Morning Look

"Enthusiasm is the greatest asset in the world. It beats money and power and influence. It is no more or less than faith in action." - Henry Chester

Morning News of Note:

• TGT: And What Would Thurber Say? A Single-Sponsor New Yorker FOR the first time in the 80-year history of The New Yorker magazine, a single advertiser will sponsor an entire issue. The Aug. 22 issue of The New Yorker, due out Monday, will carry 17 or 18 advertising pages, all brought to you by the Target discount store chain owned by the Target Corporation. The Target ads will even supplant the mini-ads from mail-order marketers that typically fill small spaces in the back of the magazine. (Full Story) NY Times
• AAPL MSFT: IT'S APPLE VS. M'SFT IN IPOD PATENT SPAT Due to a fumbled race to the patent office, Apple could be forced to pay its arch-enemy Microsoft an embarrassing royalty on each iPod Apple sells. The awkward dilemma developed because Microsoft was faster on its feet — by at least five months — to file applications years ago to patent the technology that runs iPods. (Full Story) NY Post
• EBAY: In a Challenging China Market, EBay Confronts a Big New Rival Yahoo Backs a Local Firm; An Online-Auction Duel Stirs Memories of Japan Mr. Ma's Plans for Alibaba Internet auctioneer eBay Inc. faces tough challenges in China that just got much tougher. As in so many industries, China offers Internet companies a fast-growing but tricky and immature market. That would be daunting enough for eBay, which is one of China's biggest online auction companies. But now it faces a savvy local rival, Alibaba.com Corp., which as of yesterday has a lot more heft. (Full Story) WSJ
• ANR: Alpha Natural Res-ANR shares may still have some steam left in them-Business Week: Bill Harnisch from Peconic Partners believes that shares of ANR have a lot more steam left in them. Peconic sees ANR as "a cheap energy play with a strong earnings-growth kicker." The fund owns 3M shares & Harnisch believes that shares could go to $40 in a year.
• JMDT: Jamdat Mobile on Conf Call (29.49 +0.04): Co says Blue Lava contribution for Q1 would have been approx 'a couple of hundred thousand dollars'... believes THQI biggest competitor with Cingular (notes Star Wars game); beyond that do not have specific information on other companies... co sees quality of publishers increasing; seeing competition from THQI and ERTS, believes this is a validation of the market; co is not surprised by anything they have seen in the marketplace and believe overall it is good for the market place... Stock is trading at $23.33, -6.16 in after hours.

Market Comments: The market opens down this am, on weak earnings last night from DELL, high oil, and profit taking. Check out RRGB and JMDT if you want to see the definition of "nasty". This is why I always urge taking partial profits before an earnings report (if you have them) or putting on some kind of hedge. Avoiding big declines is paramount to outperforming.

All of the energy royalty trusts are on fire, and with oil over $65, even a big pullback doesn't seem like it is going to crimp cash flow at these companies for a while.