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Trefis submits:
Ford (F) competes with other automotive companies like Daimler AG, Toyota Motor Corp (TM) and Honda Motor Compa (HMC). We currently have a Trefis price estimate of around $14 for Ford’s stock, about 10% above the current market price of around $13. Trefis members have created forecasts for two key drivers of Ford’s stock over the last week: (1) Ford Car Market Share in North America and (2) Ford Truck Market Share in North America. The members’ forecast suggest that Ford Car Market Share in North America as well as Ford Truck Market Share in North America will trend higher than the Trefis forecast. These projections indicate a combined upside of around 12% for Ford’s stock.Complete Story »

Gabriel Kaplan submits:North American auto-production output in June was 1.093m units (up 99% YoY). Re-stocking of inventories is still going on in the economy, but we are due for a slowdown unless we see an uptick in employment and consumer confidence. These macro-indicators will probably lead unit sales in the future.In terms of Japanese car companies, we expect a deterioration in earnings for Toyota (TM) given the strength of the yen and the end of government subsidies. Nissan (NSANY.PK) and Honda appear (HMC) to us as the best value in this environment.Complete Story »

Kapitall submits:Here is a list of 15 companies releasing earning statements on July 23. We've sorted the companies by market cap, and have briefly discussed their earnings performance over the past 3 years. The charts show past earning performances against analyst estimates. The green markers indicate the company beating estimates, while the red makers represent the company falling short of analyst expectations. All data is sourced from Zacks Investment Research.Complete Story »

Kapitall submits:The following is a list of heavily shorted stocks reporting earnings on Friday, July 23. Of course, short-sellers do their homework, and this list can be perceived as being very risky. But how will these stocks react if earnings surprise on the upside?Here is an interactive graph of all the stocks in the screen. More detailed analysis follows below.(Click to enlarge)Complete Story »

Frederic Ruffy submits: SentimentVolatility picked up a notch on options expiration Friday. The table was set for early losses on Wall Street after BofA (BAC) and Citi (C) posted stronger than expected earnings, but fell short on revenues. Google (GOOG) also came under fire after reporting earnings that missed Street estimates. The early decline then gathered additional momentum after the latest U of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index showed a drop to 66.5 in July, down from 76 the month before and much worse than the 74.5 that economists had expected. After Thursday’s horrific manufacturing data, further evidence of deteriorating consumer sentiment is weighing heavily on stock prices. Add some expiration-related volatility to the mix and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 230 points heading into the final hour. The CBOE Volatility Index (.VIX) added 1.96 to 27.10. Trading is active, with 6.9 million calls and 7.1 million puts traded so far.Bullish FlowAction in Goldman Sachs (GS) continues. Total options volume is running 2.5X the average daily, with 109K calls and 76K puts traded. About half the volume is in the front-month July options, with players scrambling to buy and sell premium in reaction to volatility in shares and ahead of the expiration. The top trades of the day are in the October month, however, after a strategist apparently sold Oct 130 puts to buy the Oct 160 – 175 call spread. This bullish three-way spread traded at a 24-cent debit, 1750X. It’s max pay-off would be at $175 per share at the October expiration, or $27 above current levels, and would represent an increase in market value of about $15 billion. Shares are up $2.78 to $148 on news the investment bank has settled fraud allegations with the SEC for $550 million.Complete Story »

Trader Mark submits:With the S&P 500 grasping at 1070, and yet another "90% day" as the student body has run back to the left ("risk off" stampede), let's take a look ahead at the key reports next week; both for the greater market and what we have our eyes on. The next three weeks are the heart of the earnings season, and some of our holdings begin to pop up next week.Names the market will focus on:Complete Story »

Andrew Wilkinson submits: Financial Select Sector SPDR (XLF) – Near-term bullish bets that shares of the XLF, an exchange-traded fund designed to provide investment results that correspond to the price and yield performance of the Financial Select Sector of the S&P 500 Index, are set to rally ahead of July expiration jumped during afternoon trading. Shares of the ETF increased nearly 1.5% during the session to stand at $14.52 by 3:15 pm ET. Options investors itching for a rally in the price of the underlying shares purchased at least 115,000 calls outright at the July $15 strike for an average premium of $0.08 per contract. Call buyers are prepared to profit should shares of the XLF gain 3.85% to trade above the average breakeven price of $15.08 by expiration next Friday.The Mosaic Co. (MOS) – Shares of the producer and marketer of concentrated phosphate and potash crop nutrients are up 3.3% to $46.20 with less than 45 minutes remaining ahead of the closing bell. Mosaic’s shares earlier rallied as much as 3.95% to touch an intraday high of $46.49. One bullish strategist purchased a debit call spread on the stock in order to position for Mosaic’s shares to increase substantially by expiration day in September. The trader picked up 2,800 calls at the September $50 strike for an average premium of $1.99 apiece, and sold the same number of calls at the higher September $65 strike for an average premium of $0.07 each. Net premium paid for the spread amounts to $1.92 per contract. The investor responsible for the transaction makes money as long as the potash producer’s shares surge 12.4% in the next several months to exceed the average breakeven point on the spread at $51.92 by expiration. Maximum available profits of $13.08 per contract pad the investor’s wallet if MOS shares jump 39.8% to trade above $65.00 by expiration day in September. Mosaic’s shares last traded above $65.00 back on January 11, 2010, when the stock reached an intraday and new 52-week high of $68.28.Complete Story »

Luckless Hero submits: Happy Fourth of July weekend! The Fourth of July is a time where we reflect on one of the most important moments in history, a moment and a revolution that created the longest running democracy in the history of the world. Now, let’s put all negative feelings aside, all politics should be put to rest for a day, all spears and spite lowered because this weekend is a weekend of history, family, fireworks and BBQ. I figured that I would put together an A-Z list of companies to invest in that will invest in America.

1. American Tower (AMT) – American Tower – Massachusetts based company builds cell phone towers. Look for movement in the company with the expansion of 4G networks to urbanized and suburban areas and the expansion of 3G coverage to more rural areas.
2. Berkshire Hathaway – (BRK.A) – If there is anyone who believes in America and buys American it is Warren Buffet. He believes in rail cars, brick and mortar companies, insurance and good advice.
3. Caterpillar (CAT) – Somber moment, the infrastructure of America is in disrepair. Highways, bridges, dams and toll roads are all in need of a major overhaul and CAT will be part of that government and private spending boon.
4. Disney (DIS) – It has become a small world after all. Theme park turned entertainment and advertising super star. Disney has great brand recognition and brand control. The company has been able to effectively lobby to have copyright law changed numerous times. It is a force to be reckoned with.
5. EMC (EMC) – Is the parent company of VMWare. The company will make computers more efficient, protect data and maintain data integrity. EMC is a major IT solution provider and as computers expand even further in use and become more prevalent in all aspects of life the company will be well positioned to profit.
6. FORD - (F) – Ford is a company that did not take any bailout money from the government. It is a company that seems to be listening to consumers and adapting its products with a forward looking view. The recent problems at Toyota have opened a window of opportunity even wider for this American auto giant to forge a return to prevalence and continued automotive relevance.
7. Google – (GOOG) – Infrastructure, Infrastructure, Infrastructure. Not roads to drive on but certainly information high ways and a commuter cloud! Talk about the best and the brightest, move over NASA. Google continues to innovate and enter new product markets. They are a currently unparalleled search engine that has managed to stay disentangled from more moneyed interests. Finally, Google continues to invest in new VC and PC ideas fostering more American growth and innovation.
8. Hewlett Packard – (HPQ) – With Dell’s recent woes and looming legal problems, HP, like Ford, has a great opportunity to completely dominate and revolutionize the computing market. HP has moved from a printer company to a PC company to a flat screen TV maker to a maker of high quality digital devices across many spectrums. As well HP, is like our next candidate, Intel, and the engineers at HP have been pushing the limit on computer chip design.
9. Intel – (INTC) – Intel has and will be a driving tech force. The corporate culture is the value.
10. Johnson and Johnson – (JNJ) – that’s right folks the people that make your baby shampoo, they love America. But really this behemoth of a company is a medical device maker. With the passage of the new health care reform bill JNJ stands to profit and prosper as more people will have access to surgeries and procedures that will be able to take advantage of the products that JNJ puts out for medical device purposes.
11. Coca-Cola (KO) -- So I cheated a little on this one by listing Coca-Cola by their ticker KO. But this is a company that has been getting beaten up a little bit in the market lately. Make no mistake Coca-Cola is still king. There is still a strong grown potential in the global scheme.
12. Lowes (LOW) – Much like their Home Depot counter part, Lowes is in a tricky position of being in a place where the recession and housing slow down will defiantly affect the company short term. But as the infrastructure projects pick up to rebuild and revive America I think that Lowes will be well positioned to be in a highly profitable area of the market.
13. McDonald’s – (MCD) - McDonald’s… need I say more? They pay dividends, they grow domestically and globally, they have almost unparalleled brand recognition. McDonald’s has started serving good coffee at a low price and is rumored to be testing out low fat breakfast options with even an oatmeal offering, showing that they are still looking to innovate their product offering. If the price is right I can see customers leaving Starbucks and other higher end stores for the lower cost McDonalds option.
14. Northrop Grumman Corporation – (NOC) – If you are a news junkie like me then you saw that Israel is still blockading Palestine. Iran has threatened to try to bust the blockade by force and is sending ships to aid in the effort. The US is sending cruisers up the Suez now for the potential show down. The Koreas have tensions running high. The United States has armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Until the world returns to a more sane mind frame I am a strong believer that weapon makers are a good buy now.
15. Oracle – (ORCL) – Essentially the database king, ORCL stands alone atop a computing mountain. With software that runs most corporate enterprises and even mom and pop shops Oracle is a stock to own. More and more Oracle is trying to offer the complete business solution and be the hardware and software provider. The growth potential for this company is every expansive because it has a corporate culture to be acquisitive and pick up good ideas and bring them into the Oracle fold.
16. Pfizer – (PFE) – With the pick up of Wyeth, Pfizer has breathed new life into its company. Wyeth had a good pipeline and also has some strong brands with good market recognition. PFE is still hunting out its next block buster drug. But with Merck (MRK) flagging recently PFE looks like the stronger of the pharma giants.
17. Quest Diagnostics Incorporated – (DGX) – Just like (JNJ), I believe that Quest stands to profit from the new health care overhaul. As medicine shits to a preventative focus Quest will be well positioned as more of the tests are done for people as medicine attempts to catch and treat illness before it becomes catastrophic.
18. Raytheon – (RTN) – Push to far and you see a strong backlash. I support and believe in the current administration, but when cuts on spending or defense are pushed to far I believe that there is an inevitable backlash. I also like this pick now because as spending has been cut the stock may be able to be picked up on the cheap. I see tensions in the geopolitical sphere also creating additional demand for RTN’s products.
19. Starbucks – (SBUX) – Good corporate culture, great corporate governance, creates a fantastic product. Starbucks is still the number one premium beverage provider. The company pays well, has a good health insurance plan, offers tuition reimbursement for barristas, these programs create good will and put investors mind at ease. If other companies acted like Starbucks acted then I do not even think many of the government programs that we have would be necessary. Want a smaller government? Get better corporations.
20. ATT - (T) – has a killer iPhone, has moved away from unlimited data plans and has better customer service. Verizon (VZ) is terrible for customer service. VZ representatives are horrible to work with in the stores, brutal. T – gets my vote for a long term investing prospect as they have had the iPhone for longer and have had to deal with a much higher volume of data being transmitted over their system.
21. United Technologies Corporation - (UTX) – This is a conglomerate company that has some great bread and butter brands that will continue to churn out profits along with a little more high flying division that deals with aerospace engineering and getting humans from point A Earth to point B outer space. While NASA is on the ropes the destiny of human space flight seems to be solidly set as a long term goal and vision. The private sector will have to take the reigns on this project and make the magic and the money happen as we reach for the stars.
22. Visa – (V) – It’s everywhere you want to be! Visa and the other big card companies are potentially in for a hit as the new FinReg law looms large. I would wait till the dust settles on the new rule and see if the market looks attractive. As the recession begins to end consumer and corporate spending will increase and V will be a good long term selection.
23. WTR – Aqua America - (WTR) – Spending on America will require that the utilities update their lines. WTR is a specialist at finding distressed water utility companies and making them into turn around stars. As the infrastructure of the USA ages I believe that this company will be a strong selection in the consolidated water delivery market.
24. Exxon Mobil - (XOM) – Big oil just got bigger. With the pick up of XTO XOM is well positioned for the near future. I worry about the lack of spending on alternative forms of energy that I am seeing from this decided oil company. I want XOM to look forward a little more and become an energy company. One cannot argue with their results, the dividend and the fact that they are relatively cheap now due to the oil prices lagging across the globe due to the current recession.
25. Yahoo – (YHOO) – the company may symbolize America. We do not always get it right, we try hard. We are willing to make deals. We want to give access and choice and deep down we think that we are making the right and good decision. Here is a company that is trying to transform itself into a media portal. Why do I think this company has upside? The baby boomers. Yahoo makes the internet easy. It is a good portal for games, news, email and search. iGoogle is 1 step to complicated and Bing might not have enough on their splash page besides a nice picture. Yahoo is the happy medium and has room for regrowth.
26. Zoll - (ZOLL) – Medical device maker and soft way maker!

Now set off the fireworks! Again Happy Fourth! If I goofed up on a company actually being an American Company mea culpa. My disclaimer is that I was going quick before the holiday weekend as I too can’t wait for some good ole fashioned Americana.Complete Story »

Markos Kaminis (Wall St. Greek) submits: The latest signs from manufacturing, housing and the labor market all point to the return of economic recession. This report focuses on the dimming of the economy's only shining star, manufacturing. Yesterday offered an ominous ISM Manufacturing Report, and we think you should note the change the report illustrates.The daily barrage of data piles on the double-dip economic recession reality, beating down hopeful strategists and forecasters with truth. It's an ugly truth, unfortunately, but it's what we must deal with. This latest day's dumping included more signs of slowing in manufacturing and housing, and ongoing labor woes. You cannot fool the market with rhetoric for long; she is efficient at processing data, however policy makers, corporate leaders and investment professionals may try to sway her. Eventually, each and every one of them must bow to the truth. We remain an independent voice, seeing both opportunities and warning signs, and offering both long and short ideas without any bias.Complete Story »

Brooks McFeely submits:4:17 PM, Jun 30, 2010 --

• DJIA down 96 (-1%) to 9,774
• S&P 500 down 10 (-1%) to 1,031
• Nasdaq down 26 (-1.2%) to 2,109

GLOBAL SENTIMENT Complete Story »