Thursday, September 24, 2009

9/24/09 am Alcoa's Kleinfeld Threatened by Siemens

The following is not intended as advertising by a broker-dealer and is not a research report.

Post #124 The following is brought to you by Intellivest Securities Research, Inc. The following is not intended as advertising by a broker-dealer and is not a research report. Towards the end of this Blog is an update of the Dow 30's most recent SEC filings as of 9/18/09, a list of the Dow 30 CEO's and a ranking of the Dow 30 by market capitalization.

A read of Thursday's 9/24/09 print editions of: Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Investors Business Daily, New York Times, Atl Journal Const, & USA Today yielded the following stories about Dow Jones Industrial Average 30 component companies and the Dow with stories about the Dow aggregated first and then items about Dow Jones Industrial Average 30 companies presented alphabetically, followed by symbol and Thursday's closing price and related data:

Dow: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed Wednesday at 9748.55 down 81.32 or 0.83% from Tuesday's close of 9829.87. Of the 30 Dow Companies: 4 gained, 25 declined and Merck was unchanged (MRK $31.33 vol: 20,465,639 NYSE) with the biggest loser being JPM $45.06 -1.41 3.03% 34,344,277 NYSE and the biggest gainer being AT&T T $27.13 +0.63 2.38% 53,178,316 NYSE.

WSJ pC1 "Dow Swing: Up 88.12 After Fed, Down 81.32 by Peter A. McKay says stocks boomeranged after the Fed. Reserve's latest policy statement, peaking and then tumbling into the red at day's end as traders fretted about where the next catalyst for gains might come from. The Fed's decision on rates was expected, but its policy statement used more upbeat language than in Aug. to describe US economic growth, saying it has "picked up" rather than "leveled off from a steep side." I think that is a very confusing headline, the Dow Jones ended down 81.32 yesterday.

WSJ pC6 "Large Stock Focus" by Karen Talley says as stocks pulled back after investors head from the Fed, General Mills bucked the slide b issuing upbeat projections and Ford Motor gained traction, but AutoZone ended in reverse. Electronic Arts rose 7.1% stirred by speculation that Microsoft was considering buying the videogame maker (this speculation is also mentioned at AJC pA18..

Fin Times p30 "Commodity stocks take the gloss off earlier optimism" by Samantha Pearson says commodity stocks dragged Wall Street lower yesterday, forcing the market to give up modest gains following an optimistic statement from the Fed. In an announcement at the end of the Fed's 2 day monetary policy meeting, the committee said that it would hold interest rates and continue to use a range of tools to help the economy along the road to recovery. Metals fell back from the opening bell, dragging industrial and materials stocks lower. Chevron lost 1.7% while ExxonMobil lost 1.2% and Alcoa fell 0.9%.

NYT pB6 "Investors Retreat as Post-Fed Rally quicly Fades" by Jack healy says Wall Street got an initial lift on Wed from the Fed's assessment that an economic recovery was under way but the glow faded fast, dragging stocks to their second day of losses this week.

IBD pB3 "Stocks Start Firm, Reverse Lower As Trade Swell" by Joanne Von Alroth
stocks began the day on the pside, lurched higher afer the much awaited Fed meeting ended,but reversed lower to close with losses across the board.

USA Today p4B "Stocks fall as Fed leaves rates at near 0" says investors were encouraged by the Fed's latest improed assessment of the economy bu not enough to propel the Dow Jones industrial average past 10,000.

The current divisor for the Dow found at today's page C4 of The Wall St. Jrnl is .132319125 unchanged. Wednesday's Dow Jones Industrial Average closing numerator was 1289.92 down 10.76 from Tuesday's closing Dow numerator of 1300.68. This is the sum of all 30 closing prices. A short cut to the Dow numerator is to multiply the closing Dow by the Divisor. Now, if you divide the Dow numerator decrease for today of 10.76 by the divisor you get 81.32, the decrease in Wednesday's Dow close.

The average closing price (the closing numerator divided by 30) of Tuesday's Dow Jones Industrial Average was 43.00 down 0.36 from Tuesday's Dow Jones Industrial Average closing price of 43.36. The median closing price of Wednesday's Dow Jones Industrial Average was 39.33 down 0.89 from Tuesday's Dow Jones median closing price of 40.22. The highest closing price Wednesday again was IBM $120.82 -0.79 0.65% 5,529,670 NYSE and the lowest closing price Wednesday again was Alcoa AA $14.14 -0.12 0.84% 24,096,613 NYSE. The lowest volume Wednesday again was 3M MMM $74.42 -0.55 0.73% 3,340,734 NYSE and the highest volume again was Bank of Am BAC $17.5 -0.11 0.62% 197,468,172 NYSE.

If Wednesday morning before the market opened you had purchased $100 of each of the Dow Jones Industrial Average 30 shares (assuming you could buy fractional shares and assuming no transaction costs) and sold at the close you would have lost $1,080.
($130,080 - $129,000)

AT&T T $27.13 +0.63 2.38% 53,178,316 NYSE: NYT pB8 "A Wi-Fi alternative When the Network Gets Clogged" says as millions of people have bought smartphones they have clogged the 3G pipeline. AT&t users have had it the worst, thanks to the network's iPhone data hogs. AT&T has been adding high speed network capacity but in the meantime, AT&t and T-Mobile are making it easier to connect to Wi-Fi. At&T said customers with a Windows MObile phone could now connect freely at any of At&T's roughly 20,000 hot spots.

Alcoa AA $14.14 -0.12 0.84% 24,096,613 NYSE: Fin Times p18 "Siemens ultimatum in bribery scandal" by Daniel Schafer and WSJ pB4 "Siemens Issues an Ultimatum - Seven Ex-Officials Face Deadline to Agree to Scandal-Related Claims" by Vanessa Fuhrmans says Siemens AG threatened to take legal action against 7 former execs if they don't agree to settle damage claims tied to the company's bribery scandal by mid-Nov. Included in the 7 was Klaus Kleinfeld, now ceo of Alcoa. Siemen's reputation was badly hurt by allegations in '07 that it had spent more than $1 bil bribing gov officials in 12 countries to win contracts on jobs ranging from supplying power equipment to building refineries. Kleinfeld was the CEO of Siemens and is not accused of any criminal conduct but many shareholders allege that he and his predecessor Heinrich von Pierer failed to have proper oversight of Simens. Siemens agreed in Dec to pay $800 mil in fines, the largest penalty ever imposed under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, to end litigation by the US Justice Dept. and SEC and also paid $881 mil to German authorities and struck a smaller deal with the Wkorld Bank. Accompanying the WSJ story is a photo of Kleinfeld looking very stern with an expression that says "I am not the type of person you would want to threaten."

Fin Times p30 "commodity stocks take the gloss off earlier optimism" by Samantha Pearson says commodity stocks dragged Wall Street lower yesterday, forcing the market to give up modest gains following an optimistic statement from the Fed. In an announcement at the end of the Fed's 2 day monetary policy meeting, the committee said that it would hold interest rates and continue to use a range of tools to help the economy along the road to recovery. Metals fell back from the opening bell, dragging industrial and materials stocks lower. Chevron lost 1.7% while ExxonMobil lost 1.2% and Alcoa fell 0.9%.

AXP $33.6 -0.37 1.09% 10,384,474 NYSE: No mentions found.

Bank of America BAC
$17.5 -0.11 0.62% 197,468,172 NYSE: WSJ pC3 "As Banks Retreat, Lawmakers Press Attack - Broad Regulation of Overdraft Policies Planned; Lowering of Fees Confirms That It's Doable" by Marshall Eckblad, Jane J. Kim says the US banking industry's signs of retreat on certain accounts fees may not satisfy Congress who are pushing ahead with broad restrictions on fee policies at banks. In addition to Bank of Am. and JPMorgan Chase, the 2 largest US banks by assets, Wells Fargo said it will eliminate fees charged on overdrafts of $5 or less and impose no more than 4 overdraft fees per day.

Similar story at NYT pD3, IBD pA2, and AJC pA18.

WSJ pC1 has a story by David Enrich about how Citigroup will pare back to six major US cities as it retreats from branch expansion and compares it to its rivals' number of branches in a chart that has Wells first at 6,668 branches, BofA second with 6,109 branches, and JP Morgan third with 5,203 branches.

Fin Times p15 "Stitzer sees sense in Kraft takeover" by Jenny Wiggins says Todd Stitzer, ceo of Cadbury conceded yesterday that a combination of his company and Kraft made strategic sense. Bofa's Merrill Lynch revealed that Stitzer told a conference that he did not expect Kraft to walk away from its bid for Cadbury and that his job is to get as much value as possible.

WSJ pB8 "AOL, Yahoo Face Off to Impress Madison Ave. - One Shells Out to Sponsor Big Ad-Industry Conference, While the Other Designs Marketing Stunts Around It" by Emily Steel says the rivalry between AOL and Yahoo is on display this week, as the 2 struggling Internet companies compete for advertising dollars in NYC by doing activities aimed at the attendees at the Advertising Week conference in New York which has people from KO, Procter & Gamble, Verizon, BofA and others. Quoted is Quentin George, chief digital officer of Mediabrands, a unit of Interpublic Grop whose major clients are MSFT and Johnson & Johnson. He says AOL and Yahoo are being hurt by their rivals like Microsoft and Google. The story gives an anecdote about AOL CEO Tim Armstrong making a pitch to a unit of Publicis Groupe that buys online advertising for Procter & Gamble and WalMart.

Boeing BA $52.37 -0.77 1.45% 4,605,281 NYSE: Fin times p17 "Aircraft pricing under pressure - falling values" by Tracy Alloway says the troubles of the airline industry are having an impact on the market values and lease rates of aircraft. Most of the leasing industry is up for sale and that is causing dislocations in the market as to what are the real values of the aircraft in these leasing companies and in their order books. The price of a new Boeing 737-800 has fallen by 7% to $39.5 mil in the past 9 months.

Related story at Win times p17 "Lessors take evasive action in difficult market - Businesses are being forced to sell up or merge as the industry faces funding challenges" also by Tracy Alloway says in the new aircraft market a Boeing 737-800 narrow body has fallen by 7% as mentioned above and in the used aircraft markets the Boeing 737-300 has fallen 9% to $9.6 mil and a used Boeing 747-400 is down 16% of $43.3 mil.

CAT $53.14 -1.20 2.21% 9,584,710 NYSENo mentions found.

Chevron CVX $71.37 -1.26 1.73% 9,826,275 NYSE: WSJ pB2 "Chevron Riles Suit Agaisnt Ecuador - Looking to Protect Itself in Longtime Battle, Oil Giant Seeks Aid through Trade Pact" by Ben Casselman, Angel Gonzalez says CVX is stepping up its offensive in its long running legal battle in Ecuador, suing Ecuador's gov under international trade law. Chevron is defending a multibillion dollar lawsuit that seeks to hold CVX responsible for environmental damage allegedly caused by Texaco which Chevron bought in 2001. Chevron sued under a '97 trade pact between the US and Ecuador and amounts to a request for arbitration through a process set up by the UN commission on Int'l Trade Law.

Fin Times p30 "Commodity stocks take the gloss off earlier optimism" by Samantha Pearson says commodity stocks dragged Wall Street lower yesterday, forcing the market to give up modest gains following an optimistic statement from the Fed. In an announcement at the end of the Fed's 2 day monetary policy meeting, the committee said that it would hold interest rates and continue to use a range of tools to help the economy along the road to recovery. Metals fell back from the opening bell, dragging industrial and materials stocks lower. Chevron lost 1.7% while ExxonMobil lost 1.2% and Alcoa fell 0.9%.

CSCO $22.8 -0.61 2.61% 68,053,913 NASDAQ-GSNo mentions found.

Coke KO
$52.58 -0.27 0.51% 10,382,654 NYSE: WSJ pB8 "AOL, Yahoo Face Off to Impress madison Ave. - One Shells Out to Sponsor Big Ad-Industry Conference, While the Other Designs Marketing Stunts Around It" by Emily Steel says the rivalry between AOL and Yahoo is on display this week, as the 2 struggling Internet companies compete for advertising dollars in NYC by doing activities aimed at the attendees at the Advertising Week conference in New York which has people from Coke, Procter & Gamble, Verizon, BofA and others. Quoted is Quentin George, chief digital officer of Mediabrands, a unit of Interpublic Grop whose major clients are MSFT and Johnson & Johnson. He says AOL and Yahoo are being hurt by their rivals like Microsoft and Google. The story gives an anecdote about AOL CEO Tim Armstrong making a pitch to a unit of Publicis Groupe that buys online advertising for Procter & Gamble and WalMart.

Disney DIS $28.08 -0.30 1.06% 10,965,864 NYSE: WSJ pB1 "Marvel CEO Got Options Prior to Disney Deal - SEC Filing Says Film Unit Chief Didn't Mention a meeting With Iger That Occurred Before Company Awarded Grants" by Ethan Smith, Joann A. Lublin says Marvel's CEO Isaack Perlmutter was given stock options for more than amil shares just prior to Marvel discussions with Dis that resulted in a merger agreement, according to an SEC filing. Perlmutter will make more than $34 mil from the 1.27 mil options with strike prices between 23.15 to 25.86 which is half the $50 Dis has agreed to pay for its Marvel share as part of its $4bil acquisition which was announced 8/31/09.

DD $33.13 -0.57 1.69% 6,146,614 NYSENo mentions found.

ExxonMobil XOM $69 -0.83 1.19% 20,860,487 NYSE: Fin Times p30 "commodity stocks take the gloss off earlier optimism" by Samantha Pearson says commodity stocks dragged Wall Street lower yesterday, forcing the market to give up modest gains following an optimistic statement from the Fed. In an announcement at the end of the Fed's 2 day monetary policy meeting, the committee said that it would hold interest rates and continue to use a range of tools to help the economy along the road to recovery. Metals fell back from the opening bell, dragging industrial and materials stocks lower. Chevron lost 1.7% while ExxonMobil lost 1.2% and Alcoa fell 0.9%.

GE $17 -0.01 0.06% 133,951,684 NYSE: WSJ pC1 in a story by Liam Pleven about Peter Eastwood, the head of AIG's Lexington Insurance Co and one of its most profitable units, is "toiling under the government yoke" and mentions that Lexington customers include some of the largest US companies such as GE.

Hewlett-Packard HPQ
$46.93 -0.08 0.17% 15,969,296 NYSE: WSJ pB1 "H-P Wields its Clout to Undercut PC ri9vals" by Justin Scheck says HP is using the poor tech market to bolster its position as the world's biggest pc maker. The story evidences this by focusing on a $298 laptop it sold at Wal-Mart Stores in July which was a cut rate computer that HP developed earlier this year to boost back to school sales and was priced below a similar Dell laptop that costs $398 also sold at Walmart. Within 2 days, the HP laptops sold out according to WalMart. Since the economy slumped last fall, HP has gained market share by lowering prices of its consumer PCs to undercut rivals, even discount manufacturers like Acer Inc.

NYT pB1 "Unsatisfying Displays For Widgets" by David Pogue says widgets are compact, single purpose prgorams that might show the weather, or stocks. The article does a case study of Toshiba's and HPQ's digital frames for various media. It discussed the Dream Screen from Hewlett-Packard that is a 10 or 13 screen that sells for $250 or $300 for the larger. Each frame is meant to sit on a desk but the HPQ can hang on the wall.

HD $27.35 -0.27 0.98% 13,959,083 NYSE: No mentions found.

INTC $19.88 +0.35 1.79% 72,078,984 NASDAQ-GS: No mentions found.

IBM $120.82 -0.79 0.65% 5,529,670 NYSE: No mentions found.

JPMorgan Chase JPM
$45.06 -1.41 3.03% 34,344,277 NYSE: WSJ pC3 "As Banks Retreat, Lawmakers Press Attack - Broad Regulation of Overdraft Policies Planned; Lowering of Fees Confirms That It's Doable" by Marshall Eckblad, Jane J. Kim says the US banking industry's signs of retreat on certain accounts fees may not satisfy Congress who are pushing ahead with broad restrictions on fee policies at banks. In addition to Bank of Am. and JPMorgan Chase, the 2 largest US banks by assets, Wells Fargo said it will eliminate fees charged on overdrafts of $5 or less and impose no more than 4 overdraft fees per day.

Similar story at NYT pD3.

WSJ pB1 "Cut From GM, GMAC uses new Strength To Expand" by John D. Stoll says GMAC Inc. the former GM finance company that was rescued by the gov, is using its new access to low cost capital and the risking prominence of its Ally bank to compete more directly with banks such as J.P. Morgan Chase and Wachovia. GMAC turned itself into a bank holding company that allowed it to expand its retail banking biz, which now serves as a growing source of funds for lending, especially in the used car market.

WSJ pC1 has a story by David Enrich about how Citigroup will pare back to six major US cities as it retreats from branch expansion and compares it to its rivals' number of branches in a chart that has Wells first at 6,668 branches, BofA second with 6,109 branches, and JP Morgan third with 5,203 branches.

AJC pA18 says Cemex SAB the largest cement company in the Americas, raised $1.86 bil in a share sales that wa coordinated by JPMorgan and other banks.

JNJ $60.77 -0.31 0.51% 11,163,315 NYSE: No mentions found.

Kraft KFT
$26.28 -0.21 0.79% 11,280,234 NYSE: Fin Times p15 "Stitzer sees sense in Kraft takeover" by Jenny Wiggins says Todd Stitzer, ceo of Cadbury conceded yesterday that a combination of his company and Kraft made strategic sense. Bofa's Merrill Lynch revealed that Stitzer told a conference that he did not expect Kraft to walk away from its bid for Cadbury and that his job is to get as much value as possible.

MCD $55.54 -0.27 0.48% 8,553,836 NYSE: No mentions found.

Merck MRK $31.33 unch unch 20,465,639 NYSE: Fin Times p18 "Merck moves for transparency - Drugmaker to detail doctors' payments - claims of excessive influence by groups" by Andrew Jack says Merck is set to become the largest drugs company to start publishing details of its payments to doctors in the latest response to growing criticism of excessive industry influence over drug prescribing. Richard Clark, ceo of the second largest US drugs company by sales, said the system needs to be totally transparent and questioned where there was a need for an annual ceiling on payments. It will start publishing regular details in the fourth quarter.

WSJ pB2 in an article about Abbott Labs by Jeanne Whalen, Jeffrey McCracken, Dana Cimilluca that says Abbott is bidding for Solway's drug unit it is mentioned that this summer Abbott tried, but failed, to buy a vet medicine business from Merck that was eventually sold by Merck to Sanofi-Aventis for $4bil.

Microsoft MSFT $25.71 -0.06 0.23% 60,544,419 NASDAQ-GS: Fin Times p 15 "Game developers throw weight behind Microsoft's rival to Wii" by Robin Harding says MSFT threw down the gauntlet to game rival Sony in the race to develop a challenger to Nintendo's Wii, saying that most top game publishers were developing products for the US group's Xbox 360 motion controller. Publishers that accounted for 70% of third party software sales were making games for the Natal controller according to Don Mattrick, head of Microsoft's video game div. Natal uses an infrared camera to measure a gamer's motion in three dimensions and turn it into input for a game. a user can drive a car by turning an imaginary steering wheel and pressing an imaginary pedal, without the need for a physical controller.

NYT pB9 "Q&A" says there is no email program included in Microsoft's Windows 7 that is due out on 10/22 but it could be added as could other programs that are not included in Windows 7 such as Windows Photo Gallery and Windows Movie Maker.

WSJ pC6 "Large Stock Focus" by Karen Talley says as stocks pulled back after investors head from the Fed, General Mills bucked the slide b issuing upbeat projections and Ford Motor gained traction, but AutoZone ended in reverse. Electronic Arts rose 7.1% stirred by speculation that Microsoft was considering buying the videogame maker.

WSJ pB8 "AOL, Yahoo Face Off to Impress madison Ave. - One Shells Out to Sponsor Big Ad-Industry Conference, While the Other Designs Marketing Stunts Around It" by Emily Steel says the rivalry between AOL and Yahoo is on display this week, as the 2 struggling Internet companies compete for advertising dollars in NYC by doing activities aimed at the attendees at the Advertising Week conference in New York which has people from KO, Procter & Gamble, Verizon, BofA and others. Quoted is Quentin George, chief digital officer of Mediabrands, a unit of Interpublic Grop whose major clients are MSFT and Johnson & Johnson. He says AOL and Yahoo are being hurt by their rivals like Microsoft and Google. The story gives an anecdote about AOL CEO Tim Armstrong making a pitch to a unit of Publicis Groupe that buys online advertising for Procter & Gamble and WalMart.

IBD pA4 "Open Source Leader Red Hat Edges Ales, Profit Views in Q2 -Q3 Sales Outlook Also Beats - CEO starting to engage users on new projects, not just holding down the fort" by J. Bonasia says open source software leader Red Hat tipped its cap to investors Wed by edging past analyst profitand sales views last quarter. New competition for Red Hat might have emerged this month, when No. 1software maker Microsoft announced funding for a new nonprofit trade grooup known as the CodePlex Foundation.

PFE $16.43 -0.37 2.2% 47,937,787 NYSE: No mentions found.

Procter & Gamble PG $57.25 +0.01 0.02% 14,383,788 NYSEWSJ pB8 "AOL, Yahoo Face Off to Impress madison Ave. - One Shells Out to Sponsor Big Ad-Industry Conference, While the Other Designs Marketing Stunts Around It" by Emily Steel says the rivalry between AOL and Yahoo is on display this week, as the 2 struggling Internet companies compete for advertising dollars in NYC by doing activities aimed at the attendees at the Advertising Week conference in New York which has people from KO, Procter & Gamble, Verizon, BofA and others. Quoted is Quentin George, chief digital officer of Mediabrands, a unit of Interpublic Grop whose major clients are MSFT and Johnson & Johnson. He says AOL and Yahoo are being hurt by their rivals like Microsoft and Google. The story gives an anecdote about AOL CEO Tim Armstrong making a pitch to a unit of Publicis Groupe that buys online advertising for Procter & Gamble and WalMart.

MMM $74.42 -0.55 0.73% 3,340,734 NYSE: No mentions found.

TRV $47.29 -0.30 0.63% 4,953,444 NYSE: No mentions found.

UTX $62.74 -0.49 0.77% 4,694,750 NYSE: No mentions found.

Verizon VZ $29.88 +0.37 1.25% 24,180,324 NYSEWSJ pB8 "AOL, Yahoo Face Off to Impress madison Ave. - One Shells Out to Sponsor Big Ad-Industry Conference, While the Other Designs Marketing Stunts Around It" by Emily Steel says the rivalry between AOL and Yahoo is on display this week, as the 2 struggling Internet companies compete for advertising dollars in NYC by doing activities aimed at the attendees at the Advertising Week conference in New York which has people from KO, Procter & Gamble, Verizon, BofA and others. Quoted is Quentin George, chief digital officer of Mediabrands, a unit of Interpublic Grop whose major clients are MSFT and Johnson & Johnson. He says AOL and Yahoo are being hurt by their rivals like Microsoft and Google. The story gives an anecdote about AOL CEO Tim Armstrong making a pitch to a unit of Publicis Groupe that buys online advertising for Procter & Gamble and WalMart.

IBD pA5 Noatel's Success With MiFI Helps It Turn Page After Kindle - Wi-Fi Hot Spot To Go Is Hot - The wireless router's rollout came as firm lost supplier contract with e-book reader" by Reinhardt Krause says hot products come and go for Novatel Wirelss, but the arrival of a hot one - a wireless broadband modem sold by a growing number of mobile phone companies - has fueled its stock to a gain of 145% this year. Novatel makes the MiFi, a wireless broadband modem sold by Sprint Nextel, Verizon Wireless, Vodafone and Spain's Telefonica.

Walmart WMT $50.4 -0.59 1.16% 13,998,029 NYSE: WSJ pB8 "AOL, Yahoo Face Off to Impress madison Ave. - One Shells Out to Sponsor Big Ad-Industry Conference, While the Other Designs Marketing Stunts Around It" by Emily Steel says the rivalry between AOL and Yahoo is on display this week, as the 2 struggling Internet companies compete for advertising dollars in NYC by doing activities aimed at the attendees at the Advertising Week conference in New York which has people from KO, Procter & Gamble, Verizon, BofA and others. Quoted is Quentin George, chief digital officer of Mediabrands, a unit of Interpublic Grop whose major clients are MSFT and Johnson & Johnson. He says AOL and Yahoo are being hurt by their rivals like Microsoft and Google. The story gives an anecdote about AOL CEO Tim Armstrong making a pitch to a unit of Publicis Groupe that buys online advertising for Procter & Gamble and WalMart.

WSJ pB4 "Tesco to Launch US Green Grocer" by Jeffrey Ball says Tesco pans to open a grocery store in Cal. on Thurs. bearing an environmentally friendly bade, LEED, as part of Tecso's Fresh and Easy US grocery chain. This follows other retailers, including WalMart, who are making an environmental push and are trying to boost customer appeal and shave energy bills with ecologically informed store designs.

WSJ pB1 "H-P Wields its Clout to Undercut PC ri9vals" by Justin Scheck says HP is using the poor tech market to bolster its position as the world's biggest pc maker. The story evidences this by focusing on a $298 laptop it sold at Wal-Mart Stores in July which was a cut rate computer that HP developed earlier this year to boost back to school sales and was priced below a similar Dell laptop that costs $398 also sold at Walmart. Within 2 days, the HP laptops sold out according to WalMart. since the economy slumped last fall, HP has gained market share by lowering prices of its consumer PCs to undercut rivals, even discount manufacturers like Acer Inc.

USA Today p1B "WalMart challenged over Civil War site" says preservationists are going to court to challenge a Va. county that approved a WalMart Supercenter near the site where the Civl War began to turn in favor of the North.

IBD pA2 "WalMart's warehouse chain Sam's club will allow returns on electronics for only 90 days after purchase, but will offer free tech support. Costco Wholesale made similar moves 2 years.

Here are the latest SEC filings as of 9/17/09 other than ownership filings and, except for certain cases, I do not include third party shareholder proposals:

Symbol & Co. Name/Date of Filing/Form Filed/ Comments


T AT&T: 8/28/09 two 8K's, one: announcing it had reached agreement with the Communications Workers of America (on a new, three-year contract covering approximately 7,000 wireline employees (located across the U.S.) under the CWA Communications and Technologies contract, subject to approval by these employees. The second 8K said two subsidiaries of T provided redeemed certain long-term debt issues as of September 28, 2009.

Alcoa AA: 8/29/09 8K announcing that Alain J. P. Belda, executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of AA retired as an executive officer but is staying on as a director until April 23, 2010.

American Express AXP: 9/15/09 8K annoucing delinquency and write-off statistics for the lending portfolio of its U.S. Card Services operating segment for the months ended June 30, July 31 and August 31, 2009.

9/2/09 10Q;

Bank of Am BAC: 9/16/09 a free writing prospectus regarding issuance of $54 million in debt securities.

Boeing BA: 9/16/09 announcing that pursuant to a 1978 SEC settlement, BA informed the SEC of a change in its policy re the appointment of foreign consultants and to whom they report.

8/31/09 8K announcing the retirement of Scott E. Carson, Executive Vice President, President and Chief Executive Officer, Boeing Commercial Airplanes, effective January 1, 2010. Effective September 1, 2009, Mr. Carson will leave his current position and assume the role of Executive Vice President. Carson will be replaced by James F. Albaugh.

8/27/09 8K announcing a revised schedule for the 787 Dreamliner and a charge to third quarter earnings related to flight test aircraft.

Caterpiller CAT: 9/1509 8K announcing CAT and Navistar International Corporation (NYSE: NAV)formed a joint venture transaction resulting in a new company, NC2 Global LLC, to serve the global commercial truck market to be based in Chicago.

8/20/09 8K CAT filed Reg FD information concerning deliveries to users for its Machinery and Engines lines of business.

Chevron CVX: 8/6/09 10Q

Cisco CSCO: 9/11/09 10K

9/9/09 8K Cisco appointed Arun Sarin, former CEO of Vodafone Group Plc, to its Board of Directors. He will a $75,000 annual retainer, $2,000 per committee meeting attended, and 16,666 shares.

9/4/09 8K annoucing bonus payments for '09 fiscal year to: John T. Chambers, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, $2,031,000; Frank A. Calderoni, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, $900,000; Wim Elfrink, Executive Vice President, Cisco Services and Chief Globalization Officer, $1,000,000; Randy Pond, Executive Vice President, Operations, Processes and Systems, $900,000; and Richard J. Justice, former Executive Vice President, Worldwide Operations and Business Development and current Executive Vice President – Executive Advisor, $750,000.

Coke KO: 7/30/09 10Q

Disney DIS: 9/16 Prospectus related to the takeover of Marvel.

8/31/09 8K announcing a merger between its subsidiary, Maverick Acquisition Sub, Inc., and its subsidiary, Maverick Merger Sub, LLC, a single member Delaware limited liability company and Marvel Entertainment, Inc.. As a result of the Merger, Marvel will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Disney. Each share of Marvel common stock will be converted into $30 in cash and 0.7452 shares of Disney common stock.

DuPont DD: 8/13/09 8K announcing Nicholas C. Fanandakis, age 53, Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer & Chief Executive effective September 1, 2009 with an increase in annual salary from $387,708 to $500,000 and target short-term incentive award for 2009 will increase from $328,500 to $464,100. Mr. Fanandakis was named to his current position, Group Vice President- Applied BioSciences, in January 2008. Prior to that, he was vice president and general manager- DuPont Chemical Solutions Enterprise from September 2003 through September 2006 and vice president- Corporate Plans from October 2006 through December 2007. Jeffrey L. Keefer, EVP and Chief Financial Officer, will remain EVP and transition from the position of Chief Financial Officer to assume leadership responsibility for the DD's Performance Coatings business, corporate strategy development, Information Technology and overall cost and working capital productivity efforts effective November 1, 2009. Richard R. Goodmanson, EVP and Chief Operating Officer will retire effective September 30, 2009.

ExxonMobil XOM: 8/5/09 10Q

GE: 8/4/09 8K GE reached a settlement with the SEC & consented to a judgment of a fine of $50 million relating to four accounting matters arising in 2002 - 2003: the application of SFAS 133 to GE’s since-discontinued commercial paper hedging program and, separately, to certain swap derivatives where fees were paid or received at inception; a change in accounting for profits on spare parts in the commercial aviation engine business; and certain year-end transactions in the Rail business.

Hewlett-Packard HPQ: 9/17/09 8K On 9/17/09 HPQ elected Marc L. Andreessen as a dierctor and chair of the Technology Committee of the Board. Andreessen is a co-founder and general partner of Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm, and a co-founder and chairman of Ning, Inc., an online platform for people to create their own social networks. Andreessen co-founded Opsware Inc. & served as chief technology officer of America Online, Inc. and was a co-founder of Netscape Communications Corporation. Andreessen gets an retainer of $100,000, an annual equity retainer of $150,000, and $2,000 in cash for each Board meeting attended in excess of six per year. Mr. Andreessen also will be eligible to participate in the product matching portion of the HP Employee Giving Program under which each non-employee director may contribute up to $100,000 worth of HP products each year to a qualified charity by paying 25% of the list price of those products, with HP paying the remaining 75%. In addition, Mr. Andreessen will receive an annual retainer of $10,000 for service as the chair of the Technology Committee. HPQ also increased the number of HPQ directors from ten to eleven.

9/8/09 10-QA

9/4/09 10-Q

Home Depot HD: 9/3/09 10-Q

8/26/09 8K announcing amendments to their By-Laws dealing with resignations of directors.

Intel INTC: 9/16/09 An intranet article re the Stock Option Exchange Program.

9/15/09 8K Intel is consolidating all of its major product divisions into the newly formed Intel Architecture Group, which will be co-managed by Sean Maloney and David (Dadi) Perlmutter, executive vice presidents. Maloney will be responsible for business and operations while Perlmutter will lead product development and architecture. Paul Otellini, CEO, will devote more time to corporate strategy and driving the company’s growth initiatives. Intel’s global manufacturing organization, the Technology and Manufacturing Group will now report to Andy Bryant, Intel’s chief administrative officer. Pat Gelsinger and Bruce Sewell, General Counsel, will leave INTC.

8/28/09 8K announcing that as a result of stronger than expected demand for microprocessors and chipsets, Intel now expects revenue for the third quarter to be $9.0 billion, plus or minus $200 million, as compared to the previous range of $8.5 billion, plus or minus $400 million. The gross margin percentage for the third quarter is expected to be in the upper half of the previous range of 53 percent, plus or minus two percentage points. The company is scheduled to report its third-quarter financial results on Oct. 13.

IBM: 9/8/09 8K IBM representatives will be meeting with a number of institutional investors through mid-September.

7/28/09 10Q

JPMorganChase JPM: 9/17/09 prospectus reReverse Exchangeable Notes due December 21, 2009 Linked to Eight Equally Weighted Reference Stocks and in preceding days there were similar prospectuses.

9/2/09 Free Writing Prospectus relating to Core commodity C-IGAR Sigma Long-Short Index

Johnson & Johnson JNJ: 8/4/09 10Q

Kraft KFT: 9/9/09 prospectus relating to Kraft's bid to take over Cadbury that was announced on 9/7/09.

9/9/09 8K announcing a strategic update, including a review of the company’s successful three-year turnaround plan.

8/5/09 10Q

McDonalds MCD: 9/9/09 8K announcing that global comparable sales rose 2.2% in August and by segment performance was as follows: U.S. up 1.7%; Europe up 3.5%; andAsia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa declined 0.5%.

8/11/09 re: press release "McDonald’s Reports Global Comparable Sales Up 4.3% in July"

Merck MRK: 8/3/09 Sched 14A proxy material re: updated of acquisition of Schering-Plough

Microsoft MSFT: 9/11/09 8K James Cash to retire from Board of Directors. The
Harvard Business School professor and senior associate dean emeritus had served on the board since 2001. With Cash’s departure, the Microsoft board will have nine members: Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft; Steve Ballmer; Dina Dublon, former chief financial officer of JPMorgan Chase; Raymond V. Gilmartin, former chairman, president and chief executive officer of Merck & Co. Inc.; Reed Hastings, founder, chairman and CEO of Netflix Inc.; Maria M. Klawe, president, Harvey Mudd College; David F. Marquardt, general partner at August Capital; Charles H. Noski, former vice chairman of AT&T Corp.; and Dr. Helmut Panke, former chairman of the board of management at BMW AG.

8/24/09 S-8 Securities to be offered to employees in employee benefit plans

Pfizer PFE: 9/2/09 8K announcing an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to settle an investigation regarding off-label promotional practices related to Bextra, which Pfizer withdrew from the market in 2005 and other DOJ investigations involving off-label promotional practices concerning Zyvox, Geodon and Lyrica, and allegations related to payments to healthcare professionals involving these and nine other Pfizer medicines. Pfizer previously disclosed a related $2.3 billion charge to its fourth-quarter and full-year 2008 earnings in connection with the DOJ agreement in principle on January 26, 2009. PFE has reached agreements with attorneys general in 432 states to settle state civil consumer protection allegations regarding promotional practices concerning Geodon. PFE will pay a total of $33 million to the settling states.

Procter & Gamble PG: 9/10/09 8K confirmed its fiscal year 2010 and July – September quarter outlook for organic sales growth. The company also stated it expects to return to organic sales growth in the October – December quarter compared to prior year levels, following two quarters of organic sales declines. P&G also updated earnings per share guidance to include the anticipated impacts from the Pharmaceutical divestiture, which was announced on August 24, 2009. For fiscal year 2010, P&G confirmed previous guidance for organic sales growth of one to three percent. P&G expects net sales in the range of flat to up three percent versus prior year levels, which includes a foreign exchange impact of zero to minus one percent. P&G now expects fiscal 2010 earnings per share in the range of $3.99 to $4.12 per share. This includes a one-time net increase in earnings of $0.44 per share from the sale of the Pharmaceutical business, which will be partially offset by $0.10 to $0.12 per share of earnings dilution related to the transaction.

8/28/09 S-8 Securities to employees and 8/28 8K annoucning public offering of $500,000,000 aggregate principal amount of 3.150% Notes due 2015.
Also a PG subsidiary, Procter & Gamble International Funding SCA issued $1,000,000,000 aggregate principal amount of 1.350% Notes due 2011.

3M MMM: 8/5/09 3M contributed 8,329,862 shares of its common stock with a corresponding dollar value of approximately $600 million to its defined benefit pension plan, the 3M Employee Retirement Income Plan, made from treasury stock.

Travelers TRV: 8/5/09 10Q/A Amended 10Q

United Technologies UTX: 7/24/09 10Q

Verizon Communications Inc. VZ: 9/10/09 8K announcing VZ's cash flow and balance sheet are strong, and VZ recently increased its dividend for the third consecutive year. VZ is not planning for any economic improvements in the second half of 2009. Verizon expects that economic conditions will continue to pressure revenues and margins in the second half of 2009, particularly in its Wireline segment. VZ expects to add one million wireless customers per quarter for the next several quarters.
o The company expects to achieve its stated Alltel cost synergy targets & greater cash flow from operations in the second half of 2009 compared to the first half of 2009.

9/4/09 8K VZ raised its quarterly dividend 3.3% to 47.5 Cents per Share. This is the third consecutive year that VZ has approved a quarterly dividend increase in September.

9/4/09 8K annoucning retirement of Dennis F. Strigl, President and Chief Operating Officer of Verizon Communications Inc.

Wal-Mart WMT: 9/14/09 Prospectus re debt securities of $364,600,000

9/9/09 10Q

8/13/09 8K re 7/31/09 2Q report of earnings

Here are the CEOs of the Dow 30 Companies:

T Randall L. Stephenson
AA Klaus Kleinfeld
AXP Kenneth I. Chenault
BAC Kenneth D. Lewis
BA W. James McNerney, Jr.
CAT James W. Owens
CVX David O'Reilly
CSCO John Chambers
KO Muhtar Kent
DIS Rogert Iger
DD Ellen Kullman
XOM Rex W. Tillerson
GE Jeffrey R. Immelt
HPQ Mark Hurd
HD Frank Blake
INTC Paul S. Otellini
IBM Samuel J. Palmisano
JPM Jamie Dimon
JNJ William C. Weldon
KFT Irene Rosenfeld
MCD Jim Skinner
MRK Robert Clark
MSFT Steve Ballmer
PFE Jeffrey Kindler
PG Bob McDonald
MMM George W. Buckley
TRV Jay S. Fishman
UTX Louis Chenevert
VZ Ivan Seidenberg
WMT Mike Duke

Here are the Dow Jones Industrial Average 30 ranked in order of market capitalization rounded to the nearest billion as of 9/16/09:

1. Exxon Mobil XOM $345
2. Microsoft MSFT 225
3. WalMart WMT 193
4. GE 180
5. JPMorgan Chase 167
6. Johnson & Johnson JNJ 166
7. IBM 163
8. Procter & Gamble PG 161
9. AT&T T 156
10. Chevron CVX 145
11. Cisco CSCO 135
12. Coke KO 122
13. Pfizer PFE 111
14. Intel INTC 110
15. Bank of Am BAC 110
16. Hewlett-Packard HPQ 109
17. Verizon VZ 86
18. Merck MRK 68
19. McDonald's MCD 62
20. United Technologies UTX 58
21. Disney DIS 53
22. 3M MMM 53
23. Home Depot 48
24. American Express AXP 42
25. Kraft KFT 39
26. Boeing BA 38
27. Caterpillar CAT 33
28. DuPont DD 31
29. Traveler's TRV 28
30. Alcoa AA 14