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Remove Filter  | It’s a big day for semiconductor stocks, with an upbeat forecast from chip giant Intel boosting stocks in other semiconductor companies and giving the overall market a nice bounce, as well. Through mid-morning trading, Intel is up $1, to $22 per share. Other chip companies are following suit . . … |
| | The roller coaster ride for tech stocks grew even wilder today, but in a good, adrenaline-rush kind of way. The news is mostly all good, with Banc of America Securities issuing a report that boosted semiconductor companies, stating that "a modest inventory build-up has eased". That's all investors needed to … |
| | With the semiconductor market on the ropes, Intel is doing all it can to stay relevant - financially and globally. To that end, today's news that Intel has "doubled down" on China by rolling out its second venture fund in the burgeoning Far East Tiger. The fund, to be called … |
| | It’s been a lousy first quarter for tech stocks but the outlook for the second quarter of 2008 looks brighter and shinier. So say the investment gurus at Tech Ticker – specifically former Wall Street tech analyst Henry Blodget and Barons West Coast editor Eric Savitz. Savitz says there are … |
| | In case you hadn’t heard, and you probably have, Blu-ray has come out on top over HD-DVD in the new age video consumer marketplace. I thought that the higher prices for Blu-ray DVD players would work against it, but the superior technology and the always important “look-and-feel” quotient for Blu-ray …  |
| | I wrote about Motorola last year, when the consumer technology provider was struggling to keep up with tougher Asian market competitors like Samsung and Nokia. The Associated Press reports that shares of Motorola, which has a market value of about $22 billion, have fallen more than 60 percent since October … |
| | I was talking to my brother again this Easter weekend – the one who traded equity options on Wall Street for 20 years. He’s consulting now, but still has some good opinions on the markets – especially the stock market over the past two or three bruising months – and … |
| | Forbes.com has a great piece on former microprocessing kingpin Intel, which held its annual meeting today (being Wednesday). The lowdown on the thoroughly reported story is that Intel may be building things up higher (or better) than they actually are. At the meeting, Intel employees were busy rolling out the … |
| | More turmoil at AOL today, as the technology giant fired the head of its Platform A ad-network business yesterday. Blodget, reporting on the ever-valuable Tech Ticker portal on Yahoo.com’s finance site, says that Curt Viebranz, was canned, but there was little love for AOL's senior management. One reason why Viebranz … |
| | Ugh. The tech meltdown turn toward the telecom sector this week, fixing its dark gaze on companies like AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint Nextel, among others. On Thursday, shares of telecommunications companies fell badly from the ongoing fallout amid credit concerns. The carnage was grim and deep. U.S. traded shares of … |
| | I caught a technology sector analyst from Invesco on Yahoo's Tech Ticker this morning who had some interesting things to say about the dysfunctional relationship between the technology stock sector and the subcrime . . . err . . . subprime credit debacle. It seems that the credit & lending … |
| | Businesses are snapping their wallets shut, at least when it comes to software spending - usually a good leading indicator of economic growth. One key benchmark, the ChangeWave corporate software spending survey, has seen a shift into negative territory for the first time in years. In its January, 2008 survey …  |
| | How stupid is the state of Maryland? No, not it's fine people, but it's short-sighted governor Marty O'Malley and its state legislature, which recently upped taxes state-wide in an effort to fund new programs and pay for additional government services. The tax hike has residents steaming and companies rallying to … |
| | Anybody reading this blog knows that the media has been adamant about the U.S. economy tanking into recession, with reporters putting their notebooks and tape recorders down and waving pom-pom's in support of economic strife for millions of Americans. Why? Once again, who knows? Probably because it's a compelling story … |
| | Nobody has ever accused Microsoft of not knowing how to play hardball. From its history of monopolistic practices, of elbowing competitors out of the marketplace (hello, Netscape!), or lifting ideas it likes from adversaries like Apple without shame, Microsoft is more than ready to throw the first punch. With that … |
| | Ugh . . . . Another lousy week for tech stocks. For the whole stock market, for that matter. But technology stocks bore the brunt of it. Let's look at some of the bigger players. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Company One-Week Return Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) - 12.4% Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) - 11.3% Research … |
| | Even as U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson reassured us on Friday that the economy "would not go into recession" in 2008", some people, especially consumers, aren't buying it. This is exactly what I'm talking about when I vent over the power of perception and the media's glee in talking down … |
| | It was supposed to be Christmas in May, with technology company executives harboring visions of wallet-waving consumers dancing in their heads. The reason? The proposed tax rebates coming from Washington that would put up to $1,500 in many Americans back pocket, and hopefully send them out to buy things like … |
| | Let's all take a breather at the end of another topsy-turvy week on Wall Street, where things have calmed down as of mid-morning on Friday (the Dow Jones Industrial Average is off a mere four points at 11:30 AM EST, and is actually up for the week . . . … |
| | Keeping track of the economic news is getting nerve-racking - akin to watching a train wreck in slow motion. In the past 24 hours we've seen . . . - A Fortune magazine study showing that about 75% of Americans who think we're either already in a recession or are … |
| | Today's batch of economic news is mixed, and seemingly conflicted as ever. Hey, don't shoot me - I'm only the messenger. But for techies wondering how secure their jobs really are these days the news from the most recent Federal Reserve Beige Book report signaled economic growth for November and … |
| | Okay, I was downed by technology issues for a few days but I'm back up with a vengeance. And just in time, as the major technology companies begin to release their quarterly earnings statements. IBM was first up earlier this week, and easily surpassed analyst expectations. Wall Street attributed Big … |
| | Warner Brothers certainly has a lot of weight to throw around the consumer technology - and their latest move landed squarely on increasingly frustrated HD-DVD providers. In a move that signals a tectonic shift in the consumer video industry, Warner Bros. Entertainment announced last week that it will release its … |
| | The drum beat has already started for next week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where you won't be able to swing a dead rotary dial phone without hitting a slick sales type breathing the word "wireless" into your ear. Elena Malykhina, writing in Information Week this morning, advises show … |
| | Yesterday we looked at the 2008 technology spending market from the small business side. To be charitable, things look "iffy" for IT spending -- at least during the first six months of the year. Now it appears that, from the technology side of the market, 2008 could be a mixed … |
| | If McDonalds can advertise, “Over 1 billion served” on each of its restaurants signs, then why can’t Comcast, Verizon, Sprint and the rest of the broadband world say the same thing? Well, technically, soon they can. That after a new report from Strategy Analytics that estimates over one billion broadband … |
| | From what I'm seeing out here in the trenches, economists just can't seem to agree on the health of the U.S. economy, in general, and the technology economy, in particular in 2008. Last week's consumer numbers seem to suggest that people are still willing to break out the checkbooks and … |
| | You've heard of Wi-Fi . . . but how about Wi-Fly? That's the moniker tech analysts are using to label new inflight internet access applications. That's right. Starting this month on select airlines, you can start checking email, watching the latest batch of YouTube videos, or catch the score of … |
| | On a trip to Newport Beach, Oregon, this past summer, I was introduced to a global positioning satellite device for the first time. It was a real eye-opener. All I had to do was type in the address I was heading toward, and the satellite took care of the rest. … |
| | IDC is out with its annual IT market forecast and, at first glance, 2008 won't be setting any box-office records, business-wise. According to the Boston-based consultancy, growth in global technology spending will slow next year, rocked by a potential U.S. economic downturn that could crimp spending on computer hardware. Overall, … |
| | Two new studies out today on the burgeoning automotive sensor marketplace. First up is BCC research (full disclosure, I have written for BCC Research, but not on automotive sensors). According to BCC’s latest technical market research report, Automotive Sensor Technologies: Global Market, the global market for automotive sensors is expected … |
| | Just checking out some of the stock prices of the big online retailers after Black Monday – the biggest online shopping day of the year. eBay was up 3.45% in Monday trading while Amazon was up 3.0% -- both prices indicative of the bullish sentiment investors are showing on online … |
| | Monday is upon us, and thoughts on Wall Street turn away from turkey and football to key companies issuing quarterly earnigns statements this week. It's a particularly crucial period for computer makers, video game companies, digital camera companies - in short - - any company with a potential gift to … |
| | Scary reading from the pages of Fortune magazine this week. In the business weekly's November 19 edition, an article entitled "The End of the Tech Stock Party" goes down like a tofu turkey on Thanksgiving night. Before I get into what Fortune has to say, it's pretty clear that technology … |
| | A quiet holiday week so far in the technology side of the stock market. Most of the action will take place in the retail sector, with both Best Buy and Comp USA opening on Thanksgiving night - - well ahead of Black Friday. Early holiday shoppers can expect to find … |
| | We've all heard of search engine optimization, or "SEO". That's the online search engine mechanism that allows online businesses to seed their web landing pages with key code words to entice visitors and shoppers. One big SEO term this week is "Black Friday" -- the day-after-Thanksgiving shopfest that launches the … |
| | Kind of a quiet day in the technology stocks world, which might be considered good news considering the drubbing the sector has taken this week. Sun Microsystems was in the news, signing off on a Solaris 10 distribution agreement with Dell to make the Solaris Operating System and Solaris support … |
| | I'm starting to think that technology stocks are at a breaking point. A few more sessions of significant losses and you have to wonder when tech stocks will be back in the black. You can't really blame the bad news on anything tech companies are doing -- unfortunately, it's the … |
| | Investors are in survival mode right now, just trying to hang on in a market that has given away much of this year's gains. Key culprits are the ongoing credit crisis, which has banks and lenders reeling under the weight of billion dollar losses (hello, Wachovia) and from a weak … |
| | Can you find a profit in a techno-slag heap? That’s the promise of an up-and-coming stock I found on Morningstar.com this week. I do some consulting work for a mutual fund firm and this technology company fits the bill – across the board. First some background. The company’s name is … |
| | For a long while, it was easy to pigeonhole cell phones in three categories: those that don’t work, those that break down, and those that get lost. Fortunately, technology has improved cell phone performance in the first two categories (although we’re still losing them -- and at $500 a pop … |
| | You guys know how big I am on video game makers as solid stock plays. But what about video game retailers? One of the big ones -- GameStop -- has seen its share price double to $58 during the past year. One of the big reasons why is the mushrooming … |
| | Yesterday I laid out the risks and rewards of investing and trading stocks online. As I said, it's easy to do and actually kind of fun, but like going to Vegas, you have to be able to walk away from the table if you're losing money. To help you avoid … |
| | My friend and I were texting each other about the Red Sox World Series rout the other night -- way to go Sockies, how to beat 'dem Rockies! -- and, both being Boston natives, were having a grand old time. My pal won some money on the Series and had … |
| | Six weeks ago I wrote that video game stocks were going to be a good play for the duration of 2007 - - and probably well into 2008. As I said at the time, anyone with a 12-year-old boy in the house recognizes the familiar hoots and hollers from the … |
| | I haven't spent a lot of time -- okay, "any time" -- talking about the fast-growing biometrics market. Part of it was ignorance. I didn't know know much about it. But I'm all amped up on biometrics after reading a new white paper from BCC Research entitled "The Global Biometrics … |
| | It’s back. The dot.com bubble, that is. And with it comes a new wave of venture capitalists that are pouring money not just into Internet companies, but in life sciences companies, as well. And in increasingly larger numbers. An October article in The New York Times says it all. “Internet … |
| | I've been focusing on consumer electronics a great deal in the past few months; partly because that's where so much of the action is and partly because American consumers have ignored the economic naysayers and have continued to shop and buy cell phones, PDA's, HD televisions, and satellite radios, among … |
| | Okay, Halloween is only two weeks away, so what better time to introduce five "weird" internet & media content stocks that might be more treat than trick. The list is culled from the financial web site Barrellomoney.com. The site does warn that a few of the 'weird' selections might be … |
| | I've been the first one to say in recent months that I've fallen hard for my new Blackberry . . . or "Crackberry" as I've taken to calling it. What's not to love? You can do just about anything on a smart phone that you can on a laptop, save … |
The End.