The Trusted Choice for the Wall Street Voice http://www.minyanville.com 2007 Minyanville Publishing and Multimedia, LLC. All Rights Reserved As the week comes to a close bad macro news is seemingly everywhere with the unemployment numbers particularly troubling.  But the market is still performing well.Join Jeff as he takes a look at how big retailers like Gap (GPS) and Aeropostale (ARO) are performing what's going on with Ford (F) and what's in store for the week ahead. http://www.minyanville.com/articles/index/a/25330 Fri, 6 Nov 2009 16:50:00 EST All day and every day some of the stock market's best and brightest traders and money managers share their ideas insights and analysis in real-time on Minyanville's Buzz & Banter. Check out some of the best of the buzz and for those minyans not currently subscribed click here for a free two-week trial. Note: Some links may require Buzz subscriptions.Monday November 2nd 2009Household CreationBy James AndersonOne of the things that has amused me during the Cash for Clunkers and the First Time Home Buyer tax credit programs is the unintended consequences of the programs. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see ... http://www.minyanville.com/articles/index/a/25329 Fri, 6 Nov 2009 15:40:00 EST Not much has changed since we last spoke. I'm just sitting tight vacationing in the US with my assets in dollars. Everyone is negative on the dollar for good reason but that fact alone could and I think will propel the dollar higher at some point in nasty fashion.Just look what happened to the yen. Everyone was negative on it for the same reasons and everyone was borrowing in yen to buy risky assets. Of course they took huge currency risk in doing so and thus paid the price. They're still counting their losses.So now in my opinion it’s ... http://www.minyanville.com/articles/index/a/25328 Fri, 6 Nov 2009 15:25:00 EST Editor's Note: See Ron Coby's first "letter" to Ben Bernanke here. Dear Mr. Bernanke As a follow-up to my most recent letter I once again want to say thanks. I was so relieved on Wednesday when you announced your decision to keep short-term rates low for an “extended period of time." How kind of you to not take the market's punch bowl away. I also want to congratulate you for doing such a great job of pumping up and propping up the stock and bond markets. Your bubble-blowing actions have allowed Wall Street insiders to make tremendous gains selling ... http://www.minyanville.com/articles/index/a/25327 Fri, 6 Nov 2009 15:05:00 EST Next week will be light as earnings season is starting to come to a close and there isn’t a lot of economic data due to Wednesday's Veterans Day holiday (the bond market is closed but the stock market is not).Walmart (WMT) will be the company to watch next week when it reports earnings on Thursday. Analysts are expecting the company to report EPS of $0.81 on revenues of $99.821 bln. Pay close attention what the retailer says about the holiday seasons its currently locked in a heating price war with Amazon (AMZN)Monday November 9Economics Earnings Before: AMRI WEL BPZ ... http://www.minyanville.com/articles/index/a/25321 Fri, 6 Nov 2009 15:00:00 EST The headlines are screaming that the US dollar’s demise is imminent. I wonder if technical analysis supports that contention.If it were true when I pulled up a daily chart of the US dollar I’d see extreme weakness in the US dollar and most technical indicators would confirm that weakness.The trend is definitely down but I need to look under the hood. I will first look at momentum the velocity of price in a trend. Momentum can be seen with most oscillators and momentum indicators. Early in a trend velocity is strong and most new highs in price are confirmed ... http://www.minyanville.com/articles/index/a/25326 Fri, 6 Nov 2009 14:35:00 EST With worse than expected unemployment numbers and more bad news coming out of CIT and Fannie Mae (FNM) it’s been a tough end to the week.So what’s ahead?Join Todd for his weekly wrap up. http://www.minyanville.com/articles/index/a/25322 Fri, 6 Nov 2009 13:45:00 EST A strong IPO market is good news for private equity and the new issues market will remain strong into next year the president and chief operating officer of Blackstone Group (BX) believes.“We believe the IPO window will be open at least through the early part of next year ” Tony James said Friday on a conference call to discuss Blackstone’s third-quarter earnings. “…As long as private equity is offering quality companies with quality management…those deals will be fine.”James said Blackstone has $27 billion available to invest.Last month Stephen Schwarzman Blackstone’s chief executive officer said the group may launch as ... http://www.minyanville.com/articles/index/a/25324 Fri, 6 Nov 2009 13:30:00 EST The video-game industry has been living on a prayer all year but Activision (ATVI) managed to squeak past expectations with a solid third-quarter earnings report. Fourth-quarter earnings guidance was just shy of consensus but that's good enough for an industry that just saw the Nintendo Wii and music-game bubbles burst.What's keeping Activision afloat are two things -- lowered expectations and Tuesday's release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 which should quickly win the title of biggest opening week for an entertainment release in history. According to BoxOfficeMojo.com Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince holds the global movie box-office ... http://www.minyanville.com/articles/index/a/25317 Fri, 6 Nov 2009 12:30:00 EST Editor's Note: This is Part 2 in a multiple-part series. Part 1 can be found here.As an improvement on writing covered calls Steve Smith's article "The Truth About Covered Calls" makes the following suggestion:  Replace the underlying long stock with the purchase of an in-the-money Long-Term Equity Anticipation Security (LEAPS) or long-term call option. Rather then selling a single strike call short sell a vertical spread short for a credit. I'm using an example that's similar to the covered call position Smith used but with different strike prices. My bias is toward writing covered calls that aren't out of the ... http://www.minyanville.com/articles/index/a/25320 Fri, 6 Nov 2009 12:10:00 EST Back in June CBS (CBS) announced that its CFO Fred Reynolds planned to retire in mid-August. That same day the company announced that Joseph Ianniello would be taking over as CFO on July 20.Now Ianniello was no novice. He had been with CBS or Viacom (VIA) for the past 12 years and had been deputy CFO since November 2008. Indeed in the press release that announced Ianniello’s promotion CBS CEO Leslie Moonves said this: "He’s been involved in every major financial decision of this company from the time that the new CBS Corporation was formed to the present day ... http://www.minyanville.com/articles/index/a/25318 Fri, 6 Nov 2009 11:30:00 EST “There's a dragon with matches loose on the town. Take a whole pail of water just to cool him down.” --Grateful Dead It's hard to believe I've been scribing online vibe for almost ten years. What started as a favor morphed into a passion and evolved into this awesome community.Old school Minyans know we've grown in stages. Remember Fokker? The mountain mingles? My rhyming phase? Navigating the ups downs and sideways slithers during this wicked decade of financial folly? It's been some ride -- not always easy to be sure but a labor of love indeed.This reminiscence arrived after ... http://www.minyanville.com/articles/index/a/25316 Fri, 6 Nov 2009 11:10:00 EST For the second time this year New York Governor David Paterson proposed a tax on non-diet soft drinks to help the state close its $3 billion budget gap.In addition to raising much needed funds the tax has the support of health advocates who believe fewer people will consume the sugary drinks if prices go up.On the other hand companies like Coca-Cola (KO) and Pepsi (PEP) reject the claim that soda is to blame for obesity and argue that it’s unfair to single out soda.But what do New Yorkers think?Join Josh Lipton for a closer look. http://www.minyanville.com/articles/index/a/25315 Fri, 6 Nov 2009 10:00:00 EST You buy your sister a $100 general-purpose gift card. It's for her birthday but it might be the bank that has reason to celebrate.Despite your good intentions such gift cards often come with a tangle of fine print and fees that can ensnare unsuspecting recipients. Your sister might not realize that a $3 monthly inactivity fee kicks in after a year. Or it could annoy her that it costs $12 to replace a lost card.While the new credit card law passed this year includes some regulations for gift cards it doesn't eliminate many of the fees they often come ... http://www.minyanville.com/articles/index/a/25312 Fri, 6 Nov 2009 09:30:00 EST Stocks surged the Dow’s best day since July taking it back above 10 000 as gold rallied for a fourth straight session (see Why Gold Could Still Triple From Here). US worker productivity posted its biggest back to back gains since the start of the Sixties which was one two-timing three-martini lunch era not noted for its productivity at least as depicted in Mad Men. Gibraltar Industries (ROCK) (+23.44%) was a rock while Prudential Financial (PRU) (-4.12%) sunk like a stone as insurance lagged. Abercrombie (ANF) (up 3.87% in spite of iffy October sales) & Fitch attracted attention. It’s been a boffo ... http://www.minyanville.com/articles/index/a/25314 Fri, 6 Nov 2009 09:00:00 EST