• TJX (NYSE:TJX) posted a larger-than-anticipated profit as demand for discounted consumer products continued. The firm said it sees fourth-quarter earnings of 65 cents to 71 cents a share from continuing operations

• Saks (NYSE:SKS) reported a surprise quarterly profit

• Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares rose 3.0%, and led the gainers on the DJIA, after Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) and UBS (NYSE:UBS) recommended the shares.  Morgan Stanley's analyst raised the price target on the stock due to encouraging demand for Windows 7 and upbeat expectations for holiday season demand.  UBS' analyst placed a $34 price target on the shares

• Barclays Capital (NYSE:BCS) raised ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) to "overweight"

• Autodesk (NASDAQ:ADSK) offered a slightly downside fourth-quarter guidance of 24 cents a share ex-items

• Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM) said it sees fourth-quarter earnings of 14 cents to 15 cents a share, versus Street estimates of 15 cents a share

• BMO Capital downgraded Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) to "market perform"

...

• Home Depot (NYSE:HD) topped estimates by a nickel as earnings for the third quarter reached 41 cents, on inline revenues of $16.36 billion, down 8%. Comparable sales fell 6.9%. The company issued 2010 guidance of $1.55, slightly ahead of $1.53 projections. According to the firm, "There is still a great deal of pressure in the housing and home improvement markets, though there are some positive signs of stabilization."

• ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) shares were upgraded to "overweight" at Barclays Capital (NYSE:BCS)

• A regulatory filing showed Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A) nearly doubled its Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) holdings; added almost 112 million Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) shares; the filing showed a 1.28 million holding of ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) shares; and 3.2 million shares of SunTrust Banks (NYSE:STI)

• UBS (NYSE:UBS) CEO Grubel outlined an ambitious goal of annual pre-tax profits of $14.89 billion over the next 3-5 years

• Dillard's (NYSE:DDS) reported a smaller than expected third quarter loss,

...

With no economic reports on Wednesday and bond markets closed for the Veteran’s Day, Wall Street was witness to a quiet trading session, but stocks managed to inch higher on expectations interest rates would remain at a record low for some time.  Also, strong Chinese manufacturing and retail sales data lifted investor sentiments.  Gold prices touched an all-time high.  

The Dow Jones industrial average, which hit an intraday high of 10,341, advanced 44 points, or 0.4%, to close at 10,291.26. The S&P 500 added 6 points, or 0.5%, to close at 1,098.51, and the tech-laden Nasdaq composite rose 16 points, or 0.7%, to end the day at 2,166.90.  On the New York Stock Exchange, 19 stocks were higher in price for every 11 that declined

Nine of the ten S&P500 industry groups ended in the green, with financials (+1.3%), basic materials (+1.0%) and technology (+0.7%) leading the gainers.  Utilities

...

The video clips below provide a handy summary of the reports expected on the economic, financial and corporate front around the globe during the week ahead.

US: Employment, autos, rates

Jobless numbers, auto-sales figures and an FOMC meeting are due in the first week of November. Then there’s the progress of the health-care overhaul in Washington and more.

Europe: BOE meeting, UBS results

The Bank of England may take steps to buy up to 50 billion pounds more of assets on Thursday to help the UK escape recession. Earnings are due from UBS, BNP Paribas, Societe Generale, Total, Adidas and Deutsche Telekom among many others.

Asia: Carmakers in focus

Toyota, the world’s largest carmaker by sales, and

...

Exchange-traded notes are like the forgotten stepchildren of the ETF industry: unloved and overlooked. Investors (particularly taxable investors) are missing out.

According to the National Stock Exchange, U.S. ETNs had $6.9 billion in assets at the end of September. ETFs were literally 100 times more prevalent, with $697 billion in assets. That included $62 billion just in long commodity ETFs.

That’s just crazy. And it highlights investors’ irrational fear of the ETN product structure.

I remember when ETNs first came to market in 2006: Investors couldn’t get enough of them. Barclays Capital launched the iPath Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index ETN (NYSEArca: DJP) and it quickly gathered assets.

The reason was simple: ETNs offered two huge advantages over commodity ETFs.

First, they promised perfect tracking. If you bought an ETN, you would receive the full return of the benchmark, minus the fund’s expenses. Period. That’s handy, since commodity ETFs have been more prone to tracking error

...

One of the biggest drivers of global infrastructure is the rapid rate of urbanization experienced in the developing world. The reason is simple ndash; roughly 70 million people per year in developing countries are moving to cities, so there will need to be more roads, water systems, housing and electrical generation. Nowhere is this trend more apparent than in China, which already has 100 cities with more than 1 million people. It is expected to eventually have 30 cities with more than 10 million people. As you can see in the chart from UBS, Asia will be the main source of this urban growth. The United Nations says that over 1 billion Asian people will move to urban areas by 2030. Another 500 million people are expected to migrate to urban areas in Africa. While this trend has picked up in pace in recent years, the growth of urban centers in the developing world ...

What to make of Russia's announcement that it will sell stakes in some of its publicly-owned companies next year?  The government has already drawn up a list of 5,500 companies that will be divested, and Bloomberg's report suggests that the move could spur growth in companies whose remit had previously been restricted by state ownership.  Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin have previously suggested that the relaxing of state controls would help the economy return to growth, although plenty of critics are questioning the government's intentions, as the more glaringly obvious point is that the privatization is an unavoidable bid to bolster flagging public funds.  The Moscow Times is running an interview with Steven Meehan, CEO of UBS in Russia, who is expressing some good old-fashioned skepticism about the news.  Meehan says that, whilst the announcement ...

With the price of bullion at all-time highs, therersquo;s a raging debate on gold as an investment ndash; is it overbought or can it go still higher? Whatrsquo;s the inflation risk to the dollar? Should we be more worried about deflation? Every Friday we try to address the factors affecting gold in our award-winning Investor Alert, which recaps the week just ended and also looks forward to provide insights on what might lie ahead. Along with gold, the Investor Alert covers energy and natural resources, global emerging markets, domestic equities and the bond market. We encourage everyone with an interest in our key sectors to join the 23,000-plus individual investors who now subscribe to the Investor Alert and the 10,000 investment professionals who receive its sister publication, the Advisor Alert. Signup is free and easy ndash; just follow the appropriate link. To give you an idea of the Investor/Advisor Alertrsquo;s value, here are ...

With the price of bullion at all-time highs, therersquo;s a raging debate on gold as an investment ndash; is it overbought or can it go still higher? Whatrsquo;s the inflation risk to the dollar? Should we be more worried about deflation? Every Friday we try to address the factors affecting gold in our award-winning Investor Alert, which recaps the week just ended and also looks forward to provide insights on what might lie ahead. Along with gold, the Investor Alert covers energy and natural resources, global emerging markets, domestic equities and the bond market. We encourage everyone with an interest in our key sectors to join the 23,000-plus individual investors who now subscribe to the Investor Alert and the 10,000 investment professionals who receive its sister publication, the Advisor Alert. Signup is free and easy ndash; just follow the appropriate link. To give you an idea of the Investor/Advisor Alertrsquo;s value, here are ...

• Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) beat estimates with third quarter earnings of $1.20 a share, seven cents better than expected on revenues of $15.08 billion, below estimates of $15.22 billion. The company said it now sees 2009 earnings of $4.54 to $4.59 a share, compared with its previous guidance of $4.45 to $4.55 a share

• UBS (NYSE:UBS) initiated coverage of VF Corp (NYSE:VFC) with a "buy" rating

• Pier 1 Imports (NYSE:PIR) reported a 9.9% gain in September same-store-sales, versus last year's 11.7% decline. The company expects inventory levels will peak at the end of the quarter at about $350 million

• According to the WSJ, Macau may draft rules within the next two months to impose age and table limits on casinos there

• AIG International (NYSE:AIG) agreed to sell its Taiwan life insurance unit to a Hong Kong investment group for $2.15 billion

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