks For 1/26/2013-11

Reported By: Soha CRWE Newswire Mideast correspondent

The head of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan General David Petraeus has said that Osama bin Laden is `far buried` in the remote mountains between Afghanistan and Pakistan but capturing the iconic figure remains a key task.

In a television interview he said `I don’t think anyone knows where Osama bin Laden is`. `The fact that it took him four weeks to get a congratulatory message out or a message of condolence�indicates literally how far buried he is probably in the very, very most remote and mountainous region`.

The General said that despite having difficulty in locating him, Osama remains an iconic figure and I think capturing or killing (him) is still a very, very important task for all of those who are engaged in counter-terrorism around the world`.

While talking about the prospect of eventual reconciliation with the Taliban he said `It doesn’t mean that Mullah Omar is about to stroll down main street in Kabul anytime soon and raise his hand and swear an oath on the Constitution of Afghanistan`.

But he said there was every possibility, I think, that there can be low – and- mid-level reintegration and indeed some fracturing of the senior leadership that could be really defined as reconciliation`.

Wall Street Up for 8th Consecutive Day

In the middle of earnings season, it's financial reports that should drive stocks, and today that's exactly what's happening. A number of strong earnings reports from a wide range of industries are driving stocks higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI  ) has climbed 0.35% as of 3:20 p.m. EST, and the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC  ) is up 0.43%.

Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG  ) was the big winner on the Dow, jumping 3.5% after reporting earnings. Revenue rose just 2% to $22.18 billion, but analysts had only expected $21.86 billion. The bottom-line results were even better, with earnings coming in $0.11 higher than estimates at $1.22 per share. Investors had been concerned about a deteriorating bottom line, so this should put that to rest for the time being.

Halliburton (NYSE: HAL  ) is the talk of the energy industry today, and its stock is up 5% in the session. In the latest quarter, the company's profit fell 26% to $669 million, or $0.72 per share, but the company has survived a decline in U.S. drilling better than investors expected. The lower results still topped estimates, and investors are hoping that growing revenue in international markets will present new opportunities for the company.

All but seven of the Dow's 30 components are up today, and the one leading the losers is Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT  ) , down 1.3%. The company reports fourth-quarter earnings on Monday, but it did say that global machinery sales fell 1% from a year ago, while engine sales dropped 2%. Mining companies aren't spending the way they did a year ago, and it's impacting Caterpillar's results.

There's a lot of momentum in the stock market right now, and the S&P 500 is set to hit its eighth straight day in the black.

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