Baltimore — (TFN): It’s confirmation! On Friday I wrote how I may have a touch of the flu or some other mind-altering ailment because my thoughts were far more liberal than I am comfortable with admitting.

Well, it turns out my ultra-liberal, straight-ticket voting, French-guy marrying sister has a verifiable case of the pig flu. And guess who I had dinner with on Thursday night? You betcha, big sis.

There we have it: cause and effect.

Fortunately, my head case was short-lived. By the time my venison sausage and eggs were off the front burner on Saturday morning, I was back to my old self, almost knocking my O.J. off the table stomping my fist over a local political battle.

In Friday’s edition of notes, I quoted the following paragraph from Callum Robert’s book The Unnatural History of the Sea:

If any trawling ground be over-fished, the trawlers themselves will be the

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Public Service Enterprise (PEG) is expanding its utility solar base. Its subsidiary Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G) received approval from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities for an additional $143 million for its ongoing solar loan program. This will help the company finance the installation of an additional 51MW of solar energy systems in homes, businesses and municipal buildings throughout its electric service area New Jersey.  PSE&G is a regulated public utility company primarily engaged in the transmission and distribution of electricity and gas in New Jersey. It serves approximately 2.1 million electricity customers and 1.7 million gas customers in the region.  Since the utility's initial Solar Loan Program was approved by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities in April 2008, customers have applied for loans totaling $105 million that would result in 30MW of installed solar capacity. In addition to the ...

Public Service Enterprise (PEG) is expanding its utility solar base. Its subsidiary Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G) received approval from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities for an additional $143 million for its ongoing solar loan program. This will help the company finance the installation of an additional 51MW of solar energy systems in homes, businesses and municipal buildings throughout its electric service area New Jersey.  PSE&G is a regulated public utility company primarily engaged in the transmission and distribution of electricity and gas in New Jersey. It serves approximately 2.1 million electricity customers and 1.7 million gas customers in the region.  Since the utility's initial Solar Loan Program was approved by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities in April 2008, customers have applied for loans totaling $105 million that would result in 30MW of installed solar capacity. In addition to the ...

Coventry Health Care, Inc. (CVH) reported third quarter earnings of 66 cents per share, which was above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 54 cents. The company earned 73 cents in the year-ago quarter. Total operating revenues for the reported quarter increased 17.8% to $3.44 billion from the previous year's $2.92 billion.  Revenues from managed care premiums rose 20% to $3.15 billion, while revenues from management services decreased to $290.9 million from $298.4 million a year earlier. Due to reduced commercial risk and commercial management membership, total enrollment in Coventry plans increased 0.55% to 5.24 million members, mainly on gains in the Medicare D prescription drug program. The membership in that program increased 81,000 from the prior quarter. Total operating expenses for the quarter came in at $3.29 billion, up 18.6% from the year ago quarter. Medical costs, the major operating expense component, rose to $2.66 ...

Ross Stores, Inc. (ROST) recently announced September sales of $629 million, a 12% increase year-over-year. Same store sales jumped 8%. The company also hiked its third-quarter earnings guidance to a range of 75 to 77 cents per share. Analysts polled by Zacks are in agreement, boosting forecasts from last month's 63 cents to 77.

Company Description

Ross Stores is the second largest off-price retailer with fiscal 2008 revenues of $6.5 billion. The company noted that, as of October 3, 2009, it operated 939 Ross Dress for Less® ("Ross") stores and 53 dd's DISCOUNTS® locations, compared to 885 Ross and 57 dd's DISCOUNTS locations at the end of the same period last year.

Ross Dress for Less offers in-season, name brand and designer apparel, accessories, footwear and home fashions for the entire family at everyday savings of 20% to 60%.

dd's DISCOUNTS features a more moderately-priced assortment of in-season, name brand

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UDR Inc. (UDR), a leading multifamily real estate investment trust (REIT), recently augmented its apartment search application for Apple Inc.’s (AAPL) iPhone and iPod users, enabling consumers who are more reliant on smartphones than landlines or personal computers to find apartments in a more convenient way.   The upgraded technology utilizes smartphone’s built-in spatial awareness components such as GPS, accelerometer, and compass to create digitally enhanced pictures of apartments. Furthermore, the new application software enables users to point their smartphones in any direction to locate and view available apartments under the search parameters within a radius of 10 mile, by utilizing Layar – an augmented reality browser.   The demographic and technographic data for the mobile market strategically fits into UDR’s up-market customer segmentation. Users can search apartments on all possible parameters such as location, price, and number of bedrooms and bathrooms, which are updated daily. To ...

Early this morning, Coventry Health Care Inc. (CVH) announced that it has agreed to acquire Preferred Health Systems, Inc. (commonly referred to as PHS), the wholly-owned health insurance subsidiary of Via Christi Health System, Inc.  PHS is based in Wichita, Kansas. It is a commercial health plan whose beneficiaries include more than 100,000 members for whom it assumes full insurance risk, and 20,000 members for whom PHS provides administrative services. The acquisition of PHS will further widen the customer base of the diversified national managed healthcare company in the Midwestern United States.  The transaction, expected to close in the next 90 to 120 days, will not affect Coventry ’s earnings in the first year.  PHS was incorporated in 1993 following strong support and encouragement from area physicians, St. Francis Regional Medical Center and St. Joseph Medical Center , which merged to form Via Christi Health ...

Dominion Resources, Inc. (D) has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to start pre-filing process for its Appalachian Gateway Project. The proposed project will transport natural gas produced in West Virginia and southwest Pennsylvania to storage fields and pipelines in Pennsylvania. The Appalachian Gateway project will cost around $600 million. Dominion expects to start construction work in 2011 and commence commercial operation in 2012. The project is fully subscribed by Marcellus Shale and other Appalachian natural gas producers. The total firm transportation delivery is estimated to be nearly 484,260 dekatherms of natural gas per day.  Dominion will build four new natural gas compressor stations and upgrade two existing compressor stations, which will add about 17,000 horsepower of compression capacity. Around 110 miles of new pipeline will be constructed under the project, which will start at West Virginia and end at Dominion and Spectra's jointly owned ...

The Fed’s FOMC announcement came out…

We got exactly what I expected, a kind of wishy-washy, “hedging our bets” statement from the Fed. You have to remember that Bernanke was Greenspan’s right hand man for much of the bubble days of the ‘90s and early ‘00s, so the guy is an expert at walking both sides of the line when it comes to policy and public statements.

For instance, the Fed announced it would keep interest rates between 0% and 0.25% for an “extended period.” No surprise there. As I’ve noted previously, 80%+ of the $200+ trillion in derivatives sitting on US commercial banks’ balance sheets are related to interest rates.

For the Fed to hint at raising rates (let alone raise them) would kick off a systemic implosion that would wipe out the very guys the Fed has been bailing out. Suffice to say the Fed won’t be raising interest rates …

Cal-Mine Foods Inc. (CALM) reported weak results for the first quarter of fiscal 2010 with a net loss of 16 cents per share. Results were well below the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a profit of 18 cents per share and were down compared to a profit of 47 cents in the year-earlier period. The loss was primarily attributable to the declining selling prices of eggs. Net average selling price of eggs fell 19% to 92 cents per dozen eggs in the quarter. Net sales for the quarter declined 9.3% year-over-year to $187.7 million due to declining selling prices of eggs and lower sales to restaurants and foodservice customers. This was attributable to the current economic slowdown. However, the number of eggs sold and produced by Cal-Maine was up year-over-year. In addition, feed costs were also low compared to the prior-year, but these together could not ...