The celtics improved their team economy today, by getting rid of the 42million salery cap that is being occupied by Mark Blount. Blount has been disapointing and hard to trade due to his large salery. Blount also has a clause in his contract which states that whichever team acquires him has to pay him a bonus.

"The 26-year-old Davis is a defensive upgrade from Szczerbiak and should be able to replace his offense. But Banks and Reed are inexperienced, undistinguished players, and the 7-foot Blount has been inconsistent and disappointing in the second season of a six-year, $42 million contract he signed in the summer of 2004. Averaging 12.4 points and 4.2 rebounds in 27.8 minutes, Blount began the season as a starter but was benched soon after.
Vice president of basketball operations Kevin McHale wanted "

The stocks are doing good. On friday the dow rose more than 110 points. Investors did not factoring in the slow growing GDP into their stock play. One investor said that the companies around the world are growing, making all companies stronger.


"The Labor Department's report on GDP, which grew just 1.1 percent for the fourth quarter, was seen as good news for interest rates, as investors believe the Federal Reserve would be hard-pressed to continue raising rates with such slow growth.
And while a slower economy could hurt corporate earnings down the road, the positive reports this week have buoyed investor enthusiasm for stocks, with the idea that while the U.S. economy slows, other markets like Japan and Germany continue to grow."

Speaking of all time highs..... new home sales have climbed to an all time high in 2005. This is the fifth year in a row where sales have hit all time marks. Seams like theses days everyone is buying a new home.

"The Commerce Department reported Friday that sales of new single-family homes clocked in at 1.28 million units last year, representing a 6.6 percent increase over last year's 1.20 million units, the previous all-time high.

Sales of new homes as well as existing homes -- the biggest chunk of the housing market -- have logged records five years running.
In December, new-home sales rose 2.9 percent from November's pace -- defying analysts' expectations for sales to go down last month."

Chevron's 4th quarter profits reached an all time high, soaring to 4.14 billion. This was a 20 percent increase. It is the best finiancial year for chevron in its 126 year history. They are definitly capitalizing on oil prices.

"Its profit of $14.1 billion for the full year was also a company record.
The San Ramon, Calif.-based company's earnings for 2005's final quarter, released Friday, represented the most it has made in any three-month period since its inception in 1879. The performance edged the $4.13 billion earned during the second quarter of 2004 -- the early stages of a two-year boom.
Chevron now has posted record annual profits in each of the last two years, earning a combined $27.4 billion."

Economy grows at slowest pace in three years. It grew only 1.1 percent in the 4th quarter last year. This figure was just announced today. Again energy costs and other misc. things are shying consumers away from products.

"Even with the feeble showing from October through December, the economy registered respectable overall growth of 3.5 percent for all of 2005 -- a year when business expansion was undermined by devastating Gulf Coast hurricanes.
The Commerce Department report, released Friday, offered the latest figures on gross domestic product, the best measure of the country's economic standing.
The 1.1 percent growth rate in the fourth quarter marked a considerable loss of momentum from the third quarter's brisk 4.1 percent pace. The fourth-quarter's figure -- lower than the 2.8 percent pace economists were forecasting -- was the weakest performance since the final quarter of 2002, when the economy expanded at just a 0.2 percent rate."

United States Gold futures rose to new 25 year high. The price of gold is currently 568.50$ The Osama Bin Laden Al-Jazeera audio tape is a cause of concern, causing the price increase. Of Course, rising oil and other heating soloutions prices are also affecting the markets.


"NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. gold futures rallied to a new 25-year peak Friday morning amid continued fund buying fueled by geopolitical concerns, high energy prices and uncertainty about the economy, sources said.
"We busted through some key technical levels today with $565.50 being a previous overnight high, so on the sell-side all the offers just dried up. I'm looking for $570 by the end of the day," said one COMEX floor dealer."

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The Top Movie at the boxofices this week....drum roll please..... Glory Road. It has a culmative gross of 16.9 million for the week. The movie has been out for one week. It beat out Hoodwinked, Hostle, The Last Holiday, and Hostle for the top spot. Hostle held the top spot last week.

Citigroups profits rose, but their stock fell. This is the opposite of Generel Electric. Although profits climbed, they still fell short of wallstreet expectations, causing the Citigroup stock to fall. Citigroup is the largest financial company in the United States.

"Citigroup shares fell 93 cents, or nearly 2 percent, to $47.01 in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
The company said net income totaled $6.93 billion, or $1.37 per share, in the October-December period, up from $5.32 billion, or $1.02 a share, a year earlier.
Excluding the $2.1 billion gain on the sale of its asset management business, however, net income fell about 3 percent from the year-earlier quarter to $4.97 billion and earnings per share were flat at 98 cents."

General Eletric lost 3 billion dollars acording to 4th quarter profits, but the company still met wallstreet expectations. The profit fell 46% in the 4th quarter. How could they still meet expectations? Beats Me!!

"The company, based in Fairfield, said net income was $3.06 billion, or 29 cents a share, for the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with $5.6 billion, or 53 cents per share, a year ago.
Total revenue climbed 3 percent, to $40.7 billion in the latest quarter from $39.7 billion a year ago.
The results reflected a net loss of $2.7 billion from its discontinued insurance operations. Excluding that, GE's earnings per share matched the 55 cents expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial."

Beef that the United States shipped to Japan is being investegated due to concerns the shipment contains mad cow diesease. This caused Japan to put a halt on all beef imports from the United States.

"The latest announcement came as a jarring setback for the U.S. meat industry and Bush administration officials, happening just as U.S. officials were talking optimistically of selling more beef in Asia despite some lingering import restrictions."

" the plant that exported the meat in question is now barred from shipping more beef to Japan. He also said the government inspector who cleared the shipment may be disciplined, and that Agriculture Department investigators are being"

Weak Tech Earnings set off record stock sellin wednesday. Also on investers minds were a weaking Japan market, and of course, high oil prices.



"Tokyo's stock markets closed early due to heavy trading volume, an unprecedented move, as the Nikkei 225 lost 2.94 percent for the session. The selloff moved to Europe, where the major indexes also dropped significantly.
Yet most of the U.S. market's losses could be blamed on tech-sector selling, with other stocks generally holding firm after the Labor Department reported better-than-expected retail inflation data."

Bain Capital Partners is expected to buy Burlington Coat Factory for 2.6 billion. Brain is a privatly owned company.

"Under terms of the acquisition, Bain Capital will purchase all of Burlington's outstanding shares for $45.50 apiece, a 2 percent premium to its closing price Tuesday of $44.58 on the New York Stock Exchange. Burlington shares fell 46 cents to $44.12 in morning trading Wednesday.
The retailer announced in June last year that it hired investment bank Goldman Sachs to advise it on strategic options.
Bain Capital, one of the world's biggest private investment firms, was reportedly the lead candidate to buy Burlington, which operates a chain of 367 stores selling coats, clothing, shoes and home furnishings."

Citigroup plans to launch it's own online stock trading network. The server is expected to take some people away from the NYSE and the other stock exchanges.


"The exchange -- also known as an electronic communications network, or ECN -- would be built around Citigroup's recent acquisition of OnTrade Inc., an ECN operated by NexTrade Holdings Inc.
The OnTrade ECN will continue to operate in its current state while its new owner performs some technology enhancements, Citigroup said, and the new ECN could be ready to begin processing trades in the second quarter."

Southwest Airlines anounced that 4th quarter profits rose 54%. The stock for Southwest should be doing good with these high earnings. It looks like the airline industry is picking up, their over 9/11 and other disastors.


"Net income rose to $86 million, or 10 cents per share, for the three months ended Dec. 31 from $56 million, or 7 cents per share, in the fourth quarter of 2004. Excluding one time items, net income was $98 million, or 12 cents per share.
The air carrier said results were hurt by $24 million in added 2005 federal airport security expenses due to a retroactive assessment by the Transportation Security Administration, which were unexpected, and which the company said it intends to contest.
Revenue increased 20 percent to $1.99 billion from $1.66 billion, a year earlier."

Oil Prices Lept to a 3 month High because of political concerns involving Iran. The price is now just above 65$ a barrell. The Iranian Nuculear situation is the main cause of the prices increases. Problems in Nigeria are also affecting the price. the cold winter sure isn't helping the prices.

"The Iranian nuclear issue is driving the market. Traders are short-covering because they know if something happens in Iran the market would be in confusion," said Tetsu Emori, chief commodities strategist at Mitsui Bussan Futures in Tokyo. "The issue poses a threat of supply disruption in a major oil-producing country."

Top Paid celebrities under 25

1. Ammanda Bynes -Actress
2. Hilary Duff -Actress Singer
3. Paris Hilton-who knows what
4. Lebron James-Basketball Star
5. Adriana Lima-Model
6. Lindsay Lohan-Actress/Singer
7. Frankie Munez- Actor
http://biz.yahoo.com/weekend/youngceleb_1.html

ITunes giant apple, has come under scrutinty with the rumor that they have violated consumers privacy. The new version of the itunes software tracks listeners song taste and recomends songs. Apple also has the ability to pinpoint a certain computer and subscriber.

The iTunes update issued on January 10 incorporates a new element, called MiniStore, which is the feature that recommends tracks to purchase. MiniStore searches for similar tracks when you click on a tune in a playlist. The feature appears in the main iTunes window and highlights music on the iTunes music store on the basis of the songs you have selected in iTunes.
Since the controversy occurred, Apple has posted information on its support Web site about how to turn MiniStore off. The posting indicates that when MiniStore is hidden by the user, data about songs selected in the user's iTunes library is not sent to the iTunes music store.


Apple

Toy giant Tyco, undfer scrutiny for various scandels, will be splitting into 3 different companies.

Tyco International Ltd., still recovering from scandals that saw its longtime chief executive sentenced to prison, said Friday it plans to split into three public companies.
It is separating its electronics and health care businesses from its remaining operations, which include security and fire-protection services.

The suspense/horror film produced by Lions Gate,Hostel, met a weekend gross of 19.5 million, and the same figure for culmative gross. The film has only been released for one week, and it is the top money making movie for that week. The movie with the most culmative gross is Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, which is at an 8 week total of 281.5 million. Warner Bros. Pictures made Harry Potter.

Various Tid-Bits of News

-Senate blocked oil drilling in Alaska, which means that oil prices will likley rise
-Research in Motion announced that its "Black Berry" led to a 3rd quarter rise in earnings. This occurs although there is a lawsuit and some contreversy surronding the Black Berry
-Home sales went down in the 3rd quarter due to the rising costs of morgages and homes themselves.
-General Motors shares have dropped to the lowest in 23 years.

GM's last chance
"General Motors hasn't collapsed," says Paul Ingrassia in The Wall Street Journal (paid registration required). "But confidence in GM has." The No. 1 automaker's shares have "swooned" to 23-year lows, and the company will have to do more to cut legacy costs and boost sales to turn things around. And instead of "publicly pooh-poohing" the idea of filing for bankruptcy, CEO Rick Waggoner will have to make it clear that "nothing is off the table" if he wants to restore investor confidence.

Stocks went up as unemployment went down. Stocks soared last week as unemployment claims went down by 13,000. Another reason for the soaring stocks and low unemployment is that inflation is slowly declining.

In late morning trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 21.30, or 0.2 percent, to 10,855.03.
Broader stock indicators also were higher. The Standard & Poor's 500 index added 1.76, or 0.14 percent, to 1,264.55, and the Nasdaq composite index gained 3.48, or 0.16 percent, to 2,235.14

CNN recently released their list of Top Ten Stocks for the next year.
1. Altria Group(MO)
2. Archer Daniels Midland(ADM)
3. Berkshere Hathway(BRBK)
4. Citigroup(C)
5. Eli Lilly(LLY)
6. Hewlet Packared(HPQ)
7. Kinder Morgan(KMI) This is also my Hot stock, along with Consol Energy and Valero
8. Norfolk Southern(NSC)
9. Phelps Dodge(PD)
10. Washington Mutral(WM)

ENERGY STOCKS ARE HOTT!

Hot Toys with just a little ways away from Christmas are selling out rapidly. The seasons hottest toys are X-Box 360, Amazing Amanda doll, Dora the Explorer Kitchen Set, and remote controlled vehicles. "It's frustrating. I'm going to keep waiting and then go to plan B: gift cards," said Dan Green, 34, of Round Lake Beach, Illinois." The company that makes most of the toys on the high demand list is Hasbro, and they have ramped up production to meet the needs of frustrated consumers.