Stock Preacher

Healthcare was a winning sector last week, up about 2.2%. That’s not a huge victory, but it beats the overall market’s 3.5% loss for the week. Savvy market observers have ID’s this as a sector trend that will continue grow in importance. And they note that healthcare stocks have lagged since the March 9, 2009 bottom, and that that is the point of a sector rotation strategy to find tomorrow’s leaders, which are frequency yesterday’s losers/laggards. In the past week healthcare stocks have picked up their pace, which may augur the beginning of the next major rotation in US stocks. The bullish bias for healthcare equipment, technology, and suppliers is in place now and it is also worth nothing there really haven’t been any bad healthcare industries to be since early June.

Popularity: unranked [?]

General Motors Corp has reached a preliminary agreement to sell its Saturn brand to Penske Automotive Group in a deal that could preserve more than 350 dealerships and 13,000 jobs, the companies said on Friday. The deal for Saturn, which the companies hope to complete in the third quarter, would be the second sale of a brand announced by GM since it filed for bankruptcy on Monday in an effort to drop unprofitable lines and leave court protection as a leaner company. Penske, the No. 2 US auto dealership group, would acquire rights to the Saturn brand and other assets, while bankrupt GM would continue production of the Saturn Aura, Vue and Outlook on a contract basis if the transaction were completed, GM and Penske said. Terms were not disclosed. “This is a day that we have all been hoping would come together, since probably the end of November when GM made its first viability plan,” said Todd Ingersoll, a Saturn dealer from Connecticut and a member of the Saturn dealer steering group. GM created Saturn in 1984 to compete with Japanese vehicles in terms of quality and service and initiated no-haggle flat-price sales for its models. The Saturn brand has languished for the last decade, and GM said in February that it would either be spun off or shut.

Popularity: unranked [?]

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., the World’s #1 retailer, authorized a US$15B share repurchase program as its stock performance trails other chains. The buyback replaces another US$15B program that had about US$3.4B of remaining authorization, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company said last Thursday in a statement. Wal-Mart’s board didn’t put an end date on the latest repurchase, a spokesman, said today in an interview. Wal-Mart climbed 32 cents to US$51.19/shr at 11:36 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Shares of the company have trailed those of retailers that sell more discretionary items. Target Corp., the 2nd largest US discount retailer, gained 19% this year through last Wednesday, and Kohl’s Corp. climbed 27%. Wal-Mart reported last month that Q-1 Y 2009 net income and sales were little changed from a year earlier. Minneapolis based Target and Kohl’s, based in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, reported profit declines of 13% and 10%, respectively. Wal-Mart will retain customers it gained during the recession once the economy recovers, Chief Executive Officer Mike Duke, 59, said today at the annual shareholders meeting in Fayetteville, Arkansas. “When they have more discretionary spending, they’ll stay with Wal-Mart,” Duke said. “We are building long-term loyalty.”

Popularity: unranked [?]

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Rio Tinto dumped plans for a landmark investment from China last Friday, opting instead to raise US$21B through a rights issue and a joint venture with one-time suitor BHP Billiton. Rio’s US$19.5B deal with Chinese metals group Chinalco was put together in February at the height of the financial crisis in a bid to halve Rio’s US$38B debt. Its collapse last Friday under shareholder pressure left China, the world’s biggest steel-making nation, vulnerable to just two suppliers, the Rio/BHP combination and Brazil’s Vale, controlling 70% of global iron ore trade. “This is a big slap in the face for China,” said Paul Bartholomew at Steel Business Briefing in Shanghai “Rio has effectively been talking to BHP behind Chinalco’s back and Chinalco is entitled to feel like a two-timed lover this morning,” he said. Rio is to pay Chinalco a US$195MM break-up fee.

Popularity: unranked [?]

Google Inc. is stepping up efforts to infuse its search engine into the operations of the most technically sophisticated corporations as well as the least digitally savvy businesses. The Internet search giant unveiled a pair of new products on Tuesday aimed at large corporations with strict technology requirements and at small businesses that may not even have Web sites, respectively. The move comes as Google’s growth slows from its previous double-digit percentage levels, amid a challenging economic environment and a sharp industry-wide slowdown in the advertising spending that it depends on. Google’s latest version of its Search Appliance, first introduced in 2001, takes aim at the high-end of the market.

Popularity: unranked [?]