Jim Cramer's Best Blogs NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Jim Cramer fills his blog on RealMoney every day with his up-to-the-minute reactions to what's happening in the market and his legendary ahead-of-the-crowd ideas. This week he blogged on:
a recent trading pattern that screams bullishness in the market;
how Whirlpool astonished the market; and
the looming danger for the Facebook IPO.
Click here for information on RealMoney, where you can see all the blogs, including Jim Cramer's -- and reader comments -- in real time.
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USD-CHF: Near-Term Bias Is Lower The following commentary comes from an independent investor or market observer as part of TheStreet's guest contributor program, which is separate from the company's news coverage.
NEW YORK (fxtechstrategy.com) -- Although the dollar-Swiss franc halted its declines to close slightly higher the past week, it continues to hold on to most of its weakness started from the 0.9591 level.
This suggests that USD-CHF's present attempt on the upside is corrective and should fade. That will eventually return it to its Jan. 27 low at 0.9114 with a violation of that level shifting the focus to the 0.9063 and 0.9075 levels, which mark its Nov. 30 low and 50 Fibonacci retracement (0.8558-0.9591 rally), respectively.
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Greece: Sunday Night Deadline for Deal By Demetris Nellas and Derek Gatopoulos
ATHENS, Greece (TheStreet) -- Greece's finance minister said negotiations for the bailout deal his country needs to avoid defaulting on its debts must be completed by late Sunday, but that a breakthrough is being held up by demands from debt inspectors for more austerity measures.
Evangelos Venizelos said Saturday the negotiations in Athens with rescue creditors for a new 130 billion euros ($171 billion) bailout deal are at "a very crucial stage."
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Coca-Cola, Groupon Earnings to Top Coming Week NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- As Americans go back to work after Super Bowl Sunday, investors will hope for a final resolution to the long-delayed Greek debt negotiations before looking to digest a slew of U.S. corporate earnings.
After Greece failed again last week to come to an agreement with private investors on a debt writedown, investors are hoping they will see a resolution after a planned meeting between Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and the head of the three parties of the coalition government over the weekend.
Greek government spokesman Pantelis Kapsis said the private sector bond swap deal was almost complete. "Within the day, we will have to finalize a series of alternative proposals which will be put before the political leaders so we can take the final decisions," he said.
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5 Local Businesses Getting a Super Bowl Bounce
INDIANAPOLIS (MainStreet) -- Football fans have been swarming Indianapolis to watch two venerable NFL teams match up in Super Bowl XLVI at Lucas Oil Stadium.
The National Retail Federation estimates there will be some $11 billion in nationwide Super Bowl spending on food and drink, apparel and electronics, among other things. As host city, Indianapolis can expect a larger than normal chunk of that: $150 million in direct spending from NFL sponsors, fans, media and other visitors as they throw down cash and credit cards for lodging, entertainment, food, business services and other hospitality needs, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.
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Top Super Bowl Facts You May Not Know From the longest Super Bowl commercial to the most expensive ticket for this year's big game, reporter Brittany Umar reveals some of the top facts you may not know about the Super Bowl.
Merck's Lower Tax Rate NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- It seems innocuous, at least in the hands of the media. Merck's tax rate was "lower," Reuters said twice in coverage of the drug giant's 4th quarter earnings report this week.
Nearly all media outlets, from ABC News to The Washington Post, used a similar voicing. Merck's earnings were up on a lower tax rate.
But how much lower?
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Facebook's IPO Fortune: Tech Weekly Recap NEW YORK (TheStreet) -
Facebook. Facebook. Facebook. The social networking giant was the star of the show this week, as the company filed its paperwork to go public and caused journalists, investors and nearly the entire tech world to weigh in with their thoughts.
Facebook filed its S-1 on Wednesday, seeking to raise $5 billion. That would be the largest tech IPO in history, outdoing the likes of other web giants, such as Google and Amazon. Facebook will trade under the ticker symbol "FB", but the exchange is not yet known.
Morgan Stanley is the lead underwriter, with five other investment banks helping with the offering.
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Private Equity Has a 'Social Responsibility': Carlyle Founder NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Gordon Gekko? Try Mother Teresa.
The private equity firms that sometimes reap billions in gains on buyout investments also have a social responsibility, says one private equity titan.
Such an acknowledgement would add to the expectation that firms can find the highest investment returns in the financial world and could solve the industry's negative image, as outrage bubbles underneath the Presidential candidacy of the former Massachusetts governor and Bain Capital head Mitt Romney.
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Foreclosure Settlement Will Settle Nothing NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- A foreclosure settlement between the banks and the 50 states Monday, if it does finally happen, will likely not have the positive outcomes that investors have been hoping for.
Details of the deal emerging from recent press reports suggests that the states, while requiring banks to address their foreclosure procedures and reduce principal on mortgages, might not grant them any real immunity from future mortgage litigation.
That offers little comfort to investors who have been hoping that the settlement will provide some much-desired certainty on the scale and scope of the mortgage litigation facing banks.
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Currency ETFs Hold Their Own NEW YORK (ETF Expert) -- The mainstream financial media may have caught a break in 2011. Neither the S&P 500 nor the Dow fell more than 20% from respective highs, meaning that nobody ran with the "Bear Is Back" headline. It follows that the March 2, 2009 lows still represent the start of a bull market uptrend.
Not surprisingly, many have chosen to wistfully recollect the 90%-plus, since-inception gains for U.S. stocks. Meanwhile, others wisely remind us that substantial corrections of 10% to 20% occurred in each of the 3 years -- 2009, 2010, 2011.
Interestingly enough, there have been a number of cat-skinning ways to achieve admirable profits in the period. The Australian dollar via the CurrencyShares Australian Dollar picked up three-fourths of the SPDR S&P 500 Trust's upside for roughly three-fifths the beta risk. That's a pretty good deal for highly correlated assets in the currency "carry trade."
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Micron, Depomed: After-Hours Trading (Update 1) Updated from 5:12 p.m. ET for latest share prices, information about Micron Technology.
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Micron Technology fell in Friday's extended session as investors reacted to tragic news that the company's CEO and chairman, Steve Appleton, has died in a plane crash in Boise, Id.
The chip maker announced the news earlier in the day, and trading in the company's stock was halted. In after-hours action, the shares were last quoted at $7.78, down 2.1%, on volume of more than 260,000, according to Nasdaq.com.
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Earnings Hit Goldman CEO Blankfein's Pay NEW YORK (TheStreet) - Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein is set to see his pay fall as the investment bank's profit and shares were nearly halved in 2011.
Blankfein has been granted a $7 million restricted stock award by Goldman Sachs's board as part of his annual salary, a drop in his stock earnings of $12.6 million in 2010, according to regulatory filings.
With his base cash salary of $2 million remaining at 2010 levels, Blankfein's only hope for a pay boost is a large discretionary cash bonus, which would be unveiled in a proxy statement due in the spring. With across the board pay and job cuts at Goldman Sachs to match falling earnings, those prospects are dim at best.
Goldman Sachs CEO and Chairman Lloyd Blankfein
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Research In Motion's Dangerous Waiting Game NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Maybe the best indicator of how far Research In Motion has fallen out of favor is that on a day when the Nasdaq Composite galloped to an 11-year high, shares of the Blackberry maker lost another 2% to close at $16.88, down nearly 73% in the past year.
The main impetus for the weakness on Friday was a downgrade from Jefferies, which announced its move to underperform from hold in a research note entitled, "We Want to Believe ... But Just Can't Yet."
The firm, which also cut its price target by 11.8% to $15 from $17, basically said it doesn't really see any good news on the horizon for RIM, especially if the crux of its strategy is to continue battling it out in the smartphone wars with Apple and Google.
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