The Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) may be forced to abandon its takeover of Rohm & Haas Co. (ROH) now that a $17.4 billion joint venture with Kuwait’s state-run oil company has been scrapped. Kuwait’s Petrochemical Industries Co. earlier this week cancelled plans to take a 50% stake in Dow’s plastics unit amid pressure from government officials alarmed by plunging oil prices. The venture would have created the world’s largest maker of polyethylene - a chemical used in wide array of plastic products, such as bottles and compact discs. It also would have provided Dow with a $7.5 billion cash infusion that the company had earmarked for its pending takeover of Rohm & Haas. The Philadelphia-based Rohm & Haas on July 10 agreed to a $78 a share takeover offer from Dow Chemical. Dow planned to finance the takeover with a $13 ...

a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_T9VXVyuEITg/SVXq_Wn9ZRI/AAAAAAAAAms/2Hy4p_jyDYw/s1600-h/Basketball.png"img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_T9VXVyuEITg/SVXq_Wn9ZRI/AAAAAAAAAms/2Hy4p_jyDYw/s320/Basketball.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5284388111914984722" //abr /At last night's Lakers versus the Celtics basketball game, tickets supposedly went for $20,000 each from the scalpers. Basketball, in addition to being a great aerobic sport for participants, a great spectator sport for fans, and is big business. The following companies are involved the sport of basketball in some way, some just a small portion of their business.br /br /Cablevision Systems Corp. (CVC) Their Madison Square Garden division owns and operates the New York Knickerbockers basketball team; they also own the Madison Square Garden Arena, the New York Rangers hockey team, the New York Liberty women's basketball team, and the Hartford Wolf Pack hockey team. The stock has a PE of 45, a PEG of 5.62, and a yield of 2.7%. br /br /Comcast (CMCSA) The company owns Comcast-Spectacor, which ...

Chrysler LLC stunned its employees and dealers early yesterday (Thursday), announcing it was suspending all manufacturing for at least a month, and tightening wholesale credit terms to dealers. By the end of the day, Chrysler was joined by its two other Big Three brethren – General Motors Corp. (GM) and Ford Motor Co. (F). – which also shuttered factories.

All told, the Big Three will idle about 59 factories over the next month as each of the three American carmakers struggle to wait on a rescue that the White House says is still under study. The announcement comes in the wake of a stubborn credit crisis and debate over the government bailout for the Big Three automakers.

The Chrysler announcement – because it came first – was the stunner.

“This is definitely out of the ordinary,” Edmunds.com

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Almost everything we use in modern society contains large amounts of raw materials. And they can’t be mined fast enough to keep pace with demand, especially from emerging markets. Lundin Mining Corp. (NYSE:LMC) is a strong Canadian mining company, with no debt and world-class assets. And it is a steal at today’s beaten down prices.

This from Investment U:

Consider that your computer could contain up to 38 separate chemical elements and that all of those elements needed to be mined and refined. Everything from cell phones to housing supplies requires massive amounts of raw materials.

Our modern lifestyle encourages us to buy the latest products, all made with increasing amounts of technology - and more raw materials.

But industrialized nations aren’t the only players clamoring for these commodities. Developing nations around the world are pounding the table for more of everything. They want what the industrialized west has had for

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Unearth Big Gains from the Commodity “Supercycle”

The latest research from the Investment U Advisory Panel Friday, November 28, 2008: Issue #893

Consider that your computer could contain up to 38 separate chemical elements and that all of those elements needed to be mined and refined. Everything from cell phones to housing supplies requires massive amounts of raw materials.

Our modern lifestyle encourages us to buy the latest products, all made with increasing amounts of technology - and more raw materials.

But industrialized nations aren’t the only players clamoring for these commodities. Developing nations around the world are pounding the table for more of everything. They want what the industrialized west has had for years. And they want it now.

And that’s just the problem. There isn’t enough of it being produced fast enough to satisfy everyone. An imbalance exists between producers, supplies and ...

The gold price straddled the $740 mark throughout most of trading in the Far East on Monday, although a smallish rally began at 3:00 a.m. New York Time. That tiny rally ended shortly after London opened and began a gentle decline right into the Comex…where both gold and silver had the rug pulled out from underneath them. About 9:00 a.m. Eastern, the selling pressure disappeared and another rally began which got capped just under $750. As of this writing, $12 has been carved from the peak price of the day…and 22 cents for silver. Volume was extremely light…even lower than Friday…so it wasn’t hard to push the price around. Having said that, the US$ was down 95 basis points, but the powers that be wouldn’t let the precious metals prices reflect that. One wonders how much gold and silver would have declined if the US$ had actually risen on the

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Survey; U.S. began recession in April; Target 3Q Profit Down 24%; Merrill Lowers 2009 Brazil Growth to 2.9%; Hong Kong Officially in Recession; SEC Charges Cuban with Insider Trading; Lowe’s Revenue Climbs; October Industrial Output Rises

The U.S. economy entered recession in April and will last a total of 14 months, according to a survey of economists by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. The survey also predicted that non-farm payrolls would contract by 222,400 jobs during the fourth quarter, Reuters reported. Target Corp. (TGT) saw its profit drop by 24% in the third quarter, as fewer shoppers showed up at the retailer. Though slightly better than the average forecast, it marked the fifth consecutive drop in quarterly profit, Reuters reported. Merrill Lynch lowered its 2009 growth estimate for Brazil from 3.1% to 2.9%. ...

Welcome to the Fantasyland issue of The 5…“Shouldn’t worry about the deficit,” assures Barack Obama… “yes we can” keep spending. Can’t balance the budget of your dreams? Call the Treasury… Atlanta’s doing it. Gold still suffering… Ed Bugos’ future fantasies for precious metals stocks. Plus, no one immune to the great housing illusion… the infamous Neverland Ranch shuts its doors.

“We shouldn’t worry about the deficit next year or even the year after,” the U.S. president-elect Barack Obama said on 60 Minutes over the weekend.

We were afraid that Barack’s message of “change you can believe in” was going to make it harder to take issue with politics as usual in Washington. But now we see he already drank the Kool-Aid and we had nothing to fear but fear itself.

“The consensus is this, that we have to do

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Performance Health Technologies, Inc. is a company that develops and markets performance evaluation and rehabilitation products that monitor and guide exercise and give real-time motivational feedback. Based in New Jersey, the young company is led by a group of Board of Directors that are second to none.

Amongst the leaders on the Performance Board of Directors is Dr. Gary N. Goldstein. Dr. Goldstein serves in numerous roles in the medical and academic community. Currently Dr. Goldstein is an attending physician at Graduate Hospital in Philadelphia, Virtua Health Care System, Kennedy Memorial Health Care System, Surgical Center of South Jersey, Summit Surgical Center, Cherry Hill Surgical Center, and Cooper Medical Center. Besides holding memberships in various organizations in his profession, Goldstein is widely published and brings with him a powerful name in the medical field.

Serving with Dr. Goldstein is Roger Harrison.

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The Treasury’s plan to inject $250 billion in capital directly into US banks is underway. But William Patalon III says some of these taxpayer funds will be used by big banks to acquire junior competitors. This means the increase in lending that the plan is supposed to spark will be modest at best. And less competition in the banking sector could mean a rise in fees going forward.

This from Money Morning:

While the U.S. government’s plan to invest $250 billion into U.S. financial institutions has been billed as a strategy that will bolster the health of the banking system and also jump-start lending, the recapitalization plan is likely to have a secondary effect – one that whipsawed U.S. taxpayers likely won’t be very happy to learn about.

Those billions are a virtual lock to set off a merger tsunami in which the biggest banks use taxpayer money to get bigger

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