Free Investing

Wisdom vs. Information submits:A little history to begin: Google (GOOG) controls the money that is the Internet. They would like to keep it, apparently by any means possible.Comcast (CMCSA) had a problem with a service called BitTorrent that was interfering with most of its customers. Comcast decided to protect, favor, etc. the thousands of customers who were checking email and Facebooking over the handful who were choking the services of the entire neighborhood by throttling BitTorrent using a technology called deep packet inspection.Complete Story »

Phil Davis submits: << Return to Part 1: Goldilocks and the 300 Million Bears MondayOur first post of this week was called "Monday Market Momentum (or Lack Thereof!)" and we were up around 10,700 on the Dow and, guess what? I was BEARISH! I pointed out that we had rallied on QE2 expectations and that everyone seemed to have ignored Meredith Whitney’s warning on the Financials from Friday as well as the terrible jobs news. I warned not to get excited about Europe’s 1.5% open and I also said:Complete Story »

Money Morning submits: By Don Miller A proposed agreement between Google Inc. (Nasdaq:GOOG) and Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) could spell the end of "net neutrality," and have smartphone users seeing red instead of their favorite videos.The arrangement, which has yet to be unveiled, would allow Verizon to charge content providers more to give their services priority on its network, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the plan.Complete Story »

Brooks McFeely submits:4:36 PM, Jul 23, 2010

• DJIA up 102.3 (+1%) to 10,425
• S&P 500 up 9 (+0.8%) to 1,103
• Nasdaq up 23 (+1.1%) to 2,269

GLOBAL SENTIMENT 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 »

eChristian Investing submits:The Dow Jones index has disappointed many investors by dipping 2.6% in 2010. Of course, that is much better than the 34% drop we saw in 2008, but not nearly the 19% rally that investors experienced last year. Complete Story »

Trefis submits:
Trefis members have created forecasts for two key drivers of Verizon’s (VZ) stock over the last week: (1) Mobile Subscriber Plan Pricing, (2) Verizon Share of Monthly Mobile Subscribers. Their forecasts suggest that both Mobile Subscriber Plan Pricing and Verizon Share of Monthly Mobile Subscribers will rise slightly higher than the Trefis forecast. These projections suggest a combined upside of around 2-3% for Verizon’s stock. Verizon’s subscriber gains may come at the expense of competitors AT&T (T) and Sprint (S). Mobile Plans & Phones is the most valuable division for Verizon, constituting 42% of the $35 Trefis price estimate for Verizon’s stock. In comparison, Broadband Internet and Enterprise Services like Network Access and Leased Lines account for 22% and 13%, respectively, of the Trefis estimate for Verizon’s stock.Complete Story »

Hickey and Walters (Bespoke) submit:
Below we highlight the performance of S&P 500 sectors from the market's 2010 high (4/23) to its July 2nd low as well as since July 2nd. As shown, the Financial sector is up the most since July 2nd with a gain of 10%, followed by Materials (9.5%), Technology (7.8%), and Energy (7.6%). The Financial sector was also down the most during the correction. The four defensive sectors -- Utilities, Consumer Staples, Health Care, and Telecom -- have all underperformed the S&P 500 since July 2nd.click to enlargeComplete Story »

John Clark submits: To no one’s surprise, Frontier Communications (FTR) is down sharply on heavy volume after its stock spin-off from Verizon (VZ). Actually, there must be someone who is surprised, but apparently they are part of a small group of Verizon shareholders who were backpacking in the wilderness or who get terribly bored thinking about money or something.On my weekly charts I see that over the last 20 weeks FTR has had an average of about 29 million shares change hands each week. Last week the volume was 110,589 shares with the price opening the week at 7.56 and finishing Friday at 7.35. Yesterday by lunchtime on the East Coast we saw 27,332,000 shares change hands and the price was down nearly 5% at 7.01.Complete Story »

Ben Strubel submits:InterDigital is a company that designs and develops digital wireless technologies for use in cellular and wireless IEEE 802 related products and networks. The company also develops solutions for improving bandwidth availability and network capacity, wireless security, and seamless connectivity and mobility across networks and devices. Its primary source of revenue is from licensing its patents to equipment producers. IDCC currently holds approximately 7,000 worldwide patents and has a further 10,000 patent applications in progress. Its customers include mobile device manufacturers, semiconductor companies, and other equipment producers. Products in which InterDigital's patented technology can be found include mobile devices such as cellular phones, wireless personal digital assistants, notebook computers, datacards, base stations and other wireless equipment, and components and modules for wireless devices. InterDigital’s strategy is to develop technology that it believes will be essential for current and next generation mobile communications and to license that technology to manufacturers and network operators. The market currently values IDCC at approximately $1,080M. IDCC currently has Cash and Short-Term investments worth $214M and $268M respectively. IDCC is also party to certain licensing agreements that pay the company a fixed sum over a set amount of time. The unpaid portion of these contracts is placed on the balance sheet in accounts receivable. IDCC currently has approximately $148M in revenue from licensing agreements that it has yet to receive. The majority of the payments are owed by Samsung (SSNLF.PK), and there is no reason to believe Samsung will not make the final payments as promised. Complete Story »