Finance Blog

Tens of millions of Americans can get up to 9 months of free credit monitoring through a class-action settlement, but consumer advocates are underwhelmed.

Data show spending and incomes rose last month and inflation at the personal level was benign. Tech stocks get a lift from better-than-expected earnings at Dell and Marvell Technology.

Shares in Overstock.com plunged 7% today to $25.83 after Merrill Lynch cut its rating to "sell" from "hold." And thus ends the startling runup in shares of the online retailer. The stock has more than doubled since March.

Why is Merrill so grumpy? Overstock had a great first quarter, which is the main reason why shares went up, but analyst Justin Post said he can't justify the current valuation, according to Barron's. Anything above $18 is simply too much at this point.

Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne has said he's hoping for a $10 million profit this year on $1 billion in total sales. He could hit the sales goal no problem, but the profit? I'm not so sure. For Q1, the company reported a $4 million loss on $201 million in sales.

Federal regulators are allowing activist investor Carl Icahn to buy more Yahoo shares, but how much more will he expose himself, given the cold-then-hot-then-cold-again acquisition talks with Microsoft? Icahn wants to replace Yahoo's board with directors more friendly to a Microsoft buyout, and additional shares would certainly make him a bigger player in this drama.

But if a buyout is truly off the table, will Icahn buy more stock? He already owns somewhere around $1.6 billion in Yahoo shares and has said he may buy another $900 million worth. We'll see. Yahoo shares, meanwhile, are down slightly more than 1% today to $26.75.

Disclosures: I don't own shares of any companies mentioned in this post. And while Microsoft owns this blog, Microsoft does not control, censor or otherwise have any editorial influence over what I write. 

Broadcom shares have jumped more than 6% today to $28.85, and it's all because of Apple's iPhone. Broadcom, a chipmaker, is rumored to be the company supplying the global positioning system in the new 3G iPhone expected out next month.

If that's the case, expect a bright future for Broadcom, a company which hasn't had the best year. Regulators recently accused the company's co-founders of falsifying income, and have charged two other executives in the case. Some of them may face criminal charges. Broadcom reported $3.78 billion in sales last year and a $213.3 million profit.

I'm a little confused about the GPS rumor. Broadcom began shopping its 3G phone chip around last year, and while the chip had a bunch of bells and whistles, it was lacking GPS capability. So while the chip may be perfect for the iPhone, the GPS technology would have had to come from another chip, according to Ars Technica.

Neither Apple nor Broadcom are commenting on an official tie-up. But Friedman analyst Craig Berger says the Apple ripple effect will be good for chip companies going forward. He's expecting the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index to retreat a little before jumping from 420 to 475 later this year.

That could be good for Broadcom and other stocks, he said, such as Marvell and On Semiconductor.

 

It's simple supply and demand: Though there are plenty of customers demanding oil, new buyers lusting after oil stocks may soon be in short supply.

Even when times are tough, there's a bull market in some parts of the market. Here's how to find momentum stocks with the right mojo -- and some go-go possibilities.

As prices at the pump hover around $4 a gallon, some Americans are rethinking summer vacation plans. And companies are responding with deals such as credits for gas and free rides for kids.

A revised report on GDP eases concerns about a US economic slowdown. Oil prices fall, helping lift airlines and other stocks. Financials get a boost from a  MasterCard report on credit-card use.