Google Launches a Browser: Attack on Microsoft

On the surface, we designed a browser window that is streamlined and simple. To most people, it isn't the browser that matters. It's only a tool to run the important stuff -- the pages, sites and applications that make up the web. Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast. It gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go.

Under the hood, we were able to build the foundation of a browser that runs today's complex web applications much better. By keeping each tab in an isolated "sandbox", we were able to prevent one tab from crashing another and provide improved protection from rogue sites. We improved speed and responsiveness across the board. We also built a more powerful JavaScript engine, V8, to power the next generation of web applications that aren't even possible in today's browsers.

Google released a comic book to explain how this new browser is different.

Taking Profits in Glass: Owens-Illinois (OI)

This stock has been straight up for the last 3 days. With this recent decline in Natural Gas, the stock should be saving millions in raw material costs on a daily basis. However, this market giveth and taketh very quickly. Time to realize some profits.

Current Price: 45.70

I also think we should take some profits in GOOG and FSLR

Historic Day for Oil, Down Over $9

Oil prices crumble as global economic outlook dims
Tuesday September 2, 8:51 am ET
By Pablo Gorondi, Associated Press Writer Oil prices fall as global demand concerns resurface after hurricane worries subside Oil prices tumbled more than $8 Tuesday to levels last seen five months ago as investors shifted their focus from hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico to slowing global demand.By afternoon in Europe, light, sweet crude for October delivery was down $8.06 a barrel to $107.40 in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The last time prices hovered in that range was in early April before a historic run-up above $147 per barrel. Earlier in the session prices had dropped as low as $105.46

"The market continues to be weighed down by worries of a global economic downturn and slowing oil demand in developing markets," said Victor Shum, an energy analyst with consultancy Purvin & Gertz in Singapore. "Action by OPEC and supply side concerns should put a backstop to any sharp price drop."

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is scheduled to meet Sept. 9 in Vienna and has indicated it may take action to defend the $100 a barrel level.

Ahead of Gustav, there was some disruption to oil supplies as oil companies shut down production and evacuated facilities. Altogether, about 2.4 million barrels of refining capacity was halted, roughly 15 percent of the U.S. total, according to figures from Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos. The Gulf Coast is home to nearly half of the nation's refining capacity.

It could be a day or more before oil and natural gas companies can assess the damage to their drilling and refining installations. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said as much as 20 percent of oil and gas production that was stopped because of Gustav could be restored by this weekend, stressing that it was a rough estimate.

Traders are also keeping an eye on other storms brewing in the region.

Tropical Storm Hanna was predicted to come ashore in Georgia and South Carolina late in the week and could regain hurricane strength later in the day. Tropical Storm Ike formed late Monday in the Atlantic Ocean and may become a hurricane in the next 36 hours as it approaches the Bahamas.

"September is the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season. After Gustav, there are two more now on the radar screen. The storms are likely to provide some upside risks to the oil futures market," Shum said.

In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures fell 20.8 cents to $3.9839 a gallon, while gasoline prices lost 20.44 cents to $2.6498 a gallon. Natural gas for October delivery fell 68.7 cents to $7.256 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, October Brent crude fell $2.97 to $106.44 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080902/oil_prices.html

Mercifully, Gustav caused considerably less damage than everyone feared. Even though the current price of oil still has a hurricane premium thanks to Hannah and Ike, oil has fallen to a new multi-month low.

This is the vindication I was looking for: Oil will easily break $100 by October.

DUG is up 2.57 (7.43%) to 37.18.

Category 2 Gustav Slamming Louisiana

Hurricane Gustav is bearing down on the Louisiana coast. It has weakened to a Category 2 hurricane with winds of 110 mph but that doesn't change too much in terms of impacts affecting southern Louisiana.

Watch the latest hurricane forecast.

As of 10 a.m. CDT, Gustav made landfall near Cocodrie, Louisiana. It was centered about 70 miles southwest of New Orleans and about 100 miles southeast of Lafayette, Louisiana. It is moving to the northwest at 15 mph and it will continue in this direction all day today moving into western Louisiana by tonight.

View the Gustav Tracker.

View the projected path.

The northern half of Gustav is now spinning over southeastern Louisiana. In fact, the northern half of Gustav's eyewall is scraping along the marshy coast of southern Louisiana passing south of Houma and eventually south of Morgan City.

Spiraling rain bands will continue to push onshore this morning and will produce tropical storm-force sustained winds (occasionally sustained hurricane-force winds) and easily gust over hurricane force.

The very dangerous water-level rise will continue to grow higher and higher this morning with a 8 to 12 foot surge in the vicinity of landfall. Here's a look at the expected storm surge.

View the current Hurricane watches and warnings and tropical storm watches and warnings.

Remember, don't only focus on the landfall location. Tropical storm-force winds extend 200+ miles from the center and hurricane-force winds extend 70 miles from the center. Wind, surge, and rain impacts will be far reaching. After landfall, the focus will shift from winds and surge to flooding rains and isolated tornadoes.

Tropical Storm Hanna was centered about 40 miles north of the Southeast Bahamas as of 11 am ET. Maximum sustained winds have yet again increased to 60 mph.

A hurricane watch has been posted for a portion of the Bahamas.

View the Hanna Tracker.

Hanna will slide southwest today before making a turn toward the northwest some time on Tuesday. This will take it on a course that will move it over the southeastern and central Bahamas during the next few days.

View the latest projected path for Hanna.

Tropical Storm Hanna has already begun to churn the ocean waters off the Southeast coast. On Sunday afternoon, numerous rescues by lifeguards were carried out along the North Carolina coast and lifeguards along the Georgia coast reported several rip currents. Please be mindful of the dangerous surf during this holiday weekend.

Though Gustav is still on people's minds, coastal residents of Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina should all monitor the track and development of Hanna. By Friday, it may be nearing the Southeast U.S. coast.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic Basin, a tropical wave and broad low pressure area has been deemed Tropical Depression 9. It is located halfway between the Lesser Antilles and Africa. Thunderstorm activity has remained with the depression over several hours now.

It may become a tropical storm by later today. It will initially head west-northwest then west over the course of this week. It is forecast to become a hurricane later this week.

There is another tropical wave that has just emerged from the African Coast that has potential for development in the next couple of days.

http://www.weather.com/newscenter/hurricanecentral/update/index.html

Stocks jump on better-than-expected GDP, jobs data

Stocks jump on better-than-expected gross domestic product reading, decline in jobless claims NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks extended their advance Thursday after a better-than-expected reading on the nation's economy and a drop in jobless claims. The Dow Jones industrial average rose nearly 200 points.

Stocks gained as oil prices, up in early trading, reversed course.

The Commerce Department said gross domestic product rose at an annual rate of 3.3 percent for the April-June period, as a weaker dollar helped boost U.S. exports. That exceeded the government's initial estimate of a 1.9 percent increase as well as economists' forecast of a 2.7 percent gain.

The growth marked the economy's best performance since the third quarter of last year, when GDP rose at a 4.8 percent pace.

Investors closely watch GDP to determine whether the economy is picking up momentum after being pounded by housing woes and a debilitating credit crisis. The economy grew at a weak rate of 0.9 percent in the first quarter and actually shrank in the last three months of 2007.

Also Thursday, the Labor Department said the number of newly laid off people seeking jobless benefits fell for the third straight week. The number of claims dropped to a seasonally adjusted 425,000, down 10,000 from the previous week. That was slightly better than the 427,000 expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson/IFR.

But economists consider claims above 400,000 an indicator of a slowing economy. Companies have cut jobs every month this year as they grapple with rising energy costs and tighter credit.

"We didn't get a whole lot of new information," said Charlie Smith, chief investment officer at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh, referring to the reports. He noted that trading remains light ahead of the long Labor Day weekend.

"Exaggerated reactions tend to happen when you have thin trading," he said.

In midday trading, the Dow rose 192.81, or 1.68 percent, to 11,695.32 after rising more than 115 points over the past two sessions.

Broader stock indicators also rose. The Standard & Poor's 500 index advanced 14.51, or 1.13 percent, to 1,296.17, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 23.48, or 0.99 percent, to 2,405.94.

Bonds fell as investors moved into stocks. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.81 percent from 3.77 percent late Wednesday. The dollar rose against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.

Investors are also watching oil prices as Tropical Storm Gustav churns toward the Gulf of Mexico on a course that could collide with oil and gas platforms. But strength in the dollar helped drive down the price of oil.

Light, sweet crude fell $2.82 to $115.32 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The decline in oil made energy stocks one of the few areas of weakness Thursday.

Devon Energy Corp. fell $4.96, or 4.7 percent, to $101.82, while Hess Corp. fell $2.64, or 2.5 percent, to $104.50.

In corporate news, Sears Holdings Corp. said its second-quarter profit fell 62 percent as weak consumer spending continues to hamper store sales. The retailer earned $65 million, or 50 cents per share, in the three-month period ended Aug. 2. That compares with $173 million, or $1.15 per share, in the year-ago period. The stock rose $3.80, or 4.4 percent, to $90.78.

Tiffany & Co. jumped $3.88, or 9.8 percent, to $43.49 after reporting that its second-quarter profit doubled as sales rose by double-digit percentages in Asia and Europe.

Investors have been looking to retailers' results for information not only about the companies, but about consumers' ability to spend. Several upbeat reports Wednesday from retailers helped buoy Wall Street's confidence in the economy.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by more than 2 to 1 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 385.5 million shares.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080828/wall_street.html

Hedge Fund Tracking: Lone Pine Capital's 13F (Stephen Mandel Jr.)

Full Credit for this Post should go to Market Folly

http://marketfolly.blogspot.com/


The Hedge Fund 13F Tracking series continues. If you've missed them, I've already covered Jeffrey Gendell's Tontine Partners here, Bret Barakett's Tremblant Capital here, Peter Thiel's Clarium Capital here, and John Griffin's Blue Ridge Capital here. Next up, we have Lone Pine Capital, managed by Stephen Mandel Jr. Lone Pine is an $8 Billion fund that has returned over 25% annually ever since its inception in 1997. Why is Mandel worth following you might ask? Well, he served as a consumer/retail analyst for Tiger Management back in the day for legendary investor Julian Robertson. Robertson's proteges/right-hand men have been nicknamed the "Tiger Cubs" and many have started their own funds. So, not only has Mandel learned from one of the best, but he has put up some very solid returns himself. Mandel is well versed in the ways of finding undervalued companies and his funds typically like to sniff out solid companies with good management that are trading below their intrinsic value. Just this past year 1 of his funds was up 34% before fees while another was up 32% before fees. His track record speaks for itself. And, not to mention, he learned from one of the greats in Julian Robertson. However, as I wrote about here, Lone Pine has had a rough 2008, where their Lone Cedar Fund was -5.38% year to date (as of the middle of July '08). By analyzing their 13F, maybe we'll be able to see where they are slipping up.

Once again, I'd like to give thanks to Alex Prywes for helping me gather and sort through the data of numerous hedge funds (including the one below). Thanks to Alex's help, we can now cover even more funds. And, on that note.... onto the 13F! The following are Lone Pine Capital's current holdings as of June 30th 2008, as released in their most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The positions in this most recent 13F were compared to last quarter's 13F and here are the changes made to their portfolio:

New Positions:
Entergy Corp (ETR): 3,518,632 shares. This position is 6.06% of Lone Pine's portfolio.
Weatherford Intl (WFT): 4,820,337 shares. This position is 3.42% of Lone Pine's portfolio.
Lorillard Inc (LO): 3,328,911 shares. This position is 3.29% of Lone Pine's portfolio.
Amazon (AMZN): 2,527,634 shares. This position is 2.65% of Lone Pine's portfolio.
Sears Holdings Corp (SHLD) Puts: 1,336,800. This position is 1.41% of Lone Pine's portfolio.


Added to:
America Movil (AMX): Increased position by 39.5%. Position is now 10.74% of their portfolio.
Sandridge Energy (SD): Increased position by 22.24%. Position is now 11.35% of their portfolio.
SAIC (SAI): Increased position by 16.38%. Position is now 2.45% of their portfolio.
Dicks Sporting Goods (DKS): Increased position by 15.8%. Position is now 1.48% of their portfolio.
XTO Energy (XTO): Increased position by 5.41%. Position is now 8.33% of their portfolio.


Reduced Positions:
CB Richard Ellis (CBG): Reduced their position by 9.62%. Position is now 2.94% of their portfolio.
Illumina (ILMN): Reduced their position by 9.97%. Position is now 2.69% of their portfolio.
Fastenal (FAST): Reduced their position by 12.5%. Position is now 3.78% of their portfolio.
Qualcomm (QCOM): Reduced their position by 13.88%. Position is now 7.26% of their portfolio.
Brookfield Asset Mgmt (BAM): Reduced their position by 16.4%. Position is now 3.26% of their portfolio.
Monsanto (MON): Reduced their position by 25.82%. Position is now 3.27% of their portfolio.
Mastercard (MA): Reduced their position by 29%. Position is now 2.48% of their portfolio.
Priceline (PCLN): Reduced their position by 30.75%. Position is now 2.34% of their portfolio.
Google (GOOG): Reduced their position by 39.30%. Position is now 7.39% of their portfolio.
Infosys (INFY): Reduced their position by 49.1%. Position is now 2.19% of their portfolio.
Visa (V): Reduced their position by 57.38%. Position is now 1.93% of their portfolio.
Sears Holdings (SHLD) Puts (2nd put position): Reduced their position by 79.73%. Position is now 0.21% of their portfolio.


Removed Positions (Positions Lone Pine sold out of completely):
Apple (AAPL)
Brookfield Asset Management (BAM) - 2nd listed position
CME Group (CME)
EMC Corp (EMC)
Nutrisystem (NTRI)
Southwestern Energy (SWN)
SRA International (SRX)


Positions with no change:
MSC Industrial Direct (MSM). Position is 3.26% of their portfolio.
Teradata (TDC). Position is 3.06% of their portfolio.
Eagle Materials Inc (EXP). Position is 1.66% of their portfolio.
Bunge (BG) Puts. Position is 0.85% of their portfolio.
Deltek (PROJ). Position is 0.24% of their portfolio.
New York Times (NYT) Puts. Position is 0.02% of their portfolio.


Top 10 holdings by % of portfolio:
1. Sandridge Energy (SD): 11.35% of the portfolio
2. America Movil (AMX): 10.74% of the portfolio
3. XTO Energy (XTO): 8.33% of the portfolio
4. Google (GOOG): 7.39% of the portfolio
5. Qualcomm (QCOM): 7.26% of the portfolio
6. Entergy (ETR): 6.06% of the portfolio (new position)
7. Fastenal (FAST): 3.78% of the portfolio
8. Weatherford Intl (WFT): 3.42% of the portfolio (new position)
9. Lorillard Inc (LO): 3.29% of the portfolio (new position)
10. Monsanto (MON): 3.27% of the portfolio

--------------------------------------------

Breakdown: Well, it's very evident where Mandel & Lone Pine's poor performance is coming from. As of June 30th, they had massive holdings in natural gas and oil players Sandridge Energy (SD) and XTO Energy (XTO). SD was their top holding by % value and XTO was not far behind as their 3rd largest holding. The selloff in natural gas, oil, and all related stocks has undoubtedly affected Lone Pine in a negative way. The selloff in those names started around July, leaving Mandel a very limited window of opportunity to sell. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait until the next round of 13F's in the coming quarter to find out what Mandel has done with his large natural gas positions. Considering that the filing reports holdings as of June 30th, and the major selloff began in July, we have no idea whether Lone Pine was massively hurt by the selloff, or whether they were one of the parties responsible for the selloff. But, no matter how savvy Mandel may be, there is no way he got through July unscathed. So, that looks to be one of the main areas contributing to the lackluster performance of his Lone Cedar Fund so far in 2008.

Next, I want to highlight that Lone Pine added to their America Movil (AMX) position by 39%, nearly doubling down on their shares. Obviously, Mandel still likes the company and was using the weakness to add to his position. His addition is interesting, considering numerous hedge funds completely removed their AMX position over the past quarter, including his 'Tiger cub' buddy John Griffin over at Blue Ridge Capital. AMX has long been a hedge fund favorite and has been a top 10 holding in many prominent hedge fund portfolios over the past year. But, with the recent developments in AMX over the last few months, many hedge funds have taken action. And, unlike his colleagues, Mandel was buying the shares that other fund managers were selling off. It will be interesting to see how this continues to play out, as the once hedge fund favorite AMX may be falling out of favor with numerous managers. Lone Pine, however, was adding with conviction, making it their portfolio's 2nd largest position.

I would also like to highlight a couple of new positions started by Lone Pine this past quarter. They added Entergy (ETR) in mass, making it their 6th largest holding at 6.06% of their overall portfolio. In the past, I've talked about ETR on the blog as a way to play both the rising demand in electricity as well as the nuclear space in alternative energy. In addition to starting ETR, they started Weatherford (WFT), an equipment and service provider in the oil and natural gas spaces. They brought this position up to the fund's 8th largest holding at 3.42% of their portfolio. Additionally, they started a position in Lorillard (LO), a cigarette manufacturer. They brought this name up to the 9th largest fund holding, at 3.29% of the portfolio. Mandel added ETR, WFT, and LO all with conviction over the past quarter, landing all three as top 10 holdings.

Turning to tech, we see that Lone Pine has sizable positions in hedge fund favorites like Google (GOOG) and Qualcomm (QCOM). However, Lone Pine was selling off some of their tech holdings during the past quarter. They sold 13% of their QCOM position, leaving it as the fund's 5th largest holding. Mandel got aggressive with Google (GOOG) though, selling nearly 40% of his position. Despite the selling, it still remains their 4th largest holding. That just goes to show how large of a position he had in GOOG. Additionally, he sold completely out of Apple (AAPL). Just last quarter, it was his fund's 5th largest holding. Now, he no longer even holds a position.

Lone Pine was also busy selling the payment processors Mastercard (MA) and Visa (V). They sold 30% of their position in MA and 57% of their position in V. You can't really blame them though, as they were sitting on some handsome profits from those positions. We'll keep an eye out to see if they add back to their positions now that MA and V trade at cheaper prices than they did 2 months ago. After all, the payment processors are big hedge fund favorites, having appeared in numerous funds' portfolios.

Overall, its easy to see where Lone Pine might be struggling this year. They've been rewarded with nice gains in some of their tech and payment processing holdings. But, those gains could have been easily nullified by the likely beating their natural gas and oil holdings took. If you are interested in further comparing Lone Pine's holdings, you can check out the analysis I did of their previous 13F here. Lastly, in a recent development, Lone Pine recently filed a 13G with the SEC, disclosing their minority stake in Hansen Natural (HANS), which I wrote about here.

And, you can view their most recent 13F as filed with the SEC here.

A little Vindication For My Bearish Oil Call

Yesterday, Crude Oil hit $122/ barrel and today we have it trading at $114.63. That's already more than $7 lower from yesterday's high.

The rally we saw less than 24 hours ago was Russia-U.S. fear driven and not insight on demand building. Now that Tropical Storm Fay is looking less and less destructive while tension are easing in Georgia, we are seeing oil fall closer to a Supply/Demand equilibrium.

The sell-off in commodities is the reason I haven't recommended Foster Wheeler (FWLT) even at these level. This stock moves in tandum with oil, although earnings shouldn't. I won't fight the tape.
However, when FWLT falls below $45, the risk-reward ratio looks great.