Stocks Profile

How would you like to have lunch with Warren Buffett? Now is your chance.

The only catch is that you have to pay for the lunch through eBay (EBAY) and you have to be the successful bidder. Current bid is $25,000 and the auction closes on June 10. The winning bid is expected to be at least $1,000,000, and the winning bid last year was $2.6 million and the year before was $1.68 million.

The lunch will be held at Smith & Wollensky in New York City, and you can bring seven guests.

If you are not the high bidder, you can at least invest like Buffett. Full post…

After dipping three points in June, on spring buying season hopes that went unfulfilled, the Housing Market Index rose two points in July, to a mark of 15. It’s still a sad level on an absolute basis, as 50 marks break-even between good and bad conditions and expectations. Yet, as students of securities markets know, change in trend and velocity of growth matter to stock movement, so investors in the shares of home builders should also find the opportunity I see for hard real estate.

Full post…

Medical technology giant St. Jude Medical’s (STJ – Analyst Report) second-quarter 2011 adjusted earnings per share of 85 cents beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a penny and surpassed the year-ago earnings of 79 cents.

This represents the Minnesota-based company’s ninth consecutive quarter of outperformance.

The adjusted earnings exclude charges (of $10 million) associated with the AGA Medical acquisition as well as costs (of $32 million) related to the restructuring of certain activities at the company’s Cardiac Rhythm Management (“CRM”) division.

Full post…

NEW YORK – Stocks are edging lower at the close as concerns about lifting the U.S. debt limit trumped strong earnings from Apple and a slew of new deals.

Apple Inc. rose 2.7 percent Wednesday after the company’s income doubled last quarter. Sales of Apple’s iPhones quadrupled in Asia.

The stock of Zillow, a real estate website, jumped 79 percent in its first day of trading. Zillow’s initial public offering priced at $20 late Tuesday.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 16 points, or 0.1 percent, to close at 12,572.

The S&P 500 index dropped less than 1 point to 1,326.

Full post…