Activision Blizzard, Inc. Article (Week 7)

Ever since the record shattering sales that Activision Blizzard recieved during the opening sales week for their new game, Modern Warfare 2, their sales have been gradually slowing down. Despite this, modern Warfare 2 is still the best-selling game on the market. Also, new downloadable content for the game is predicted to help Activision gain another $100-$140 million; thus pushing the revenue for the entire Call of Duty franchise to over $3 billion. In short, Activision will be gaining revenue from Modern Warfare 2 for a long time to come.

Review of our Portfolio

During week 7 our group gained money. We had a net equity gain of $384.09 with a percent return of 0.38%. Our Interests and Dividents were $278.68. The total of fees and commissions came to $136.39. During the week we didn't have any realized gains or losses. The overall value of our portfolio is $100,384.09. Hopefully we can continue to keep out gains going.

Black Friday Article (Week 7)

Shoppers took to stores in big numbers over the holiday weekend. The National Retail Federation reported Sunday that Americans spent an estimated $41.2 billion over the holiday weekend, an amount on par with last year. Store traffic surpassed expectations despite the weak economy. "It was a pretty successful" weekend, said Scott Krugman, NRF vice president. Shoppers, as expected, went for good deals on lower-priced items. Retailers will get another look at the holiday season today with Cyber Monday, the official start of the online holiday season. Almost 97 million people are expected to shop online today vs. 85 million last year, according to a survey for Shop.org by BIGresearch. Almost $10.6 billion was spent online in November through Friday, a 3% increase vs. the same time last year, says researcher ComScore. These economic statistics prove that our country is not afraid to spend despite the poor state of the economy. It's starting to show that we can get out of the economic downfall that we are in.

Cambell Earnings Rise

Eventhough soup sales have been in a decline, Cambell soups have seen an increase. Their first quarter earnings rose 17%. One reason for this recent increase is due to lower costs. Cambell had to figur out a way to overcome the rise is ingriedent prices, so they also increased the efficiency in its supply chain. They expect to keep seeing rises in their earnings as the soup market gets more intense.

Dow Jones, S&P 500, NASDAQ (week 6)

During the week of November 16 through 20, all three markets seen a high differential compared to the middle/end of the week. All three started out at a high point, then seen a decrease starting on November 18th. The beginning of the week showed more promise than the end of the weekend. The S&P 500 started with a total of $1,109.30 and dropped to $1,091.90. The Dow Jones also seen a decrease, starting at $10,406.96 and ending at $10,318.16. And the NASDAQ also lost points, beginning the week with $2,197.85 and ending with $2,146.04. Overall, not a good week for the markets.

Review of the Economy (Week 6)

For the week of November 16 through 20, the stock market began a new rise toward a fresh 13-month high. The energy sector led a broad-based round of gains as oil rallied. The dollar sank, and Treasury prices were little changed, reflecting investors' diminished appetite for safe-haven bets. Oil futures were boosted by both the dollar's weakness and rising tension over Iran's nuclear program.

Verizon Wireless Article (Week 5)

In this article, Verizon's predicted success from sales of the new Droid phone was presented. A few months ago, the projected sales estimate was at 100,000 phones being sold. Now it predicts that over 600,000 Droids will be sold by the end of the year. This puts a lot of pressure on Verizon's competitor, Sprint, to try and sell their new Palm phone.

Review of the Economy (Week 5)

During the week of November 9 through November 13, was an interesting week for the economy.
Earlier, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was briefly in positive territory thanks to a rebound in the materials sector before falling back into the red. Still, the declines were held in check by an unexpected drop in U.S. core wholesale prices, which gives the Federal Reserve more ammunition to keep interest rates close to zero. Due to many domestic factors (oil demand, industrial production, etc.) towards the end of the week, there began to show signs of a faulty recovering economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 6 points, or 0.1%, to 10,401. The Nasdaq Composite slid 0.1% to 2,196. The S&P 500 was down 0.3% to 1,107, pressured by its consumer discretionary and energy sectors.

Portfolio (Week 5)

During the week of November 9-13, our group lost some of our money. We decided to invest in 150 shares of Verizon Communications, Inc. We lost $42.03 because it was just one of those weeks where the company had a very small decline. Overall, the value of our portfolio is $95,650.99. This isn't too bad considering what the economy is like these days. The current dividends paid this week were $30.12. We picked Verizon Wireless because they have been coming out with very good telecommunications products, and they seem to be doing very well.

Review of the market

At the begginning of the week the Dow Jones started at 10,226.9404. Throughout the week it went up and down. November 11th saw a bit of a drop, but it raised back to 10,270.4697 by the 13th.
NASDAQ acted in a similar way for the week. Starting at 2,154.0601 it fell, rose, fell, and rose again to end the week. At the end of the week the nasdaq was 2,167.8799.
The S&P 500 had the smallest change of the three. While it did go up and down throught the week it ended up at almost the same spot it started. On the 9th it was at 1,093.08. And at the end of the week it was 1,093.48. So while it did see a slight increase, it is not very signifigant.
If the market keeps following the recent trends for the next week we should see a lot of ups and downs, but at the end it will not be very much higher or lower from the start.

Retailers hope free shipping turns you into a regular

Recently companies began talking about free shipping for the holiday season. Most online shoppers search for the best deals they can get, and that includes free shipping. Once a customer gets free shipping the first time, they expect to get it every single time after that. A lot of online retaielrs will offer free shipping if they know it will draw in consumers, but they will not all be the same type. Some retailers will offer no strings attached free shipping while others have a minimum purchase amount, or even offer it only for current custoemrs. What stores are trying to get out of the free shipping deals is the addition of regular customers after the hiloday season is over.

Review of the Economy (Week 4)

They economy in general seems to be getting better every day. While the employment number may have risen to 10.2%, but the DJIA had an increase of 17 points while the S&P 500 had a raise of 2 points. This ensures us that there is still hope that our economy will pull itself out of its hole.

Dow Jones, S&P 500, NASDAQ

During the week of November 2 through November 6, the Dow Jones, S&P 500, and Nasdaq markets seen similar stock trends. Each of the first two days stayed steady for each market, but November 4th going into the 5th saw a great increase. The next day seen another increase, but nothing nearly like the increase the day before. The S&P started out $1,042.88 and ended with a total of $1,069.30. The Dow Jones started out with $9,789.44 and ended with the increased value of $10,023.42. Whereas the Nasdaq started with $2,049.20 and also ended with an increased value of $2,112.44. All three markets seen an increase for the week, so overall, it was a great week for the stock market.

The Economy

During the week of October 26-30th the dow jones has changed quitea bit. Although it changed between the days, it remained about the same at the beginning and end of the week. The dow jones started at 9995.15 and ended at 9962.58.
The S&P 500 did not have such a good week. The S&P 500 did see its biggest raise in one day since July, but that wasn't enough to bring the overall for the week up. It went down 1036.
The NASDAQ also had a similar week. It was going up and down all week, but mostly down. The week ended with th NASDAQ falling 52 points.
Overall the market has seen a small decrease, but some parts, like the Dow Jones have seen increases.

Kellogg pulls immunity claim from Rice Krispies

"Now helps support your child's IMMUNITY." These cereals contain added amounts of antioxidant vitamins A, B, C and E. However, there has been a number of influential critics who have disagreed with the displaying of the new banner across the box. The fact of publicizing the new cereal, makes Kellogg's seem like they just started making healthy cereal. With the H1N1 virus becoming a world spread virus, Kellogg's has been one of the first companies to change there breakfast meals healthier, for the benefit of a healthy future. "We believe that Kellogg's has taken the appropriate action today in discontinuing the immunity claim on the front of cereal packages," Michael Herndon, spokesman for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said Thursday. "We welcome the opportunity to work with the industry and others to ensure that Americans receive nutritional information that they can trust and use, when making food choices for themselves and their families."

The Economy

During the week October 25 throught the 31st the economy had its steady up and downs. The S&P 500 started out at $1,092.02 and ultimately ended up with a loss making the market price $1,079.60. The Dow Jones started the week off at $10,015.86 but however had a weekly loss of $109.13, ending at $9,972.18. The NASDAQ also had a rough week, starting out at $2,172.23 and after a weekly financial rollercoaster ride, ended with $2,154.47. It's easy to see that the stock market/economy had a down week.