SAC Capital Gets "Tips" from Goldman Sachs; If Only There Were a Pattern -08/31/09 at 10:23 AM CDTby Mark Mitchell

Earlier this week,  The Wall Street Journal published what should have been a fairly explosive story implicating Goldman Sachs (GS) and its favored hedge fund clients in yet more market miscreancy. Predictably, though, this story did not have what journalists call “legs.” No other mainstream media outlets picked it up. There was no outrag...

DTS Inc. and the Business of Misleading Investors -08/28/09 at 12:19 PM CDTby Peter York

Pop open your preferred earnings web destination for comparing earnings estimates against actual results and you will find that DTS Inc. (DTSI), a company that provides digital audio technology, handily beat its expectations last quarter.  A Reuters article immediately declared, “DTS posts higher Q2 profit, ups FY 2009 outlook.” What Reut...

Oncothyreon Inc's Value Inflection Point -08/27/09 at 9:28 AM CDTby Jaehyung Yoon

Assigning a value to a development-stage biotech company is a questionable task, and generally requires more intangible assumptions (market potential, clinical trial progress, partnership implication) than tangible assumptions (balance sheet, income statement, various financial strength indicators).  However, the merit in such an assessment is that b...

Xbox 360 Pricecut Welcomed By Interactive Entertainment: Activision, ... -08/24/09 at 8:36 AM CDTby Perry Rod

At the GamesCom conference last week, eyebrows were raised when Microsoft did not announce a pricecut of the 360 after Sony announced their PlayStation 3 console's drop to $299. Over the weekend, however, a Wal Mart (WMT) advertisement distributed by video game website Kotaku and also another regional chain advertisement appear to confirm the coming of a ...

PIPE Dreams at Dendreon -08/21/09 at 1:55 PM CDTby Mark Mitchell

“Black Wednesday at the FDA.” That is how Dr. Mark Thornton, a former medical officer in the FDA’s Office of Oncology Products, described the FDA’s decision not to approve Dendreon’s Provenge.  In an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, Dr. Thornton described vaccines such as Provenge as the “Holy Grail of cancer tr...

Retail Investors Outperforming Professionals With Citigroup, Ford, an... -08/21/09 at 11:14 AM CDTby Peter York

In today's market, it's not the professionals who are celebrating as much as the retail investors.  Consider three stocks that seem to show up in retail portfolios everywhere: Citigroup Inc. (C), Ford Motor Company (F), and Sirius XM Radio Inc (SIRI).  Institutional ownership in these stocks are well under 50% which suggests a significant retail...

Goldman Pillages, Goldman Steals, Goldman Sachs -08/19/09 at 11:07 AM CDTby Judd Bagley

Consider below a simple timeline from one of the strangest periods our financial markets had ever experienced. As you read it, keep in mind that following the demise of Bear Stearns, the strictest interpretation of the so-called investment bank “Bulge Bracket” included just four entities: Goldman Sachs (GS), Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and ...

Sony PS3 Pricecut, Welcome News for Activision, Electronic Arts, Game... -08/18/09 at 12:57 PM CDTby Perry Rod

There is a universal sigh of relief in the interactive entertainment industry today as Sony has just announced at the end of their Gamescon 2009 presentation that the new PlayStation 3 Slim will now be $299 (299 euros, 29980 yen).  That will also be the new price for all PlayStation 3's for sale on the market starting tomorrow, August 19, 2009. Kotak...

Activision Executives Sell Millions of Shares While Company Buys Back... -08/17/09 at 10:41 AM CDTby Mahyar Hashemi

Activision Inc. (ATVI) upped their stock buyback program from 1 to 1.25 billion dollars worth of shares on August 5 as a part of their first quarter earnings report announcement.  At the same time, the company’s CEO Robert Kotick was still busy selling stock, including recent sales disclosed late in the day to the SEC on Friday, August 14.&nbsp...

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer Bizarro World of Short Selling Hedge Funds -08/14/09 at 12:04 PM CDTby Judd Bagley

Within minutes of my introduction to the world of short selling hedge funds, I encountered the analogy that remains the best suited to describe the truth to which they subscribe: Bizarro World. A planet that appears from time to time in the DC Comics universe, Bizarro World is noteworthy for its utter opposition to everything associated with reality on Ea...

Ariad Pharmaceuticals, Inc., A Solid Speculative Investment -08/14/09 at 9:28 AM CDTby Jaehyung Yoon

Given the volatility and the spotlight that biotechnology has received, this may be a good company to place a small amount of your hard-earned money for a speculative investment. Ariad Pharmaceuticals (ARIA) is known for its lead compound called Ridaforolimus.  It's a small-molecule compound for treating cancer, which makes it very compatible and att...