Monday Morning Musings

Morning News of Note:

• MOT: Cingular, T-Mobile Halt Sales Of RAZR Cellphones Cingular Wireless and T-Mobile USA suspended sales of Motorola Inc.'s RAZR phones after Motorola said some of the ultraslim handsets have a glitch that causes them to drop calls. Motorola, whose fortunes have been buoyed by the popularity of its sleek flip phone, said a "limited number" of RAZRs have a faulty component that cause the phones to disconnect and reboot. (Saturday) (Full Story) WSJ
• COF NFB: Capital One to Buy North Fork, Join Top 10 U.S. Banks Capital One Financial Corp., the fourth-largest issuer of Visa and MasterCards, will buy North Fork Bancorp for $14.6 billion, almost doubling the company's deposits and giving it more than 50 million customer accounts. Capital One of McLean, Virginia, will pay $31.18 in cash and stock for each share of North Fork, the two companies said in a statement yesterday. (Full Story) Bloomberg
• SNDK: SanDisk's New Problem THE SURPRISE DEAL THAT Micron Technology made to acquire Lexar Media can't be a very good thing for flash-memory favorite SanDisk. Lexar has trailed SanDisk in U.S. retail sales of those little cards that store digital photos, music and computer files on flash chips -- the fine, fine semiconductor chips that are "non-volatile," meaning they retain your data when the power's off. (Full Story) BARRONS
• AAPL: Apple Comp-AAPL Spring Media/Analyst Event to Introduce New Products-Apple Insider. Anonymous sources have indicated that Apple is planning a Spring Media/Analyst event to showcase and introduce new products. The date of the event will likely occur roughly in line with the company's 30th anniversary. The exact products to be introduced are not known, however there is a very strong chance that there will be a focus on a new line of Intel-based iBooks, and the bigger, more powerful MacBook Pro. There has also been talk of a new iPod, or iPod related innovations. March 28th or April 4th are the dates that have been hinted at. However, there has been no official assurance. Analysts have noted that it is imperative Apple release its new line of notebooks by the end of April, in time for educational buying season
• LCDs: Samsung aims to double its LCD TV shipments in 2006 - Digitimes: Digitimes reports Samsung Electronics expects to ship four million LCD TVs this year, up from two million units last year, according to David Steel, vice president of Samsung Electronics digital media business. The company will focus on the 42- and 46-inch segments during 2006, Steel added. Briefing.com note: This could be seen as an incremental positive for the LCD chip plays TRID, GNSS and PXLW

Market Comments: The market is nicely higher after the open. Of course, I prefer a market that opens weak and strengthens into the close, but I am willing to give the market the benefit of the doubt here. The market is short-term oversold, especially on the Nazz, so I am looking for a bounce.

Early action in the market leaders is looking better, including AAPL, GOOG, MFLX, FFIV, and SNDK. Energy stocks, biotechs, and homebuilders are also strong.

Increased M&A activity continues with deals announced for COF/NFB, MNI/KRI, and WPI/ADRX. This type of activity is usually bullish for the market, as it signals that there is still value out there.

long AAPL, GOOG