Preventing The No. 2 Cancer Killer -- Barron's

By Andrew Bary

      (FROM BARRON'S 3/31/14)
      A new colon-cancer screening test got a big boost last week when a Food
and Drug Administration advisory panel unanimously recommended that the FDA
approve the test. Called Cologuard, it will likely gain approval in the next few
months and hit the market by the end of this year.

Tesla's Giga-Plan Looks Too Ambitious -- Barron's

By Bill Alpert
       (FROM BARRON'S 3/31/14)
      Electric-car maker Tesla Motors has grabbed the attention of the auto
industry, the electronics industry, and of course, the stock market, where the
company's shares reached $265 a month ago, as Tesla's chief, Elon Musk,
outlined his daring plan to build the world's biggest lithium-ion battery
factory.

Here Comes $75 Oil -- Barron's

By Gene Epstein

  ROM BARRON'S 3/31/14)
 The long-term outlook for global oil prices is lower, perhaps much lower,
giving a strong boost to the U.S. economy while potentially crippling the
economy of Vladimir Putin's Russia. Vast new discoveries of oil and natural gas
in the U.S. and around the globe could drive the oil price to as low as $75 a
barrel over the next five years from a current $100.

Amazon.com to launch free streaming media service, WSJ says

 $NFLX Trading off 5% after hours - $AMZN unchanged

Mar 27 at 16:24

      Amazon (AMZN) will offer a free streaming media service in the coming
months, departing from its strategy of offering streaming media to only Prime
members, in an effort to transform itself from a retailer to a multimedia
company reports the Wall Street Journal. The move will pit the e-commerce giant
against rivals like Google's (GOOG) YouTube and Netflix (NFLX), the paper adds.

Nord Anglia Education, Inc. Announces Pricing of Initial Public Offering

Disclosure: Long $NORD    

Press Release: Nord Anglia
Education, Inc. Announces
Pricing of Initial Public Offering
of Ordinary Shares
Mar 26 at 01:18


      Nord Anglia Education, Inc. Announces Pricing of Initial Public Offering
of Ordinary Shares
      PR Newswire
      HONG KONG, March 26, 2014
      HONG KONG, March 26, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Nord Anglia Education, Inc.
(NYSE: NORD) today announced the pricing of its initial public offering of
19,000,000 ordinary shares at a price of $16.00 per share on March 25, 2014.
The ordinary shares are expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange
on March 26, 2014 under the symbol "NORD." The underwriters have an option to
purchase up to an additional 2,850,000 ordinary shares from the company at the
same price to cover over-allotments. The offering is expected to close on or
about March 31, 2014, subject to customary closing conditions.
      The offering is being made through an underwriting group led by Credit
Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Goldman, Sachs & Co. and J.P. Morgan Securities
LLC, which are acting as lead book-running managers. Additional book-running
managers are Barclays Capital Inc., Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., RBC Capital
Markets, LLC and BMO Capital Markets Corp. The co-managers for the offering are
HSBC Securities (USA) Inc. and William Blair & Company, L.L.C.

Peugeot Citroen and IBM to Launch "Connected Services" for the Car of the Futur

PSA
Mar 25 at 11:00

 -- PSA Peugeot Citroen Taps IBM Big Data and Analytics and MobileFirst Solutions
to Provide Drivers with Customized Services --


      ARMONK, N.Y. and PARIS, March 25, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- PSA Peugeot Citroen
today announced plans to use IBM Big Data and Analytics and IBM MobileFirst
solutions to launch a new era of connected vehicles that deliver customized
services.


      The rapid adoption of mobile devices is redefining customer expectations
in all areas of life, including transportation. The need to be constantly
connected is transforming the relationship between car owners and manufacturers
beyond the driving experience. To meet changing customer expectations requires
new, innovative connected services.
      The challenge for car manufacturers is to integrate value brought by
processing and analyzing real-time data from the connected vehicle. Automobiles
today deliver millions of points of valuable information while connected devices
such as mobile phones play an integral role in people's lives.

Barron's - Microsoft Trades Higher In June

Tech Trader: The Best Opportunity For Microsoft

Shareholders In Years -- Barron's
Mar 22 at 00:09
 
By Tiernan Ray

      (FROM BARRON'S 3/24/14)
      Microsoft's quixotic journey from dog to darling took another curious turn
last week as reports floated around that the company will make its Office
productivity suite available on Apple's iPad at a media event it is hosting this
week.
      The Street has been waiting to exhale over this announcement for years,
and in fact the apparent unwillingness of the company to ship product on Apple's
(ticker: AAPL) tablet was one of many bones shareholders had to pick with former
CEO Steve Ballmer. The stock (MSFT) is up 47% in the past year, to a recent $
40.16, with the shares hitting multiyear highs last week.
      Assuming it happens, Office for iPad will be a good thing for Microsoft,
but it won't be the answer to the company's future. CEO Satya Nadella, a
Microsoft veteran, holds the keys to the future in his distinguished career
running Microsoft's cloud-computing business. That business, not Office, is the
future.

Press Release: Yelp launches in Mexico to Extend Latin

American Footprint
Mar 13 at 02:01


      Yelp launches in Mexico to Extend Latin American Footprint
      PR Newswire
      MEXICO CITY, March 13, 2014
      MEXICO CITY, March 13, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Yelp Inc. (NYSE: YELP), the
company that connects consumers with great local businesses, today announced the
availability of Yelp Mexico (http://www.yelp.com.mx). Beginning today, people
throughout Mexico are able to create accounts on Yelp.com.mx to share their
opinions about great local businesses. Yelp's free iPhone and Android
applications will be available as well as its free suite of business owner
tools: Yelp for Business Owners (http://biz.yelp.com.mx).
      "Mexico is a vibrant mosaic of micheladas, mole, and muralism, just to
name a few of its cultural contributions," says Miriam Warren, VP of New
Markets. " Whether you're looking for a taco fix, a refreshing pulque, or a
beautiful alebrije for your home, locals will now be able to find their favorite
businesses on Yelp."

This Week In Earnings - $FCEL Today - $PLUG Thurs

As the earnings season winds down, some the most anticipated quarterly reports this week.
Most notably, reports will come from alternative energy companies FuelCell Energy (NASDAQ: FCEL) and Plug Power (NASDAQ: PLUG), retailers American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE: AEO) and Dollar General (NYSE: DG), as well as biopharmaceutical company Novavax (NASDAQ: NVAX) and in-flight Internet connectivity provider Gogo (NASDAQ: GOGO).
Here is a quick look at what analysts expect from these and other results this week.
See also: Weekly Preview: Ukraine Tension Likely To Drive Markets

American Eagle Outfitters
Analysts expect this retailer to post earnings of $0.26 per share for its fiscal fourth quarter, less than half what they were a year ago. And revenues for the quarter are estimated to total $1.04 billion, which would be more than seven percent lower than a year ago. Note that earnings per share (EPS) have come within a penny of consensus estimates in the past four quarters.
The consensus full-year forecast has earnings at $0.73 per share and $3.31 billion in sales. That would be down more than 47 percent and almost five percent, respectively, relative to the previous year. The company is scheduled to share its results Tuesday before the markets open.

Barron's Crushes SolarCity

 Tech Trader: SolarCity Gives Light Year New Meaning

  By Bill Alpert

  (FROM BARRON'S 3/10/14)
 Even as the market rockets to the heavens,
 some stocks make it look like
it's standing still. SolarCity is one of them.
      Friday's closing price of $77.80 valued the San Mateo, Calif.-based
company at nearly $6.5 billion -- a 10-fold increase from the stock's initial
offering in 2012 and more than double its level when Barron's reported a dispute
over SolarCity's federal subsidies ("Dark Clouds Over SolarCity," Sept. 2,
2013).
      Valuing SolarCity's stock (ticker: SCTY) is a challenge for bulls and
bears alike. The company puts some $30,000 worth of solar-power panels on a
homeowner's roof. The homeowner agrees to make lease payments for the next 20
years. So far, the upfront costs of those installations on tens of thousands of
homes have filled SolarCity's financial statements with losses and deeply
negative free cash flow. Even ignoring the negative earnings multiples, the
business trades at more than 20 times book value and around 50 times sales for
the last-reported 12 months.

Beware 3-D Printing! Barron's Cover Story

(FROM BARRON'S 3/10/14)
 
   It was meant to be the moment science fiction finally met reality. This
past January, makers of 3-D printers reserved 7,000 square feet worth of space at the Consumer Electronics Show. At their introductory press briefing, CES organizers described how 3-D printing was driving a new industrial revolution. The Las Vegas show floor was littered with small boxes spitting out plastic figurines and minimalist jewelry. Not exactly the stuff of a new world order in manufacturing, perhaps, but the tech world nevertheless declared 2014 the year of the 3-D printer.
      Wall Street has been well ahead of the hype. Shares of 3D Systems (ticker: DDD), the industry's largest pure-play stock, are up 370% over the past two years. Stratasys (SSYS) is up 231%. And since their 2013 initial public
offerings, ExOne (XONE) and Voxeljet (VJET), are up 140% and 166%, respectively.
Each of the companies has a slightly different focus, with 3D Systems
increasingly tied to consumers and Voxeljet strictly focused on large-scale
industrial machines.

JC Penney: No More Monthly Sales Announcements? -- Barron's Blog

Disclosure: Long $JCP
JC Penney: No More Monthly Sales Announcements? -- Barron's Blog
By Ben Levisohn

      According to Streetinsider.com, Bloomberg is reporting that JC Penney (
JCP) will no longer provide monthly sales estimates.
      Shares of JC Penney, however, have not reacted to the news--they're up
3.3% at $7.52 at 11:50 a.m., even as Macy's ( M) has fallen 1.7% to $56.86,
Nordstrom ( JWN) has dropped 1% to $60.84, Dillard's ( DDS) has declined 1.9%
to $90.81 and Kohl's ( KSS) is off 0.9% at $55.67.
      Last week, JC Penney's shares surge 29% after the beaten-down retailer
reported better-than-forecast earnings.
      More to come.

LG Chem Looks Beyond Tesla for Car Batteries -- WSJ Blog

Mar 3 at 10:34
By Min-Jeong Lee

      South Korea's LG Chem Ltd. has long watched Tesla Motors Inc. closely for
two reasons -- for the possibility of supplying rechargeable batteries to the
popular electric-car maker and to gauge demand for electric cars.
      But its hopes of being named as a key battery supplier for Tesla in
addition to Japan's Panasonic Corp. any time soon took a blow last week, when
the Palo Alto, Calif., company announced it would set up a $5 billion plant to
manufacture batteries.
      LG's battery making unit's share price has fallen 2.5% since the news was
announced last Wednesday. It last closed at 252,500 won ($237).
      LG Chem tried to soothe concerns over the development, with the company's
chief executive, Park Jin-soo, seeking to divert focus to the company's long-
term prospects as the world's largest supplier of rechargeable batteries used in
electric vehicles.

Tesla Convertible Debt Electrifies Long-Term Investors - WSJ

Mar 2 at 17:55

By Matt Jarzemsky and Telis Demos

        Tesla Motors Inc. is showing that when it comes to Wall Street, it is more
than just a plaything for day traders and ardent believers in electric cars.
While the spotlight has focused on the frantic trading driving up Tesla's share price sevenfold in the past year, less visible have been the company's efforts to tap big, sophisticated and long-term investors for cash that it needs to expand.

      The Palo Alto, Calif., company raised $2 billion in a sale of
convertible debt--bonds that can be exchanged for stock--late last week,
garnering an audience of big investors such as mutual funds and hedge funds. The
deal ranked as the second-biggest sale of convertible bonds in the U.S. in the
past two years, according to data provider Ipreo.

'Auto-pilot' cars next up for Tesla's Elon Musk

Disclosure: Long $TSLA and $SCTY
Mar 1 at 00:01

By David R. Baker, San Francisco Chronicle

      March 01--Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk may be a billionaire several
times over but he also personifies the rather precarious nature of success in
Silicon Valley, where the line between goat and genius often blurs.
      Speaking at a recent panel discussion in San Francisco, Musk told the
audience that his high-powered electric-car company had come within "a few days"
of bankruptcy at the end of 2008. Without missing a beat, he later described
plans to build battery-swapping stations for Tesla's popular Model S sedan and
outlined his vision for self-driving cars.
      Within the next few months, Tesla will open a facility for replacing car
batteries rather than recharging them at one of the company's "Supercharger"
stations. Tesla demonstrated the idea in June, showing how an automated process
could remove and replace the car's battery pack in 90 seconds.

SolarCity Announces Details of Q4 2013 Follow-Up Conference Call

Disclosure: Long $SCTY $TSLA    

Feb 28 at 16:30

Conference Call Now Scheduled for March 3, 2014 at 8 am EST

      SAN MATEO, Calif., Feb. 28, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SolarCity Corporation
(Nasdaq:SCTY), a leading provider of clean, distributed energy, today announced
that it will conduct a follow-up fourth quarter 2013 conference call on Monday,
March 3, 2014 at 8 am (Eastern Time).
      The conference call can be accessed live over the phone by dialing
1-877-407-0784, or for international callers, 1-201-689-8560. A replay will be
available two hours after the call and can be accessed by dialing
1-877-870-5176, or for international callers, 1-858-384-5517. The passcode for
the live call and the replay is 13577143. The replay will be available until
March 10, 2014.