Masco Corporation (MAS) reported earnings from continuing operations of 14 cents per common share in the third quarter of 2009, compared to income from continuing operations of 9 cents per common share in the third quarter of 2008. This was higher than the Zacks consensus Estimate of 8 cents per share. Net sales from continuing operations for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2009 declined 17% to $2.1 billion, compared with $2.5 billion for the third quarter of 2008. North American sales declined 17% and International sales declined 13%. In local currencies, International sales declined 7% compared with the third quarter of 2008. The third quarter of 2009 results were adversely affected by significantly lower sales volume of new home construction products and services, as well as a decline in consumer spending for home improvement products in both North American and International markets. The negative market conditions ...

Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (JEC) announced that it received a new framework to deliver a range of professional engineering services to the Manchester Airports Group (MAG) in the United Kingdom. MAG owns and operates four regional airports - Manchester, East Midlands, Bournemouth and Humberside - making it the second largest airport operator in the U.K.

Jacobs will provide airfield civil engineering, and mechanical and electrical engineering for MAG's building stock, including both airport facilities and non airport-related developments. Jacobs is the exclusive provider of these services.

The company also received a contract from the City and County of San Francisco, California, to provide construction management services for the San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center Rebuild Program.

The rebuild was approved by San Francisco voters in November 2008. They authorized the City and County to finance the project with $887.4 million general obligation bonds.

The San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center

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Patient Portal Technologies, Inc., a provider of services that improve and enhance the patients’ experience before, during and after their hospital stay, recently announced that the company has secured a new seven-year contract with A.O. Fox Hospital, located in Oneonta, New York. Under the terms of the contract, Patient Portal Technologies, through its subsidiary TB&A, will provide leased television equipment and maintenance services to A.O. Fox Hospital.

This new contract with A.O. Fox Hospital adds to the company’s growing list of hospitals and healthcare facilities throughout the United States. Founded in 1900, A.O. Fox Hospital is a 130-bed hospital that provides a wide range of healthcare services, including renowned specialties in emergency, cancer, cardiac and primary care for all age groups, from newborns to seniors.

Patient Portal Technologies’ chief executive officer, Kevin Kelly, stated, “We are very pleased to have established a long term relationship with A.O. Fox Hospital.” He

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DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Friday July 31, 2009

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Jefferson Bancshares, Inc. (Nasdaq:JFBI), the holding company for Jefferson Federal Bank, announced net earnings for the quarter ended June 30, 2009 of $683,000, or $0.11 per diluted share, compared to net earnings of $494,000, or $0.09 per diluted share, for the quarter ended June 30, 2008. For the year ended June 30, 2009, net earnings were $2.6 million, or $0.43 per diluted share, compared to $1.2 million, or $0.22 per diluted share, for fiscal 2008. The 2009 results reflect the Company’s acquisition of State of Franklin Bancshares, Inc., the parent company of State of Franklin Bank, a Tennessee chartered savings bank headquartered in Johnson City, Tennessee, (collectively, “State

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PennyOmega.com Short Highlights Before the Bell!

PennyOmega.com Short Highlights Before The Bell!

PennyOmega.com Stocks Upgraded, Downgraded and Short Highlights Before the Bell Tuesday, July 21, 2009

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Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ: SYMC) today announced that Tennessee-based employee benefits provider Unum uses Symantec software and services to secure its IT infrastructure and effectively address compliance-related requirements around email retention and discovery. Symantec has helped Unum prevent a network disruption as a result of a malicious intrusion in more than five years, significantly reduce IT costs, and comply with laws and regulations governing the security of confidential business information including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

3PAR® (NYSE: PAR), the leading global provider of

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DrStockPick.com Stocks Upgraded, Downgraded and Short Highlights Before the Bell Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

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Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ: SYMC) today announced that Tennessee-based employee benefits provider Unum uses Symantec software and services to secure its IT infrastructure and effectively address compliance-related requirements around email retention and discovery. Symantec has helped Unum prevent a network disruption as a result of a malicious intrusion in more than five years, significantly reduce IT costs, and comply with laws and regulations governing the security of confidential business information including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). 3PAR® (NYSE: PAR), the leading global provider of utility storage, announced today the 3PAR Cloud-Agile program, a new partnership initiative to promote the adoption of cloud computing and cloud-based

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Yesterday after the closing bell, Consorteum Holdings Inc. announced that it has acquired Consorteum Inc., a Canadian-based provider of payment and transaction solutions. Consorteum Inc. was acquired for 39,999,750 shares, of which management owns a controlling interest of over 26,000,000 shares.

Craig Fielding, CEO of Consorteum Holdings Inc., stated, “This is the first step in executing the strategic direction of the company into its next stage of evolution. We are making great strides in providing the market with a revolutionary and innovative new way of doing business, focused primarily on customer requirements, versus technology. The future of payment processing puts less emphasis on the provider of the services and more on the empowerment of the user to put more profits in their pockets. We believe that by doing business this way, we will naturally increase our market share and provide long-term shareholder growth.”

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Alex’s Notes: Hat Tip to Lew Rockwell for this great article.

Its nice to see smart, well written advocates of honest money speaking out and helping raise the awareness of people as to what can be done to solve America’s (and indeed the worlds) economic ills.

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January 27, 2009

This talk was given at the 2009 Jeremy Davis Mises Circle in Houston.

We are fortunate to be living in these times, for we are seeing the unfolding of events long explained and predicted by the Austrian tradition.

Maybe that sounds implausible. What is fortunate about our times? The economy is tanking, stocks have been pummeled, unemployment is rising, and Washington is pursuing the worst combination of economic policies since Hoover and FDR. Nor does the new guy in charge seem to have a clue about the limits of what government can do.

Consider what it means to live through our times in the light of

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Oil as a commodity is an interesting real asset. What investments most directly create the economic effect of owning oil itself?

The best answer would be to own an oil well, or better yet, own an entire oil exporting country.  However, neither of those options is a practical answer for most investors, certainly not owning a country (unless, of course you are born into the right family).

So what are the practical options for the rest of us?  Among others, they include:

futures contracts funds that invest in futures contracts exchange traded notes that are priced to a futures index royalty trusts that own oil in the ground integrated oil companies oil & gas exploration companies oil & gas production companies general energy funds alternate fuels options on any of the above.

Options are a speculation that expire in time, so we’ll exclude them from the “ownership” consideration.  Futures provide a 1:1 price participation, but they also expire with time, and rolling from

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Stewart Enterprises (NASDAQ:STEI) is the second largest provider of services in the funeral industry in the US. Laura Cadden in Today’s Financial News told readers about this stock in February. At the time, it was trading at around $6.40 a share. Since then, the share price hit $10 after the company’s larger competitor, Service Corporation International (NYSE:SCI), made a truly tempting acquisition offer.