Ford Motor Company (F) returned to profitability in the third quarter of the year by posting a net income of $873 million or 26 cents per share, easily clearing the Zacks Consensus Estimate loss of 15 cents per share as well as the year-ago loss of 6 cents per share. This was, in fact, Ford's first operating profit since the first quarter of 2008. The company, which was on the verge of bankruptcy in the middle of the year, accredited its rebound to improved product line, inviolable structural cost reduction efforts and improved results at Ford Credit. Although revenue was down 2.5% to $30.9 billion, Automotive revenue rose $100 million to $27.9 billion from the year-ago level. This was attributed to favorable net pricing and higher volumes, primarily in North America, offset partially by unfavorable exchange. Total wholesale vehicles advanced 5% to 1,232,000 units....

Last week AJ Brown from TradingTrainer.com gave us a great article to ‘chew on’ covering OTM near-term vertical debit spreads. The response was pretty good, but I think we’ll get him an even greater number of comments with this article on momentum, reversals, and bar patterns. Please enjoy the article and if you haven’t done so yet, I recommend you check out AJ’s training videos as you’ll learn a TON!

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Every day’s bar tells us something about what to expect the next trading day. In other words, today’s bar affects tomorrow’s bar. So how do we know what that effect will be?

Not every bar will give you clear insight into where the market is headed. But there are certain bar patterns that are more informative than others. Allow me to share a few of these bar patterns with you. You can often determine if the next trading

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A U.S.-led group – the Crown consortium – has revealed its interest to acquire the ailing Volvo unit from Ford Motor Co. (F). The group included former Ford director Michael Dingman and former Ford and Chrysler executive Shamel Rushwin. In 1999, Ford had acquired the Volvo Car Corporation from Sweden-based Volvo Group for $6.45 billion. However, the company put up the unit for sale in December last year in an effort to cut costs and raise cash amidst plunging industry-wide auto sales. Ford had discussions with many automakers for the sale, including Renault SA and China’s third-largest automaker, Dongfeng Motor Group. So far, China's Geely Automotive has submitted the only concrete bid for the unit. Media reports have disclosed that Geely has valued the unit at around $2 billion. Rumors had spread that Crown consortium had offered significantly less than Geely, but both plans involved ...

Baywood International, Inc.’s wholly-owned subsidiary New Leaf Brands announced today that its new distributors, RBI Distributing in Des Moines, IA and Gateway Distributing in Omaha, NE, have expanded its distribution network with the addition of four chain stores, including Hy-Vee, Dahl’s Foods, No Frills Supermarkets and Bag ‘N Save, in addition to many other independent accounts.

“We believe New Leaf has brand appeal with captivating packaging, great taste profile and distinct points of difference. New Leaf’s naturally sweetened tea and use of a variety of different teas and flavors is what sets it apart from the competition. When the customer tries it, they buy it,” stated Scott Hodges, General Sales Manager at RBI Distributing. “We are happy with New Leaf and the potential the brand has as volume continues to grow and gains more widespread recognition.”

“I am very excited about working with RBI Distributing in Iowa and their sister

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In my larval, pre-blogging days, I always faced the back-to-school moment with abject dread.  It meant returning to a program of the most severe, mind-numbing regimentation in the ghastly New York City public schools after a summer of idyllic unreality in the New Hampshire woods, where I went to a Lord of the Flies type of summer camp.  And so here I am, many decades later, still uneasy as the final page of the August calendar flies away in a hot Santa Ana wind, and a great hellfire closes in on the far eastern reaches of Los Angeles, and the American money system falls into a peculiar limbo, and every fifth person is out of work, or going bankrupt, or glugging down the seawater of default, or being denied coverage by health insurance that he-or-she has already shelled out ten grand for this year, or getting shot in

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Ford Motor's (F) Canadian arm will offer customers a rebate of up to C$3,000 ($2,700) for the purchase of a new Ford vehicle in exchange for a 15-year or older vehicle.

The rebate program – Recycle Your Ride – would allow customers to receive C$1,000 for purchase of a new Ford or Lincoln car, C$2,000 for a new sport utility or crossover vehicle and C$3,000 for a new truck or luxury Lincoln. The program will start this Thursday and run for 60 days. If required, it may be extended.

Ford Canada plans to maintain sales momentum through the program. The program is built on the line of the Canadian Government's "Retire Your Ride" program, which has given C$300 to consumers to turn in an old vehicle.

Ford Canada's chief executive, David Mondragon, also strongly supported the similar "Cash for Clunkers" rebate program for fuel-efficient vehicles that generated big sales in the

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Monsanto Corp. (NYSE: MON), the world’s largest seed maker, says it’s on track to more than double its 2007 profit by the year 2012 and is expecting a “technology explosion” to provide even stronger products going forward. But while Monsanto continues to build on its reputation as a cutting edge agricultural business, it is also under siege by competitors and advocacy groups who claim the company is a monopoly.

The St. Louis-based Monsanto said in June that its fiscal third-quarter earnings fell to $694 million, or $1.25 a share, from $811 million, or $1.45 a share, in the same period a year ago. Sales slipped to $3.16 billion from $3.54 billion last year. The company also said its annual earnings would likely be at the low end of its $4.40 to $4.50 a share forecast range.

That’s not very impressive for a company that last year posted record net sales

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Ford Motor Co. (F) has revealed an astounding 2% year-over-year sales gain for July when other major automakers have all reported declines. In fact, this sales gain was the company’s first since November 2007.   Ford believes the $1 billion cash incentive program known as Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS) or "Cash for Clunkers" recently launched by the U.S. Government drove demand for its fuel-efficient vehicles. CARS was designed to encourage customers to replace their fuel-inefficient vehicles with efficient ones. Under the program, consumers would be able to trade in their old gas-guzzling cars and trucks for a value of up to $4,500. Ford, Lincoln and Mercury dealers witnessed a 9% increase in retail sales to 118,197 vehicles during the month. Ford’s most fuel-efficient vehicles include cars such as Focus (35 mpg) and Fusion (24 mpg), besides Escape SUV (24 mpg). Sales for these models rose ...

Lincoln Electric Holdings Inc. (LECO) recently posted second-quarter EPS of $0.34, well above market expectations of $0.24. However, quarterly earnings were down 79.0% year over year primarily due to significant decline in sales volumes.

Lincoln Electric posted net sales of $413.3 million for the quarter, which is 40.9% below prior-year sales of $699.8 million. The weakness in industrial activity and strength of the U.S. dollar had an adverse impact on the company’s quarterly sales. It also faced weak demand for its welding products across markets. While North American sales were down 40.2%, sales from Lincoln subsidiaries outside North America declined 42.0%. U.S. export sales were down 41.4% during the quarter.

Gross margin declined 360 basis points year over year to 25.7%, while operating margin was down 670 basis points at 6.4%. Quarterly margins were hit by the impact of liquidating high cost inventory combined with declining volumes and

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In November of 1997, my partner and co-editor of  The Casey Report, Doug Casey, wrote an article titled “Foundations of Crisis,” which leaned heavily on the research of Neil Howe and the late William Strauss.  Howe and Strauss have written many books on how generations determine the course of history and how they will shape America’s future. Their forecasts on a wide variety of indicators have turned out to be amazingly accurate. They were among the first to predict (back in the late 1980s) the rise of Boomer-driven culture wars and the simultaneous rise of Gen-X-driven free agency and distrust of government. And they were completely alone back then in predicting, for the post-X “Millennial Generation” (a label they coined), a decline in youth crime and risk taking and an increase in youth civic engagement that would first become apparent around the year ...