Over the past 6 months Assurant  (AIZ) has so far managed to get through the credit crisis unscathed. A few weeks ago a Barron’s article even suggested that Assurant will ultimately benefit from a continually weakening housing market. Although Assurant will continue to write more creditor placed homeowners policies, the company still has significant exposure to the credit crunch and a weakening economy.

First, let’s take a look at mortgage exposure.

Global Sources is a business-to-business media and ecommerce company largely focused on China export markets.

Recently, shares of Global Sources have been in free fall. After hitting a 52 week high of $35 in late October, Global Sources shares have dropped all the way down to yesterday’s close of $13.25. The final blow to the stock’s decline came yesterday when Global Sources lowered its fourth quarter earnings and revenue estimates.

Dendreon was back in the news Thursday and shares were up 24% to $6.98 after three members of Congress asked for an investigation into the Food and Drug Administration panel’s vote against approving Provenge. The letter sent to the House Energy and Commerce Committee requesting a probe into the FDA alleges conflicts of interest and ethical violations for at least two FDA advisory committee members who opposed the approval of Provenge.

In March, the FDA advisory panel recommended the approval of Provenge with a 13-4 vote. Then a few months later, instead of approving Provenge, the FDA asked for more patient data. Such a request could delay the drug for years.

In the last 2 weeks the enterprise value of Ninetowns has moved from -$30 million to +$120 million. This trade took longer than expected to materialize, but the market finally appears to be recognizing the value of Ninetowns.

Marchex Inc. is an Internet search and media company focused on local search, local content, and direct navigation. Marchex owns and operates a portfolio of over 200,000 Internet domains.

Marchex has a market cap of about $485 million, $54 million in cash and no significant long term debt. The trailing P/E is about 500 (the company is just barely profitable) and the forward P/E is estimated at about 24.

Gmarket has performed well since we first profiled the company in late April, but the recent strength in Asian internet stocks and e-commerce stocks combined with improving fundamentals, should help push shares of Gmarket considerably higher. Previously, we held Gmarket as a short term pick, but now we have decided to add Gmarket to our long term portfolio ahead of the second quarter earnings report next week.

Gmarket reports gross merchandise value [GMV] a few weeks before reporting earnings so we have some numbers to work with heading into next week. GMV represents the total value of all items sold on Gmarket’s website. For the second quarter of 2007, Gmarket reported a GMV of 780 billion won. This GMV represents an 8% sequential increase in revenue. Last quarter revenue from transaction fees came in at 30.2 billion won. Using the same ratio, transaction revenue should come in at 32.58 billion won for the second quarter of 2007.

Although the fundamentals at Taser have certainly improved and the concern about wrongful death lawsuits has been largely mitigated, we think shares of Taser have outpaced the underlying business fundamentals. In the most recent quarter announced this morning, Taser posted earnings of $3.7 million on sales of $25.9 million. These numbers handily beat analyst estimates, but with a forward P/E that is still over 50, we think this is a good time to take profits in Taser.

Taser bulls will argue that the big French order promised by Nicolas Sarkozy before the French election has yet to materialize. Although a large order from France will likely produce yet another jump in Taser shares, we prefer not to wait around for a slow moving French government.

Electro Optical Engineering has a market cap of about $483 million, $115 million in cash and no significant long term debt. The trailing P/E is about 38.

Electro Optical reported third quarter 2007 earnings a few days ago. Sales came in at $39.2 million and GAAP net earnings totaled $2.6 million or $0.04 per share. Sales increased 10.7% year over year and 11.4% sequentially from the second quarter. Gross margins were 57.1% compared to 56.4% in the third quarter of 2006 and 57.5% in the second quarter of 2007.

Suggested Trades:

* SELL ½ position NEXS near $6.28

Jamba, Inc. has a market cap of about $530 million, cash of about $67 million and no significant long term debt.

On June 11th Jamba announced earnings for the first quarter of 2007 of $11.9 million or 20 cents per share versus a year ago loss of $81.5 million or -$3.88 per share. Although these first quarter results included a pre-tax gain of $15.2 million, after backing out this gain the results still handily beat analyst expectations. Revenues increased 22% year over year coming in at $89.4 million.

New legislation banning incandescent bulbs continues to gain strength. Therefore, we are holding on to a half position in Cree, but with a 35% gain in less than three weeks we think it is prudent to lock in profits at this point.

Suggested Trades:

Suggested Trades:

SELL DELL near $28.15

Recently, companies focusing on LED lighting have seen dramatic moves in their stock prices due to legislation banning the use of incandescent bulbs resulting in increased investor attention. Color Kinetics (CLRK) and Wall Street Mayhem pick Cree Inc. (CREE) have seen their stock prices jump 30% and 15% respectively in the last two weeks. Although Nexxus is a more speculative pick than Cree or Color Kinetics, Nexxus should also benefit from the growing demand for LED lighting and the recent increased investor attention on the LED sector.

Nexxus manufactures and sells the Savi line of LED bulbs with True White Technology. The Savi line of LED bulbs reduce energy costs by about 75% and they last 15 to 25 times longer than traditional incandescent bulbs. Savi LED light bulbs are designed to last up to 5 years when operated continuously. Unlike fluorescent lighting, the Savi LEDs produce clean white light and they are environmentally friendly because they do not contain mercury and they require no special disposal procedures.

It appears that the incandescent light bulb is on its way out. Although incandescent light bulbs are inexpensive, they use energy in a non-efficient manner and environmentalists think they have made a major contribution to global warming. Consequently, lawmakers in the US and abroad are talking about banning incandescent bulbs.

California and Canada are banning the use of incandescent bulbs by 2012 while Australia has announced plans to ban incandescents by 2010. Energy conservation and strategies to overcome global warming are becoming increasingly important political and social issues. Banning incandescent light bulbs is a relatively easy way to make a significant contribution to energy conservation. Therefore, the death of the incandescent bulb in the US and many developed countries is only a few years away.

Although it was expected that Ninetowns would be chosen to provide service for this software since Ninetowns created the software used by the PRC, this is still a significant milestone for Ninetowns. The ability to service the PRC’s free import/export software should allow the import/export software and service segment of Ninetowns to get back into the black.

The real growth for Ninetowns is still tied to the B2B initiatives recently started by the company including TooToo.com. However, the new servicing contract should allow Ninetowns to make a small profit on the import/export software side and create cross-selling opportunities for Ninetowns B2B platform.

Suggested Trades:

* SELL EXFO near $6.48

Gmarket has a market cap of about $820 million, a P/E of 42, and a forward P/E of 19. Gmarket has a strong balance sheet with $187 million in cash and zero long term debt.

The recent move in Amazon shares is mind boggling and it has changed the investing environment for at least the short term. Although the Amazon surge was helped by short covering, it appears that investors are once again willing to pay premium prices for companies with rapid growth. Yesterday, Bidu joined in on the fun and gained over 20% in after hours trading after the company raised guidance and reported slightly higher than expected earnings.

The same analysts that were busy upgrading the stock in the previous weeks were off by over 35% on their quarterly profit estimates. Clearly these analysts do not have a good understanding of this stock with estimates that missed by such a large percentage.

Although we still think the mortgage insurance group is headed for trouble, we are throwing in the towel today as Cramer is out this morning hyping MTG as a short squeeze candidate. We ended up roughly break even on these trades due to the previous half position cover for a profit. It is tempting to wait for a drop in MTG and PMI, but we are worried that Cramer will announce his short squeeze theory on Mad Money tonight which would really send the shares flying.

Ninetowns has a market cap of $140 million, cash of $116 million and no significant long term debt. The trailing P/E is about 24 and the one analyst that follows Ninetowns predicts a loss of $0.02 per share in fiscal year 2007.

In August of 2005 the business outlook for Ninetowns changed dramatically when the State Administration for Quality Supervision and Inspection of the People’s Republic of China (PRC Inspections Administration) decided to create a free e-filing software package to facilitate the import/export process in China. Although the PRC Inspection Administration hired Ninetowns to provide the new software, the PRC Inspection Administration paid Ninetowns a paltry 400K for their services and Ninetowns was forced to offer a scaled down version of their core software product for free.

CE Mark approval for Elevess is a major step forward for Anika. The worldwide dermal filler market is estimated at about $600 million and is experiencing steady growth. The European Union represents approximately 25% of worldwide demand for dermal filler products.

Elevess was approved by the FDA in December of 2006, but the company has filed a supplement to the pre-market approval [PMA] documents. Final approval is expected in mid 2007. Anika expects to commence a worldwide launch of Elevess in the second half of 2007.