Stocks close mixed...

Stocks closed a wild week with a quiet ending, as the Dow eked out a gain to cap its fifth straight winning week. The day started on a down note, as soaring Italian bond yields reminded that the eurozone debt crisis is hardly over. The euro gave back a bit of yesterday’s gains, and Treasurys recouped some of their big drop. NYSE losers outnumbered gainers seven to six.

Oils, medical, and gaming stocks led the way.

Dow +22 to 12231
Nas -1 to 2737
S&P unch at 1285

Have a great chilly weekend!!!  I'll try to post some charts if I get the chance.

This is too funny...

An ironic footnote to the SEC's punishment of FINRA over document-altering: The current head of the SEC - Mary Schapiro - led FINRA at the time of the alleged transgressions. A SEC spokesperson says Schapiro wasn't involved in the enforcement action.

Time to buy Express Scripts....

Here is discussion on video from the Street.com:

http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/video/11291743/with-or-without-medco-express-scripts-looks-good.html?cm_ven=YAHOOV&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA&s=1#1245644289001

Green Mountain to build plant in Virginia...

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (GMCR), a leader in specialty coffee and coffeemakers, today announced it has chosen Isle of Wight County, Virginia as the future home of a new manufacturing and distribution facility. The Company has agreed to purchase a 330,000 square foot building on a 64 acre parcel of land in Isle of Wight County, Virginia for $15 million, with plans to invest up to $180 million over the initial five years of the facility’s operations. Pending completion of its due diligence and finalization of incentive award agreements with the Commonwealth of Virginia and Isle of Wight County, GMCR expects to consummate the purchase in December 2011.

The Isle of Wight production facility will house coffee roasting, grinding, flavoring and packaging for GMCR’s Specialty Coffee business unit. Within five years, it’s estimated the new facility will have as many as 800 employees. GMCR has actively started to recruit for the new facility with commencement of site fit-up work planned for December 2011, pending final site due diligence.

Meanwhile Green Mountain's chart has been looking like a Red Mountain of late:

Stamps.com breaks higher...

Stamps.com (STMP) skyrockets $6.18 to a new high of $32.11 after reporting Q3 revenue of $25.9M (+20% Y/Y) and EPS of $0.37, beating consensus by $1.4M and $0.08. The company is lifting its 2011 revenue guidance range by $2.5M, to $92.5M-$102.5M, and its EPS range by $0.10, to $1.20-$1.40.

Stamps.com is up 139% YTD, partly thanks to the USPS' rate hikes and cost cuts.

Nu Skin continues its run...

Nu Skin Enterprises (NUS) is edging up to a new high and is on pace for its seventh straight daily gain. All six prior gains have come in above-average volume, which points to professional buying. Nu Skin Enterprises cleared a flat base in July and has since tested its 10-week line a couple of times.

NUS is up 0.64 to 50.22

Biogen breaks out to new highs...

Biotech firm Biogen Idec beat third-quarter expectations on both the top and bottom lines Friday, but it declined to raise its already conservative guidance. 

Biogen (BIIB) reported revenue of $1.31 billion, up 11% from the year-ago quarter. Earnings per share rose 19% to $1.61. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, on average, had expected sales of $1.26 billion and profit of $1.51 a share.

Higher-than-expected sales of Biogen's two leading drugs, Avonex and Tysabri, drove the results. Both of them treat multiple sclerosis, and together they account for more than half of the company's revenue.

Biogen's full-year guidance was the same as last quarter, except it refined its sales-growth estimate from "low to midsingle digits" to simply "midsingle digits." Profit guidance, however, appears to be very conservative compared with what analysts expect; EPS is forecast "above $5.70" while analysts' consensus is $5.88.

Shares are up 2% in mid-day trading, enough for another all-time high after the stock was hoisted aloft three days ago by good trial results on Biogen's next MS drug, BG-12. That product, which unlike the previous drugs is taken orally, has had analysts seeing blockbuster potential.

"Overall a solid quarter that could push the stock modestly up today — however, clearly investor focus here is not on 2011 financial results," analyst Mark Schoenebaum of ISI Group wrote in an email before the open.

On a conference call with analysts, CEO George Scangos said Biogen plans to file for official FDA approval of BG-12 in the first half of next year.

Las Vegas Sands sees clear sailing...

Las Vegas Sands (LVS) CEO Sandy Alderson says on an earnings conference call it's all systems go for forward revenue momentum in U.S., Singapore, and Macau markets. "We see absolutely no reason, again, no catalyst at hand, which would change the upward trend we have been experiencing." Shares are up 8.5% after the company released its Q3 report.

Not necessarily the guy you want to listen to.  He has been wrong countless times before. 

Have housing prices bottomed???

Results from some home builders seem to indicate that the industry may be hitting a bottom. Pulte (PHM) and Ryland (RYL) reported narrower quarterly losses from a year earlier, while Meritage (MTH) swung to a quarterly loss from the prior year's profit. Plus new home sales jumped 5.7% last month. "Better days are ahead," Ryland CEO Larry Nicholson believes.

Deckers hits new highs...

Deckers (DECK +9%) makes a new 52-week high after posting a strong Q3 report. The company, which is seeing booming sales of its UGG boots and aggressively expanding into Europe, expects Q4 revenue to grow 29% Y/Y, above prior guidance of 22%.

Deckers owns the UGGS brand as well as a few other popular European brands.

Today's Upgrades and Downgrades...

These are some of this Friday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street research calls this morning.

Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE: AMD) Raised to Outperform at Wells Fargo.

ExxonMobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM) reiterated Buy with $100 target at Argus.

First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) Maintained Buy but cut target to $90 at Argus.

Gardner Denver, Inc. (NYSE: GDI) named Value Stock of the Day at Zacks.

j2 Global Communications (NASDAQ: JCOM) Raised to Outperform as Bull of the Day at Zacks.

McDermott International Inc. (NYSE: MDR) Cut to Market Perform at William Blair.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY) Raised to Outperform and $135 target at Credit Suisse.

Pan American Silver Corp. (NASDAQ: PAAS) Cut to Sector Perform at CIBC.

Plexus Corporation (NASDAQ: PLXS) named Bear of the Day at Zacks.

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (NYSE: POT) Cut to Sector Perform at Scotia (late-Thursday).

Spectrum Brands Inc. (NYSE: SPB) Started as Outperform with $35 target at Credit Suisse.

Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE: S) Raised to Outperform at Macquarie.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (NYSE: TSM) Raised to Buy at BNP Paribas.

Virgin Media, Inc. (NASDAQ: VMED) Cut to Equal-weight at Morgan Stanley.

Whole Foods Market, Inc. (NASDAQ: WFM) Raised to Neutral at Credit Suisse

At 11:35 am....

Stocks are working their way higher, which is quite a feat after yesterday's 300 point runup, and then seeing futures this morning pointing to a 100 plus point drop.

A very positive tape.  Let's see if it holds.

Dow +22
Nas +2
S&P +1

Leaders:

Baidu +6.25
Amazon +7.05
Walter Energy +3.77
Green Mountain Coffee +4.41
Las Vegas Sands +3.02
Mastercard +5.46
Salesforce.com +5.42
Travelzoo +2.20
Cliffs Natural Resources +3.46
Amerigroup +4.24
Vistaprint +3.38
Deckers +9.51
Intuitive Surgical +6.98

Coinstar to raise prices at Redbox machines...

Shares of Coinstar (CSTR) turn lower stung in part by an announcement in the company's Q3 report that it's raising prices on standard def DVD rentals to $1.20 from $1.00. Also weighing on shares is late word that a 60-day delay on DVD rentals is being bandied around by Hollywood movie studios, aimed at helping boost their DVD sales and online purchases.

Hmm...this sounds familiar.

CSTR is currently down 4.88 to 48.16

Consumer Sentiment improves...

October Consumer Sentiment: 60.9 vs. 58 expected, 57.5 preliminary and 59.4 in September. Expectations 51.8 vs. 47 preliminary and 49.4 in September. Current conditions 75.1 vs. 73.8 preliminary and 59.4 in September.

Samsung takes smartphone lead...

Samsung (SSNLF.PK) grabbed 23.8% of the market for smartphones in Q3, breezing past Apple (AAPL) (14.6%) for the No. 1 spot, Strategy Analytics says. Nokia (NOK) is in third place with 14.4%, but remains the overall leading provider of handsets with a 27.3% share. Samsung is No. 2 with 22.6%.

Market mixed after a lower open...

Stocks are holding up quite well in here considering futures were pointing to a much lower open.

Dow -37
Nas -12
S&P -6 to 1278

Here's something interesting for you:

The Silver ETF (SLV) is up 3.5% right now, and

The double short Silver ETF (ZSL) is up 1% as well.

REALLY???  How is that possible???  WOW, are these ETF's broken.

The seesaw continues at Las Vegas Sands...

Las Vegas Sands Corp. (LVS). The company posted better-than-expected revenue in Asia and rode a rebound in U.S. growth on Thursday, calming fears that economic weakness would discourage leisure travel and gaming. Sands reported an adjusted net income of $444.8 million, or 55 cents a share, in the third quarter, compared with $265.2 million, or 34 cents a share, a year earlier.


LVS is up 1.50 to 47.10 premarket.  This stock has been in a trading range between 38 and 50 for about a year...check the chart out below:

Baidu soars after earnings...

Baidu Inc. (BIDU). The Chinese search engine forecast strong sales that topped Wall Street estimates, after reporting robust quarterly earnings, shrugging off concerns that a weak economy could hit advertisers. It expects fourth-quarter revenue of $691.4 million to $711.0 million. For the third quarter, Baidu reported net income of $295 million, or 84 cents a share.


Baidu is trading up 10 to 147 in premarket trading.

Electronic Arts beats estimates...

Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS). The video game maker’s second-quarter results beat Wall Street estimates and the company raised its earnings forecast because of the upcoming holiday title "Star Wars: The Old Republic," which it expects to be a hit. The company's adjusted earnings per share was 5 cents per share. The company raised its full year outlook to a range of 75 cents to 90 cents per share.


The guidance going forward is a little shy of expectations and the stock is down slightly in premarket trading.

Good morning...

Wall Street's wild ride may calm down a bit today, following the huge Thursday rally prompted by the latest proposed solutions to the European debt crisis.

The Dow remains on track for its best monthly percentage gain since January 1987 and its best-ever monthly point gain, while the S&P 500 is on course for its best monthly percentage gain since October 1974.

But it's also important to note that October's huge gains haven't quite yet made up the third quarter's losses.

The week will end with a handful of economic reports: the government is out with personal income and spending figures for September at 8:30am ET.

Economists predict a 0.3% increase for income and a 0.6% jump in consumer spending. In August, income had been up 0.3% while spending fell 0.1%.

At 9:55am ET, the University of Michigan's October consumer sentiment index is seen rising to 58.5 from September's final reading of 57.5.