The TED Spread, albeit still historically high, came down from the highs last week. I would be hard-pressed to call it a ‘rally’, but at least more faith is being shown that the government is doing the right thing.

What is the TED Spread? The TED Spread is defined as the yield difference between the [risk-free rate] United States three month Treasury Bill and the three month London Interbank Offered Rate [LIBOR].

The SEC decided to follow the lead of the UK and ban short selling, this time on 799 select financial stocks, with others beginning to petition to be put on that list to protect their own shareholders. The transition into ETFs only seems logical.

For this purpose, we’ll look at the (SKF), the UltraShort Financials ProShares. The (SKF) managers don’t actually short the underlying stock directly; they enter into equity swap contracts with an intermediary who goes out and shorts the stock. With the ban in place, there are less (if any) counter-parties to assume the risk on the other side of the swap contract.

VeriFone Holdings (PAY), which manufactures the devices which enable debit/credit card transaction automation for merchants, is finally seeing a pop in their stock’s performance – months after an accounting debacle sagged PAY shares to a 52-week low of $10.10.

The San Jose-based company was busy this past week, upping forecasts while naming a new CFO to the team, as a part of cleaning house. Veteran Clinton Knowles replaced Barry Zwarenstein after months of allegations and current SEC investigations into VeriFone’s books.

Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, ranked #1 and #3 richest in Forbes [respectively], took an unusual summer trip together - to northern Alberta on Wednesday to explore Canadian Natural Resources' (CNQ) multi-billion dollar oil-sands project.

The Horizon project is an “open pit mining strategy [which] will consist of mobile equipment and bitumen extraction facilities to mine and separate the raw bitumen from the oil sands. Canadian Natural will further upgrade the bitumen to a sweet synthetic crude oil using proven delayed coking and hydro-treating technologies” (CNRL).

The old “Which came first: The chicken or the egg ?”debate has turned into “Does oil effect the U.S. Dollar or does the Dollar strength (or lack thereof) drive oil prices?”

Here’s both sides of the story:

After the Yahoo! (YHOO) debacle that had us watching his every move this summer, August has not gotten off to the best start for the billionaire, either.

Blockbuster, Inc. (BBI) posted a larger than expected 2nd quarter loss lead by low DVD rental margins. The stock reacted by dropping $0.31 to $2.88 (-9.72%) in Thursday’s trading session. The $44.7 million dollar loss fell below estimates by a penny.

There are nearly 133 million Americans alone considered overweight- putting them at risk for the rapidly growing Type II Diabetes. I have done a bit of research on projections as to how many Americans would be living with the disease in the future. And I have seen some scary predictions:

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2001 study: est. 29 million Americans affected by 2050 (not accounting for undiagnosed diabetes).

Take a look at a few recent quotes from Toll Brothers (TOL) CEO Robert Toll:

From MarketWatch (5/13/08):

Trading of United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS) shares was halted Monday after hours until about 4:55 PM EST (T3) as they warned on Q2 earnings, citing, you guessed it, rising oil prices and package volume:

• Old guidance range: $0.97 to $1.04 per share
• New guidance range: $0.83 to $0.87 per share

UPS has plenty of concerns with the obvious. But, along with FedEx (FDX), international demand seems to be holding serve. In fact, UPS is an official sponsor of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and has been serving China since 1988 with non-stop flights. Just spit-balling here, but perhaps the international goodwill and global media presence this August can help enhance their full year earnings.

Barack Obama is helping to ruin your summer BBQ’s. The New York Times ran an article Monday about the Obama campaign and its immense support of ethanol and subsidies.

Senator Obama certainly realizes his views tie in with rising corn and other grain prices: In a May 2008 interview, he said “And so there are a whole host of reasons why we're seeing problems with food supply. There's no doubt that biofuels may be contributing to it.” With oil rising and floods in the mid-west, corn supply has to be stretched- some going to ethanol production and some going to the grocery store- and at a premium.

First Trust launched the first ever wind sector ETF today, ticker symbol (FAN) will track the performance of the ISE Global Wind Energy Index.

From First Trust’s website: “The index is a modified market capitalization weighted index of publicly traded companies throughout the world that are active in the wind energy industry based on analysis of the products and services offered by those companies.”

Often overlooked, the smokeless tobacco industry still has some long-standing growing power. We’ll explore two top players in the U.S. market, and try to decipher who’ll come out on top in the headwinds an economic slowdown- and realize that taxes and political pressures also face the tobacco industry as a whole.

First,  UST, Inc. (UST) is your essential vice stock as the holding company for two principal subsidiaries: United States Smokeless Tobacco Company and Ste. Michelle Wine Estates. UST produces and markets the premium brands of ‘dip’ – Skoal ® and Copenhagen ®.

Petsmart (PETM) is the “top dog” in its industry – outdoing its competitors in every phase of the pet game. Naturally, the primary business operates pet stores (1,008 stores per Yahoo! Finance) in North America. What separates Petsmart from its competitors? Veterinary services, grooming, doggie day camps and boarding.

Instead of going to a discount store to buy food and supplies, many consumers still splurge on their pets – perhaps taking advantage of the loyalty the company shows to both animals and their owners. The diversity of the stores are unrivaled- down to the simplest form: Petsmart offers both specialty and national chain brand pet food!

It is no secret that the Healthcare sector usually outperforms the market during recessions or quasi-recessions. Whether or not the U.S. Economy is in one right now is not a concern for Quest Diagnostics (DGX).

30 minute waits? You're not at the DMV. You're at DGX. Quest Diagnostic is the nation's leading provider of any kind of blood test you can draw up, serving over 500,000 patients everyday. In a recession, the logical thought is: What will NOT change? Clearly health concerns are not going away and, now more than ever, tests are needed to check cholesterol levels and aid in the diagnosis of diabetes. With a growing population, increased longevity, and the aging 'baby boomers', the demand for blood and urine screening is hardly going to be overlooked. This company is about as secular as General Mills (GIS) and Coca-Cola (KO).

Shareholders of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NMX) are still in a frenzied fight over the proposed merger with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).

With CME’s stock tanking and no price protection on their original $11 billion dollar offer. The current bid for each share of Nymex is 0.1323 shares of CME and $36 cash, equating to an offer with a single digit premium-- in the $85 per share range, a 20+% decline from the January bid, once valued at around $119 per share.

I'll run through a few brief pros/cons.

Pros

I see limited downside with Eagle for a few reasons:

Mr. Hirsch purchased 400,000 shares in September 2006 – he seems committed to shareholder wealth by expanding cement operations.

Dividend protection ($0.70 yielding 1.464% as of the close on 1/25/07).

Its 11.82 P/E, and especially the 0.41 PEG, fall below industry average, and suggest undervaluation.

While tied to the homebuilding sector with its wallboard production used for new homes, office construction and remodeling, Eagle also produces cement et al. for the construction sector.

“The company sells its products to build and renovate residential, commercial, and industrial structures, as well as to build and improve the roads and bridges.” (Yahoo! Finance)