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As the internet has developed over the past 15 years or so, a variety of business models have appeared — and some have disappeared. Revenue models are also different, running from advertising to subscription to content provider types. The dominant revenue model is advertising and the leaders there are Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) in display advertising and Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) and China’s Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) are other major ad driven sites. LinkedIn...

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) is set to report earnings after the close of trading on Tuesday.  What makes Amazon so different from many peers in technology, internet and virtual companies is that it is only recently off of its highs and not really by that much.  Even after a 2.5% drop so far on Tuesday, the $231.50 area compares to a closing price yesterday of $237.61 and to a 52-week range of $156.77 to $246.71. Here are the targets.  Amazon.com continues to be a thorn...

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) has turned in earnings for its third quarter, and we will be paying extra attention to its fourth quarter.  The seller of everything online reported earnings of $0.14 EPS on sales of $10.88 billion, which compares to the Thomson Reuters targets of $0.24 EPS and $10.93 billion in sales.  Operating income was $79 million. Amazon also guided the fourth quarter to come in at %16.45 to $18.65 billion in sales and it put the range for operating earnings...

FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) expects to handle more than 260 million packages during the coming holiday season. That’s a 12% increase from a year ago, and to cope with the flood the company plans to hire 20,000 temporary workers. That’s more than we noted from either Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY) or J.C. Penney Co. (NYSE: JCP) in our recent look at the retailers expected to do the most seasonal hiring this year. That’s good news for employment, but not altogether a boost for FedEx. The...

Wall St. slashed shares of NetFlix (NASDAQ: NFLX) has it missed all projections for revenue, earnings, and subscribers. The firm’s price decisions, which have alienated customers, may have permanently hurt the company. The poor judgement which included raising subscriber rates sharply,  comes as powerful competition from Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Hulu, and YouTube enter the market. Third quarter earnings were up 63% to $1.16, which would have been an impressive...

Stocks opened down this morning following the earnings report Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) after markets closed yesterday. Moody’s downgrade of Spain’s sovereign debt also weighed on the opening.  The Consumer Price Index for urban consumers rose by 0.3%, and just 0.1% excluding energy and food costs. Housing starts rose by an unexpected 15% as condos and apartment construction was prompted by more demand for rental units to push markets to a mid-morning gain, but by noon share prices...

24/7 Wall St. is tracking the after-hours earnings reports to see which stocks are on the move and which ones will be the key issues for Thursday morning. The top movers are as follows: American Express Company (NYSE: AXP); Buffalo Wild Wings Inc. (NASDAQ: BWLD); Cirrus Logic Inc. (NASDAQ: CRUS); Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: CBST); eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY); E*TRADE FInancial Corporation (NASDAQ: ETFC); Riverbed Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: RVBD); Western Digital Corporation (NYSE: WDC);...

The trading day in America began with worry about a possible downgrade of France’s Aaa rating. Word that France and Germany had agreed to a bailout structure for trouble EU nations pushed markets higher through the close. The see saw now continues as Moody’s has downgraded Spain to A1 from Aa2. The news will cast a shadow on the belief that the financial crisis in Europe may markedly improve late this month. “Moody’s Investors Service has today downgraded Spain’s government bond ratings...

The iPhone 4S topped 4 million sales in its first weekend of availability, according to maker Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL). On  the other end of the continent, Waterloo, Ontario-based Research in Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) announced that it would give customers up to $100 worth of free apps as “an expression of appreciation for their patience” when RIM’s network service was disrupted last week. The contrast between the fortunes of the two companies has been obvious for some time now, but...

Our look at stock target prices focuses on homebuilders and home improvement stores today. It’s not news that US homebuilders have had a very tough few years. In the past five years, only one of the six builders we’re looking at today has managed a share price gain. The companies began to falter in 2007 and the smallest five-year slide is more than -40%. That may be a new definition of awful. Worse, there is not much expectation that the market will turn around at least until 2013. More foreclosed...

Leveraged ETFs and ETNs are not new to most investors.  They are also not new in all cases when it comes to precious metals.  You are likely familiar with the SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD) for gold, iShares Silver Trust (NYSE: SLV) for silver, and the ETFS Physical Platinum Shares (NYSE: PPLT) for platinum.  There are also some leveraged metals exchange-traded products out there.  Now there is a new round of leveraged exchange-traded products from VelocityShares...

International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM) has now reported its third quarter earnings report at $3.28 EPS and $26.2 billion in sales.  Thomson Reuters was looking for $3.22 EPS and $26.25 billion in sales.  You might have expected that this is “good enough” considering the market action from July through October, but investors have to recall that IBM just hit an all-time again last week.  Our take is that this could create a large impact in the DJIA via the SPDR Dow...

CROCS Inc. (NASDAQ: CROX) is one of the few retail apparel stocks which was up 100% from its 52-week low.  It had been a miraculous recovery stock earlier this year.  Call it the flame-out momentum apparel stock death of years past that witnessed a massive resurrection.  The emblem could have been a Phoenix rather than an alligator if you just look at the lows in January to the highs in July. That was then, this is now…  Wall Street lives by a “what have you done for...

Moody’s said its opinion of France’s financial situation is fine–for now. France keeps it Aaa rating with a stable outlook. But, “The deterioration in debt metrics and the potential for further contingent liabilities to emerge are exerting pressure on the stable outlook of the government’s Aaa debt rating. Moody’s notes that the French government now has less room for manoeuvre in terms if stretching its balance sheet than it had in 2008.” The news, added to speculation that...

Kinder Morgan (NYSE:KMI) and El Paso Corporation (NYSE:EP) released an agreement for Kinder to acquire the outstanding shares of El Paso in a deal that will create the fourth largest energy company in North America. It will have 80,000 miles of pipelines. The total purchase price which includes all debt  at El Paso Corporation and the debt outstanding at El Paso Pipeline Partners, L.P. (NYSE:EPB) is about $38 billion. “This once in a lifetime transaction is a win-win opportunity for both...

Challenger, Gray said planned layoffs announced in September were up more than 200% from a year earlier to 115,000. That figure appears to be on the rise, and the latest layoffs, or corporate plans that presage them, happened this weekend. That is a bad sign for employment statistics announcements for the balance of the year. Philips Electronics said it will fire 4,500 people. Its third-quarter figures were below its expectations. Its plans to sell its TV division have failed. The prices of...

Philips Electronics may be unable to shed its TV operation and will fire 4,500. (Reuters) Kinder Morgan (NYSE: KMI) to buy El Paso (NYSE: EP) for $21 billion and will save $250 million in the merger. (Reuters) Olympus falls 24% after its CEO is pushed out and certain questionable payments are revealed. (Reuters) Samsung to seek a broad ban to sales of the Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone. (Reuters) EU officials say they will have a plan in place by October 22 to handle the region’s financial...