Affinity Mediaworks Corp., a provider of visual and production services and solutions to independent and small film producers, recently announced that the company has entered into an agreement to produce 12 feature films with Insight Film Studios/Odyssey Film Studios of Vancouver, British Columbia. Each of the 12 films will have budgets in the range of $4 million to $10 million with high-quality talent and producers attached to each project.

Affinity Mediaworks Corp. has secured funding from a large distribution and co-production partner in Europe, who will provide 50 percent of each budget. Insight Film Studios will provide the other 50 percent. According to Playback magazine, Insight leads the Canadian industry for the fourth consecutive year with over $125 million in production of television, theatrical and documentary product as of August 2009.

Insight Film Studios latest feature release, the horror spoof “Stan Helsing,” directed by Bo Zenga and starring Leslie Nielsen, is set

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Nissan losses lower than expected   The world’s third largest carmaker, Nissan Motor Company (NSANY), posted a modest net loss of 9 cents (¥4.06) per share in the first quarter of fiscal 2009. The loss was largely driven by the slump in global car demand, negative impact of a stronger yen, sharp decline in consumer confidence in all the major markets and product mix deterioration. Reported losses were significantly lower than the Zacks consensus forecast of 80 cents. Cost-cutting efforts, coupled with the government stimulus, helped Nissan curb losses in the quarter. The government of US, Germany, Japan and China are offering consumers credits, tax breaks and subsidies for trading in old cars for new fuel-efficient models. However, we remain concerned about Nissan’s prospects as these government incentives will not be available for much longer. Operating costs shrunk 37% year over year to $25.2 billion ...

Recently, Japanese auto giant Honda Motor Co. (HMC) revealed its plan to introduce two new gas-electric hybrid vehicles in 2010 in Japan. The company will offer the CR-Z hybrid sports car in February next year, followed by a hybrid version of its Fit compact by the end of next year. The CR-Z has also been set for an international roll-out, but this has not yet been confirmed for the Fit. The new hybrid lineup by Honda is expected to deliver a serious blow to its rival Toyota Motors (TM) in low-emission vehicles. The hybrid version of Fit will be cheaper than the Toyota Prius, on the back of its low-cost single-motor hybrid drive used in Honda’s Insight hybrid. Previously, Honda Insight had lost its luster to Toyota’s third generation Prius in terms of fuel efficiency. Prius 2010 clocks 51 mpg in the city ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – July 8, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Toyota (TM), Ford (F), Nissan (NSANY), Honda (HMC) and General Motors (GMGMQ). Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Tuesday’s Analyst Blog:

Patents: Toyota's Nest Egg

It has recently come to light that Toyota (TM) is building up a number of patents protecting its fuel-saving technologies that would ultimately help it in evading competition. This would also double up as a revenue-making channel for the company by licensing the patents to other automakers.

Ford (F) and Nissan (NSANY) have already sought licensing from the

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It has recently come to light that Toyota (TM) is building up a number of patents protecting its fuel-saving technologies that would ultimately help it in evading competition. This would also double up as a revenue-making channel for the company by licensing the patents to other automakers. Ford (F) and Nissan (NSANY) have already sought licensing from the company to manufacture their hybrids, Escape and Altima, respectively. A recent study of intellectual property for hybrid vehicles has revealed that Toyota has more than 2,000 patents. About half of these are occupied by the company’s best-selling hybrid, Prius. Toyota plans to incorporate its hybrid system in all of its vehicles by 2020. Nevertheless, however hard Toyota tries to evade competition, its rivals have already sought out alternatives that could deal a blow to the company. Honda (HMC) built a hybrid vehicle, Insight – ...

USA, General Motors and the state of California all to go Bankrupt

As GM goes… so goes America…

Uh oh…

Stocks rose yesterday; the Dow went up 50 points. The bear market rally is still on. Oil touched the $60 mark… a sure sign, say analysts, that the global economy is picking up. And the dollar fell further… to $1.36 per euro. Gold held steady, at $912 an ounce.

While most stocks advanced yesterday, General Motors (NYSE:GM) backed up.

The experts say the company is going broke. “Chapter 11 looms,” says a Bloomberg report. Investors sold the stock down to $1.15 – a price GM hasn’t seen in more than 70 years. At that price you can buy the whole company for $700 million. Peanuts. Some fund managers earn that much in a single year.

Meanwhile, the USA follows the same downward slide as GM. Both are dogged by high debts, high costs and low

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President Obama Urges Greener Vehicles

The accompanying table (click to enlarge) includes 38 companies which are equal-weight components in the ETF Innovators Global Personal Transportation Index, which includes companies with market caps of at least $150M. The index declined by over 51% in the past year compared to declines of about 37% for the S&P 500 SPDR (SPY), 36% for the Consumer Discretionary Sector SPDR (XLY), and 35% for the PowerShares Consumer Goods ETF (PRFG).

The companies are listed in descending order by market cap, with Toyota Motor (TM) recently eclipsing Volkswagen (VLKAY) for the largest market cap among the auto makers. Beyond the auto makers, the index also includes recreational vehicle makers such as Polaris (PII) + Winnebago …

In “Hollowing Out, Tokyo Style,” FT Alphaville’s Gwen Robinson does a fine job of capturing an ongoing, and now accelerating human resources conundrum. While it seems like there’s no shortage lately of fake Japundits (not to be confused with the real Japundit, who is simply trying to keep it real on the cultural front) saying to go long Japanese stocks, boots-on-the-ground evidence provides further insight into the opaque. First, the positives: “You know when the big guys like Goldman and Lehman cut their small cap teams that we’ve reached the bottom - you have to think, it’s got to be upwards from here”. [FTA’s quoting of an expat broker] Also, the fact that Japan-focused hedge funds have been hammered (FTA cites Eurekahedge: AUM contraction in 2007 of $10.9B due to poor performance including $7.7B of redemptions) and ...

Here is a very interesting story about a Hong Kong-based English language school and its very wealthy founder. This article isn't specifically about New Oriental Education, but it gives you some accurate insight on how lucrative the English tutorial business is in Asia.

As Jeff Miller on A Dash of Insight notes, Hillary and McCain are in favor of a plan that would make gas taxes go away for a while - just to help out the little people. How nice of them. Right? Not really. Barack Obama along with every reachable economic authority on the vast expanse of [...]