Is Google (GOOG) Looking to Buy Twitter (TWTR) Stock?

Deal sounds like a longshot, but TWTR stock soars anyway
Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) stock jumped 4% on Tuesday on unconfirmed rumors that Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL) is looking to buy the social media company.

With the TWTR market capitalization clocking in above $33 billion, the acquisition would make a serious dent in Google’s cash hoard, which sat at $64.4 billion at the end of 2014.
Speculation that the interest from GOOG and another unnamed company prompted TWTR to hire Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) in an effort to fend off takeover attempts also contributed to the stock’s rapid rise Tuesday.

A move by Google to gobble up Twitter, which is unprofitable, and whose stock is sitting just 6% off 52-week highs, would make little sense from at least one standpoint: GOOG just recruited a new CFO, Ruth Porat, from Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) in an effort to control costs and, in the words of Bloomberg, help the search giant find some “fiscal discipline.”

Even though a GOOG buyout of TWTR seems unlikely, Wall Street seemed to buy the rumor, as Twitter shares rose on more than double their average daily volume. More than 36 million shares changed hands Tuesday; average daily volume stands at less than 17 million.
Twitter options also saw heavy action in response to the rumors.


Please share this article

The Technical Outlook for Oil. Part 1

Commodities normally go through a multi-year phase of strength and performance against the benchmark S&P 500 and then an approximate equal period of time of underperformance to the U.S. index.
Each stage of this Commodity/Stock cycle, lasts on average about 18 years. This has been the pattern for over 100 years.
For example, in chart 1, from 1980 to 2000, the S&P 500 outperformed the Commodity Research Bureau Index (CRB). From 2000 to 2012, the CRB outperformed the S&P 500. And from 2012 to the present, the U.S. index is again, outperformed the CRB. (more)

Please share this article

Chen Lin Sees Buying Opportunity of a Lifetime in Energy Stocks

After correctly predicting $47/bbl oil last year, Chen Lin, author of the popular stock newsletter What Is Chen Buying? What Is Chen Selling?, is licking his stock-picking chops at the bargains now available in international oil plays and the ones that could materialize stateside if the artificial pressure on domestic oil created by a ban on exports is not lifted. In this interview with The Energy Report, he names three stocks that are the victims of global hysteria around plunging oil prices and blindness to local opportunities.

(4/2/15) More >

Please share this article

Basic Energy Services, Inc (NYSE: BAS)

Basic Energy Services, Inc. provides well site services to oil and natural gas drilling and producing companies in the United States. Its Completion and Remedial Services segment offers pumping services, and fishing tools; coiled tubing; snubbing services; thru-tubing; cased-hole wireline services; and underbalanced drilling in low pressure and fluid sensitive reservoirs. The company’s Fluid Services segment is involved in the transportation of fluids; the production of salt water; the sale and transportation of fresh and brine water; the rental of portable frac and test tanks; the recycling and treatment of wastewater; the operation of fresh water and brine source wells, and of non-hazardous wastewater disposal wells; and the preparation, construction, and maintenance of access roads. Its Well Servicing segment provides services performed with a mobile well servicing rig and ancillary equipment, such as maintenance work, hoisting tools and equipment required by the operation, and plugging and abandonment services, as well as manufactures and sells work over rigs. Its Contract Drilling segment employs drilling rigs and related equipment to penetrate the earth to a desired depth and initiate production.
Take a look at the 1-year chart of Basic (NYSE: BAS) below with my added notations:

Starting in July, BAS declined steadily into December, and from there the stock started a 4-month, sideways move. During that sideways move, BAS has created an obvious resistance at $8 (blue). A break above that $14 level should mean higher prices for the stock, and yesterday BAS broke that level.

The Tale of the Tape: BAS broke through its key level of resistance at $8. A long trade could be entered on a pull back down to that level. However, a break below $8 could negate the forecast for a higher move and would be an opportunity to get short the stock.
Please share this article

J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP): Get Ready for a Short Squeeze

93 million.
That's how many shares are short on one of my favorite investments right now.
With a total of 304 million shares outstanding, we're talking about 32% of this company's stock that has been sold short by traders who think the share price is going lower.
The thing is, over the last couple of years, these bearish bets have been absolutely correct, and they've generated some outstanding profits as the stock price has dropped.
I know old habits die hard, but the time for this particular short play is over. The stock has fallen from $40 a share in January 2012 to around $9 today (the 52-week low is around $5). The downside profits have been made. The odds of another sharp move lower have declined dramatically. (more)

Please share this article