DailyMarkets.com - AEP Acquires Valley Electric (AEP)

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• AEP Acquires Valley Electric (AEP)
• Natural Resource Buys IL Reserves
• TARP Is Officially Over
• Ericsson Declines BSNL Bidding
• Gen-Probe Files 510(k) For APTIMA
• ISM: Services Better Than Expected
• Health Management Buys Wuesthoff
• Bears Are Drowing In Their Misery
• JAKKS Downgraded To Neutral
• Chevron Plans Buyback Resumption
• Ketchum Integrates With Pleon
• Seven Ways To Profit From The Worldwide Currency War
• Aggressive Growth Stock: Thor Industries, Inc.
• EMC Launches New Product
• Swiss Franc: Under Pressure
• Australian Dollar: Under Pressure
• Canadian Dollar: Under Pressure
• Japanese Yen: The Downside Prevails
• British Pound: Under Pressure
• Euro: Under Pressure
• The Forgotten Metal
• Beggar Thy Neighbor
• ASA Staffing Index Reaches 28-Month High
• Ben Bernanke On Fiscal Policy
• Vale On Spending Binge
• CSX Downgraded To Neutral
• Praxair Signs Contract With Hua Li
• Stock Market News Briefs: Arcelor Mittal, Barclays PLC, BlackRock, ChevronTexaco, Colgate-Palmolive Company, Deutsche Bank AG, Goldman Sachs Group, Peabody Energy Corporation
• Televisa To Buy 35% In Univision
• FLIR Acquires ICx Tech
• Forex Trading: EURUSD Holding The Gains.
• Momentum Stock: National Beverage Corp.
• Goldman Eyes RBS Property Loans
• Neutral On Santarus
• Forex Trading: USDCHF Testing All Time Low
• Forex Trading: EURUSD Breaks With Conviction This Time.

AEP Acquires Valley Electric (AEP) Posted: 05 Oct 2010 11:35 AM PDT American Electric Power Company Inc.'s (AEP) utility subsidiary AEP Southwestern Electric Power Company or SWEPCO acquired Louisiana based utility cooperative Valley Electric Membership Corporation or WEMCO. The purchase consideration for the acquisition was $102 million. The transaction has already received the approval of both the Boards.   The transaction is a win-win situation for both the companies with American Electric Power adding 30,000 residential, commercial and industrial … [visit site to read more]

Natural Resource Buys IL Reserves Posted: 05 Oct 2010 11:35 AM PDT Master limited partner, Natural Resource Partners LP (NRP) has recently acquired the third of its planned seven acquisitions of coal reserves at the Deer Run mine in Illinois from Colt LLC, an affiliate of the Cline Group. The partnership paid roughly $55 million for these assets.   The Deer Run mine is located near Hillsboro in Montgomery and Bond Counties, Illinois, has the potential to produce roughly 8 to 10 million tons per year when the longwall is in full production. The estimated … [visit site to read more]

TARP Is Officially Over Posted: 05 Oct 2010 11:00 AM PDT TARP is officially over as of today. As I noted about a year ago, despite the huge unpopularity of the program it really was a huge success and cost much less than most people initially imagined. According to CBS news today: "As the New York Times reported last week, the White House now expects the program to come in at a cost of $50 billion or less – and could even end up turning a profit for the government. (The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the final … [visit site to read more]

Ericsson Declines BSNL Bidding Posted: 05 Oct 2010 10:35 AM PDT LM Ericsson Telephone Co. (NASDAQ:ERIC) has declined to bid for the $451 million telecommunication equipment supply contract floated by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), a Government of India company.   BSNL has mandated that bidders submit source codes to an escrow after the Indian government made it compulsory for equipment suppliers to submit software and hardware codes related to the products they will supply. This requirement comes amid concerns that imported equipment could be laced with … [visit site to read more]

Gen-Probe Files 510(k) For APTIMA Posted: 05 Oct 2010 10:35 AM PDT Diagnostic products maker Gen-Probe Inc. (NASDAQ:GPRO) has submitted a 510(k) application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its APTIMA assay for Trichomoniasis, a sexually transmitted disease. This represents the third of the five regulatory submissions the company plans to complete in the U.S. in 2010. Gen-Probe received the European CE mark for the assay in June 2010.    Trichomonas vaginalis, a sexually transmitted parasite, can cause inflammatory conditions such as … [visit site to read more]

ISM: Services Better Than Expected Posted: 05 Oct 2010 10:35 AM PDT The Institute for Supply Management's Non-Manufacturing, or Service, survey rose in September to 53.2 from 51.5 in August. Like its venerable brother, the manufacturing survey, this is a "magic 50" index, where any reading above 50 indicates that the economy is expanding and anything below 50 represents an economic contraction. Thus, this means that the service side of the economy, which is far larger than the manufacturing side, is not only growing, but the rate of growth accelerated in … [visit site to read more]

Health Management Buys Wuesthoff Posted: 05 Oct 2010 10:35 AM PDT Health Management Associates (NYSE:HMA), a leading operator of general acute care hospitals, has reportedly completed its previously announced acquisition of Rockledge, Florida-based health care services provider Wuesthoff Health System for roughly $152 million. The company executed a definitive agreement to acquire Wuesthoff in July 2010.   Wuesthoff Health System runs two hospitals (Wuesthoff Medical Center-Rockledge and Wuesthoff Medical Center-Melbourne) in Florida, which collectively … [visit site to read more]

Bears Are Drowing In Their Misery Posted: 05 Oct 2010 10:07 AM PDT I often check in on the perma-bears at Slope of Hope where the resident guru, Tim, there was crying over his drinks about how September was such a disaster. He apologized for continually mostly seeing shorting opportunities; at one point last month he was almost 100% short. Fortunately, he was partially hedged by having some SPY but the market’s relentless ascent continued to cause major damage to his portfolio. The message always was, “don’t despair, Slopers, this is only a temporary blip, a … [visit site to read more]

JAKKS Downgraded To Neutral Posted: 05 Oct 2010 10:05 AM PDT We are downgrading our rating on JAKKS Pacific Inc. (NASDAQ:JAKK), which designs and markets a broad range of toys and consumer products, to Neutral from Outperform based on a host of factors. These include a decline in revenues in the second quarter, loss of the WWE consumer license, labor issues and container shortages in Asia as well as tough comparison in the second half of 2010. Second Quarter Flashback JAKKS Pacific reported its adjusted second quarter earnings of 17 cents per share, … [visit site to read more]

Chevron Plans Buyback Resumption Posted: 05 Oct 2010 10:05 AM PDT Following a hiatus of nearly two years, energy major Chevron Corp. (NYSE:CVX) yesterday announced plans to restart quarterly buybacks of up to $1 billion of its common stock starting from the fourth quarter of 2010. The oil and gas producer is targeting a quarterly repurchase rate of $500 million to $1 billion as part of a program earlier approved by the Board of Directors.     Chevron, which is slated to report its third-quarter results on October 29, has bolstered its cash flows in … [visit site to read more]

Ketchum Integrates With Pleon Posted: 05 Oct 2010 10:05 AM PDT Ketchum, a leading global public relations unit of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE:OMC), has finally integrated with the German subsidiary of Pleon, Europe's largest strategic communications consultancy, located in Munich.   With the German integration, the merger is finally completed, which began in June 2009 with the intention to create one of the largest and most diversified communications consultancies in the world and clients are also expected to benefit from the merger.   Typically, … [visit site to read more]

Seven Ways To Profit From The Worldwide Currency War Posted: 05 Oct 2010 09:50 AM PDT If you’re like me, and you spend a lot of time perusing financial Web sites in search of the latest global investing news, you’ve probably started to see a lot of stories about rapid shifts in foreign exchange rates – including some “currency pairs” that have traditionally been rather slow-moving. Back during the spring, for instance, the news was full of stories about how Switzerland was buying up European euros in an effort to weaken the strong Swiss franc – only to have that country … [visit site to read more]

Aggressive Growth Stock: Thor Industries, Inc. Posted: 05 Oct 2010 09:35 AM PDT Thor Industries, Inc. (NYSE:THO) shares surged to pressure the 52-week high after the recent earnings release. The company is atop its industry and is still trading with good valuations. Company Description Thor is the largest recreational vehicle maker. Additionally the company makes commercial buses varying in size and ambulances. Beat the Street On Sep 28 Thor reported fourth-quarter and fiscal year end results that delighted investors. Quarterly sales were up 51%, to $664 million over the past … [visit site to read more]

EMC Launches New Product Posted: 05 Oct 2010 09:35 AM PDT A leading provider of data storage systems EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC) unveiled new integrated backup products to enable customers accelerate backup design process.   EMC launched new EMC NetWorker backup software integrated with EMC Data Domain Boost software. The integration is expected to increase backup speed up to 2 times by distributing parts of the de-duplication process to the NetWorker storage node.   In 2009, EMC acquired four companies, of which the most important was Data … [visit site to read more]

Swiss Franc: Under Pressure Posted: 05 Oct 2010 09:19 AM PDT Update on supports and resistances. … [visit site to read more]

Australian Dollar: Under Pressure Posted: 05 Oct 2010 09:19 AM PDT Update on supports and resistances. … [visit site to read more]

Canadian Dollar: Under Pressure Posted: 05 Oct 2010 09:19 AM PDT Update on supports and resistances. … [visit site to read more]

Japanese Yen: The Downside Prevails Posted: 05 Oct 2010 09:19 AM PDT Update on supports and resistances. … [visit site to read more]

British Pound: Under Pressure Posted: 05 Oct 2010 09:19 AM PDT Update on supports and resistances. … [visit site to read more]

Euro: Under Pressure Posted: 05 Oct 2010 09:19 AM PDT Update on supports and resistances. … [visit site to read more]

The Forgotten Metal Posted: 05 Oct 2010 09:18 AM PDT Fundamentals With all the focus seemingly on Gold these days, many traders seems to have forgotten that Silver has been one of the largest gainers this year. While not a pure defensive play like Gold, Silver can be seen as a hybrid metal. It has value both as a precious metal and an industrial metal, which makes it more sensitive to economic conditions than Gold. If the global economy is truly on its way back to form, the upside potential for Silver could exceed other precious and industrial … [visit site to read more]

Beggar Thy Neighbor Posted: 05 Oct 2010 09:17 AM PDT So much has happened along our economic landscape over the last two to three years that it is hard to weigh the magnitude and depth of many of the developments. That said, the simple fact is the tectonic plates underlying our global economy have shifted massively as a result of the enormous financial earthquake of 2008. While global governments and central banks have performed varying degrees of  triage to save states, nations, and regions, the movements of the … [visit site to read more]

ASA Staffing Index Reaches 28-Month High Posted: 05 Oct 2010 09:14 AM PDT From the American Staffing Association (ASA): “During the week of Sept. 20–26, 2010, temporary and contract employment rose 1.36%, pushing the index up two points to a value of 100. The last time the weekly index hit 100 was during the week of May 12, 2008 (see chart above).  At a current index value of 100, U.S. staffing employment is 45% higher than the level reported for the first week of the current year and is 25% higher than the same weekly period in 2009.” According to the … [visit site to read more]

Ben Bernanke On Fiscal Policy Posted: 05 Oct 2010 09:05 AM PDT Yesterday, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke gave a speech in which he discussed fiscal policy. I am not a big fan of the Fed Chairman doing so, and historically they have avoided doing so to help preserve the independence of the Fed. The one major exception to that was Alan Greenspan's endorsement of the Bush tax cuts at the time, on the grounds that the Federal Debt was in danger of disappearing altogether, and without a significant amount of Federal debt outstanding it would be difficult for the … [visit site to read more]

Vale On Spending Binge Posted: 05 Oct 2010 09:05 AM PDT Brazilian mining giant, Vale S.A. (VALE) has increased its stake in Vale Fertilizantes SA, Vale's fertilizer unit, from 58.63% to 78.9% for $1.03 billion.   Vale recently authorized the buy-back of 64.8 million common shares and 98.4 million preferred shares for a total amount of $2 billion until March 2011. The company also proposed a total dividend of $2.75 billion with $1.25 billion as minimum payment, $500 million as additional dividend, and $1.0 billion as extraordinary dividend. … [visit site to read more]

CSX Downgraded To Neutral Posted: 05 Oct 2010 09:05 AM PDT We are downgrading our recommendation on CSX Corp. (NYSE:CSX), one of the leading U.S. transportation suppliers, to Neutral from Outperform. We downgraded the stock on concerns that new pricing may reduce profitability of the company. Currently, the stock has a Zacks #3 Rank (Hold).   The U.S. regulator is seeking new pricing rules to give more leverage to shippers in price disputes with freight railroad companies. The new pricing is expected to weigh on the overall freight railroad … [visit site to read more]

Praxair Signs Contract With Hua Li Posted: 05 Oct 2010 08:35 AM PDT This article has been unpublished. Walter, need new message.   PRAXAIR INC (PX): Free Stock Analysis … [visit site to read more]

Stock Market News Briefs: Arcelor Mittal, Barclays PLC, BlackRock, ChevronTexaco, Colgate-Palmolive Company, Deutsche Bank AG, Goldman Sachs Group, Peabody Energy Corporation Posted: 05 Oct 2010 08:35 AM PDT Barclay’s (NYSE:BCS) lowered ratings on Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE:CL) from “equal weight” to “underweight,” cutting the price target from $80 to $68 Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) downgraded BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) from “Conviction Buy” to “Neutral,” setting a price target of $180 Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB) lowered ratings for both Peabody Energy (NYSE:BTU) and Arcelor Mittal (NYSE:MT), from “buy” to “neutral.” Chevron (NYSE:CVX) announced plans to resume quarterly share buybacks of up to $1 billion of its … [visit site to read more]

Televisa To Buy 35% In Univision Posted: 05 Oct 2010 08:35 AM PDT Just a day after the Mexican government gave the license to use spectrum for a new network, Grupo Televisa S.A. (NYSE:TV) agreed to buy a 35 percent stake in Univision Communications Inc. for $1.2 billion.   Grupo Televisa is the largest Spanish-language broadcaster globally and Univision is its U.S. based rival. The two companies have been competing for a long time to control the lucrative U.S. Hispanic television market. The total deal is worth around $3 billion.   As per the … [visit site to read more]

FLIR Acquires ICx Tech Posted: 05 Oct 2010 08:35 AM PDT FLIR Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:FLIR) has completed the acquisition of ICx Technologies Inc for $268 million, implying an enterprise value of $232 million. The closing cash balance of ICx is $36 million. The acquisition strengthens FLIR’s capabilities in advanced sensors for chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosives (CBNRE) detection for the defense and security markets. FLIR produces invisible infrared cameras and night vision technology, which are used at all American airports. FLIR’s … [visit site to read more]

Forex Trading: EURUSD Holding The Gains. Posted: 05 Oct 2010 08:33 AM PDT Support at 1.3811-17. Looking for buyers against  the level to spur on the next leg higher. The 1.3896 is the 61.8% retracement  of the move down from the November 2009 high to the low in June … [visit site to read more]

Momentum Stock: National Beverage Corp. Posted: 05 Oct 2010 08:20 AM PDT National Beverage Corp. (NASDAQ:FIZZ) recently hit a new multi-year high after reporting its fourth earnings surprise in the last four quarters. As a proven performer in a challenging consumer environment, this Zacks #1 rank stocks looks like a solid momentum pick. Company Description National Beverage Corp. develops, manufactures and sells a line of beverage products in the United States. Some of the company’s more popular brands include Shasta, Faygo and LaCroix. National Beverage Corp. was … [visit site to read more]

Goldman Eyes RBS Property Loans Posted: 05 Oct 2010 08:20 AM PDT Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE:GS) is considering a bid to buy Royal Bank of Scotland plc.'s (NYSE:RBS) GBP3 billion ($4.8 billion) property loans portfolio, according to the Sunday Times. Besides Goldman, Lone Star Funds and Blackstone Group LP (NYSE:BX) are also said to be in the race for purchasing the loan portfolio. The first round of bids is expected to be submitted within a couple of weeks.   The financial crisis had severely jolted Royal Bank of Scotland though it managed to stay afloat … [visit site to read more]

Neutral On Santarus Posted: 05 Oct 2010 08:20 AM PDT We recently reiterated our Neutral recommendation on specialty pharmaceutical company Santarus (NASDAQ:SNTS).   Santarus suffered a major setback in late June 2010 with the entry of generic versions of its flagship product, Zegerid. This was a huge blow for Santarus as Zegerid accounted for 69% of total revenues in 2009.   However, Santarus has been working on shifting its focus from Zegerid and has been pursuing agreements and collaborations to expand its product portfolio. Santarus has … [visit site to read more]

Forex Trading: USDCHF Testing All Time Low Posted: 05 Oct 2010 08:02 AM PDT Note the last time the market was at this level was March 17th 2008 In March 2008, the price was in a freefall to the low, moving 700 pips from 1.0340 to  0.9640 in 4 trading days. In 2010, it has been 30 trading days for the same move to take … [visit site to read more]

Forex Trading: EURUSD Breaks With Conviction This Time. Posted: 05 Oct 2010 07:53 AM PDT … [visit site to read more]

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