Archive for January, 2008
UPDATE 1-Constellation ready to break ground on nuke in ‘08
Forbes - It is also ready to file its loan application to finance the project with the Department of Energy by early Might, said Michael Wallace, chief executive of Constellation Energy Nuclear Group, at the EXNET Utility M&A Conference in New York.
RBI leaves personal finance untouched
Times of India - MUMBAI: Good news, however small, is always welcome. The Reserve Bank of India didn’t do a US Fed, as was widely expected. The banking regulator has left its key policy rates untouched in its policy review on Tuesday. That means it is status quo for
Rogue Traders a Nightmare Scenario for Finance CEOs
ABC News - Well, Kerviel told investigators that he believes his bosses were well aware of his risk taking but turned a blind eye as long as he earned money, a judicial official stated Tuesday, according to the Associated Press. “I can’t believe that my superiors
UK says finance ministers to take forward details on tackling
Forbes - LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Specific proposals on how to tackle the global financial crisis should be taken forward by G8 finance ministers when they meet in Japan next month, stated British Prime Gordon Brown’s spokesman Michael Ellam. Speaking ahead
Who’s Blogging
Washington Post - The Senate Finance Committee will take up its own version of the stimulus package tomorrow, which shrinks most of the tax checks to $500 but offers them to virtually everyone, including poor seniors and rich families left out of the Home bill. The
U.S. Home passes $146 billion stimulus plan
Forbes - The bill next goes to the Senate, where Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, is offering an substitute that would provide a flat $500 rebate to all eligible people, $1,000 for couples and $300 per child. (Reporting by Donna
McCain, Romney Vie to Capture Momentum in Florida (Update2)
Bloomberg - Florida Say Representative Trey Traviesa, who introduced Romney at the event, singled out McCain’s willingness to work with Democrats on issues such as overhauling campaign finance law, immigration and global warming. “Too many times McCain has
Business events scheduled for Wednesday
Boston Globe - WASHINGTON — Senate Finance Committee hearing on the economic stimulus proposal. SEATTLE — Amazon.com Inc. releases fourth-quarter financial results. CHICAGO — Boeing Co. releases fourth-quarter financial results. ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Eastman Kodak Co.
House passes US economic recovery package
International Herald Tribune - That plan, written by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, would deliver checks even to the richest taxpayers, who are disqualified under the House-passed measure. Both versions would provide tax breaks to businesses to spur equipment and
For FPL, it’s garbage in, power out
Miami Herald - Business Monday | National | International | Personal Finance | Technology | Small Business | Friday Business Report Food | Health | Home BY JOHN DORSCHNER jdorschner@MiamiHerald.com Florida Power & Light isn’t quite making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, but
How To Dig Out Yahoo!’s Treasures
Forbes - Newspapers are organized in sections: news, including politics, business and finance; sports; and classifieds, including real estate, personals, jobs and autos. On weekends, highlights include travel, arts and entertainment. And, at least until the
Senator Warns of Rebate Loans
Newsday - Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., at a Finance Committee confirmation hearing for President Bush’s choice to head the Internal Revenue Service, stated he was worried that people eager to get their rebate checks early will turn to so-called refund anticipation
Commanders see long operation in Mosul
Miami Herald - Business Monday | National | International | Personal Finance | Technology | Small Business | Friday Business Report Food | Health | Home The top U.S. commanders in northern Iraq predicted Tuesday the battle to oust al-Qaida in Iraq from its last urban
TheStreet.com University : Personal Finance
Street.Com - Editor’s note: This is a special excerpt from TheStreet.com Ratings’ Ultimate Guided Tour of Stock Investing. Other Beginner’s Guides cover stock basics , market indices , diversification , financial goals , risk tolerance and growth and income
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Posted by: in Productivity
Filed under: Business, Internet, E-mail, Productivity, Web services, Google
Registering domain names and enabling your managing those domains is what a registrar should do. Making those tasks logical and intuitive is gravy for personal users but is the deal-breaker for small business. It still amazes us that businesses register domains based solely on price without foreseeing the nickel-and-diming a registrar does or worse, prevent you from fully managing your domain. You probably won’t find out the hidden costs until you’re ready to launch your new Web site.
If you have a single fun or personal domain, skip this article. If you’re in business with an on the internet presence, there are five services a registrar should provide without charging extra. But first, let’s speak about price.
 Low price is no longer the decision-maker
Domain registration varies from about $8 to $35 per year but rock-bottom pricing can no longer be your sole criterion. It’s bait-and-switch: you get the domain for a low price but you’re charged to do everyday tasks. Look beyond the price and itemize the services that you can do for free at a low-cost registrar. A low registration price does not guarantee you’re going to get services you need without paying per additional service. As managers of almost a thousand domains, this is our list of the five can’t-live-without features a registrar must include in the registration price.
Continue reading Five Services to Anticipate from Your Registrar (or get a new one)
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Posted by: in Productivity
Filed under: Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Productivity, Mozilla, Browser Tips, web 2.0
 Why do we assume we only get one homepage? For those willing to explore the potential of their browser, we’d like to show you a little out-of-the-box thinking in the form of Morning Coffee.
Though Firefox can set a series of tabs as your “homepage” (select “Use Current Pages” from the preferences menu), this free add-on (shout out to all the free software coders out there) gives you the capability to choose when to open which homepage.
State, for example, you like to read the NYTimes on days when you work, but you prefer Google Reader on Saturdays and your church’s weekly bulletin on Sunday mornings. This program, as you may have already assumed, does just that. [via gHacks]
Read
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Filed under: Marketing and advertising, Books
Among investment gurus, Ken Fisher is undoubtedly one of the ideal. The Only Three Questions that Count is one of the best investment books to come out in recent memory, he has put together an astounding track record with Fisher Investments, and he’s even on the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans.
So why, Ken, must you promote yourself with all the subtlety of a late-night no-money-down infomercial guru?
Just once, I would like to be able to log on to Forbes.com without having to smash my speakers to silence your pitch for your firm.
I feel like a lot of serious, smart investors skip Ken Fisher because they’re so turned off by the incessant marketing… we associate that kind of relentless pitching with charlatans, which Ken Fisher is most certainly not.
So the purpose of this post is two-fold: if you haven’t read Ken Fisher’s book, you really ought to go purchase it. It’s 58% off on Amazon. And if you’re Ken Fisher, please think about hiring a new, more nuanced marketing firm.
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Filed under: Products and services, Marketing and advertising, Hershey Co (HSY)
 The relationship between Hershey Co. (NYSE: HSY) and Wall Street has been sour for a while. Shares of the chocolate maker have plunged more than 30% over the past year amid concerns about rising commodity prices and the growth of healthier eating habits. Now, the confectioner is raising wholesale prices by an average of 13% on one-third of its domestic product line effective immediately [subscription required].
Chocoholics are paying the price for higher costs for raw materials, fuel, utilities, and transportation.
The move comes less than a week after the Pennsylvania company reported lousy fourth quarter results and gave investors disappointing guidance. In addition, the No. 1 candy maker recently bowed to pressure from law enforcement officials and said it would stop making Ice Breakers Pacs mints after some complaints that the candy might be mistaken for heroin or cocaine.
Yet another reason for people to eat healthy.
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Filed under: Wal-Mart (WMT), Starbucks (SBUX), Marketing and advertising, Recession
The economy may not be in recession yet, and there’s a minor chance it will avoid one in 2008, but marketers/advertisers seem to be in ‘recession-mode,’ regarding the tone of their ads, The New York Times reported Monday.
Along with Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), the Times cited several corporations that have taken a ‘tougher times ahead’ approach with ads. These include Capital One (NYSE: COF), “Uncertain times call for a certain rate,” Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX), which is testing a $1 coffee in Seattle, Washington, and Nissan (NASDAQ: NSANY), which is emphasizing the fuel economy of its 2008 Altima, rather than the car’s styling and performance.
Stephen Quinn, Wal-Mart’s chief marketing officer, told the Times, “When gas prices spiked last spring, we saw the pressure this put on our core customers.”
Economic Analysis: With major ad markets in California and Florida bearing a huge portion of the housing sector’s slump, it’s not surprising that corporations have modified ad campaigns to emphasize the money-saving / better value nature aspects of their products and services. But one should not equate this with Corporation America believing a recession is ahead. Ad tweaking indicates that a corporation doesn’t anticipate a robust year in its sector, and is adjusting its operational stance.
A superior indicator of Corporate America’s view of the economy? Staff hiring. If dozens of corporations announce that they’re laying off employees, that’d be an indication that a economic contraction is likely.
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Filed under: Blogs, Marketing and advertising, Target Corp. (TGT)
Today’s New York Times takes a look at Target (NYSE: TGT) and what can only be described as its arrogant attitude towards bloggers.
ShapingYouth.org sent an e-mail to the company, criticizing an ad Target was running that featured a woman lying on a Target logo with the bullseye centered on her crotch. Target responded by saying that, “Unfortunately we are unable to respond to your inquiry because Target does not participate with nontraditional media outlets.”
Wow! That kind of arrogance reminds me of Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) — isn’t Target supposed to be hip and chic? You’d think it would be up on what a powerful force bloggers are becoming.
A policy of not responding to blogs makes no sense at all. Companies should respond to questions from any potential customer.
Target explained to the New York Times that the ad was a woman making a snow angel, suggesting that it wasn’t meant to be provocative. From looking at the ad, and despite the retailer’s attitude, I’m actually inclined to agree.
Target could have saved itself a lot of trouble by just writing back to the blogger, explaining the idea behind the ad. Instead, the company’s PR team is now answering the same question from the New York Times, and wasting further time defending its asinine policy of not responding to blogs.
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Posted by: in Productivity
Filed under: Business, Features, E-mail, Office, Productivity
This day we’d like to introduce the first in a new weekly series of posts at Download Squad called Emailers Anonymous, a series for anyone that is addicted to email as part of their daily life. We’re going to explore email from all angles - everything from email clients to email etiquette, email productivity to email formatting. And anything else you have questions about.
Today’s post will focus on email etiquette, and how to be a good email neighbor.
It’s simple to feel frustrated with friends and co-workers when they make basic email mistakes like sending messages with no subject text, or referencing an attachment but not actually including one. But are we absolutely innocent of making email offenses ourselves? Have a look at the ones listed below; maybe you could be a better email neighbor.
Links without context
This is maybe one of the most common, and most egregious faux pas that can be committed on the internet. It happens on instant messaging programs and frighteningly often on Twitter, but it also happens very often in email. Consider the last time you encountered a website you really wanted a friend to see. When you emailed it to them, did you give any descriptive text so that they had a clue as to what they were about to see when clicking on your link, or did you simply give the a link and anticipate them to blindly follow it? This is tantamount to saying “close your eyes and open your mouth” - no thanks! If you really want people to follow your links, take a moment to explain what they’re about to see - a sentence or two is enough.
Continue reading Email Etiquette - Emailers Anonymous
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Morgan Stanley confirms agreement to sell Spain private banking … - Forbes
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Filed under: Earnings reports, Forecasts, Products and services, Management, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Starbucks (SBUX), Marketing and advertising, McDonald’s (MCD)
 It has definitely been a rocky earnings season thus far, and on Monday, fast food giant McDonalds Corp. (NYSE: MCD) will get its turn to impress Wall Street when it reports its fourth quarter numbers. Shares of the company traded up slightly on Friday in anticipation of the upcoming event. Shares completed the day up 0.19% to $54.10.
So what exactly are analysts anticipating to hear from McDonalds for the quarter? Consensus estimates for the company ’s most current quarter are running at 71 cents per share. During the fourth quarter of 2006 the company had actual earnings of 61 cents per share, so Wall Street is looking for a slightly higher than 16% jump year over year.
One thing that we have the ability to definitely expect to hear more about during the quarterly conference call will be the company’s plan to start offering mochas, lattes, cappuccinos, and espressos at all of its American locations. This is a strong move by the company to break into the coffee market, but has met some resistance from store owners.
 The coffee move was first introduced back in November, and at first, store owners were pretty hesitant, citing the approximate $100,000 cost tag to get stores fitted with all the necessary equipment. As Douglas McIntyre wrote earlier this month, the company thinks that by adding coffee bars and baristas it will eventually be able to add on about $1 billion in annual sales. This is a direct attack on Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) which has been struggling to keep its market share over the past year.
What are the analysts saying? Citi Investment Research analyst Glen Petraglia says that McDonalds remains his top pick in the restaurant sector. Stating that the stock is not exactly what he would call “cheap,” Petraglia says that he still feels that the downside is pretty limited on this one.
The last time that the company reported earnings was back on October 19, when it matched Wall Street estimates with 61 cents per share. To find the last time that the company was unable to at least come in in-line with analyst estimates you would have to look all the way back to January 2005, when it missed estimates for its fourth quarter 2004 by one penny.
Will the trend continue for McDonalds, or will we see a repeat of fourth quarter 2004. We will find out early Monday morning, and will update you as soon as the numbers come in, as well as gage Wall Street’s reaction to the quarterly numbers.
Let’s close with a one year chart to see how the stock has been performing over the past 52 weeks:
Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last four years working as an analyst for the on the web investment advisory service Investor’s Observer
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