Jim Cramer Blog

Citigroup (C) fell 5% Monday after news of more write-downs and CEO Chuck Prince’s departure. Charlie Gasparino joined the show to give his opinion on Citigroup. He thinks that Citigroup didn’t pop on the news of Prince leaving because Chairman Robert Rubin failed to communicate the new Citigroup vision that everyone on Wall Street was looking for. Macke thinks that Citigroup has to clear the deck and bring in somebody new to run the company.
Chartology: Technical analyst John Roque of Natexis Bleichroeder was on the show to give his analysis on the technical signs in the market. Roque still likes the longer term trend line on the S&P moving average. He predicts that the financials will be under performers for a long time. Roque also points out that the trend for oil, silver and gold remains up and if history is a guide that up trend will continue. He is positive about Newmont Mining (NEM) and thinks the stock can trade into the high $80’s.
Ethanol: Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) is set to report earnings on Tuesday. Najarian tells investors to look to at Deere (DE) and Bunge (BG) instead. Adami would rather be in Potash (POT) for an ethanol play.
IAC/InterActive Corp (IACI) announced plans Monday to split up into 5 separate companies. Also, Kraft (KFT) is looking to sell its Post cereal business for $2.8 billion. Finerman is happy with the news. Macke also likes Kraft's plans, but he wasn’t a big fan of IAC/InterActive’s plans to spin off divisions. Najarian thinks that Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) could benefit from a break up.
Technology: Google (GOOG) announces plans to create an open platform, Android, for the mobile phone market. Sun Microsystems (JAVA) falls after hours on lighter then expected revenue numbers. Macke thinks companies like VMware (VMW) and its technology could put JAVA out of business in the future. Dell (DELL) announced plans on Monday to buy virtualization software maker EqualLogic for $1.4 billion. Activision (ATVI) reports a second quarter profit as revenue soars.
Word on the Street: Time Warner (TWX) CEO Richard Parsons will step down on January 1st and be replaced by Chief Operating Officer Jeffrey Bewkes. Finerman likes the retail stocks better than financials. She bought call options on Friday and Monday on Crocs (CROX) and also thinks Under Armour (UA) and Dick’s Sporting Goods (DKS) are interesting here. PetroChina (PTR) topped $1 trillion in market cap surpassing Exxon Mobil (XOM). Adami likes that Chevron (CVX) preformed okay in a lousy tape today.
Pops & Drops
Pops -First Solar (FSLR) traded up 10% after hours on news of a $1 billion module supply contract.
Marvel Entertainment (MVL) traded up 16% on a strong profits report.
Mattel (MAT) traded up 4%
Ballard Power Systems (BLDP) traded up 12%
WellCare Health Plans (WCG) popped 22% on a 67% increase in profits.
Sysco (SYY) traded up 2% after reporting a 16% rise in profits.

Labels: ADM, ATVI, BG, BLDP, CROX, DE, DELL, DKS, Fast Money Recap, GOOG, IACI, JAVA, JNJ, MAT, MVL, NEM, POT, TWX, UA, VMW

Here are 7 trading ideas for today. These lists come directly from the TradingMarkets Stock Indicators page and are based upon our latest quantitative research.
Bullish
5+ Consecutive Down Days: These are stocks that have closed down for five or more consecutive days and are trading above their 200-day moving average. Our research shows that stocks trading above their 200-day moving average that close down for five or more days have shown positive returns, on average, 1-day, 2-days and 1-week later. Historically, these stocks have provided traders with a significant edge.
Valero Energy (NYSE:VLO - News). VLO's PowerRating (for Traders) is 6.
5+ Consecutive Lower Lows: These are stocks that have made a lower low for five or more consecutive days and are trading above their 200-day moving average. Our research shows that stocks trading above their 200-day moving average that make lower lows for five or more days have shown positive returns, on average, 1-day, 2-days and 1-week later. Historically, these stocks have provided traders with a significant edge.
KLA-Tencor (NasdaqGS:KLAC - News). KLAC's PowerRating (for Traders) is 6.
2-Period RSI Below 2: These are stocks that have a 2-period RSI reading below 2 and are trading above their 200-day moving average. Our research shows that stocks trading above their 200-day moving with a 2-period RSI reading below 2 have shown positive returns, on average, 1-day, 2-days and 1-week later. Historically, these stocks have provided traders with a significant edge.
Liberty Global (NasdaqGS:LBTYA - News). LBTYA's PowerRating (for Traders) is 6.
Bearish
Laps Up 5% or More: These are stocks that lap up by 5% or more and are trading below their 200-day moving average. Our research shows that stocks trading below their 200-day moving average that lap up by more than 5% have shown negative returns, on average, 1-day, 2-days and 1-week later. Historically, these stocks have provided traders with a significant edge.
Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE:ALU - News). ALU's PowerRating (for Traders) is 2.
5+ Consecutive Up Days: These are stocks that have closed up for five or more consecutive days and are trading below their 200-day moving average. Our research shows that stocks trading below their 200-day moving average that close up for five or more days have shown negative returns, on average, 1-week later. Historically, these stocks have provided traders with a significant edge.
IAC/InterActive (NasdaqGS:IACI - News). IACI's PowerRating (for Traders) is 3.
5+ Consecutive Higher Highs: These are stocks that have made a higher high for five or more consecutive days and are trading below their 200-day moving average. Our research shows that stocks trading below their 200-day moving average that make higher highs for five or more days have shown negative returns, on average, 1-day, 2-days and 1-week later. Historically, these stocks have provided traders with a significant edge.
Krispy Kreme (NYSE:KKD - News). KKD's PowerRating (for Traders) is 4.
Stocks Up 10% or More: These are stocks that have gained 10% or more over the past five days and are trading below their 200-day moving average. Our research shows that stocks trading below their 200-day moving average that have gained 10% or more over the past five days have shown negative returns, on average, 1-week later. Historically, these stocks have provided traders with a significant edge.
Lions Gate Films (NYSE:LGF - News). LGF's PowerRating (for Traders) is 3.

Labels: Alcatel-Lucent, ALU, Hot Stocks, IACI, KKD, KLAC, LBTYA, LGF, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., VLO

A Second Look at Cigna (NYSE: CI - News)
Although Cramer has not liked Cigna in the past, he is taking another look at the non-pharma health care company because of its serious buyback plan. "Nothing is more reassuring than a company that believes in itself," said Cramer, noting that Cigna bought back 20% of the company since 2004 and is shrinking its number of shares so rapidly, it is "practically going private." Cramer declared, "The single biggest bull market is in the nonpharmaceutical health care sector," and he would buy Cigna.

Volcano (NasdaqGM: VOLC), Boston Scientific (NYSE: BSX - News), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ - News), and General Electric (NYSE: GE - News)
A great way to play fears over drug-coated stents is to buy Volcano, a company that makes intravascular ultrasound catheters which examine the inside of arteries, according to Cramer. Although this technology is not new, it has been underused until the recent stent controversy. Volcano's largest rival is BSX, which Cramer calls "the Citigroup of healthcare" and Volcano has partnerships with JNJ and GE.

Beware of Tech: Oracle (NasdaqGS: ORCL), Microsoft (NasdaqGS: MSFT), EMC (NYSE: EMC - News), SanDisk (NasdaqGS: SNDK), Seagate (NYSE: STX - News), Western Digital (NYSE: WDC - News), Komag (NasdaqGS: KOMG), IBM (NYSE: IBM - News), Micron's (NYSE: MU - News), Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN - News), Intel (NasdaqGS: INTC), Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD - News), Garmin (NasdaqGS: GRMN), Qualcomm (NasdaqGS: QCOM), Cisco (NasdaqGS: CSCO), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ - News), eBay (NasdaqGS: EBAY), Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL), Yahoo! (NasdaqGS: YHOO) and IAC/InterActive (NasdaqGS: IACI)
Cramer devoted his Sell Block segment to warning investors not to touch tech until summer, with a few notable exceptions. "Don't be bamboozled by hopeful analysts," he said, and added ORCL, MSFT, EMC, SNDK, STX, WDC, and KOMG are not buys right now. Cramer said IBM should not be bought until it has some "breakthrough earnings releases" and urged investors to ignore MU's upgrade and to avoid TXN, INTC and AMD. However, the few tech stocks worth buying now include GRMN, QCOM, CSCO and HPQ, EBAY, AAPL and YHOO. Cramer is removing IACI from his list of buys.
CEO Interview: David Snow, Medco Health Solutions (NYSE: MHS - News)
When Cramer asked David Snow how his company makes money off of drugs that go generic, he replied, "In the case of generics, $50 billion of branded drugs are going off patent between now and 2011. We are going to work very hard to appropriately move people from branded drugs to generic drugs, and we make money doing that." On the topic of Medco's cash flow, David Snow said the %5.5 billion buyback program is up and running, and the company might make a future acquisition. Cramer said Medco is the definition of a buy in the current environment.

Labels: AMD, BSX, CI, CSCO, EMC, GE, HPQ, IACI, IBM, Jim Cramer, JNJ, KOMG, Mad Money, MSFT, QCOM, STX, VOLC, WDC, YHOO

IAC InterActive Corp (NasdaqGS: IACI), Yahoo (NasdaqGS: YHOO), eBay (NasdaqGS: EBAY), Google (NasdaqGS: GOOG), Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD - News), Intel (NasdaqGS: INTC)
"When you look at who has the most earnings momentum in the first quarter, you're going to come to the interactive portion of the market," said Cramer, and listed his four favorite internet stocks in order: Yahoo, eBay, IAC and Google. He thinks Yahoo will double its money in click-through advertising, thanks to Panama, IACI has "tremendous" earning power, eBay reported a great quarter and Google is bottoming. Cramer predicts AMTD will go out of business because of fierce competition with INTC and overexpansion.
Diageo (NYSE: DEO - News), American Express (NYSE: EXP - News), 3M (NYSE: MMM - News), Pepsico (NYSE: PEP - News), Coke (NYSE: KO - News)
Cramer thinks the fact that DEO and EXP are down is absurd, and although 3M is "poorly executed," he believes the Morgan Stanley upgrade is "important because it said even if the company keeps screwing up, it should be able to bottom." In addition, 3M has the "biggest buyback of the major Dow stocks just declared and big Asian exposure," as well as a 3% yield. Cramer also has hope in soft drink stocks with PEP searching for a bottom and KO "putting one in ... They're both going to go up," he said.
Published By SeekingAlpha

Labels: AMD, DEO, Ebay, EXP, GOOG, IACI, Jim Cramer, KO, MMM, PEP, Wall Street Confidential, YHOO

Pick #3: Yahoo! (NasdaqGS: YHOO)
People have been asking Jim Cramer what is happening to Google (NasdaqGS: GOOG), and he replies that it is stalled. When it falls from $465 to $450, he says it might be worth buying again, since Cramer still thinks it will reach $900. In the meantime, Cramer suggests taking a look at three dot-coms, and his third favorite pick is Yahoo!. Although Yahoo! is a distant second after Google, Cramer believes when Fidelity Investments will finish selling its massive stake in the company, the stock will get a bounce. He also notes Legg Mason is buying Yahoo, its Panama search engine is "for real" and its estimates are too low and can be beaten easily.
Pick #2: IAC/Interactive Corp. (NasdaqGS: IACI)
Cramer notes that this stock has risen 60% since he recommended it in August when it was "one of the most hated stocks." He praises its acquisition of CollegeHumor.com, a "quiet moneymaker" and notes that it is gradually "nibbling up the whole internet one bite at a time." While many people consider the company's combination of businesses as random, Cramer sees the company as developing more efficient web services and notes IAC's "real buyback," is a vote of confidence.Pick #1: eBay (NasdaqGS: EBAY)
Cramer called eBay his "primo, absolute favorite" internet stock because it is an essential part of the culture, and in spite of the fact that its acquisition of Skype was "the single dumbest purchase of the decade," Skype seems to be improving and the negativity is already priced into the stock. Cramer thinks its most recent purchases, such as StubHub, are smarter, notes that it has an improved search engine coming, and its "international growth is en fuego. Cramer likes the fact that eBay owns PayPal, "the Visa, Mastercard and American Express of the Internet," and that it is "pretty much a monopoly" with accelerated growth.CEO Interview: Michael Rubin, GSI Commerce (NasdaqGS: GSIC)
Cramer asked Michael Rubin why investors should stay with GSI, and he said its services are just "kicking in" and it has an advantage over a company like Amazon because "everything we do is about supporting our partners ... we don't compete with them in any shape, way or form." Cramer commented on the company's "fabulous growth" and suggests staying with it.
Published By SeekingAlpha

Labels: Ebay, GOOG, GSIC, IACI, Jim Cramer, Mad Money, YHOO

Bullish calls:
Disney (NYSE: DIS - News): ' a good quarter... it will be trapped by the strike next week because it's expiration ... I'm staying bullish on DIS. Iger's doing a great job ... Do not be perturbed that the stock did not go up after that great quarter.'Nike (NYSE: NKE - News): ' ....There are unbelievable stocks like NKE at $103.'Under Armour (NYSE: UA - News): ' ... maybe a little UA wouldn't be so bad either.'Safeway (NYSE: SWY - News): 'I like SWY in that department because its got that division that makes gift cards.'Express Scripts (NasdaqGS: ESRX)RBC Bearings (NasdaqGS: ROLL): ' That's pin action off of almost every piece of machinery that built in this country.'Amerisafe Inc. (NasdaqGS: AMSF): ' This is an insurance company, and most people don't understand it... the stock is going higher.'Avis Budget Group (NYSE: CAR - News): ' I felt so bad because I told people not to buy it and it worked ... I still think that CAR is good. I think you've got a good situation.'Autonation (NYSE: AN - News)IAC/InteractiveCorp (NasdaqGS: IACI): 'Man, what a great quarter. Wall Street hated that quarter. I don't know why... Doug Lebda [CEO] and Barry Diller....they're buying back stock hand over fist. I don't know how they're going to get the respect of Wall Street but they got it in Main Street. The stock is headed to the mid-40s.'Harley Davidson (NYSE: HOG - News): 'The bears are all over it ... I think at $65, we pull the trigger again ... It's not expensive. I am not worried.'Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE - News): 'Iceman's darn good ... I was too negative ... Ilike all the exchange stocks, but ICE - I'm blessing it right here, right now.'
Bearish calls:
Finish Line (NasdaqGS: FINL): 'I cannot let that Bar Mitzvah money stay idle in FINL when there are unbelievable stocks like NKE at $103 .... I need you to make the change right now."Whole Foods Market (NasdaqGS: WFMI): ' I think WFMI is too risky ahead of its quarter. I say ixnay.'Caremark Rx (NYSE: CMX - News): 'If you own CMX, you will get a higher bid from CVS next week. Then you will ring the register, because ESRX will not pay more. You swap out of CMX and go right into ESRX.'Home Inns & Hotels Management Inc. (NasdaqGM: HMIN): ' ... bulls make money, bears make money, hogs get slaughtered.... I want you to cut that position right now.'
Published By SeekingAlpha

Labels: AMSF, AN, CAR, CMX, DIS, ESRX, FINL, HMIN, HOG, IACI, ICE, Jim Cramer, Lightning Round, Mad Money, NKE, ROLL, SWY, UA

PM (NYSE: RPM - News): Cramer calls PM a "sensational buy" says it is a high-dividend stock that lacks sponsorship on Wall Street. However, he says that the company should be focused more on winning, and he suggested that CEO Frank Sullivan change the company's name to Rustoleum. Cramer predicts the stock will go to $30 from $23.
Middleby (NasdaqGS: MIDD): This company is "the one that delivers" according to Cramer, who began touting the stock $30 cheaper before it reached $115. He agrees with an analyst's prediction that the stock could reach $134.
IACI (NasdaqGS: IACI): Cramer credits executives Barry Diller and Doug Lebda for building a "fabulous consistent growth" machine which has only a single obstacle: its Home Shopping Network. Cramer sees it going from $39 to the mid-$40s.

Labels: IACI, Jim Cramer, Jim Cramer's Stop Trading, MIDD, RPM

“Hike, Hike?” For investors’, ‘just right’ Goldilocks economic conditions made for some offensive and a January barometer cheering ‘Da Bulls as 2007’s stateside champs. For the five-day period, the NASDAQ Composite ($COMPQ) and S&P500 ($SPX) are higher by 1.66% to 1.83%.“Hike, Hike!” Investors possibly heard those words over the weekend, but apparently not from the guy in charge of driving the markets forward. Early action in the first-half of trade was generally conducive to the bulls taking control of the offense. A flurry of Merger Monday activity (BMY, CFC, MER, SYMC, C and LAUR) and profit-taking in oil that day saw some players come in off the sidelines. In general though, the first-half was a sleeper of second string shuffling with little in the way of decisive movement. In fact, with Tuesday ushering in leadership from the energy complex (XLE, OIH), one might say The Curly Shuffle was seen as growing popular with investors. Black Gold reversed back through $55 to close up by nearly three points at $56.97, but due to the influential weighting of energy stocks, a positive catalyst for the broader indices was offered. With disappointing earnings from the Three Stooges a.k.a. Pharma giant Merck (MRK), 3M (MMM) and United Parcel (UPS) that day, the market certainly has a good sense of humor.Wednesday’s kick-off brought out the first team and a more serious game face to boot. The Q4 Advance GDP rose a stronger-than-anticipated 3.5% versus analysts’ estimates of 3.0%. While investor cheer could be heard on that front, an in-line 1.5% chain deflator, a slightly better-than-expected employment cost index (.8% vs 1.0%) and a drop of -.8% in the PCE price index were mixed enough in their overall readings as to hint that the Fed would maintain a hawkish lean. That being said, the bulls called an intraday timeout as they waited on play confirmation from the market’s quarterback.A quarterback sneak by Bernanke with a call of ‘5.25% and further rate hikes may yet be necessary’ was apparently understood by the offense to signal the charge forward. Despite having already offered out the same play and one that still implies that any change in policy will likely be towards tightening, the market rallied around the statement. Further recognition by the Fed that the economy has turned up, housing stabilized and price pressures still only affording bluffing tactics might be seen as reasons behind the Hail Mary by investors. Thursday did offer bulls’ leaning on policy verbiage of ‘improved and should moderate further’, confirmation of easing price pressures. The Fed’s favored price gauge, the core PCE deflator, rose just .1% in December. The benign reading comes on the heels of a flat result in November and can be seen as a positive trend towards lower inflation. On the other hand, an unexpected slip to contraction levels of 47.5% versus estimates of 51.5% for the ISM Index and a bump of 5.5% to 53% for the prices paid component should serve as reminders that ‘Da Bears could still find their game, despite being underdogs on Wall Street and other playing fields. A ‘just right’ jobs report delivered on Friday didn’t have the bears hearing “Hike, Hike” to begin their own offensive assault. Nonfarm payrolls that were adjusted for ‘now complete’ tax data turned a “miss” of 39,000 into a figure that was perfectly in-line with expectations. Further, a drop of .1% in December hourly earnings and a current .2% reading that was below estimates of .3% helped the bulls with their case. In recent months with wage-based pressures weighing heavily on the Fed, the combined data goes a long way towards easing those concerns.
ON TAP THIS WEEK
Economic watchdogs will be finding a reprieve this week. A much lighter and less significant calendar of catalysts are on tap. Further expectations for “just right” economic conditions will need to find additional momentum from investors without much actual evidence. One report that investors could key off of will be Monday’s ISM Services figure. After a disappointing ISM manufacturing figure, a stronger result might result in a sigh of relief and a rallying point. A worse-then-expected result, using that logic, would likely find investors focused on profit-taking.An additional factor jockeying for investors’ attention will be the price of oil. Since contract lows were set nearly three weeks ago, higher prices in Black Gold have yet to impact the market in a negative capacity, despite price gains of nearly 8 points or 15% to $59-a-barrel. Of course much of the broader market’s resilience is due to the energy complex (XLE, OIH) having enjoyed a tremendous rally simultaneously. As one of the market’s most heavily-weighted sectors, the potential negative impact of higher prices has thus been negligible. That being said, it will be interesting to see if the spin machine focusing on consumer spending and corporate profits goes back to work this week. It will be another week of heavy corporate reporting for earnings hounds. With close to two-thirds of S&P500 companies having delivered their Q4 results, aggregate earnings are shaping up slightly stronger at roughly 11%. However, while some relief might be felt over the possibility for a fourteenth quarter of double digit growth, all other benchmarks are off fairly hard and do point at much slower profit growth heading into the first-quarter. Eyeballing guidance figures and its readily apparent that revisions lower, rather than stronger outlooks are more the standard operating procedure and reaffirmations the most popular avenue taken. In spite of the current BTE parade, maybe that’s one reason that forecasts for Q1 have been lowered to 5% during the same period.
Monday
Economic: ISM Services (57)
Earnings: BE Aero (BEAV), Potlatch (PCH), Royal Carib (RCL), Anadarko (APC), Las Vegas Sands (LVS), Edwards LS (EW), Sohu (SOHU), Pitney (PBI), Thomas & Betts (TNB), WMS (WMS)
Tuesday
Economic: N/A
Earnings: Auto Data (ADP), Celanese (CE), Duke (DUK), InterActive (IACI), Intl SE (ISE), Littlefuse (LFUS), Louisiana Pac (LPX), Natl Oilwell (NOV), Tyco (TYC), Cisco (CSCO), Dentsply (XRAY), Diodes (DIOD), FEI Co (FEIC), ResMed (RMD), Travelzoo (TZOO), USANA (USNA)
Wednesday
Economic: Productivity (1.7%), Weekly Crude
Earnings: Cigna (CI), Devon (DVN), Intcnl Exchange (ICE), Lazard (LAZ), MedImmune (MEDI),Tim Hortons (THI), Whirlpool (WHR), Affymetrix (AFFX), Akamai (AKAM), Alcon (AL), Maxim (MXIM), UEPS Tech (UEPS), Riverbed (RVBD), Sina (SINA), Disney (DIS)Thursday
Economic: Weekly Claims (310K), Wholesale Inv (.6%)
Earnings: Aetna (AET), Bunge (BG), Carlisle (CSL), Corrections Co. (CXW), Diamond Offshore (DO). Express Scripts (ESRX), FLIR Systems (FLIR), Level 3 (LVLT), Marriott (MAR), Walter Ind (WLT), Qwest (Q), Broadcom (BRCM), Digital River (DRIV), Comtech (COGO), Panera (PNRA), Energy Conversion (ENER), Lifepoint (LPNT), Opentext (OTEX), W.G’Batch (GB) Friday
Economic: NA
Earnings: Alcatel-Lucent (ALU), Hasbro (HAS), MasterCard (MA), Weyerhauser (WY), AGCO (AG), American S & E (ASEI), Coventry (CVH)
By Chris Tyler, Optionetics.com

Labels: ADP, APC, BEAV, CE, CSCO, DUK, EW, IACI, ISE, LFUS, LPX, LVS, NOV, PBI, PCH, SOHU, TNB, TYC, TZOO, WMS

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - News) has increased its share of the U.S. Web search market to 47.4 percent with a gain of 0.4 percent during December, while No. 2 ranked Yahoo Inc. also edged higher, a survey said on Monday.
Web audience measurement firm comScore Networks Inc. said No. 3-ranked Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ:MSFT - News) share slid 0.5 percent to 10.5 percent of U.S. Web searches while IAC/InterActiveCorp's (NASDAQ:IACI - News) Ask.com's share dipped 0.1 percent to 5.4 percent.
Google has gained share in 16 of the last 17 months in the United States, the world's largest Internet market, according to comScore data.
Yahoo's (NASDAQ:YHOO - News) share of the market rose 0.3 percent to 28.5 percent in December over November, the survey found.
An estimated 6.7 billion searches were conducted by U.S. Web users in December, up 1 percent from November.
The number of U.S. Web search queries has grown 30 percent since December of 2005, comScore said. Consumers performed 3.2 billion searches on Google sites, while Yahoo drew 1.9 billion searches.
Published By Reuters

Labels: GOOG, Google Inc., IACI, Microsoft Corp., MSFT, Yahoo Inc., YHOO

Shares of DirecTV Group Inc. (DTV.N: Quote, Profile, Research), Questar Corp. (STR.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and IACInterActiveCorp. (IACI.O: Quote, Profile, Research) rose in extended trade on Tuesday after Standard & Poor's said the stocks would be added to its S&P 500 index. Shares of DirecTv rose 6 percent to $23.75 on the New York Stock Exchange, IAC/InterActiveCorp 4.8 percent to $35.40 on Nasdaq and Questar shares rose 3 percent to $84.97 on NYSE.
Source: Reuters.com

Labels: DirectTV Group, DTV, IACI, Questar, STR

Google Inc.'s stock flirted with the $500 mark Wednesday morning, and other search companies followed with minor rises, after an analyst forecast great gains from the search leader's newfound strength as a video sharing site.
Credit Suisse analyst Heath P. Terry reinstated coverage of Google with an "Outperform" rating and a price target of $600 per share, representing predicted growth of 22.6 percent over its closing price Tuesday of $489.30. In a note to investors, Terry emphasized the benefits of Google's roughly $1.65 billion acquisition of video sharing site YouTube.
"Successful monetization of YouTube traffic could add $160 million in revenue in 2007," Terry wrote. "However, as the company begins to take advantage of the amount of rich media ad inventory created by YouTube the potential revenue generation from the site likely to be more than 10 times that estimate."

Labels: Credit Suisse, GOOG, Google, IACI, Microsoft, MSFT, YHOO