Filed under: Major Movement , Competitive Strategy , Barrick Gold (ABX) , Commodities , Federal Reserve Back in the late 1970s, the Hunt brothers from Texas tried to corner the silver market . That drove prices to $48 an ounce. Now, 31 years later, silver is shooting higher again. The March silver futures contract closed at $32.296 per ounce , up 72 cents. Since gold is expensive, investors are turning to silver to hedge against inflation. Many fear that the Federal Reserve will not be able to control the spike in commodity prices. The Fed is buying $600 billion of treasuries and keeping interest rates near zero. Continue reading Silver Near a 31-Year High Silver Near a 31-Year High originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 19 Feb 2011 12:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Email this | Comments
Microsoft
Microsoft and Nokia Join to Build a New Smartphone
Filed under: Competitive Strategy , Microsoft (MSFT) , Nokia Corp. (NOK) , Smartphones This is probably one of the most interesting stories of the Internet revolution. Microsoft ( MSFT ) jumped out the starting gate with its Windows operating system and took the world by storm. Then for some unknown reason, Microsoft missed the entire search engine revolution and Google ( GOOG ) raced to first place. Now Microsoft has again missed the next leg — the iPhone and iPad revolution, and Apple ( AAPL ) holds first place in this segment. Nokia ( NOK ) was a pioneer in the smartphone revolution, but with Apple’s drive to the top, Nokia lost its momentum. Once Nokia had 50% of the handset market . Now that share has fallen to just 29%. It’s hard to believe but Microsoft has only 2% of the global phone software market. Continue reading Microsoft and Nokia Join to Build a New Smartphone Microsoft and Nokia Join to Build a New Smartphone originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 13 Feb 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Email this | Comments
Nokia, Microsoft Announce Strategic Smartphone Alliance (NOK, MSFT)
Mobile phone maker Nokia Corporation ( NOK ) and software giant Microsoft Corporation ( MSFT ) on Friday announced a pact to team up against rivals Apple ( AAPL ) and Google ( GOOG ), who are thus far winning the smartphone race hands-down. In pursuant to the deal, Nokia will utilize Microsoft’s Windows Phone software as the platform for its mobile phones, marking a monumental shift from the Finnish company’s prior strategy of programming the operating system for its own devices. The move comes just days after a leaked internal Nokia memo from CEO Stephen Elop, in which he warned his employees the company was simply being outdone by its mobile phone competitors. Elop didn’t say when the first Nokia device running on Windows Phone software would ship, but did note that the company would not abandon its trademark Symbian operating system, nor the new Meego platform it’s currently developing. Nokia shares plunged $1.08, or -10%, in premarket trading Friday. The Bottom Line Shares of Nokia ( NOK ) have a 4.78% dividend yield, based on last night’s closing stock price of $10.88. Shares of Microsoft ( MSFT ) have a 2.33% dividend yield, based on last night’s closing stock price of $27.50. Nokia Corporation ( NOK ) and Microsoft Corporation ( MSFT ) are both rated “Neutral,” holding Dividend.com DARS™ Ratings of 3.1 and 3.4 out of 5 stars, respectively. Be sure to visit our complete recommended list of the Best Dividend Stocks , as well as a detailed explanation of our ratings system here .
Carlos Slim Catches Gold Fever
Carlos Slim beat both Warren Buffett and Bill Gates in stock market performance last year. The reason: a hell-bent plan to start a brand-new gold and silver mining company in Mexico. Slim’s publicly disclosed holdings jumped 37% to $70 billion in 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg . Meanwhile, Buffett helped return a 22% gain for Berkshire Hathaway last year, and Gates’ Microsoft fell, hurting his overall annual returns even as he spread his investments into other sectors… The World’s Richest Man catches gold fever Slim — who made his fortune by building one of the world’s biggest telecommunication empires — has recently been making significant investments in gold and silver, particularly with a focus on precious metal mining in Mexico. Carlos Slim became the world’s richest man in 2010 with an estimated net worth of $55 billion. And a new spin-off mining company may help him widen his lead atop the global wealth list… Back in August, Slim’s holding company, Grupo Carso, S.A.B. de C.V., announced it would spin off a new precious metal mining company that would be focused on gold and silver mining in Mexico. The news added billions to Slim’s already ridiculous fortune as the plan to spin off the new company sent shares of Grupo Carso soaring in 2010, making it his best-performing asset last year. The new company (called Minera Frisco) produced nearly 200,000 ounces of gold and 5.5 million ounces of silver from its Mexican projects in 2010. Frisco recently reported plans to spend nearly $750 million this year to ramp up gold and silver production. The company estimates production from new mines in Mexico will more than double the company’s gold production to 440,000 ounces and nearly quadruple its silver production to 19.1 million ounces in 2011. Shares of Minera Frisco began trading Mexican Stock Exchange at the beginning of this year. But Slim and his family received nearly 80% of the new shares of Minera Frisco, and the stock is very thinly traded. Most analysts and investors will most likely avoid covering or owning this stock… However, there are many suitable alternative companies with a focus on gold and silver mining in Mexico. The largest of Minera Frisco’s publicly-traded competitors is the London-based silver major Fresnillo plc (LON: FRES) . Fresnillo plc Exchange: Symbol London: FRES P/E 39.76 Share Price 1,450 GBX Divided 5.90 GBX Market Cap 10.41 Billion GBP Yield 1.12% Fresnillo is the …
Microsoft (MSFT): ‘No Respect’
Filed under: Microsoft (MSFT) , Newsletters , Stocks to Buy “Microsoft ( MSFT ) recently released its fiscal second-quarter results; we felt results were really quite strong, with solid gains in most segments and good cost discipline,” says Geoffrey Seiler . The editor of Bullmarket.com explains, “If these results were from another company, the stock likely would have gotten a lift. But Microsoft is the Rodney Dangerfield of companies: it doesn’t get the respect it deserves. “Microsoft reported net income of $6.63 billion, or 77 cents per share, compared with $6.66 billion, or 74 cents per share, in the year-ago period. Sales grew by 5% to $19.95 billion from $19.00 billion. Continue reading Microsoft (MSFT): ‘No Respect’ Microsoft (MSFT): ‘No Respect’ originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 07 Feb 2011 10:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Email this | Comments
Yahoo! Still Trying to Play Catch Up
Filed under: Earnings Reports , Forecasts , Internet , Yahoo! (YHOO) Yahoo is still trying to play catch up. Helped by cost cuts, Yahoo! ( YHOO ) posted late Tuesday fourth quarter income of $312 million, or 24 cents a share, more than double last year’s income of $153 million, or 11 cents a share, according to the Wall Street Journal . Revenue fell 12% to $1.53 billion from $1.73 billion. Net revenue, which excludes commissions paid to partners, fell 4% in the quarter to $1.22 billion from $1.26 billion in the year ago period. Excluding the Microsoft ( MSFT ) impact and certain divestitures, revenue grew by 2% in the quarter. Continue reading Yahoo! Still Trying to Play Catch Up Yahoo! Still Trying to Play Catch Up originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 26 Jan 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Ho, Ho, Ho: Apple Sells 47,160,000 New iThings in Q1
Judging from Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) first quarter numbers, the Steve Jobs medical leave story is only going to be a minor hiccup in the short term. Fresh off of the Christmas holiday, Apple crushed it again. Net income in the fiscal first quarter rose to $6 billion, or $6.43 a share. That blew away last year’s take of $3.38 billion, or $3.67/share as profits surged 78%. In the blow out quarter, which appropriately enough ended on Dec. 25, Apple sold: 7.33 million iPads. 16.2 million iPhones 4.13 million Mac computers And 19.5 million iPod media players. That’s a total of 47,160,000 new electronics devices sold in just three months. Put another way, thats one new gadget for every 6.6 Americans since September 25 th . Somewhere, no doubt PC guy is now beating his head against a brick wall. Because let’s face it, Microsoft has now been completely left in the dust by the company it bailed out in 1997 with $150 million investment. In just two short years, Apple has practically put the game out of reach. As for Steve Jobs, lets just say that the company will do just fine without him for the time being. Related Articles: Apple: Stock of the Year Apple’s Next Evolution Apple Sets its Sights on iSpecs To learn more about Wealth Daily click here Advertisement Most Important 500 Square Miles on Earth Becomes Private Property It was a stretch of barren landscape just a couple hundred miles away from the North Pole… But locked within it sat a 50-year supply of the most important class of industrial metals known to man. Earlier this year — for the first time ever — a single company took hold of this land… And altered the course of the world’s high-tech market forever. Learn more here. Ho, Ho, Ho: Apple Sells 47,160,000 New iThings in Q1 originally appeared in Wealth Daily . Wealth Daily is a free daily newsletter featuring contrarian investment insights and commentary.
Google (Nasdaq:GOOG) Widens Search Lead Over Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT), Yahoo (Nasdaq:YHOO) in December Says ComScore
According to comScore Inc., Google (Nasdaq:GOOG) has widened their lead in search for the U.S. market in December over competitors Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT) and Yahoo (Nasdaq:YHOO). The conclusion is based on what is called “explicit core” Internet search in the U.S., and not overall core search. In overall core search, Google was flat, coming in at 64.3 percent, while the combined total of
