• Boeing's (NYSE:BA) new head of its commercial aircraft division, Jim Albaugh, said the long-awaited Dreamliner test will happen by yearend

• Citigroup (NYSE:C) plans to sell Bellsystem 24, a Japanese telemarketing company, to Bain Capital for $1 billion, bringing to $10.8 billion the dollar amount Citi has raised from sales of Japanese assets

• Hedge fund Paulson & Co. reported in a September 30 filing Citigroup (NYSE:C) holdings of 300 million shares, valued at $1.45 billion

• Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) raised its bid for Tandberg ASA to $3.4 billion, or about an 11% increase, and extended its offer to December 1

• According to a Bloomberg report, Mitsubishi UFJ has hired JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) to manage an $11 billion secondary offering, Japan's largest ever. The company plans to sell about 2.5 billion common shares

• Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) said it plans to spin off its 83% stake in Mead Johnson Nutrition

...

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Tuesday October 20, 2009

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NEW YORK, Oct. 20 /CRWENEWSWIRE/ — Deloitte today released the 2009 Technology Fast 500(TM), an annual ranking of the fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and clean technology companies in North America based on five-year fiscal revenue growth. ReachLocal, a global provider of localized internet advertising solutions, achieved the coveted top spot on the list with 2008 fiscal year revenue of $146.69 million and a five-year fiscal growth rate of 146,050 percent. The company is privately held and based in Woodland Hills, California.

“Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500(TM) identifies some

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Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has lowered its ratings on Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV), lowering the debt ratings to 'BBB' from 'BBB+’ and placing it with negative implications. However, Southwest has retained its investment grade rating. The downgrade reflects lower operating cash flow caused by record high fuel prices, low global demand for air travel and weak prices. The travel downturn has eroded the airline's flow of cash at a time when the airline faces substantial fixed obligations and declining cash balances. Southwest's cash balance fell to $902 million in the third quarter from $1.4 billion at the end of 2008. Recently, Southwest borrowed $124 million under a new term loan agreement secured by five Boeing 737-700 aircrafts. It also replaced its previous $600 million unsecured revolving credit facility with a new $600 million unsecured revolving credit facility that will expire in Oct. 2012. The rating ...

Southwest Airlines (LUV) reported an operating income of 3 cents per share, ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 2 cents per share. This was lower than the profit of 9 cents per share in the prior-year quarter. Passenger revenues decreased 7.8% to $2.6 billion from $2.8 billion in the prior-year period. Cargo & Freight revenue decreased 24.3% y-o-y to $28.0 million, primarily due to fewer shipments as a result of the ongoing worldwide recession. Other revenue increased 1.1% y-o-y to $88.0 million. Fall-off in business travel because of the recession negatively affected the revenues. Total operating expenses decreased 5.7% year-over-year, mainly due to lower energy prices. The quarter’s operating expenses included $27 million of early out program launched during the previous quarter. Southwest’s revenue passenger miles (RPMs) increased 4.7% y-o-y to 19.7 billion miles from 18.8 billion miles in the prior-year quarter. Capacity (available ...

In the third quarter, Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) is expected to post narrow losses. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Southwest is a loss of 4 cents per share. Southwest may see a drain in its profits from non-cash charges in its fuel hedging program. As of June 30, 2009, the company had fuel derivative instruments in place for approximately 30% of its expected third quarter 2009 jet fuel consumption. Though revenue remains a problem for the airline, it is trying to entice the passengers with cheaper prices. More traffic and less capacity or available seats led to a rise in average occupancy for Southwest in September. Load factor jumped to 74.7%, a gain of more than 11% from Sept. 2008. These full loads were built with cheap fares and other promotions which the airline has been offering of late. There have been signs that demand ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 9, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Southwest Airlines (LUV), Frontier Airlines Holdings (FRNT), Republic Airways Holdings (RJET), Continental Airlines (CAL) and United Airlines (UAUA).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:

Southwest September Traffic Spikes

Southwest Airlines (LUV) announced its preliminary mainline traffic results for September. The company reported an 8.8% surge in traffic to 5.8 billion revenue passenger miles from 5.3 billion revenue passenger miles a year ago.

Load factor, or the percentage of available

...

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Thursday October 8, 2009

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Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) and ITA Software, Inc., the leader in developing innovative solutions for the travel industry, today announced advanced capabilities that support Southwest’s website enhancements and allows the airline to further extend the capabilities of southwest.com moving forward. Southwest selected ITA’s QPX(TM) system to support its recent website updates, making it even easier for customers to take advantage of the airline’s industry-leading low fares.

Midcontinent Express Pipeline (MEP) has received authorization from the Pipelines Hazardous

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Southwest Airlines (LUV) yesterday announced discounted fares for winter travel. The discounts were offered in order to increase travel to make up for the lost revenue due to the recession.   Southwest has been hit hard by slowing demand due to the recession and volatile fuel prices. As a part of its cost-cutting initiatives, the company has cut its capacity along with downsizing employees.   The air carrier is scrambling to fill its seats this winter by offering big fare discounts. The discounted fares will be offered on travel any day except Fridays and Sundays from Oct. 13 through Feb. 11. The company also said that travel to some destinations would start at $59 each way however seats for such offer are limited.   However, the sale prices are higher than they were for other recent Southwest promotions and up to 50% higher than during a big ...

It’s official: You can reduce your investment risk simply by chucking darts at a list of stocks, then buying them.

That’s if you believe a Nobel economist, of course. His crude “experiment” was the start of “modern portfolio theory” decades ago. The downside, however, was that with a reduction of risk came a dampening of profits. So scratch that idea.

How about this? A startling study in the late 1970s showed that owning a portfolio of large U.S. companies with international divisions drops your risk 10% below a domestic stock portfolio. Much better. But that wasn’t the eye-popper…

The study also found that owning stocks in international companies cuts your risk in half…

Take that, “efficiency” theorists! Yet the stuffy professors still tried to refute these results. It was a losing battle, though, as more studies emerged, laden with more evidence that international stocks reduce risk.

But the

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Southwest Airlines (LUV) said on Friday that its August traffic grew 1.5% to 6.7 billion revenue passenger miles (RPM). Load factor increased to 80.2% from 74.6% last year. However, capacity fell 6.1% from the prior-year period to 8.3 billion available seat miles.

In August, Southwest Airlines reported second-quarter profit of $54 million on sales of $2.6 billion. Both revenue and net income declined from the prior year as the carrier was hurt by low demand for business travels. Unless demand rebounds, management sees third-quarter sales shrinking further from second-quarter levels.

Southwest’s successful business model involves flying multiple short, quick trips into secondary airports of major markets and using only one type of aircraft, the Boeing 737.

In addition to other cost-containment measures undertaken by the company, it has frozen hiring as well as pay for officers and senior management. Recently, Southwest also launched an early-out program in which

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