But not Adam Lass, writing for the Taipan Publishing Group. He readily points out that ExxonMobil made $45.2 billion in pure profits last year alone. For a company producing enormous amounts of cash in a “Cash is king” economy, he recommends you stay long ExxonMobil.

This from Adam Lass:

Exxon Mobil has proven that they – and you! – can still make money in a recession.

The numbers are in and it’s official: The tail end of 2008 stank too, making for a complete set of matching god-awful quarters.

Starting at the top, U.S. GDP “officially” shrank 3.8% in Q4, supposedly the worst performance in the past quarter century. For the year (come on, I have to do this, but read it fast, like pulling off a Band-Aid or such), the Commerce Department says we grew a mere 1.3%, down from a blistering 2% in 2007.

But wait (as they like to say on those cheap TV ads for Chinese tomato slicers): There’s more! This is only a “preliminary number,” Commerce warns in the fine print, and subject to downward revision once no one is paying attention.

Feeling bummed yet? Down in the mouth? It gets worse before it gets better. (It does, however, get better by the end, so please, bear with me and read on.)

Bad News and Worse?

Remember when Professor Nouriel Roubini was considered a rogue outsider for his steadfast insistence that we were headed for a fall? Now he is lauded at Davos as prescient by the very folks who used to excoriate him.

Roubini celebrated his ascendancy to the “in-crowd” by musing as to whether we might be in a genuine depression: “I’m not a permanent bear. I’ll be the first to call for a recovery, but I just don’t see it yet, and it just keeps getting uglier.”

Roubini wasn’t the only one moping about Davos last week. Megalithic publisher Rupert Murdoch notes that people worldwide are “depressed and traumatized” as their life savings evaporates: “It really doesn’t matter where you’re talking about in the world. There’s no hiding place…”

Upon hearing such moaning and groaning, analysts promptly downgraded Murdoch’s News Corp (NWSA: NASDAQ) for the fifth time in five months. “While we have long viewed Rupert Murdoch as the most visionary CEO… we are increasingly surprised/frustrated with his lack of strategic direction.”

How to Turn Wall Street’s Pain Into a Quick 347% Gain!

While current market conditions are treacherous for naive “buy and hold” investors, a small group of smart folks are converting the market slide into gains of 251%… 307%… even 387%… week in and week out… no matter how far the Dow falls. Here’s how you can join them — free — for a full six months!

No Reason to Quit

Hey guys: It’s hard to remember that your goal was to drain the swamp when you are up to your behind in alligators. That’s what makes it a depression – everyone gets so damned depressed they can’t see anything good coming down the pike. “It’s bad now, and it’ll always be like this.”

It ain’t true when your gawky 13-year-old drama-queen daughter says it about middle school, and it ain’t true when mawkish down-in-the-mouth analysts and petrified economists say it about the stock market.

Oh, I’m not saying that times are good, or that it’s easy for a company to gin up profits these days. Lord knows the list of folks announcing losses is as long as my arm. And quite frankly some of them deserve it.

Sorting Out the Winners

I mean come on: Kodak (EK: NYSE) could have stayed king of the imaging hill, but they chose to ignore digital as a mere fad. Boeing (BA: NYSE) allowed a labor strike to deprive it of the last good year it will probably enjoy for some time to come. And poor old Ford (F: NYSE) may actually have a tough-minded visionary at the helm, but it is an auto manufacturer in a year when that is simply the wrong business to be in.

But there are companies out there bucking even this horrendous headwind, by making a great deal of money for their stockholders. Exxon Mobil (XOM: NYSE) for example, has just announced that they not only made money, they made $45.2 billion in 2008. That is more profits than anyone else. Anywhere. Ever.

The funny thing about Exxon Mobil is that no matter how many times they put out this statement, no one ever believes that they can do it again. “It’s a fluke! Oil prices are too high… oil prices are too low… yadda, yadda, yadda.”

“They Can’t Possibly Do It Again” (and Again and Again and Again)

This season’s complaint is that Exxon Mobil’s profits for the last quarter are down 33% from the previous quarter one year ago, because they produced 1% less raw product. They do seem to have managed to make $7.82 billion dollars anyway.

Look, I understand as much as the next guy that past performance does not necessarily indicate future gains. And yes, times are hard and threatening to get worse.

But you shouldn’t let depression blind you to the fact that XOM is still producing enormous quantities of cash during the worst quarter in the past quarter century… a quarter that saw most of their friends on the exchange floor losing their shirts (and their lunches).

So yes, I was – and am still – long XOM shares and XOM calls.

Source: All-Bad-Everywhere-Forever? Nonsense…

• Continuing jobless claims rose to 4.78 million, the highest levels in 42 years, as the U.S. labor market continues to worsen MarketWatch reported. Meanwhile, the four-week average of new claims rose by 24,250 to 542,500. The four-week average draws the attention of economists and investors because it smoothes out distortions caused by bad weather, strikes or the timing of holidays. Compared with the same week a year ago, first-time jobless claims are up about 63%, while continuing claims are up 71%.

• Senator Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Banking Committee, is going after money awarded as bonuses to financial industry executives, Bloomberg reported. Dodd said he wants executives who took billions of dollars in government-rescue funds to repay the bonuses.  A report yesterday showed New York City financial firms disbursed $18.4 billion in cash bonuses in 2008 as the government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program infused almost $200 billion into banks.

• Orders for durable goods dropped 2.6% last month after plunging 3.7% in November, the Commerce Department said.  It was the fifth straight month new orders for long-lasting manufactured goods had fallen, reflecting an ongoing pullback in the economy. For 2008 as a whole, orders tumbled 5%, the second biggest decline since 2001, Reuters reported.

• 3M Co. (MMM) said on Thursday that fourth-quarter profit and sales fell due to the economic downturn, but the company’s stock rose on hopes that the industrial manufacturer is well positioned for growth in the latter half of 2009, Reuters reported.  The company is a bellwether of the U.S. economy because of its geographic reach and varied lineup of products including Scotch tape to optical films for liquid crystal displays.

• Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) yesterday (Thursday) that its fourth-quarter profit rose 9% after having its “best ever” holiday season.  For the full year, Amazon earned $645 million, or $1.49 per share, on $19.2 billion in revenue. The company earned $476 million, or $1.12 per share, on revenue of $14.8 billion during 2007.

• Light, sweet crude for March delivery fell 72 cents yesterday (Thursday) to settle at $41.44 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Storage tanks in the United States are housing more than 338.9 million barrels of crude oil, up from 15.7% from a year ago, according to the Energy Information Administration.

• Eastman Kodak Co. (EK) said yesterday (Thursday) that it would cut up to 4,500 jobs after the company reported a 24% drop in fourth-quarter revenue. Kodak reported a loss of $137 million, or 51 cents per share, from continuing operations, compared with a profit of $215 million, or 75 cents per share, a year earlier.

Global Investment News Briefs Friday, January 30th, 2009

At first, Netflix’s threat to Blockbuster seemed laughable. But now, with more consumers cutting back and looking for instant entertainment, low monthly costs and the ease of Netflix are really starting to squeeze Blockbuster.

And that’s not to say that Blockbuster hasn’t given its rivals a hand. There was the misguided and disastrous attempt to merge with financial-albatross Circuit City (OTC: CCTYQ), the botched roll-out of the “no more late fees – just other fees” program and the complete failure to see how a vindictive fee and collection system could alienate its customers.

But the competition isn’t just coming from Netflix. Redbox’s easy-to-use, dollar-a-day rental system is also stealing revenue. Most Redbox vending machines are located outside of parent company McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) and inside grocery stores. Often in the same shopping centers as Blockbuster.

In the same way Eastman Kodak (NYSE: EK) missed the advent of digital, Blockbuster missed the transformative power of the Internet and subscription rentals. It’s playing catch-up. And only time will tell if BBI can recover.

Source: Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) – Another Nail In The Coffin

This from Investment U:

Value investors, consider this your warning… With thousands of stocks down 50% (or more), investors are salivating over the bargains. But for every true deal, there are at least three “value traps” – stocks destined to languish at depressed levels indefinitely. Or worse, get cheaper still.

Think Kmart here. In late 2001, it became the poster child for value investors. They argued it was dirt cheap based on countless metrics like book value and sales. And it was destined for a historic turnaround.

Sure enough, the stock went from the bargain bin to the trash heap, as the company filed bankruptcy in early 2002.

So before you go bargain hunting in this market, arm yourself with this list. It could be your only chance to avoid getting snared by the countless “Kmarts” begging for your investment…

Value Stocks & Value Traps

In theory, a value stock is a beaten-down company that’s:

• 1. Cheap compared to its earnings, its competitors and/or some other relevant benchmark
• 2. Poised for a turnaround.

In contrast, a value-trap is simply:

• A beaten-down company that’s cheap compared to its earnings, its competitors and/or some other relevant benchmark
• That never quite turns around.

Unfortunately, no formula exists to calculate when, or if, a turnaround will ever occur.

10 Questions To Help Value Investors

These 10 questions should help any value investor. And ultimately, keep you out of most value traps…

1. Is there a near-term catalyst? First things first, if there’s nothing on the horizon – like a new product launch, key marketing arrangement, a shake-up of the executives, the conversion of a massive order backlog, etc. – we shouldn’t bother. Companies and stocks need catalysts in order to advance. If none exist in the next 12 to 18 months, chances are the stock will be stuck in neutral, or worse, reverse.
2. What are insiders doing? Nobody knows the company – and its future prospects – better than the insiders. If they’re not salivating over the “cheap” prices and backing up the truck, we shouldn’t either.
3. Is the company addicted to debt? Too much debt magnifies the impact of tough times. As sales decrease, interest payments take up more and more of the company’s earnings. Not to mention, unwinding leverage is a time-consuming process. So even if the company boasts new, fiscally responsible management, beware. Or as Warren Buffett observes, “When a management with a reputation for brilliance takes on a business with a reputation for bad economics, it’s the reputation of the business that remains intact.”
4. Does the dividend yield seem too good to be true? Value investors love to tout they “get paid to wait” for a turnaround. Granted, many stocks do maintain their dividends through a downturn. But countless others don’t. They slash or cancel them altogether, just to stay in business. No matter how tempting, tread carefully when the dividend yield hits double-digit levels.
5. Is the company just as “cheap” based on the future? At first glance Eastman Kodak (NYSE: EK) appears dirt cheap, trading at a price-to-earnings (PE) ratio of 2.96. But don’t be fooled. Or get too easily excited. Remember, the PE ratios cited on most financial websites are historical. And as investors, we don’t care what a company was worth… we care about what it will be worth. So before you buy, make sure the stocks forward PE ratio is similarly attractive. (FYI – Eastman’s is not. It trades at 27 times forward earnings. Hardly cheap.)
6. Which direction is the company’s market share headed? A general economic slowdown is one thing. But when a company’s losing market share, too, that’s an indication that a competitor has a better mousetrap. And while economic growth is cyclical, market share is not. Even if the economy or industry turns around, chances are the company’s market share won’t.
7. Does the company operate in a highly cyclical or moribund industry? If you go hunting in a highly cyclical industry (like semiconductors) you’re asking for trouble. Same goes for industries destined for obsolescence (like print media). To win with these stocks, you need both the company’s misfortunes and the industry’s to reverse course.
8. How’s the free cash flow? Earnings can be massaged, manipulated or completely fabricated. But cash cannot. So make sure free cash flow is stable, or growing. If nothing less, it provides management with a little wiggle room, or margin of error when considering ways to speed up a turnaround.
9. Is the stock liquid enough? Just like insiders provide support to share prices, so do institutions (mutual funds, pension plans, hedge funds, etc). Both groups can move stocks prices quickly and significantly. However, many institutions can’t or won’t buy stocks trading for less than $10, with a market cap below $1 billion and/or that don’t trade several million dollars worth of shares each day. Without the potential for institutional ownership, a quick rebound in prices becomes less likely.
10. Does the company have a sustainable competitive advantage? For a stock to turnaround we need the company to thrive, not survive. That’s not possible without a sustainable competitive advantage. So stick to companies like Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) that are light-years ahead of the competition in terms of design, market share, new product offerings and/or technology.

In the end, don’t kid yourself. Detecting a value trap is no easy task. Even the best investors occasionally get snared. Think Bill Miller (with Countrywide and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE)) and Carl Icahn (with Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) and Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD)).

But at the very least, these 10 questions will ensure you never buy blindly, or on price alone.

Source: Value Investors – Beware The Value Traps

This from Investor’s Daily Edge:

The election’s over. President-elect Barrack Obama won, and some people are worried that he’ll start taxing dividends like income. Have I got news for you… that’s the least of our worries on the dividend front.  Put it in the drawer for next year’s hand wringing.

Because just when you thought the financial news had exhausted all the bad stuff and you had found safety in dividend stocks, I have to give you a heads up. Your stock could be getting a pension fund “margin call.”

I love dividend stocks. These companies have cash, pay cash, and keep the faith with investors for the most part. But some are on the verge of breaking that faith this year. It has nothing to do with mortgages or credit markets – it’s about pension funds in trouble.

And when pensions are sucking up cash flow, your dividends could suffer. Mercer, a pension consulting firm that is part of Marsh & McLennan (NYSE:MMC), already estimates that pension shortfalls will lead to a 10% cut in stock dividends this quarter compared to a year ago.

That’s a big deal. Even the 2003 squeeze on pension funds after the three-year-long post-dot-com bear market didn’t cause that. In fact, this could be the first time pensions have been hit so hard since 1958.

Pension plan contributions are a normal expense that companies handle just as they pay the electric bill and management bonuses. But pension plans are special. The funds are separate from the general coffer and there are rules on how much money the plans must have compared to the benefits they’ll have to pay out. This is true in the U.S., Canada, UK and Europe. And though I will use U.S. examples, British and European stocks are also under pressure.

In the bull market years of the 90s, keeping a pension fund properly funded was no problem for most companies. Their funds were flush with stock, and stocks were going up. In fact, before Enron spoiled everyone’s party, some pension funds were loaded with roaring hot company stock. (The post-Enron limit is 10% in company stock in the company pension fund.) Pension funds were making money.

Obligations were fully covered and then some. Some funds were so flush the companies were able to stop putting money in them for several years. They even showed earnings from pension funds as “other” income on balance sheets, making their earnings look better than they should.

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GE (NYSE:GE) was famous for smoothing its earnings by including pension fund surpluses in its figures. Some critics called this maneuver “vapor earnings.” These vapor earnings fattened the bottom line sufficiently to bring fortunate GE execs an extra 9% in their bonuses.

Now comes today… after a bear market… into a recession. Vapor earnings are vaporizing. As of September 30, S&P 500 companies’ pension funds have lost an average of 11.6%, according to CFO magazine. They are now about 92% funded. That’s just barely OK… for a couple more months.

For many years, U.S. companies only had to keep 90% of the present value of expected obligations in their accounts. The Pension Protection Act of 2006 will raise that “coverage ratio” gradually to 100%. For 2008, the magic number is 92%. And it goes to 94% in 2009. So this 92% funding estimate means that some companies pass muster, and a lot don’t.

Standard and Poor’s says S&P 500 pension plans were $200 billion short of minimum funding levels by the end of September this year. Worse, they were on target to surpass the $219 billion record shortfall of 2003.

Who’s in trouble? What stocks to avoid? Remember that funding a pension is a normal business expense. So it’s not every company that shows a pension obligation that should bother you, but the ones that show likely shortfalls that could overwhelm earnings.

Among the companies with big pension plans that are likely to need a large shot of hard-to-find money are Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT), United Technologies (NYSE:UTX), Aetna (NYSE:AET), Boeing (NYSE:BA), IBM (NYSE:IBM), Eastman Kodak (NYSE:EK), Goodyear (NYSE:GT), Ford (NYSE:F) and GM (NYSE:GM).

Those are just the big names. By industry, the most underfunded pensions are concentrated in information technology and healthcare. Utilities also slipped from overfunded last year to coming up short this year.

The good news is that companies have to give you a warning in their financial reports—the bad news is that you have to read the suckers. At least if you do it online, you can use a search and go straight to the “pension” part of Management’s Discussion.

Source: Another Fancy Disaster You Didn’t Need – Pension Fund Vapors

But before you cash out and take that escape route, there’s a stock market chart we’d like to share with you.

The point this stock market chart makes is very simple – and also very powerful. There will be wars, financial panics, recessions and depressions, political scandals and skullduggery, and even global financial crises. But the bottom line is that – over the long run – stock prices tend to head higher, meaning it pays to remain invested.

There are two key reasons why this is so:

1. People are remarkably resilient, which means that our stock and financial markets are, too.
2. Nearly every crisis that’s sent stock prices lower has ultimately proven itself to be a remarkable long-term buying opportunity.

Dealing With a Dour Outlook

Admittedly, with the stock market staggering, both those points are somewhat tough to embrace at the moment. We understand how you feel; we’re also struggling to come to terms with the same naysayers and doom doctors you hear on the news every day.

And it doesn’t become any easier when you look at short-term stock-market charts and see that the markets have officially dropped into “bear market” territory, with the broadly diversified Standard & Poor’s 500 Index having taken a 22.55% header since its record high last October. The U.S. economy is in the tank and the evidence is mounting that it’s going to stay there for awhile: After all, gross domestic product (GDP) is tepid, unemployment is rising, bank failures are continuing and the global credit crisis we’ve been dealing with is threatening to burn out consumers the way a California wildfire burns out homes.

No doubt about it: Right now, the overall outlook is bleak.

But, again, as the chart shows, these challenges are not insurmountable.

Especially, as I told a standing room only crowd of more than 1,000 investors at the “Agora Wealth Symposium” in Vancouver, B.C., recently, when you take two specific steps to put the odds as much as possible in your favor. Those two steps – which we talk about all the time here at Money Morning - are the correct portfolio structure and protective stops.

The Dynamic Duo: Portfolio Structure and Protective Stops

Let’s look at the portfolio structure first.

As longtime readers know, we’ve recommended our proprietary 50-40-10 portfolio structure for years (50% “base builder” investments, 40% “global growth and income” plays and 10% the speculative “rocket riders). Not only is this mix time-tested (and, under the present circumstances, battle-proven), it ensures that we always have the right mix of conservative holdings and aggressive profit plays – no matter what the overall market happens to be throwing our way.

Here’s a brief recap if you’ve just joined us:

• Our “Base-Builder” investments are the so-called “safety and balance” portion of a portfolio, and should account for as much as half its value. Conservative recommendations like these will help protect our money from severe declines – such as the “perfect financial storm” that’s upon us right now.
• The “Global Growth & Income” portion of the portfolio, with its emphasis on dividends and internationally focused holdings, will serve as a thick layer of financial armor and a stream of cold hard cash to tide us through what looks to be a range-bound market for the foreseeable future. This should account for up to 40% of the portfolio’s holdings.
• And, finally, our “Rocket Rider” plays will give us the spectacular upside potential that can beat the markets during good times – even though they constitute only 10% of our holdings.

Now let’s talk about protective stops.

No matter how you “feel” about the prospects of a particular company or even about the outlook for the stock market in general, we advocate the use of protective stops because they help us maximize profits even as they prevent small losses from ballooning into catastrophic ones. And that’s not just in bear markets, either. As the old Wall Street adage tells us: “You can never go broke taking profits.” That means that protective stops work in bullish situations, as well as in bearish markets like the one we’re trying to navigate now.

Time and again we’ve heard investors tell us that protective stops cause them to second-guess themselves when they end up selling a company that appears to be trading cheaply or has good prospects. Those same investors tell us how they don’t “feel good” about cutting loose a company that’s a household name, or that is widely believed to be “too big to fail” (itself a badly flawed concept).

But in down markets that could go far lower, cutting loose your losers is precisely what you want to do.

Pan American World Airways, Eastern Airlines, Citigroup Inc. (C), The Bear Stearns Cos., MCI WorldCom, Montgomery Ward, Eastman Kodak Co. (EK) and Enron Corp. were all household names once upon a time, too.

Now they’re four-letter words.

And that’s why, in closing, we want you to begin each day by remembering the stock market chart we’ve shared with you today.

Tape it to your refrigerator, banker’s lamp, or computer monitor if you have to.

No matter how bad things could get in the months ahead, history (and this stock market chart) show the markets eventually will turn around.

Just when doesn’t really matter.

What does matter is how well you handle your portfolio and investments in the meantime. For that’s what will determine whether you’re among the losers or the winners when that stock market turnabout comes.

Source: The Only Stock Market Chart Investors Need to See

• Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY) yesterday (Thursday) offered $4.5 billion in cash for biotechnology company ImClone Systems Inc. (IMCL), the Associated Press reported. ImClone’s board has yet to comment on the proposal, which offers its stockholders $60 per share, a 30% premium to its Wednesday closing price of $46.44. Bristol-Myers already owns about 17% of ImClone.

• Eastman Kodak Co. (EK) said yesterday (Thursday) that second-quarter profit fell, as traditional film-based revenue slumped 14% to $847 million. Sales climbed 1% from $2.47 billion to $2.49 billion, and revenue from digital businesses rose 10% to $1.64 billion.

• Diana Shipping Inc. (DSX) said yesterday (Thursday) that second-quarter profit more than doubled due to higher charter rates and an increase in operating days, the Associated Press reported. The company said its earnings for the quarter ended June 30 increased to $56.7 million, or 76 cents per share, up from $26 million, or 41 cents per share, for the same period last year.

• Light, sweet crude oil for September delivery fell $2.69 to settle at $124.08 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange yesterday (Thursday). Prices are up 59 percent from a year ago, but have dropped 11% this month on concerns demand in the U.S. is pulling back.

• Google Inc. (GOOG) has plans to start-up a venture capital fund to provide seed money to promising start-ups, MarketWatch reported. Google follows in the footsteps of other tech giants with similar funds such as Intel Corp. (INTC), Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT).

• CBS Corp. (CBS) shares slumped 3% after the television network lowered its outlook based on slackening advertising sales, Forbes reported. Advertising sales fell 6% due to fewer primetime viewers and less spending by local stations. CBS reduced its guidance to the nearly flat from a prior estimate of growth of 3% – 5%.

• MasterCard Inc. (MA) fell almost 10% yesterday (Thursday), as investors worried about the effect waning consumer spending would have on debit and credit card use, Bloomberg News reported. MasterCard shares dropped $26.58 to close at $244.15.

• Standard & Poor’s lowered the rating on the three major U.S. automakers yesterday (Thursday), as domestic car companies continue to lose ground to foreign competition. General Motors Corp. (GM), Ford Motor Co. (F) and Chrysler LLC were all lowered to a rating of “B-minus,” six levels below investment grade, Reuters reported.

Source: Global Investing Roundups Friday, August 1st, 2008

As affordable digital camera make professional photographers of us all, photofinishing shops have been forced to adjust their services to cope with changing customer needs. Now, new technology can manage these transactions, providing customers with more choice and convenience when processing their digital images.

This offers a great opportunity for growth in an otherwise stagnant market. Here’s Greg with the details…

Film cameras are now museum pieces. In just a few short years, the popularity of digital cameras has exploded. In fact, most people who take pictures have gone digital. A commanding majority of consumers, 82%, use digital cameras. And get this — more than 75% of these same shutterbugs own two or more digital cameras, according to a 2006 Photography.com study.

It’s undeniable: Snapping digital images and sharing them on the Web isn’t going away anytime soon. Everyone is now a “professional” photographer — involved in every part of the process, from snapping the pics to uploading and editing shots.

The digital camera universe is crowded with big names. Canon (NYSE:CAJ), Sony (NYSE:SNE) and Kodak (NYSE:EK) all command hefty market share, and we don’t see any opportunity for a microcap to steal a significant chunk of this market.

However, there is another way to play this sector. We just found one company that has been an innovative force in digital photography for years. And more importantly, the company has been virtually invisible to investors and the general public…until now.

For you, that means an early opportunity to get in on digital photography’s last true moneymaking opportunity. It’s a company experiencing triple-digit growth that’s set to send share prices soaring. That’s growth you won’t get with Eastman Kodak or Canon Inc.

To find this true penny stock opportunity, you have to dig — all the way down to the OTC Bulletin Board…

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A Secret Way to Multiply a 39% Gain… Into Nearly 314%

Every $5,000 in just the shares would have churned out $1,950. Not bad.

But anyone who moved on the LEAPS call option we recommended could have hauled in $15,700 over exactly the same time period. That’s eight times the gains.

Here’s how you can jump on the next one…

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Back in the old days, we would take our film to be processed at a one-hour film shop, drugstore or big-box retailer. These stores managed the entire film developing process, known as photofinishing.

As the industry has grown to include digital image files in place of film, these photofinishing centers have been expanded and upgraded to handle the new technology — both to process the digital images and to offer pictures to customers in CD form.

This is where our company comes in. It sees itself as a gateway for transactions, bringing together retailers and digital content to offer potential customers smarter, easier options when it comes to processing their digital images.

This tiny microcap’s technology allows retailers to receive digital image orders online, which can then be processed and either shipped or remain at the store for the customer to pick up. The company manages the entire process, from the nuts and bolts of the retailer’s Web site to the actual monitoring and pre-emptive maintenance of the digital equipment.

The company is the industry standard, attracting blue chip clientele across the globe. Its photo and digital media platforms are at work in more than 8,000 retail locations worldwide. Its customer list is a virtual who’s who in retail sector. Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT), Costco (NASDAQ:COST) and CVS (NYSE:CVS) are all customers.

That’s not all…the company has also announced deals with Kodak China, Kodak Australia and Sam’s Club here in the U.S. The opportunity in these deals is very real… These new contracts should help the company continue its incredible growth.

Here is when I would have told you this company if only I could. Unfortunately, it is so small, even if 5% of the Penny Sleuth’s readership buys stock, we’d really push the share price too high. So, I gave it to my Bulletin Board Elite readers. But, you aren’t out of luck just yet…

I also talked my publisher into a half-off deal, as you are probably already familiar. If you sign up for my OTC stock advisory by midnight tonight, you’ll receive a full six months for free. Just click here to see how it all works…

Source: Digital Photography’s Last Hidden Opportunity

• Shares of Eastman Kodak Co. (EK) rose the most in 20 years as it boldly announced it will buyback $1 billion of its stock using a tax refund. The refund comes from an audit of the company’s taxes from 1993 to 1998, Bloomberg reported. The company posted a first-quarter loss in April.

• Kroger Co. (KR), the largest chain of U.S. grocery stores, beat analysts’ first-quarter earnings by lowering prices on the shelves and offering gasoline discounts, Reuters reported. The Cincinnati-based company Kroger posted a profit of $386 million, or 58 cents per share, compared with a profit of $336.6 million, or 47 cents per share, in the year-earlier quarter.

• BP PLC (BP) broke ground on a wind farm in Kansas yesterday (Tuesday), The Associated Press reported. The first phase of the project, located about 60 miles southwest of Wichita, is expected to generate up to 100 megawatts of electricity starting at the end of the year.

• India’s Reliance Entertainment and is in talks with Hollywood’s DreamWorks Animation SKG (DWA) to raise up to $2 billion for a joint movie venture, according to a recent report by The Associated Press. There are four to five other parties involved in the talks, the AP said, citing sources close to the deal, including Universal Pictures. However, a deal will not be signed anytime in the near future.

• Lukoil (ADR: LUKOY) plans to pay about $2.1 billion for a 49% stake in a refining joint venture with Italy’s ERG SpA, MarketWatch reported. The two companies will jointly operate the ISAB refinery complex in Priolo, Sicily.

• Wachovia Corp. (WB) has hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) to evaluate its risky portfolio of adjustable-rate mortgages that give loan holders several monthly payment options including an interest-only option that increases the balance of the mortgage. Wachovia could be in the market to sell the portfolio, DowJones reported, which could lead to heavy losses for the bank.

• The Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) announced yesterday (Tuesday) that it would increase prices as much as 25% to offset soaring petroleum and raw material costs. “The staggering increase in our costs over the past few months have forced us to take these further measures in order to restore our margins,” Chief Executive Officer Andrew Liveris said in the statement, Bloomberg News reported.

• Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) shares climbed 2.75% yesterday (Tuesday) with a gain of 59 cents to close at $22.04 on speculation that the search engine firm could be back in talks with Microsoft Corp. (MSFT). Several media reports citing undisclosed sources said the two tech firms were hashing out a possible deal for Yahoo’s online search business, MarketWatch reported.

Source: Global Investing Roundups Wednesday, June 25th, 2008