The bedbugs bite
I got a Select Comfort (NASDAQ:SCSS) air-chambered mattress last year. I love it. My wife and I have been sleeping better since it arrived. However, the same can't be said of my investment in Select Comfort itself.

Pleased with my mattress purchase, I figured that buying shares in the mattress maker was the right thing to do. It worked out well, especially when the company was blowing the comforter off Wall Street's profit targets for a few quarters.

However, someone's been letting the air out of the stock lately. Tempur-Pedic (NYSE:TPX) is the hot bedding choice at the moment. Mattress behemoth Sealy (NYSE:ZZ) is holding its own, too. And things got even worse for Select Comfort -- and my portfolio -- after the company hosed down its profit guidance on Wednesday. Weak comps and falling margins are eating into the company's expectations, and it now expects earnings for all of 2007 to come in close to the low end of its range at $0.87 per share.

It's still a profit, but where's the growth? The company has been stumbling for a few quarters now. My brother-in-law suggested recently that it should get rid of spokeswoman Lindsay Wagner. "She doesn't look like she's been sleeping well," he said of her appearance in a Select Comfort infomercial.

I don't have a problem with Wagner. I think she's great. However, if replacing her with someone like, say, Lynda Carter is the key to making Select Comfort a darling, I don't have a problem with that, either.

Goodbye, Bionic Woman. Hello, Wonder Woman.

Quick hits
A few more of the market's stories, in brief:

  • Blockbuster (NYSE:BBI) CEO Jim Keyes is bringing over two key executives that were with him when he was turning 7-Eleven around. Note to Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX): Start delivering freshly whirred Slurpees to subscribers' homes before Blockbuster beats you to it.
  • AMC is filing to go public, again. It has a ton of debt. It's posted nine straight years of operating losses. And it suffered a dip in comps this past quarter, even despite posting a profit and having a healthy slate of May and June releases to work with. So why is the company trying to go public again? They didn't make a Pluto Nash 2 for a reason. 
  • Shares of XM (NASDAQ:XMSR) and Sirius (NASDAQ:SIRI) have been rising lately as more analysts are starting to believe that their planned merger will go through. What's more amazing? XM and Sirius joining together, or Eddie Van Halen and David Lee Roth joining forces and hitting the road again? Tough call.

Until next week, I remain,

Rick Munarriz