[October 30, 2008] FirstAlert: 1-8 P.M. Investrend / Bestcalls Tweet (InvesTrend Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) October 30, 2008 (Financial Wire) Conference calls scheduled at 1 to 8 p.m. on Investrend Broadcast via partner BestCalls include Murphy Oil Corporation (NYSE: MUR), SCANA Corporation (NYSE: SCG), BioMed Realty Trust Inc. (NYSE: BMR), Apache Corporation (NYSE: APA), Cabot Corporation (NYSE: CBT), Colonial Properties Trust (NYSE: CLP), Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE: MRO), Duke Realty Corporation (NYSE: DRE), Town Sports International Hold (NASDAQ: CLUB), Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ: CERS), Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA), Idenix Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: IDIX), GSI Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: GSIT), McAfee Inc. (NYSE: MFE), PhotoMedex Inc. (NASDAQ: PHMD), Strategic Diagnostics Inc. (NASDAQ: SDIX), LoopNet Inc. (NASDAQ: LOOP), 3PAR Inc. (NYSE: PAR),8x8 Inc. (NASDAQ: EGHT), Tessera Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: TSRA), Rainmaker Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: RMKR), Chiquita Brands International (NYSE: CQB), Akamai Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), Realty Income Corp (NYSE: O), Advanced Analogic Technologies (NASDAQ: AATI), I-Many Inc. (NASDAQ: IMNY), Wynn Resorts Limited (NASDAQ: WYNN), TechTeam Global Inc. (NASDAQ: TEAM), Radiant Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: RADS), Sequenom Inc. (NASDAQ: SQNM), DivX Inc. (NASDAQ: DIVX), MRV Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: MRVC), Gen-Probe Incorporated (NASDAQ: GPRO), Cabela's Incorporated (NYSE: CAB), TranS1 Inc. (NASDAQ: TSON), MoSys Inc. (NASDAQ: MOSY), Anadys Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: ANDS), BMC Software Inc. (NYSE: BMC), ON Semiconductor Corp. (NASDAQ: ONNN), IntriCon Corporation (NASDAQ: IIN), TeleCommunication Systems Inc (NASDAQ: TSYS), Sourcefire Inc. (NASDAQ: FIRE), BigBand Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: BBND), Vignette Corporation (NASDAQ: VIGN), Ramtron International (NASDAQ: RMTR), Conexant Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CNXT), Infonet Services Corporation (NYSE: IN), Quest Software Inc. (NASDAQ: QSFT), Anaren Inc. (NASDAQ: ANEN), Dollar Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: DLLR), AuthenTec Inc. (NASDAQ: AUTH), Powerwave Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: PWAV), Stanley Inc. (NYSE: SXE), Digi International Inc. (NASDAQ: DGII), Monster Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ: MNST), OPNET Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: OPNT), AMN Healthcare Services Inc. (NYSE: AHS), CommScope Inc. (NYSE: CTV), Portland General Electric Comp (NYSE: POR), Coinstar Inc. (NASDAQ: CSTR), Navigant Consulting Inc. (NYSE: NCI), eResearch Technology Inc (NASDAQ: ERES), eHealth Inc. (NASDAQ: EHTH), Cardionet Inc (NASDAQ: BEAT), Applied Micro Circuits Corpora (NASDAQ: AMCC), Kopin Corporation (NASDAQ: KOPN), Isilon Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ISLN), Intellon Corporation (NASDAQ: ITLN), DepoMed Inc. (NASDAQ: DEPO), Dynamic Materials Corporation (NASDAQ: BOOM), KLA-Tencor Corporation (NASDAQ: KLAC), Varian Semiconductor (NASDAQ: VSEA), Nanometrics Incorporated (NASDAQ: NANO), Zygo Corporation (NASDAQ: ZIGO), AsiaInfo Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: ASIA), VisionChina Media Inc (NASDAQ: VISN). Conference calls are often impacted by market trends, geopolitical conditions, news coming from conferences and economic releases. Confidence Wanes (By Philip Holmes) An expected rate cut by the Fed failed to buoy investor confidence enough to extend a rally that sent the Dow up by over 889 points on Tuesday. There's just too much medicine in that sugar. Investors were in a bubbly mood for much of the afternoon; the Dow gave up an earlier 150-point gain only to plunge 316 points the last half hour of trading. While the Fed's Open Market Committee cheered investors by approving a 50-basis-point cut in the discount rate, to 1.25%, statements by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, warning that U.S. economic activity "appears to have slowed markedly," took the wind out of sails. Ben's right. An October 28 release by The Conference Board showed that the consumer confidence index has plunged into record territory, from 61.4 in September to 38 in October. Credit is getting harder to obtain, and that is keeping consumers out of stores. As the New York Times reports, credit card issuers are culling problem accounts and limiting the credit lines of even good customers. Mortgage equity withdrawal, which became a multi-trillion dollar industry fuelling consumer spending in the middle part of the decade, is running at a tiny fraction of its previous highs. Uncle Sugar is planning to unveil a loan modification plan to help beleaguered mortgage holders. BusinessWeek reports that the government plans on “guaranteeing around 3 million mortgages to troubled homeowners…using around $50 billion from the recently passed bailout of the financial industry bailout to guarantee about $500 billion in mortgages.? We should hear the details on Thursday, according to sources tapped by BW. Will this help to boost consumer spending? No, and neither would the government acquiescing to GM's demands for $10 billion to $15 billion of bailout money to help ease its marriage to Chrysler. A $50 billion mortgage bailout and a federally funded GM/Chrysler merger would only give hope that targeted government action might stave off the worst kind of catastrophe. Having America's #1 industrial firm go into bankruptcy would spell the end of tens of thousands of jobs and likely put even larger numbers of pensioners on the public dole. Never mind what that headline would do to public confidence in any economic revival plan. If shrewd, targeted intervention could save at least some of the four million mortgages currently at risk of default, it would go a long way toward providing hope for an end to the housing crisis. But nothing is going to save consumers and the economy that relies on them from a general loss of confidence this holiday season and into the new year. Not when so much of that confidence has, in recent years, relied on ever-expanding consumer credit. The Investrend Earnings Calendar features Akamai Tech. (NASDAQ: AKAM), expected at $0.39; Apache Corp. (NYSE: APA), expected at $3.89; Ball Corp. (NYSE: BLL), expected at $1.08; CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS), expected at $0.40. The Investrend Economics Calendar lists Gross Domestic Product for Q3 (8:30 a.m.), Weekly Initial Jobless Claims (8:30 a.m.), Treasury auctions 5-year Notes (1 p.m.), Weekly Money Supply (4:30 p.m.). The Investrend Events Calendar showcases ALNY, ATHX, PIP, RGN, CYTR at 7th Annual BIO Investor Forum; NFG, SE at Platts Appalachian Gas Conf. The Investrend Money Index is an indicator of the depth of market direction or indirection. While not always including the same stocks, the NYSE/NASDAQ 50 Most Actives indicate the direction in which the mass of money is flowing. Last session's trading showed 16 advancers versus 34 decliners. Advancers were led by Las Vegas Sands Corp (NYSE: LVS) up 80.00%, General Motors Corp (NYSE: GM) up 8.16%, Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (NYSE: PBR) up 7.60%, Ambac Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: ABK) up 7.49%, Marvell Tech Group (NASDAQ: MRVL) up 6.93%. Decliners followed American International Group In (NYSE: AIG) down 15.30%, Comcast Cp A (NASDAQ: CMCSA) down 9.91%, Corning, Inc. (NYSE: GLW) down 7.97%, Dell Inc (NASDAQ: DELL) down 7.76%, Wachovia Corp (New) (NYSE: WB) down 7.73%, Qwest Communications Internatio (NYSE: Q) down 7.69%, Wells Fargo & Co. (New) (NYSE: WFC) down 6.82%. Vote in the Investrend Poll Question of the Day at Investrend Information (http://www.investrendinformation.com). Investrend Website of the Day: http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/ Quote of the Day: "I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain." John Adams Today is: Candy Corn Day. Happy Birthday: John Adams, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Admiral William Frederick Halsey, Ezra Pound, Charles Atlas, Grace Slick, Henry Winkler, Timothy B. Schmit, Kevin Pollak. Today in History: The Eighth Crusade and siege of Tunis ended in 1270. Helena, Montana was founded in 1864 after four prospectors discover gold at "Last Chance Gulch." Tsar Nicholas II of Russia granted Russia's first constitution in 1905. Orson Welles broadcast in 1938 his radio play of H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds, causing a nationwide panic. Franklin Delano Roosevelt approved in 1941 US$1 billion in Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union. Anne Frank was deported in 1944 from Auschwitz to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Michael Woodruff performed in 1960 the first successful kidney transplant in the United Kingdom at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. President Richard Nixon approved in 1972 legislation to increase Social Security spending by US$5.3 billion. In Japan, NEC released the first 16-bit home entertainment system in 1987. [FirstAlert™ was created by Gayle Essary, founder of Investrend Communications, Inc., parent of Investrend Information (http://www.investrendinformation.com). The opinions expressed in FirstAlert™ do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Investrend.] FinancialWire™ is a fully independent, proprietary news wire service of Investrend Information (a division of Investrend Communications, Inc.). FinancialWire™ news is written by professional journalists, dedicated to pure journalistic standards. FinancialWire™ does not receive or accept any compensation from any individual or subject company (or representative thereof) for its news or opinions. All FinancialWire™ news is available at http://www.financialwire.net . Please address any inquiries to [email protected] . Free annual reports for companies mentioned in the news are available at http://investrend.ar.wilink.com/?level=279 . (Distributed for Investrend Communications, Inc. via M2 Communications Ltd (www.m2.com)) Copyright ? 2008 M2 Communications Ltd. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]