Carl Icahn To Buyout Yahoo?

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Recently Microsoft abandoned their bid to buyout Yahoo, but it doesn’t appear as if the fight for the internet company is over quite yet.

According to reports, Carl Icahn has swooped in and purchased 50 million shares of Yahoo stock and it’s believed Icahn is planning a proxy fight to oust the current Board of Directors at the company.

By taking such a large position, Icahn could force the company into a deal with another internet company like AOL or Microsoft. Or there’s always the option of teaming up with Google to deliver advertising to their portal visitors.

No matter how you look at it, Jerry Yang better prepare for a fight. Carl Icahn is one tough cookie.

What are your thoughts on Yahoo? Who would they best “integrate” with online?

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Commodities ETF

Everyone can clearly see that commodity prices are soaring. Yet most of us aren’t in a position to invest in commodities directly. This is where a mutual fund or an ETF could come in handy. The advantages of such and ETF seem obvious: individual investors can invest in the fund, and allow the fund to do the heavy lifting when it comes to actually trading the commodities.

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Mars To Acquire Wrigley

Mars and Warren Buffet recently announced their plans to buy Wrigley, the company behind Wrigley Gum.

According to reports, Mars and Mr. Buffet have offered $80.00 a share to stockholders in the Wrigley Corporation.

This would bring two of the largest candy makers together as separate stand alone subsidiary with Berkshire Hathaway holding a minority stake.

Mars is the world’s largest maker of chocolates by sales, with a 15% market share. Wrigley generates most of their sales abroad and they’ve added other products, so they don’t just sell gum anymore.

Mars Global President Paul S. Michaels released the following statement:

“When this transaction is completed, we will be proud to welcome Wrigley’s associates to our company. The strong cultural heritage of two legendary American companies with a shared commitment to innovation, quality and best-in-class global brands provides a great basis for this combination. We are looking forward to continuing on our path of growth by jointly developing those values even further.”

Bill Wrigley Jr. will stay on as chief executive of Wrigley and there are no plans to move the corporate
headquarters out of Chicago.

The Mars-Wrigley deal is expected to close in 12 months.

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Wall Street Could Lose Another 36,000 Jobs

The credit crunch and other factors are making things a little uneasy if you have a job on Wall Street.

James Brown, a labor market analyst with New York state’s labor department says that as many as 36,000 jobs on Wall Street could be lost due to the credit crunch and other economic factors.

Brown said “History suggests it’s going to be something of that magnitude.”

Prior to 9-11, 2001 the number of employees on Wall Street was well over 200,000. At the end of last month there were 182,300 employees at banks and brokerages.

The average salary of bankers, brokers and traders was over $340,000 in 2006, so this loss of jobs could severely impact the local economy. The average home in the area is over $900,000 so you can see how this could be bad news for everyone involved.

Hopefully, the bankers and brokers had enough foresight to tuck some of those big money wages away - just in case of a rainy day..

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Stocks Down As Oil Rises

In general stocks were down today on Wall Street, as soaring oil prices have investors worried about how the skyrocketing costs will affect the beleaguered consumer. Oil went over $119 per barrel, and has showed no real signs of a slowdown as the summer driving season has arrived.

“We’ve melted here, but it isn’t a plunge,” chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co. Art Hogan said, “We’re in a day-to-day assessment of how good earnings season is, and right now there’s more bad news than good news — the parade has been less positive than we’ve anticipated.”

Investors are looking closely at every sign from companies about profit, and even the news of several companies coming in around expectations did nothing to inject enthusiasm into the market.

Higher prices seem to indicate that inflation is setting in in earnest, and this leaves a great doubt as to how the Fed will react. With inflation kicking in, it’s very possible that the Fed will not cut interest rates any lower in 2008. Whether that will spell continued doom for the credit market is on everyone’s mind.

More earnings news is expected this week, and all of it will be watched closely by interested parties.

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Google Suprises With 30% Increase In Q1

People had been selling off Google in the past few weeks, on speculation that the company’s ad program was not performing as well as last year. These people must be surprised today to learn that Google ended up 30% over last year’s earnings.

Google leader Eric Schmidt cooed about the company’s prowess. “It’s clear we are well positioned for 2008 and beyond, regardless of the business environment we are surrounded by,” said Schmidt.

Revenue was $5.19 billion, up 42 percent from 2007’s $3.66 billion. Earnings were $1.31 billion, or $4.12 per share, for the first three months of 2008, compared with $1 billion, or $3.18 per share, in the first quarter of 2007.

Google’s shares immediately rallied almost 18% on the news.

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Oil Hits New Record

Oil set a new record at $114.54 per barrel. The main reason cited is that speculators are pouring money into commodities, due to the continued decline of the dollar. As the Euro continues to climb against the dollar, money keeps pouring into oil.

According to Olivier Jakob, the trend is likely to continue, regardless of fundamental reasons. “Monday and Tuesday crude oil managed to move ahead without the help of the dollar,” he said. “But once we broke above 1.59 euros per dollar and as we move toward 1.60, there’s going to be more buying coming into oil.”

Investors have been putting more money into commodities, and so far have found an above average return, especially as opposed to stock market investing. However, there are warning signs that the price increase in Oil might be slowing. Consumer demand appears to be sluggish, despite the U.S. heading into the driving season.

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Blockbuster Bids One Billion To Takeover Circuit City

Circuit City and Blockbuster are two brand names that have seen their better days. The two companies have both been struggling in recent years. Circuit City has been trounced operationally by Best Buy, while BlockBuster had their asses handed to them by Netflix. So what to do with the struggling companies?

The current idea is that BBI will acquire Circuit City for around $1 billion.

Circuit City shares climbed 60 percent in premarket trading.

Blockbuster Chief Executive James Keyes said a deal would create a chain that could sell portable devices and entertainment for them, much like Apple Inc.’s stores.

So far Circuit City is not sure about the deal, and whether BBI can pull off the financing. Their shares went up 55% in today’s trading on the news.

It’s tough to say how people will view the trade. These are two struggling companies in a slow economic period facing competition who has been beating them. Whether a merger will help, or actually hasten their demise is unknown.

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Technology And Retail Stocks Rule The Day

The Dow Jones had a decent day, as technology and retail leaders led a small rally. The primary mover pushing tech stocks up was that Banc of America Securities upgraded the U.S. semiconductor sector. They reasoned that a modest inventory buildup has eased. This lead investors to pounce on some shares.

Retail stocks also shared a small rise today as anticipation for the Economic Stimulus package checks is rising.

Most investors expect the checks to be spent mainly on retail items. Wal-Mart shares were up 1% today on such sentiment. There are a number of major earnings reports coming up this week.

So far investors seemed mixed to upbeat.

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WaMu Takes 7 Billion Dollar Infusion

Another great banking institution has taken on water with mortgage defaults and delinquencies. This time it’s Washington Mutual.(WM)

The company is taking on 7 billion dollars from private equity firm TPG Inc. and other investors.

Washington Mutual announced plans to eliminate 3,000 jobs and will close 186 stand alone home lending offices. They will offer mortgage products at their retail branches. They are projecting a 1.1 billion loss for the quarter.

WaMu also stated their dividend for the quarter will be $.01 instead of $.15.

WM is now trading at around $11.00.

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