Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) has launched a new range of servers aimed at smaller companies especially in emerging markets.

The stock has gained more than 4% since morning today, although volumes are at lower-than-usual levels.

The new product line, named Windows Server 2008 Foundation, is a scaled-down, low-cost member of the Windows Server family of operating systems. MSFT, which announces third-quarter earnings on Apr. 23, expects to sell the product for less than $1,000 inclusive of hardware cost.

The Redmond-based software behemoth stated that the product will be available in 40 countries initially. The new server will enable customers to run business applications and databases, host sites, share files, as well as provide basic server functionality.

Earnings estimates for fiscal 2009 have remained stagnant over the past week and lowered by 2 cents over the past month.

MSFT is a Zacks #3 Rank ("Hold") stock.

"MSFT" Free ...

Bear Market, the Dow is down 20% YTD, Recession, Stagflation, $4 Gas...Help me Obi-Won Kenobi you're my only hope.  Is there any hope left on Wall Street?  As Obi-Won would say, I have a bad feeling about this, but there is hope. Jedi Mastery, Stock Mastery, you can only turn to the largest and most successful of corporate giants: Microsoft Corporation  (Public, NASDAQ:MSFT) and General Electric Company  (Public, NYSE:GE) These companies need no introduction and thanks to the Force, they are trading at or near 52-week lows, then again, what stock isn't these days? However, the market cap ...

This is another strategy which can be set up using Zignals stock alerts. It’s a variation of a moving average strategy published back in May; this time a shorter time frame and more responsive exponential moving average is used to generate trade signals. A 5-day EMA crossover of a 10-day EMA was used to generate trades; buying upside crosses and selling on a downward cross of the slower EMA by the faster one.

Test period: A complete bull-bear cycle defined by the S&P (March 20th 2000 to October 8th 2007).

I tested on two groups of stocks:

US stocks (Active Trader): AAPL BA C CAT CSCO DIS GM HPQ IBM INTC IP JPM KO MSFT SBUX T WMT

European ADRs: ALU BHP BP SAP DT ASML STM …

Like 2 dinosaurs running to hug each other - just go away. Both of you. Gosh the media act as if this is a fertilizer and coal company or something sexy like that...Shares of Yahoo!(YHOO) slumped after reports that talks with Microsoft(MSFT - ) have not brought about any agreement, and instead Yahoo! will announce a search partnership later Thursday with Google(GOOG).The Wall Street Journal reported that Microsoft is saying it is no longer willing to buy Yahoo for $33 a share, and that talks between the two have ended without a deal.The blog TechCrunch, citing a "reliable source close to one of the companies" said an announcement coming from Yahoo! at 4:30 p.m. EDT likely involves "a search partnership between the two companies that outsources all or part of ...

Google (GOOG) again increased market share in search engine results. Currently 68,3% all searches come from Google's sites. One year ago it was 65,1%. Yahoo (YHOO) already dropped below 20% and with 19,9% it is still second most used engine. Microsoft (MSFT) with MSN fell to 5,9%. Ask (IACI) improved and gained 4,2% market share.This is the situation in for US searches. Domain May-08 Apr-08 May-07 Google 68.29% 67.90% 65.13% Yahoo 19.95% 20.28% 20.89% Msn 5.89% 6.26% 7.61% Ask 4.23% 4.17% 3.92% In UK, Google is even more dominant and has increased share almost by 10%. All other ...

By Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Dissident investor Carl Icahn escalated his attacks on Yahoo Inc.'s beleaguered board Wednesday in an acerbic letter demanding the directors scrap an employee severance plan that drove up the potential costs of a Microsoft Corp. takeover.If Yahoo's board clings to the severance plan, Icahn indicated he will follow through on his 3-week-old threat to ask shareholders to fire the board at the Sunnyvale-based company's Aug. 1 annual meeting. That move would also target Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang, who co-founded the Internet pioneer 14 years ago and pushed for the adoption of the severance program. The plan could trigger $464 million to ...

Technical picture shows Google (GOOG) shares returned back above 200 days moving average. This confirms growing trend giving nice signal to long term investors. Open long position with stop loss on level of 200 MA.Main fuel for Google share were Yahoo (YHOO) - Microsoft (MSFT) - Google (GOOG) deal news together with latest ComScore (SCOR) statistics. Numbers indicate 20% growth in paid clicks. Total clicks growth is 28%. Better than expected data includes only US clicks.It's still in our mind last ComScore report before Google's Q1. Nevertheless ComScore released slower growth for US clicks, Google posted very good Q1 results which lifted stock. Mainly due to growth outside of US.Coming back, good US paid clicks rate altogether with possible outstanding global growth. It could be good time to think about Google.http://stockweb.blogspot.com/atom.xml

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Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) shares are down 8% in the last month thanks to not impressing Wall Street last earnings call and the Yahoo (YHOO) drama.  It seems the Street has knocked down the world's biggest software maker without any regard to what 2008 could bring for MSFT, such as record XBOX and software sales.  So is MSFT undervalued at $28 a share? So what will happen with Microsoft and Yahoo!?  Which platform will they use?  How will they combine their technologies?  How much will that cost? With ...

In this week's strategy test I take a look at on-balance-volume. Unlike the majority of the technical indicators, on-balance-volume (and accumulation/distribution) uses price as an actionary tab to measured volume; adding volume to a cumulative total on a higher close, but subtracting on a lower close. But how well does it perform as a trading indicator? The basic test looked at buying when on-balance-volume was positive and selling when negative. Test period: A complete bull-bear cycle defined by the S&P (March 20th 2000 to October 8th 2007). Stocks: Active Trader list (AAPL BA C CAT CSCO DIS GM HPQ IBM INTC IP JPM KO MSFT SBUX T WMT) Number of shares: 100 Commission: $9.95 (included in the loss calculation) Trades: Round-trip only; partial trades were excluded. As in the earlier stochastic analysis the number of trades executed was very large; just over 1,000 over the 7 year period. This ...

his blog has been rather quiet recently, but things should pick up shortly. I am in the process of relocating and other things have limited my time lately. This Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo (YHOO) story just can't get any more interesting. Now that MSFT has walked, what can we expect? Well, YHOO's management team looks like fools, not only for misplaying their hand, but also for taking very lightly their fiduciary duty. Expect YHOO shareholders to revolt. I would not at all be surprised if YHOO is forced to do the deal, because the board really can not say anything to shareholders that remotely convinces them that the company is worth $37 per share or more. When the market thinks you are worth about $20 and someone offers you $33, you take it. End of story. Even if MSFT really is out for good, this whole thing will help YHOO because it will ...