If you're feeling good about the market, you're not alone. Take my hand as we go over some of this week's more uplifting headlines.
1. C'mon baby, preorder my Fire
Everybody knew that Amazon.com
Sure, it doesn't have a camera or a microphone. The screen is also smaller than the iPad's. There's no 3G model, either. However, it dives right in with Amazon's growing ecosystem of digital books, games, videos, music, and apps. Prime subscribers paying $79 a year for free two-day shipping will also be able to stream 11,000 titles from the Kindle Fire at no additional cost.
Amazon's gadget will be a game changer. It won't be an iPad killer. In an ideal scenario, the $199 price will actually grow the tablet market.
However, it will sell briskly. The genius move of offering a paid app for free every single day will also make sure that it gets fired up regularly.
2. It's on like Reggaeton
Clear Channel (OTC: CCMO) is putting some corazon into its iHeartRadio app. The terrestrial radio giant is teaming up with Spanish-language leader Univision to offer its Latino-friendly radio stations as streams through the free iHeartRadio app.
It's a brilliant move by Clear Channel. Sirius XM Radio
3. Renren streams on
China's popular social networking site wants to be a video star. Renren
It's a good catch. Sure, 56.com isn't as big as some of the publicly traded video websites in China, but that only means that Renren is getting more bang for its buck -- opportunistically snapping up a popular viral video hub at a time when it would be hard for any Chinese dot-com to go public on its own.
Renren will also be able to grow 56.com's audience. There are 124.2 million registered users on Renren, and roughly a quarter of them are active users.
Expect more deals like this in the coming months, as fast-growing upstarts that were eyeing IPOs realize that it's better to be acquired by stable dot-com giants than to wait for investors to feel safe in buying freshly minted Chinese stocks again.
4. McMonopoly
The annual Monopoly promotion began at McDonald's
This does make a difference. You can already see folks checking the menu to make sure that they order the right combination to maximize the number of chances to win. Game pieces are on the large fries and on the medium soft drink cups. More importantly for McDonald's barbell pricing strategy, diners have to upgrade from the low-margin Dollar Menu if they want to collect game pieces.
I'm not sure if this has a favorable impact on Hasbro
5. Jabil brings it home
Things are looking up for Jabil Circuit
The contract electronics manufacturer posted better-than-expected quarterly results, boosting its near-term guidance as well.
Jabil's revenue climbed 10% to $4.3 billion, with core profitability rising 19% to $0.62 a share. Wall Street was targeting a net income of $0.56 a share on $4.2 billion in revenue. Jabil's outlook for the current quarter is also ahead of where analysts are perched.
We can't assume that this is a good omen for the contract manufacturing industry as a whole. Jabil claims that it gained market share and added customers during the period. In other words, buying the competition may not be the best way to play this when investors can just buy Jabil itself.
If you want to see if these companies continue to do the smart thing, track them through My Watchlist.
- Add Sirius XM Radio to My Watchlist.
- Add Renren to My Watchlist.
- Add McDonald's to My Watchlist.
- Add Jabil Circuit to My Watchlist.
- Add Hasbro to My Watchlist.
- Add Amazon.com to My Watchlist.