Companies featured in this edition of the newsletter: ACTC, ENZ, NWCI, OMCM, ONBI, PHC, XSNX

Markets continued to display strength early on during this holiday shortened week, only to be led lower on Friday by concerns stemming from the announcement that the UAE was attempting to restructure debt with potentially adverse effects on lenders, chiefly, European banks. All told, the Dow finished marginally in negative territory, losing 0.1% on the week, surrendering 8 points to close at 10309, up 17.5% on the year. The Nasdaq performed slightly worse, losing 0.4% to close at 2138, while the S&P 500 finished the week flat and the Russell 2000 lost 1.3% to put their yearly gains at 20.8% and 15.6% respectively.

Stronger than expected Existing Home Sales reported on Monday helped indices climb to their highest levels of the week, as sales in October rose 10.1% to 6.1 million homes, handily beating

...

In a filing with the SEC, Sun Microsystems Inc. (JAVA) announced to cut its headcount by 3,000 or 10% over the next 12 months, given the delay in getting European Commission clearance for its merger with Oracle Corp. (ORCL).  Sun said that the job cuts will affect all of the company’s major regions, including North America, Europe, Asia and emerging markets. The company expects to incur $75 – $125 million in restructuring charges over the next several quarters. The company said it will record the majority of the charges in the second and third quarters of fiscal 2010.  Oracle, the largest software company, had proposed the acquisition of Sun Microsystems for $7.4 billion ($9.50 a share), which has been slowed by an ongoing antitrust review in Europe and the company is still waiting for clearance by the European Commission.  The delay in approval from the ...

July 10, 2009 ndash; Another mixed week of economic data, which left Wall Street in doubt about whether the economy is going to rebound any time soon. Fridayrsquo;s downtick in consumer sentiment was a stark reminder that Main Street is not doing well and isnrsquo;t particularly optimistic. middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Consumer Sentiment ndash; The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment (preliminary) index decreased to 64.6, the lowest level since March, from 70.8 in June. The forecast was for a reading of 70. With respect to Americanrsquo;s perceptions about their financial situation, and whether it is a good time to buy big-ticket items, the reading fell to 70.4 from 73.2. The index of consumer expectations for six months from now fell to 60.9, the biggest drop since October, from 69.2. middot;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; US Import and Export Price Indexes - The U.S. Import Price Index rose 3.2 percent in June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of ...

A 4-day rally gets stopped at the border…  Home Prices fall at a -18.12% pace…  Alice Rivlin gives her 2-cents… * Kiwi bond maturities galore next month… And Now… Today’s Pfennig! Good day… And a Wonderful Wednesday to you! As tradition with the Pfennig would have it, here’s my introduction to July… There I was… On a July morning… Looking for love… With the strength of a new day dawning, and… The beautiful sun…

Yes, for those “old rockers” from the 70’s like me… That’s Uriah Heep, at their best!

OK… So, welcome to July! The last day of June was quite the volatile one to say the least! There we were waiting for the S&P/CaseShiller Home Price Index to print, and show that home prices were still down by quite a bit, when it did, it did, it printed at -18.12%… But! The media was all over that like a cheap suit, clamoring that

...

By Mike Caggeso Associate Editor Embattled carmaker General Motors Corp. (GM) is planning thousands of additional white-collar job cuts and mulling over the sale off some of its brands, sources told the Wall Street Journal. The strategic shifts are part of General Motors’ plan to return to profitability by 2010, a goal that will require a lot of changes to the company model. And they come at a time when U.S. auto sales are the slowest in 15 years, gas prices have edged above the $4-a-gallon mark, and GM’s stock is trading at a 54-year low. The decision on the job cuts will come at the No. 1 automaker’s board of directors meeting in August, where the GM board may also entertain management’s suggestions about trimming its number of brands, sources told the paper....