I am very big fan of soccer, having even traveled around the world on occasion to see games. Well, I was very enthusiastic about Brazil’s prospects for defending their Copa América title.  That was until all there superstars decided not to show up. Kaka, Ronaldinho, Adriano decided to sit out the tournament to rest.  Poor Ronaldo wasn’t even given a phone call.  The only bigname superstar playing is Robinho (not to discredit other good players such as Vagner Love), who is very gifted, but still young at 23.  Brazil has NOTHING to cheer about as picture below portrays.


Their first game was against Mexico, a team coming off a fresh beating from the US in the Gold Cup Tournament. Anyway, as the game started, it became obvious to me that Brazil was sleep walking on the field. This behavior only leads to one thing, conceded goals.  The goals scored to the credit of Mexico were great goals, but the first could have been avoided.  There was a total breakdown in Brazilian defense and Mexico banged the ball home.

Brazil woke up from their slumber in the second half and led an onslaught onto the Mexican goalie, but to no avail.  Brazil dropped 2-0 to Mexico. Well at this point Brazil is down but not out. It must win the next two games against Ecuador and Chile.  There next game is against Chile on July 1. I hope they bring back that “Joga Bonito” to game! 
 

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This morning I decided to bite the bullet and go long AMD (NYSE: AMD 14.13). For those of you who don’t know AMD, it is Advanced Micro Devices, the 90lb weakling vying for computer chip marketshare from 800lb gorilla Intel. What am I thinking?, this thing has been a dog (one with lice and flees). The pilots jumped outta this plane last September at $28.00 and since then it has lost significant altitude, traversing as low as 12.60 in April 2007. I do have history with this stock through a couple of quick trades on the way down with my overall result being net positive. With that being said, I removed my nose plug and pulled the trigger at 14.10. Oh boy, do I have a soft spot for underdogs!?

The company has had a VERY challenging year so far. It lost a ton of money in a price war with Intel, took on $2 billion more in debt and saw its workstation market share shrink thanks to one of its customers Sun becoming cozy with Intel. To add insult to injury, Barcelona, its first Quad Core chip has been like vaporware with rumors of possible delays. Finally, there has been chatter about becoming a fabless chip company by outsourcing chips to fab makers like Chartered Semiconductor. This has the potential of being negative as it can stretch out development time of chips. But this is not necessarily a bad thing since they can save a ton of money and still keep development time in check thanks to an existing close relationship with Chartered. After all, Nvidia is a fabless company and has managed to do extremely well. Many rumors are swirling around this company with the main one being possibility of a buyout, but that’s not why I’m here. You CANNOT time buyouts as you may end up holding stocks indefinitely waiting on one.



My main reason for buying this name is Technical. The chart suggests a turn in AMD to the upside may be in the works. I normally don’t purchase stocks so close to earnings, but I think the ‘broken old record’ negativity of the street could spawn a short term rally. AMD is such a hated stock that ANY glimmer of good news can make this thing pop. If we break above its short term high of $16.00~, we could possibly see $17.50 (200 day moving). Another positive note is that AMD has issued subpoenas to Intel’s Lawyers for allegedly forcing computer manufacturers, retailers and distributors to buy Intel chips instead of AMDs. I know, I know, I can’t invest waiting on the outcome of a court case, but this serves as perception of fighting back, which may help fuel any rally.



On the analyst side, Lehman raised ratings to $15 from $13. Do I trade purely based on these guys recommendations? NO. But there is one Analyst in particular, Eric Ross of Think Equity that has always been right on the money with this stock. He had some positive comments on AMD yesterday morning, but external fed pressure kept it in check, very nice! I have used use this opportunity of market unrest due to the Fed Meeting on Wednesday to snag a couple shares.

As with any investment, I have already defined my exits should things go north or south. Investing in this company is more speculative in nature because you have a company that is doing very poorly trying to claw their way out of a ditch. Buzzfans, do I lose my shirt or make a couple extra bucks? We’ll see, but I feel strongly about this one. Do you Due Diligence and have good one!



Disclaimer: I am LONG AMD stock as of the posting date of this article. This post is merely to present an idea and not to try to persuade you to buy/sell any security within. Please do your own Due Diligence BEFORE making any trades.

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After reportedly “quitting” his show the Apprentice on NBC, The Donald is back with a new series called “Lady or a Tramp”. This show will feature party girls attending his charm school for a lesson in class and the finer points of being a lady. Unfortunately Paris won’t be able to attend as she missed registration due to commitments to the state of California.

After watching Charm School with Mo’nique on VH1, I can’t believe that any other show (with rowdy young women) can get any worse without giving the girls live ammo. The girls from Mo’nique’s charm school were the losers from Flavor Flav’s: Flavor of Love and without a doubt, are straight up uncut! Click this link for more.

This new Trump show will hopefully be on FOX this summer. No debut date has been set yet, but I dont think this project will be enough to propel him back into the fall schedule lineup. What would really be cool is for the Donald is to have a “Celebrity” version of this show featuring the likes of Paris Hilton, Nicole Ritchie, Lindsey Lohan and Britney Spears. Now that would get him back on primetime TV in a heartbeat!

I wonder what the Donald’s new catch phrase will be?

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Its quite ironic that RIMM (Nasdaq: RIMM - 168.00) will be reporting earnings the day prior to the release of the iPhone. For all those who do not know, RIMM is the maker of the ever popular Blackberry smartphone/PDA. With all the hype surrounding the iPhone, the market will be looking on their earnings like a rabid dog. One hint of a chink in its armor and RIMM may be taken to the cleaners. RIMM is sitting almost at its 52wk high and what a ride it has been. I am not one to enter a position a couple days before earnings (especially with an impending Fed Meeting on Wednesday — same day as earnings), so I would sit on the sidelines and wait for a pullback. If nothing happens, well I will just have to pass. I have seen some earnings massacres and they can get pretty brutal. Heck, I would NOT be surprised if RIMM printed $154.00 (providing it doesn’t live up to the street’s gargantuan expectations). If it breaks that level, then the $130’s could be in the cards.

The stock has been on earnings run with momentum traders and day traders riding the wave along with the more long term traders. These shorter term traders will be looking for ANY reason to sell, whether the news is good or bad. They may decide to hold IF the news is so overwhelmingly good, it pays to hold on. But if they decide to cash in and drive the price down (“sell on the news” activity), I would be willing to put a position on, providing that the earnings warrants the buy.

Apple is aiming for the retail consumer market with its first iteration of the iPhone. I don’t think this will cut deeply into RIMMs marketshare as their primary focus is business customers. Of late, RIMM has been trying to penetrate the retail consumer market with phones such as the Blackberry Pearl and the Curve. If anything, the appeal and hype of Apple’s iPhone may drive many retail consumers to the smartphone market and when they look at choices, they may decide to go with a Blackberry instead…after all, the iPhone isn’t exactly cheap at $499 to $599. Based on this reasoning, there is still credible danger to RIMM if the iPhone’s price dropped to $299. But before that happens, I feel there will be a drive to newer more feature laiden/affordable products to combat the iPhone. RIMM is the type of company that will rise to the challenge.



Some analysts are very positive on RIMM, with Lehman issuing a $175.00 price target. This morning, a $210.00 price target was thrown out by UBS. They expect results to come in at/above higher end of guidance. Price target’s even go as high as $240.00, courtesy of Goldman.



My take, lets take a wait and see approach with this one!

Disclaimer: I have no position in RIMM stock as of the posting date of this article. This post is merely to present an idea and not to try to persuade you to buy/sell any security within. Please do your own Due Diligence BEFORE making any trades. 

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Its like a pandemic..but here’s another Viral “Fill in the blanks” to discover new blogs and increase your subscriber base. I got this from Founders Cafe, which is run by Jimmy Huen. This is a little bit harder to do, but just read instructions below. This “strain” of the virus may not have many takers as the procedure is harder, and it relies on bloggers reciprocate by subscribing back to you … But hey, nothing tried, nothing done….enjoy!!

***Start Copying Here:***

Here are the rules:

1) If you don’t have a bloglines account, as many of you may now, signup for one, if you do have a bloglines account sign in to your account!

2) For bloggers, you can write a short introductory paragraph about what how you found the Bloglines list and include a link to the blog that referred you, (i.e my Stocks HD TV blog, in this case) to the list.

3) COPY the Rules and ENTIRE List below and post it to your blog. To avoid duplicate content and increase the amount of keywords your site can be accessible for, go ahead and change the titles of the blog. Just don’t change the links of the blog.

4) Take the “My New List” and move them into the “The Original List”.

5) Add 3 Blogs that you’ve just added to your Bloglines List to the “My New List” section. Remember to also add the “List the Site link next to your new blogs (i.e. http://www.bloglines.com/sub/http://www.theblogurl.com/feed)

6) Add Everyone on this list to your Bloglines List by clicking on “List the Site.” Those who want good karma will list you back. If not, you will for sure get the benefits of readers from the bloggers who continue this list after you.

***My New List***
Yoeru - List the Site
Master Engrafter - List the Site
Make Money Blog - List the Site

***The Original List***
EO Internet Marketing - List the Site
BlackYard dot Net - List the Site
Dumb Little Man - List the Site
Cheezmizan with Chuva - List the Site
Founders Cafe - List the Site
Darin Carter - List the Site
Buzzing Bell - List the Site
Big Rayvin - List the Site
Agloco Hours - List the Site
Affordable Graphic Design - List the Site
Story-Story Dot Com - List the Site
Telenovela Love Garden - List the Site
KellyCho - List the Site
DerekSemmler - List the Site
CashForComments - List the Site
Nice4Rice - List the Site
Derrich - List the Site
Ms. Danielle - List the Site
Search Engine Marketing - List the Site
Mr. Gary Lee - List the Site
Dosh Dosh - List the Site
David Culpepper - List the Site
Jon Lee - List the Site
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Samanathon - List the Site
John Chow - List the Site
IdiotBrain - List the Site

***End Copying Here***

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