Business

NOTE TO EDITORS: The Following Is an Investment Opinion Being Issued by Stock Market Alerts LLC.

Microsoft rolled out the beta of Office 2010 and other productivity software, and made some key announcements about its Windows Azure cloud platform, during the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles this week. Even as Microsoft moves to embrace the cloud, the release of Google Chrome OS to open source...

Microsoft's Bing search engine has seen a decent growth trajectory since it launched in June, growing from 8.4 percent to 9.9 percent through October. Could November be the month when Bing cracks the double digit mark? It could and probably will at least according to comScore, but not if people...

Microsoft issued an official response to news of Google releasing its Chrome Operating System to open source for developers. Although the Chrome OS will not be available to end-users for at least another year, Microsoft is already citing Windows 7 as a more viable alternative for working on both the...

FACEBOOK can be a double-edged sword, a Canadian woman learned when an insurance company cut her health benefits, claiming she was healthy after seeing pictures of her smiling in bikini at the beach. Nathalie Blanchard, 29, took long-term sick leave from her job at IBM in Bromont, Quebec, more than...

Not a David Letterman list, but still quite compelling.

BloggingStocks: Intel Corp. (INTC) raised its dividend. Again. The 14th time since 1992 when it began paying quarterly sums to investors. The annual payout is now 63 cents or 15.75 cents every three months. That's 12.5% higher than the previous dividend. The stock ... Read more

BloggingStocks: Twitter calls Google (GOOG) a "good role model," but says it isn't ready to rush down the road to advertising. Nonetheless, an ad-based revenue model is something that cofounder Biz Stone says they "will be looking to do down the line." But, for ... Read more

Barnes & Noble (BKS) reported today that their new eReader product has sold out of the entire supply for delivery before the holidays.  This may be a positive sign for Barnes & Noble in the long run as demand appears to be quite strong, but it is clear that production limitations are restricting sales this holiday season.  Yesterday, Sony (SNE) pushed back the shipping date for their Daily Edition Reader to between December 18th and January 8th.  This puts Sony’s August promise to have the Reader available for[More...]

BloggingStocks: Yahoo! (YHOO) is the latest company that wants to optimize its search results for Twitter. This follows moves by Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOG) to integrate Twitter data into their search results. Unlike its competitors, however, Yahoo! wants to ... Read more

Two Veteran Wall Street Analysts discuss: (Vern): EXPW, INTU, MANT; (Val): CPWR, FICO, MSFT

We are carefully entering portfolio positions in this environment. (Note: Portfolio positions vs. trading positions) A company that we like for its specialty product is Cubist Pharmaceuticals (CBST). It has made all of our screens recently, but we were reluctant to add it to portfolios as the very recent trends have been down, down, down.  [...] Related posts:

1. Apple (AAPL) Earnings – Quick Notes
2. Allegiant (ALGT) – October YoY Comps Are Strong
3. Video: NYT Walt Mossberg Raves about Microsoft (MSFT) Windows 7

Schaeffer's analyst Morgan Searcy takes a look at news on the Street before the market open.

Schaeffer's analyst Morgan Searcy takes a look at news on the Street before the market open.

Tom Dorsey and Sue Morrison - Alternatives in the Red Zone