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Are small company software stocks – especially medical technology companies -- a safe, even profitable, haven for investors these days? Could be – especially if you’re looking to forego higher-risk plays like oil and financials – that your focus should be on smaller med tech companies, one institutional investor advises. …

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At mid-afternoon trading today the Dow was up 339 points and the NASDAQ is up 47 points. I’m a bit surprised because most of the economic news coming out today was negative. Housing prices are down, foreclosures are up, consumer confidence is at its lowest point in 35 years, and …

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Grasping, clawing, and scratching for a single slice, however thin, of good news out of the worst stock market week ever. Okay. IBM’ earnings were actually pretty good. Tech spending for software and services – what Big Blue does best – is holding up, and if there is a soft …

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First, the not-so-good news, then on to some encouraging revenue numbers for Motorola. Below I’ve condensed today’s big economic news as reported by the Associated Press, with the second quarter gross domestic product numbers coming in less than expected . . . -- Economic growth clocked in at a 1.9 …

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Everybody's touting Intel as being the trigger for a run-up in chip stocks late last week, although I like the numbers that National Semiconductor is showing. What's beyond debate, however, is that the semiconductor market is on the rebound amid signs that the sector's long decline may finally be over. …

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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 …

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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 …

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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, …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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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 …

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Has there been a technology "leap" in the semiconductor market? Some people think so. But should investors go along for the ride? Earlier this year, George Scalise, the president of the Semiconductor Industry Association, was issuing talking points to the press over the relative health of the semiconductor sector. Much …

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The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article out this morning touting a new defensiveness among investors -- and what they plan on doing to protect their portfolios against a possible recession. "With the housing downturn, credit crunch, gloomy employment data and a parade of maudlin financial forecasts have been …

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Allow me one last word on the credit crisis of last week. I hope by now I've demonstrated that credit and debt aren't the sole domain of green eye-shaded numbers crunchers on Wall Street. As the green-eye shaded numbers cruncher in your own company's finance department can tell you, bad …

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The End.