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Take a look at stock symbols NCR and PAY….

      During my recent research I came across these two names being (NCR) NCR corporation and (PAY) Veriphone systems.  Goldman Sachs just put a buy rating on Feb 16th on NCR emphasising potential growth in the self-kiosk checkouts which seems to be the wave of the future saving retail businesses money on labor.  NCR also handles ATMs for banks which is in a current upgrade cycle.  NCR is also sells point of sale terminals, maintenance, consulting, and software for retail business.  NCR’s fourth quarter results were better than expected in profit and revenue, and gave a rosier than expected future guidance.

(PAY) Veriphone Systems is merging with Hypercom which both handle secure electronic transactions for merchants, consumers, and financial institutions.  PAY has a big part of the US market but with the merger of Hypercom will be increasing its foreign markets. It will also be eliminating one of its competitors which is also beneficial.  PAY just had a great quarter, and also increased it guidance for the rest of the year.

Markets Rally on lower oil prices, and jobless claims data..

According to Reuters:

On Thursday March 3, 2011, 11:51 am

By Edward Krudy

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks rallied on Thursday as oil prices slipped and stronger-than-expected economic data raised expectations of a bullish U.S. employment report for February on Friday.

With oil prices pausing from their recent climb, equity investors refocused on the U.S. economy, which has shown steady improvement in reports this week.

Scott Marcouiller, chief technical market strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors in St. Louis, said the progressively better data “has got hopes up that we are going to see better looking non-farm payrolls numbers” in the Labor Department data.

The market’s rally was broad, with all ten of the S&P’s sectors in solidly positive territory. The CBOE volatility

index (Chicago Options:^VIX – News), a measure of expected turbulence, fell nearly 10 percent after spiking sharply higher last week.

The Dow Jones industrial average (DJI:^DJI – News) gained 162.34 points, or 1.35 percent, to 12,229.14. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (^SPX – News) rose 17.30 points, or 1.32 percent, to 1,325.74. The Nasdaq Composite Index (Nasdaq:^IXIC – News) added 43.71 points, or 1.59 percent, to 2,791.78.

Stocks have shown resilience in the face of economic headwinds. The broad S&P 500 is down only 1.3 percent after falling around 3 percent from since late February due to growing violence in oil-producer Libya.

“It is showing you that there is enough cash on the sidelines that has missed the boat and wants in,” said Marcouiller

The Arab League said a peace plan for Libya was under consideration. The plan put forth by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, if successful, could end a major headwind for equities.

Crude prices have spiked in recent weeks on concern the unrest in Libya could lead to supply disruptions, pushing oil prices higher and threatening the economic recovery.

April U.S. crude futures fell 0.8 percent to $101.39 per barrel while Brent crude fell 1.4 percent to $114.67.

Initial jobless claims fell last week to 368,000 — a 2-1/2 year low — one day after a robust report on private-sector hiring.

In other economic news, the Institute for Supply Management’s non-manufacturing index rose to 59.7 in February, slightly above forecasts and higher than the January result.

Several top U.S. retailers posted bigger-than-expected sales gains for February. The S&P retail index (Chicago Options:^RLX – News) rose 0.7 percent.

Retailers Saks Inc (NYSE:SKS – News) and Nordstrom Inc (NYSE:JWN – News) beat

forecasts, helped by Valentine’s Day sales. Saks shares rose 4.9 percent to $12.30, while Nordstrom gained 1.3 percent to $44.79.

Big Lots Inc (NYSE:BIG – News) shares rose 1.9 percent to $40.63 after it forecast strong 2011 profits.

H.J. Heinz Co (NYSE:HNZ – News) rose 0.3 percent to $49.14 after quarterly income topped expectations and news of a deal to buy an 80 percent stake in a Brazilian food maker.

Bank of America(BAC) Price Target raised to 19 by Analyst.

     Check out this link to video from The Street.com.

http://www.thestreet.com/video/10999355/why-bank-of-america-is-a-buy-analyst.html?puc=_booyah_html_pla1&cm_ven=EMAIL_booyah_html&s=1#781324059001

Two Chinese companies DANG-the Chinese version of Amazon, and BONA might be worth a look.

       

         

      During my stock research I have discovered a couple of Chinese Companies that recently had their intial public offerings and might be worth a look.  The first one is DANG which is company like Amazon in the USA.  The other is BONA , a Chinese film and production company.  Both should be able to take advantage of the rising middle class population in China who will be buying more, and spending more on entertainment.  Bona also owns movie theaters as well.  Because they both just had their intial public offerings there isn’t much history of earnings so we will have to wait and see how things go.  Sometimes though when the business is good idea and is simliar to a company that has been proven successful in America you can see the possible potential in the China market.  For this reason, it might be a good time to get in the stocks before they really take off.

LVS earnings beats, comes in light on Revenue…

    

 According to The Street:  

     During the quarter, the casino operator earned 42 cents a share on revenue of $2.02 billion. Analysts were calling for a profit of 39 cents a share on revenue of $2.07 billion.

Sands China saw revenue jump nearly 37% to $332.8 million, while income more than tripled to $213.3 million.

Its flagship Singapore property generated EBITDA of $305.8, while revenue hit $560.4 million, during the quarter.

In Las Vegas, Sands’ two properties delivered EBITDA of $80.6 million, an increase of 42% from the year prior.

Shares of Sands took a hit immediately after the report, falling more than 5% in after-hours activity.

     LVS has been going up pretty fast since early November and needed a breather.  Looks like they only beat by a few cents, and missed on revenue.  Investors were expecting better numbers.  Things though have definately changed as LVS has swung into a profit with a definate turnaround.  If Macau numbers remain strong and with the addition of the Chinese New Year in the next quarter, LVS share price should continue to go higher and its story will remain intact.  It will also help if Vegas shows continuing improvement. Some Analysts on CNBC have said that LVS will consolidate for now before another move higher.

Nice article on gaming in Macau. Visitors from Mainland China on the rise…

     Nice article from Macau daily times today:

Gaming revenue leaps 33 percent in January

02/02/2011 03:00:00

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Casino revenue jumped 33.2 percent in January from a year earlier to MOP 18.571 billion. Melco Crown, which owns the City of Dreams, jumped to third in terms of market share by gross gaming revenues

 

Casino revenue jumped 33.2 percent in January from a year earlier to MOP 18.571 billion, up from MOP 13.94 billion, according to the official data published yesterday by the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau.
The figure, below some analysts’ expectations, puts January in the top-three monthly record, slightly behind last year’s December and October figures of MOP 18.883 billion and MOP 18.869 billion, respectively.
Surging demand from the high-roller VIP segment – specially baccarat – and solid mass-market appetite has sustained the double-digit growth.
Analysts caution that growth may moderate this year from record levels seen in 2010, but remain bullish about the outlook for Macau, citing the low penetration of the Mainland market.
“It is within my expectations. 33 percent growth is quite decent indeed so that is why I am still confident with my full-year 29 percent growth outlook,” said Credit Suisse analyst Gabriel Chan in Hong Kong, quoted by Reuters.
Local casinos closed last year’s books with total revenues of MOP 188.3 billion, up by 57.8 percent from 2009.
Local gaming revenue could grow 30 percent this year, pulled along by an increase in visitors from mainland China. However, predictions vary among market analysts, with some forecasts as low as 17 percent, but the general market consensus pegs it at over 20 percent.
In a recent interview with Macau Daily Times, Ivan Ng, partner at consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers Hong Kong, predicted a revenue growth of around 27 percent for 2011.
This will be “another tremendous year for the industry in Macau,” he said. Nonetheless, he acknowledged, this year’s figure will be much lower than in 2010, a year where “the growth was achieved from a lower basis, due to the global financial crisis”.
According to the information compiled by MDTimes, Stanley Ho’s SJM Holdings is well ahead of the competition, with a market share around 31 percent, followed by Sands China with almost 18 percent, while Melco Crown Entertainment jumped to third with some 14.5 percent.
Wynn Macau held the fourth position in January with 13.8 percent, followed by Galaxy Entertainment, with around 11 percent. MGM Macau dropped to last again, with some 10.5 percent.
Yesterday, despite the announcement of the 33 percent leap, shares of Macau’s gaming operators had a tough day on the market.
Wynn Macau was down 3.7 percent at HKD 20.85, after rising as much as 28 percent in January and set a record high of HKD 22.30 on Friday. Ho’s company SJM Holdings, amid a family brawl over the control of his gambling empire, closed down 3.7 percent to HKD 12.58, while Sands China was down 1.5 percent to HKD 19.02.
Galaxy Entertainment had no change closing at HKD 11.98, while Melco Crown was down 2.4 percent to HKD 5.64.

High estimates

Melco will release their fourth quarter earnings today and analysts are expecting profits of USD 0.02 per share on revenue of USD 733 million (MOP 5.9 billion) for the last quarter of 2010.
If accurate, this figure would be a major improvement from the year-ago period, when the company reported a loss of USD 0.17 per share on revenue of USD 400 million (MOP 3.2 billion).
The market has even higher expectations for Las Vegas Sands, the parent company of Sands China, who releases its results tomorrow, anticipating fourth quarter earnings of USD 0.39 per share on revenue on USD 2.1 billion (MOP 16.6 billion).
Again, it would be a much better result than in the year-ago period, when the company reported earnings of USD 0.03 cents per share on revenue of USD 1.3 billion (MOP 10.3 billion).

Stock Markets rallys on Data and Earnings…

    

According to Yahoo news:

Stocks rose on Tuesday, with the Dow regaining 12,000, as solid manufacturing data in the United States and Europe helped investors turn their attention away from the turmoil in the Middle East to hopes that a global economic recovery was on track.

     Let’s enjoy the rally.  Bank of America is up 60 cents, and LVS is up over 2.00 as well as Macau enjoyed increase gaming in January up 33%.  As Jim Cramer says on Mad Money,  ” Get in the Game!!”.

Stock Upgrades/Downgrades for today….

   From Yahoo Finance:

Upgrades

Downgrades | New Coverages

Company Name  Symbol Analyst From To Ceragon CRNT DA Davidson Neutral Buy Cytec CYT Deutsche Bank Hold Buy GMX Resources GMXR Morgan Keegan Underperform Mkt Perform HEICO HEI RBC Capital Mkts Sector Perform Outperform Markel Corp MKL Wunderlich Hold Buy MB Financial MBFI Robert W. Baird Neutral Outperform

Stock Futures are up, U.S. Stock Market set to rebound…

     All U.S. stock indices are green as the markets are set to open.  The markets will still be keeping a close eye on Egypt to see how it resolves the current and difficult situation over there. For now, it looks as investors are returning to the market as confidence, and consumer spending in the U.S. economy grows.

Ford Motor Company Stock (F) down but far from out…

     

  Ford Motor Company(F) has been on a tear lately but its stock took a hit when they just reported less than expected earnings for the quarter.  The street was expecting an operating profit of .48 cents a share and it came in at only .30 cents a share. What happened? CEO Alan Mulally responded by saying that Ford’s volume of vehicles was lower in the 4th quarter due to the sales from cash for clunkers. That there was a 1 billion dollar charge for converting some company debt.  Also, that Ford was not profitable in Europe as expected because they didn’t cut their profit margins. Ford spent more on structural costs with introducing new vehicles, and invested more on engineering.  Rising commodity costs didn’t help either.

   Still this quarter may just be a glitch as things should improve at Ford because they will be saving more in interest costs on their debt.  Ford will be making money on more vehicles, and is expected to sell between 13 and 13.5 million vehicles this year. The full year profit Ford made in 2010 was the most since 1999.  With consumer confidence, and business spending on the rise U.S. auto sales in January may reach the second fastest pace in 17 months.  Alan Mulally believes that the increased investment will pay off in the future as we see the economy improve,  interest rates remaining low, and Ford will be in the position to offer consumers more and better vehicles. Some analysts are saying the pullpack in Ford’s stock is a buying opportunity.