Is the bull market about to perish? It's been a real scary month here in October. At the time of this writing we are down 6.0% in the Dow Jones Industrial average (NYSEARCA:DIA) and down 6.5% in the S&P 500 SPDR ETF (NYSEARCA:SPY) this month. The NASDAQ ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ) has been crushed, shedding 7.6% so far. Are we setting up for a real bearish end to the year despite all of the jubilant expectations that investors had heading into the fall? It may be too early to tell, but here are the facts. A large correction is what traders and investors are fearing after seeing the incredible fall in commodities. It started with precious metals, then coal and iron ore and now oil. They are all getting hammered. Demand in slipping. Profits are leveling in many sectors. But here is the icing on the cake. We have this whole Ebola situation that has markets spooked. While the former issues are simply the ups and downs of markets, the latter situation, Ebola, is causing irrational fear.
Ebola: Let's talk about the facts here
Let me wear my epidemiologist hat for a moment. I have been inundate with requests for how to......READ FULL ARTICLE
Friday, October 24, 2014
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
3D Systems TANKS---HERES WHY
3d is getting crushed and I have just unloaded my sahres
The damn company announced today that it anticipates its third quarter revenue to be in the range of $164 million to $169 million and a sequentially growing order book of $42 million. This hurt. The company expects to report GAAP earnings per share in the range of $0.01 to $0.03 and non-GAAP EPS in the range of $0.16 to $0.19. These are preliminary results based on current expectations and are subject to quarter-end closing adjustments, actual results may differ.
Strengthening sales of the company's design, manufacturing and healthcare products and services were not enough to overcome the revenue shortfall from the continued manufacturing capacity constraints for its direct metals printers and delayed availability of its newest consumer products.
"We are disappointed that we failed to fully capitalize on the robust demand for our direct metal and consumer products during the quarter," said Avi Reichental, President and Chief Executive Officer, 3DS. "While we worked very hard to deliver these products sooner, achieving manufacturing scale, quality and user experience targets took significantly longer than we had anticipated."
At the end of the third quarter, the company brought online a second direct metal 3D printers' manufacturing line and began commercial shipments of its latest consumer printers.
"Now that we have closed these availability gaps, we expect our revenue growth rate to increase," continued Reichental.
The company expects to report that its materials' gross profit margins rebounded for the quarter and its Quickparts' gross profit margin expanded sequentially, despite greater drag from concentrated service bureau acquisitions in the quarter. Notwithstanding these gains, the company expects its consolidated gross profit margin for the quarter to remain sequentially flat as a result of the current sales volume and mix and the residual costs of manufacturing start up and ramp.
"Our accelerated investments in new products and acquisitions contributed to a record order book in every period of this year, but disrupted revenue generation and pressured our gross profit margins. Now that we are shifting our attention to fine-tuning these investments, we expect to leverage them into a valuable and sustainable first-mover advantage," stated Reichental.
Factoring in its third quarter revenue shortfall and outlook for the remainder of the year, management trimmed its previous guidance for the full year 2014. Management now expects revenue in the range of $650 million to $690 million, and GAAP earnings per share of $0.18 to $0.28 and non-GAAP earnings per share in the range of $0.70 to $0.80.
"The same decisive actions that pressured our short term performance also delivered a much stronger portfolio of self-developed and acquired products and services. In the aggregate, we believe this positions us well to achieve our long-term targets," concluded Reichental.
Thursday, October 16, 2014
Buying more RXi
RXi Pharmaceuticals (OTC:RXII) has just filed a form 4 with the Securities Exchange Commission. Recall that a form 4 refers to insider transactions at the company. Well, at RXi, there has been a wave of insider buying by CEO Geert Cauwenbergh over the last month ever since its large sell-off. The CEO now owns a substantial stake in the company. According to the filing, yesterday during the open market (10/13/14), CEO Geert Cauwenbergh purchased another 3,000 shares. The shares were purchased at the price of $1.6799. If we dig a little deeper we see that the shares bring his total stake to 44,000 shares, many of which have been purchase since the start of September. The purchasing has not done much to stop the shares from falling, although at $1.72 prices are stabilizing. At current price shares are at an opportunity level never before seen in RXi and it stems from small cap biotech weakness as a whole,
So what am I doing? I am buying more shares this week. Doubling position in the $1.68-$1.75 range
So what am I doing? I am buying more shares this week. Doubling position in the $1.68-$1.75 range
Friday, October 10, 2014
Tesla's D-Day
Tesla Motors (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk turned a product upgrade announcement into a major media event, building anticipation over the course of a week by dropping a few clues on social media and dancing around questions about "Unveiling the D".
Tesla's D-Day generated the kind of buzz every other automaker dreams of. For that, he deserves all the credit in the world. It's what every CEO would love to do.
That said, let's separate the hype from the reality.
1) Dual Motor All Wheel Drive
Hype: The dual motor AWD will improve efficiency of the Model S and win over buyers in cold weather states.
Reality: You can find this feature in most other luxury cars, and Tesla needed to offer it.
Will it drive major sales gains? Probably not.
"The drivers who will buy the 'D' wanted the Model S from day one. Tesla is simply responding to their needs. Adding all-wheel drive is the no-brainer way to capture those car shoppers," said Ivan Drury with Edmunds.com
2) Auto Pilot Features
Hype: This technology, using a new suite of radars, GPS and a camera with image recognition is a game changer.
Reality: Yes and no.
The truth is some of the driver assist features Musk unveiled (adaptive cruise control for example) are already in many other cars.
That said, Tesla added a few wrinkles that make the S very unique.
Can your car open the garage door and park itself once you pull into the driveway? No, but the Model S will soon be able to do that.
Does your car automatically change lanes once you put on your turn signal? No, but the Model S will soon have that capability.
3) Tesla is best positioned to roll out the first autonomous drive car
Hype: The Tesla fans will tell you Elon Musk will soon have a self-driven car ready to roll.
Reality: Tesla will be ready when fully autonomous drive cars finally become a reality in the next ten to fifteen years.
However, Tesla won't be alone. Several other auto makers and tech companies will be ready with their own autonomous drive vehicles or technology for autonomous drive cars.
Musk summarized the development of autonomous-drive Tesla's: "We're not yet at the point where you can get in the car, fall asleep and wake up at your destination."
Overall, Musk's show in Southern California enhanced the reputation and allure of Tesla with an event that is unlike what we usually see from automakers.
Tesla unveils don't happen very often, but when they do, they have the feel of an Apple product reveal.
Even the way Musk describes features is far different than the button downed approach we often see from executives at auto shows.
Consider how Musk described the P85D version of the Model S on Thursday night?
"This car is nuts. It's like taking off from a carrier deck," he said. "It's just bananas. It's like having your own personal roller coaster."
Tesla's D-Day generated the kind of buzz every other automaker dreams of. For that, he deserves all the credit in the world. It's what every CEO would love to do.
That said, let's separate the hype from the reality.
1) Dual Motor All Wheel Drive
Hype: The dual motor AWD will improve efficiency of the Model S and win over buyers in cold weather states.
Reality: You can find this feature in most other luxury cars, and Tesla needed to offer it.
Will it drive major sales gains? Probably not.
"The drivers who will buy the 'D' wanted the Model S from day one. Tesla is simply responding to their needs. Adding all-wheel drive is the no-brainer way to capture those car shoppers," said Ivan Drury with Edmunds.com
2) Auto Pilot Features
Hype: This technology, using a new suite of radars, GPS and a camera with image recognition is a game changer.
Reality: Yes and no.
The truth is some of the driver assist features Musk unveiled (adaptive cruise control for example) are already in many other cars.
That said, Tesla added a few wrinkles that make the S very unique.
Can your car open the garage door and park itself once you pull into the driveway? No, but the Model S will soon be able to do that.
Does your car automatically change lanes once you put on your turn signal? No, but the Model S will soon have that capability.
3) Tesla is best positioned to roll out the first autonomous drive car
Hype: The Tesla fans will tell you Elon Musk will soon have a self-driven car ready to roll.
Reality: Tesla will be ready when fully autonomous drive cars finally become a reality in the next ten to fifteen years.
However, Tesla won't be alone. Several other auto makers and tech companies will be ready with their own autonomous drive vehicles or technology for autonomous drive cars.
Musk summarized the development of autonomous-drive Tesla's: "We're not yet at the point where you can get in the car, fall asleep and wake up at your destination."
Overall, Musk's show in Southern California enhanced the reputation and allure of Tesla with an event that is unlike what we usually see from automakers.
Tesla unveils don't happen very often, but when they do, they have the feel of an Apple product reveal.
Even the way Musk describes features is far different than the button downed approach we often see from executives at auto shows.
Consider how Musk described the P85D version of the Model S on Thursday night?
"This car is nuts. It's like taking off from a carrier deck," he said. "It's just bananas. It's like having your own personal roller coaster."
Oceabn Biochem could crash
Another day and OBCI is up.
In a superb example of the exuberance of quick buck opportunists, traders are reacting to the Ebola news fire hose by bidding up thinly-traded nano cap Ocean Bio-Chem on a 4x surge in volume in the last week. Prices are skyrocketing and could crash.
The company makes a broad-spectrum disinfectant called Xtrem-A-Cide that contains chlorine dioxide. Supposedly, it will be effective in eradicating stray Ebola viruses deposited by infected patients.
Xtrem-A-Cide is now being marketed as Performacide. It can be found on the starbrite.com website.
Don't buy into the hype
In a superb example of the exuberance of quick buck opportunists, traders are reacting to the Ebola news fire hose by bidding up thinly-traded nano cap Ocean Bio-Chem on a 4x surge in volume in the last week. Prices are skyrocketing and could crash.
The company makes a broad-spectrum disinfectant called Xtrem-A-Cide that contains chlorine dioxide. Supposedly, it will be effective in eradicating stray Ebola viruses deposited by infected patients.
Xtrem-A-Cide is now being marketed as Performacide. It can be found on the starbrite.com website.
Don't buy into the hype
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