Companies featured in this edition of the newsletter: CUR, CVM, ENZ, IMUC, MBCI, ONEZ, PHC, SVUL

Markets finished in positive territory yet again during this holiday shortened week despite the lack of any significant developments on either the corporate or economic fronts. All told, the Dow gained 164 points to close at 9605, up 1.7% on the week and 9.4% on the year. The Nasdaq gained 3.1% on the week, closing at 2080, up 32% on the year, while the S&P 500 and Russell 2000 gained 2.6% and 4.0% respectively on the week, up 15.4% and 18.8% on the year.

It was a slow week on the corporate side, but there were some healthy signals from the technology sector, as Texas Instruments raised its Q3 outlook, guiding for EPS of between $0.37 and $0.41, up from previous forecasts of $0.29-$0.39. Fed Ex also guided higher, citing cost management and better

...

Baird is out with a pretty interesting upgrade on PharmaNet Development (NASDAQ:PDGI) raising their rating to Outperform with a whopping $7 tgt saying they believe that PDGI is increasingly likely to successfully address the convertible debt-related liquidity concerns by early 2009. While fundamental performance is poor and market trends not fully certain in the near-term, they believe that resolution of bankruptcy risk fears may drive materially higher valuation, despite PDGI's ongoing challenges.Massive valuation reset. PDGI shares are 98% off annual highs, due partly to unprecedented performance and bookings volatility and abysmal 3Q trends (preannounced 9/11), market-wide and CRO sector pressures. However, the firm believes current price is severely discounted for bankruptcy fears.Liquidity issues. Before 3Q reporting, PDGI held $52M cash, looked cash flow negative for2008, substantially slashed guidance on 9/11, and as the shares imploded the global financial crisis heightened and capital markets activity ground ...

Mainstream solutions tend to generate quite a bit of attention as people and companies search for answers and applications to issues of all kinds. Often, however, it is the less-noticed processes that end up solving the initial issue more efficiently and elegantly than front-page ideas. Keeping an eye out for those processes that might be flying under the radar is one of the better ways to profit from a pressing need and solution. To find a potentially lucrative payoff, all an investor needs to do is be aware and open-minded to new ways of looking at potential solutions.

Global Environment Energy Corp., an energy development company with a full array of energy programs, was founded around waste-to-energy electricity development. Its lead product works to develop clean energy through a waste-to-gas system known as “The BiosPhere MK-V.” The founder and chief executive officer of the company, Dr. Chris McCormack, is also

...

This post is a bit off the beaten track for me, but I’m interested in this area from the point of view of being an online media publisher.

I’ve helped build and run this type of business for the last nine years (including at the FT, Reuters, Stuff, XtraMSN and interest.co.nz) and have thought about this issue of name suppression, internet publication and Google quite a bit.

This week Manukau District Court Judge David Harvey decided to allow the publication of the names and images of two men aged 23 and 21 who were charged with murdering 14-year-old John Hapeta - but only on television and in newspapers. Justice Harvey ordered that the same media organisations could not publish their names and images on their websites.

This court order will now be considered as part of a wider study by the

...