Strong Retail Sales

Morning News of Note:

• ERTS ATVI MSFT: A Bright Spot in the Dim Video Game Picture After Electronic Arts, the No. 1 video game publisher, announces what it has forecast will be disappointing results for the recent holiday quarter, expect a lot of hand-wringing about the future of the video game business. "I don't think anyone should go into the earnings season with high expectations of a rosy picture, a rosy outlook or great numbers," said Edward S. Williams, a game industry analyst at Harris Nesbitt in New York. "It was a very difficult holiday for the publishers as a whole, and the outlook is going to remain somewhat murky for at least a while." (Full Story) NY Times
• Burger King IPO: Burger King Plans Public Stock Offering The parent company of Burger King said Wednesday that it planned to sell shares to the public for the first time in the restaurant's 52-year history. Burger King Holdings plans to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering of stock in late February or early March, the chief executive, Gregory D. Brenneman, said. (Full Story) NY Times
• GOOG: Investors Take a Slap at Google No-Guidance Policy May Have Let Earnings Expectations Run Amok, Setting Stock Up for a Tumble Google Inc. doesn't believe in holding the hands of its investors. For a day at least, those hands came back to slap it. Shares of Google tumbled $30.88, or 7.1%, to $401.78 in 4 p.m. Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading yesterday, on the heels of fourth-quarter earnings, reported after the market closed Tuesday, that were good but not quite as good as some investors were hoping. The reaction was something of a catch-up to the loss of 12% that Google sustained in after-hours trading Tuesday (Full Story) WSJ
• US Economy: MNST Jan employment index 151 vs 145 in Dec, all time high; strength in business, IT and admin support leading
• Mad Money Summary: Jim Cramer kicked off his "Back to School" tour at Harvard, where he discussed investing early with his student audience. He suggested Bookham (BKHM), a company that makes optical components for fiber optic systems, which he believes has an upside potential of 30% to 100%. Cramer welcomed New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who was a classmate of his at Harvard Law School, to the show. Mr. Spitzer said his goal as a politician was to "take integrity, accountability, decency and fairness and bring it back to the private sector." Cramer then went on to praise Blackboard (BBBB), a stock which he says is under the radar, and operates with no competition. The company allows students to access a virtual classroom, watch lectures and download presentations. The information can also be transferred to devices like iPods. In the lightning round, Cramer was bullish on FD, VLO, ZUMZ, MO, HAL, CWTR, BRCM, MRVL, STJ, SBUX, GS, REDF and ERTS, and was bearish on GI, HIBB, BMY, JOE, L, PEIX, IBM, KO, INFY and SNPS

Market Comments: The market has opened under a bit of pressure this morning, despite some very strong retail sales reports. Some of the stronger reports that I saw were: ANF, CHS, CTRN, JOSB, and ZUMZ.

SBUX also reported a very strong quarter last night, and raised guidance. You can check out my preview of the conference call here.

Energy stocks are weak again this morning, as oil prices are trading down below $66. Bond yields are slightly higher at 4.57%.

GOOG has bounced back above the $400 level. SIRF also reported a strong quarter and is spiking. It's still early, so let's see how the day unfolds.

long SBUX