Employment News a 'Downer' for Equity Markets

Bill Cara submits: [Excerpted from Bill Cara's Daily Report]

Thursday’s Employment Report was a downer for US equities. Too many people had been hooked into the belief that the unemployment situation in the US, and Europe as well, was on the mend. The data shows otherwise.

With final hour selling going into the long holiday weekend, Thursday’s session was particularly nasty. The S&P 500 (896.42 -26.91 -2.91%), the DJIA (8,280.74 -223.32 -2.63%), and the NASDAQ (1,796.52 -49.20 -2.67%) were all down substantially.

In India, Google Searches for Users with Print Ads

TechCrunch submits:

By Robin Wauters

Different markets have different needs for marketing products or services. We all know that much. But that doesn’t take away the weirdness of a company like Google (GOOG) advertising its core product (online search) by using ink that was printed on paper.

Oh, So Now There Are No Green Shoots?

Roger Nusbaum submits:

By now you know the non-farm payrolls report came out and the job loss for June was worse than expected. Fortunately the weekly jobless claims number stunk too (small humor attempt). And of course the stock market puked down yesterday.

The tenor of the comments on CNBC seemed to be that "oh well, forget about it now," this after the occasional berating of people who were not so bullish before the June data printed. This sort of manic tone that investors are exposed to from various parts of the media has the potential to be dangerous.

Marvel: Simply Marvelous, Pretty Expensive

VFC submits:

Sears: Retail Social Networking Pioneers

Todd Sullivan submits:

Sears (SHLD) is doing some very interesting things online that while in their infancy, have the potential to turn them into a "social shopping hub".

From Bnet:

McDonald's' New Burger Is Another Reason to Love It

Todd Sullivan submits:

Looking Under the Hood of AutoNation

Chad Brand submits:

Typically when I write about individual stocks I share bullish ideas that I am either long or thinking about going long. I was recently doing some work on AutoNation (AN), however, and since the stock looks pricey to me I figured I would share a bearish case as well.

The reason for a contrarian like me to look under the hood of AutoNation is pretty straightforward. The U.S. automobile industry is obviously struggling right now but AN has strong management and the dealers are in better shape than the car makers themselves (as cost structures are more in-line without union obligations, etc). Couple that with strong buy side interest from Eddie Lampert’s ESL Investments and Bill Gates affiliated Cascade Investments and my interest was peaked.

Palm Pre Sales Tapering Off; Roger McNamee Eating Crow on iPhone Prediction

John Paczkowski submits:

“You know the beautiful thing: June 29, 2009, is the two-year anniversary of the first shipment of the iPhone. Not one of those people will still be using an iPhone a month later.”

– Palm investor Roger McNamee

Cinemark Holdings: The Advantages and Disadvantages

China Developing Its Own Real Estate Bubble

Tom Lindmark submits:

It’s nice to know that Americans aren’t the only people in the world that believe real estate prices can never stop going up. Apparently the Chinese share our affinity for bubbles.

From MarketWatch, real estate prices in China are going through the roof:

Akamai Launches iPhone Video Streaming and Showcase Portal

Dan Rayburn submits:

Yesterday, Akamai (AKAM) "officially" announced support for variable bit rate streaming of live and on-demand video content for the iPhone and iPod touch and has launched a new showcase site at iphone.akamai.com. The site which has been live for about a month, showcases content from about a dozen content providers including FOX News, MTV and USA Today amongst others.

Akamai's new iPhone streaming service is based on the standard HTTP delivery protocol which for Akamai, means they can utilize more of their HTTP network infrastructure as opposed to proprietary based streaming protocols. Earlier in the week I came across the showcase site and tested the quality and while it looks pretty good, there were times when the video appeared choppy. Hard to know what exactly caused that as the videos as they play now, don't give you any performance or quality indicators in the player to know if your connection is having problems. That's one feature I'd like to see in the player and one that most PC based video players already have built in.

Money Flows Into Alt Energy Again, But Not Out of the Woods Yet

Charles Morand (AltEnergyStocks) submits:

It seems as though the darkest clouds are finally dissipating over alt energy's financing horizon. Over the past few weeks, money has started flowing into the sector again, as evidenced by a number of recent deal announcements:

1. On June 9, I reported on the upcoming IPO for Magma Energy Corp., a geothermal exploration company. The IPO's size will be upped from an initial C$50 MM to C$100 MM, a sign of increased market appetite
2. SunPower Corp.(SPWRA) raised $418 MM in early May through a share and debt offering, and recently announced it had reached a $100 MM deal with Wells Fargo (WFC) to fund commercial-scale solar PV projects across the US
3. John reported a few days ago that A123 Systems had amended the SEC registration statement for its proposed IPO, positing that it could be much larger than initially anticipated
4. In late May, Suntech Power (STP) raised $277 MM from a follow-on offering of its American Depositary Shares (ADSs), and recently received a $50 MM convertible loan from the IFC
5. On June 23, Yingli Green (YGE) raised $193 MM through a follow-on offering of its ADSs
6. On June 25, Trina Solar (TSL) secured credit facilities of about $57 MM
7. New Energy Finance just reported a slight increase in asset financing for Q2 2009, although it cautioned that money flows into renewable energy projects were: (1) down substantially from what they were a year ago (~66% in the US); and (2) far below the level where they need to be if greenhouse gas emissions are to be brought under control by 2020

As noted by both New Energy Finance and John, requirements for matching funds under the ARRA mean that firms that want to access government grants will have to put up some of their money, potentially leading some of them to go to market even if conditions aren't ideal.

5 Landfill Gas and Geothermal Stocks for Your Clean Energy Shopping List

Tom Konrad (AltEnergyStocks) submits:

This article continues my Clean Energy Stocks Shopping List series. So far I've brought you:

• Five clean transport stocks,
• I looked at why it makes sense to wait for better prices,
• Five Energy Efficiency stocks (always my favorite sector), and
• Five Electric Transmission Stocks.

This article takes a look at two of the most economical clean electricity generation technologies, landfill gas and geothermal.

Kool-Aid and GDP: The Delusion of Economic Activity

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