Chris S

A Consumer Reports survey notes a wave of "Buy American" sentiment among car shoppers, with 81% likely to consider domestic cars vs. 47% for Asian cars and 46% European. So why did Asia rake in the bulk of the clunker cash?

Because talk is cheap?

Less defensive retailers will begin outperforming Wal-Mart (WMT -2.6%) in H2 as investors rotate into non-staple stocks to take advantage of a recovering retail sector, Goldman says, downgrading shares to Neutral. Firm thinks discretionary retailers will easily lap year-ago margin comparisons, while WMT will struggle to outdo already stellar numbers.

So GS's logic here is that because last year was so horrendous for discretionary retails, they can't help but look good in comparison this year. Thus, they are superior to WMT because all WMT does is put good numbers up consistently.

WTF?

Will Natural Gas Be the Next to Rally?

Some amazing comments here that really put this into perspective.

I'm gonna have to agree with the folks that said to correct with ratio imbalance, oil needs to come down rather than nat gas going up.

Sure, someone may have made a lot of money on 3Com (COMS) options as its acquisition by Hewlett-Packard (HP) was announced, but insider-trading conspiracy theorists are ahead of themselves, says Ultimi Barbarorum. Options deals are lumpy by nature, and it could just be short covering at work.

Just hours away from a deal that caused a 350% return.

Riiiiiiiiiiight....

As appliance demand flags, Whirlpool (WHR +1.3%) says it's closing an Indiana refrigerator plant, cutting 1,100 jobs, less than 2% of its workforce. The production work will be shifted to a plant in Mexico.

green shoots for mexicans at least

Is Anyone Using Chrome?

Chrome, as much as I love it, is still stuck in the realm of techies and early adopters. Browsers might have low cost of switching, but most people don't really care what browser they use, even if they know which one they are using at all.

Feels like half the people I work with still use IE6. And they don't care, because as far as they can tell, it gets the job done.

Within the first week of Apple's (AAPL) new iPhone 3GS, YouTube reported a 400% increase in mobile video uploads. So are rumors that the next generation of iPods Touch and Nano will also have video cameras great news for Google (GOOG)? No: "These are precisely the videos that YouTube can't monetize, and that advertisers don't want."

This might not be great news for Google, but I don't really think they care either. The amount of traffic "mobile video uploads" gets is negligible compared to the streams that Google CAN monetize. And if allowing these streams keeps the users coming back, what's the harm?

The recession has bottomed and Q2 earnings will probably beat estimates, Laszlo Birinyi says, predicting the S&P 500 will soon resume its powerful ascent. Since Birinyi predicted S&P to 1,700 within 2-3 years in May, the index is down 0.5%.

I want some of whatever this guy is on.

A case against using new intraday lows as a buy trigger.

It was more of a "rant" than a "case". Still entertaining though.

EU regulators are pursuing a new round of sanctions against Microsoft (MSFT), and may force the software giant to include rival browsers in its Windows software in addition to its Internet Explorer.

EU regulators need to wake up and join us in 2009. Browser competition is alive and well.

Japanese machinery orders fell 1.3% in March M/M, the first decline in two months but still better than the 5.1% decline economists expected. Orders -9.9% for the quarter, though 'the pace of the decline is easing.'

Green shoots spotted!

Amazon.com (AMZN) on the rise after Citigroup upgrades shares to Buy with a price target of $97 (from $52). Firm says margins are improving faster than expected, and that 2009 results will "amplify Amazon's scarcity value." AMZN +1.9% to $79.56.

I'm glad Citi is on top of their game for this one! Upgrading an $80 stock from $52 to $97. Smooth!

Three great reads for lunchtime: 1) Why bail out life insurers? 2) The rift between taxpayers and investors 3) Income taxes for everyone

#3 is an economics opinion article written by a press secretary. And we are supposed to value his opinion... why?

Will OnLive Kill the Console Gaming Business?

Steam by Valve is the evolutionary step and is doing quite well.

Google Nearing Two-Year Highs

A single product company. Course that product is the most profitable product ever in the history of business.