The U.S. e-commerce market is heating up, with new competition from China-based Alibaba.com. Alibaba Group CEO Jack Ma recently announced that its new business-to-business (BTB) e-commerce platform is currently in the beta stage and could be expected to launch in the U.S. by the end of the year.   This seems to be a good time to launch the site since traffic may be expected to increase as a result of the holiday season. However, the company’s entry will no doubt increase competition for existing players such as Amazon.com (AMZN), eBay Inc. (EBAY) and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT).   Still, online retail is one of the few markets that are expected to continue growing this year. According to Forrester Research, non-travel ecommerce sales in the U.S. are expected to grow 11% in 2009, a slight slowdown from the 13% growth seen in 2008. One of the major

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Muscle Flex Inc. is a leading edge fitness, health and lifestyle company that develops new brands and products to market using direct response TV advertising and infomercials. The company also uses cutting edge brand and image marketing through the creation of television media content for network and cable television distribution.

The company announced today that it has signed a comprehensive agreement with Houston PAD, master distributor of VATA Brasil OneFit Active Wear, to market an exclusive Muscle Flex by VATA Brasil Women’s Sports & Active Wear Collection, a co-branded Muscle Flex VATA Brasil Collection as well as the full VATA Brasil line of Sports and Active Wear apparel. They also announced a new website which provides consumers with details about the product lines – www.MuscleFlexVATA.com.

The agreement provides Muscle Flex three full and distinct apparel collections that it will market via a 30

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Hormel Foods Corp. (HRL) reported second-quarter results this morning that included earnings of 59 cents per share, 9 cents ahead of the average forecast.

"We have seen a continuation of some of the same trends we saw in the first quarter, as consumers seek value in retail channels while foodservice sales remain soft," said CEO Jeffrey M. Ettinger.

The producer of meat and food products also said it expects full-year earnings in the upper end of previously announced guidance of $2.15 to $2.25 per share. Meanwhile, the consensus estimate has moved up by 2 cents over the past 60 days to $2.25 per share.

Hormel's quarterly revenue remained flat at $1.59 billion as growth in grocery products and refrigerated foods were offset by decline in specialty foods and Jennie-O Turkey stores.

Shares of the Zacks #2 Rank ("Buy") company have gained more than 2%

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The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) is the nation’s 2nd largest manufacturer of quality chocolate and sugar confectionery products. The company markets such iconic brands as Hershey’s, Reese’s, Kit Kat, and Hershey’s Kisses. Privately-owned Mars Inc. leapfrogged Hershey last year to become the nation’s largest candy maker with its purchase of the William Wrigley Jr. Company.

Hershey announced today that its first quarter profit surged 20 percent, beating Wall Street expectations. The company’s results were helped by several factors: a price increase which took effect in August, a gain in US market share, and a reporting period that captured more days of Easter sales. This year’s first quarter ended nearly a week later than last year’s, shifting more Easter sales into this year’s first quarter.

Hershey said that it earned $75.9 million or 33 cents a share, in the three months ended April 5. A year earlier, the company earned $63.2 million or 28

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NXT Nutritionals Holdings, Inc. (”NXT”) (OTCBB: NXTH) a developer and marketer of proprietary, patent-pending healthy natural sweeteners, food and beverage products, announced today its newest product line, SUSTATM 50 packet boxes, based on NXT’s all-natural healthy sweetening system, SUSTATM. Consumers will be able to purchase SUSTATM boxes which contain fifty two-gram packets, as early as next month on NXT’s website (www.nxtnutritionals.com). Upon the product launch, SUSTATM will be the only sweetening system in the retail marketplace that is all-natural, low glycemic, contains prebiotics (soluble fiber) and probiotics, essential vitamins and minerals, helps to maintain healthy blood sugar levels, aids digestion, and supports the immune system.

NXT is currently focused on launching SUSTATM into the U.S. table top sweetener market. SUSTATM two-gram packets can be used in coffees, teas, other beverages, cereals, and any other foods that require a sweetener. In the Company’s initial marketing efforts, NXT will focus on

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A very large part of electronics production goes into consumer electronics products such as televisions; games such as the Nintendo wii, Panasonic (PC) Playstation and Microsoft (MSFT) X-Box; cell phones; personal computers; digital cameras and many toys.

In our opinion, sales this holiday season are likely to be flat, at best, with 2007. This does not bode well for Panasonic and Sony (SNE), the two major Japanese consumer electronics companies in our universe.

OPPORTUNITIES

The strongest area in 2008 has been flat panel TVs, mainly high-definition [HD] LCD sets that are 40" or larger. In anticipation of a good selling season, the manufacturers had produced significantly more sets than had been sold through the retail channels.

WEAKNESSES

Thus, there is an inventory build-up back through the supply chain as far as the LCD glass manufacturers such as Corning Glass (GLW), including the component producers like Trident Microsystems (

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Zhongpin Inc. (HOGS) saw revenues soar 116% to a new record in the third quarter as the company continues to expand pork production. HOGS has surprised on estimates 3 out of the last 4 quarters on average of 7.25%. The company is cheap. HOGS is trading at only 5.7x forward earnings.

Company Description

Zhongpin is a Chinese-based meat and food processing company that handles pork and pork products as well as fruits and vegetables. The company operates in 24 provinces in China through over 2,960 retail outlets and also exports to the European Union, Eastern Europe, Russia, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea.

Zhongpin has been expanding production. On Nov 7, it announced that its new prepared meat facility in the Henan Province, which was just starting production, would increase annual production capacity for meat products, including sausage and ham, by 114%.

The new facility was built

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According to the latest report on China's TV direct sales released by Chinese market research and consulting agency Analysys International, in 2007, TV direct sales in China reached CNY7 billion, a year-on-year increase of 55.6%. However, the TV direct sales industry is also facing severe competition pressure from traditional retail channels and new retail channels such [...]

In this morning’s news, Brite-Strike Tactical Illumination Products, Inc. announced that it has launched a major media advertising campaign with 30-second commercials airing on some of the largest cable networks such as Bloomberg, CNBC, CNN, Fox Business News, Fox News, Tru-TV, and MSNBC and print ads appearing in the USA Today, the nation’s most widely circulated newspaper. The national television campaign will continue throughout the early fall months.

Expressing his excitement, Glenn Bushee, President of Brite-Strike Technologies, Inc, stated, “We are making a significant investment to move the Brite-Strike brand forward. Advertising on CNBC, for example, with over 95 million viewers, gives us a way to kick off our campaign in a big way. Our goal is to bring personal safety into the hands of ordinary citizens; their security is of the utmost importance.”

The Brite-Strike Tactical Blue-Dot™ line is currently being utilized by a

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Brite-Strike Tactical Illumination Products, Inc. announced today that BJ’s Wholesale Club is now selling its seven-piece economical personal protection system, named Lighting Strike, at over 25 membership warehouse clubs in 16 eastern states as well as online at www.bjs.com.

With students returning to school this fall, the product introduction is strategically timed for maximum exposure and revenue. The easy-to-use system non-lethally thwarts potential attackers with a combination of brilliant, blinding light and a piercing, audible alarm.

Glenn Bushee, president and founder of Brite-Strike Technologies, stated, “BJ’s has built a loyal customer base by identifying premium products to meet their customers’ needs, and we look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship.”

In the past, Brite-Strike’s product lines were only available by word-of-mouth, the company’s website, or several high-end catalogs, which included Frontgate and Herrington. However, retail giants such as BJ’S Wholesale Clubs, Amazon.com,

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