Odds & Ends 06/28/07

Anti trust baby thrown out with the bath water:

In Leegin Creative Leather Products v. PSKS, 06- 480; the U.S. Supreme Court by a 5-4 vote, overturning the 96 year old antitrust precedent, the 1911 decision in Dr. Miles v. Park.

Thus allowing manufacturers and distributors in some circumstances to agree with retailers on minimum prices for products. AKA PRICE FIXING.

The justices said the longstanding blanket ban on those accords was too rigid and that a case by case approach would "promote competition and lead to greater consumer choice".

Uh-uh, competition & choice, sure thing... Those 5 justices must be toking the same bong as Dubya Shrub...

Update... as we speak Verizon vs Vonage is being heard by the DC Federal Circuit Apellate Court.

Home Sweet Home...

KB Home, a Q2 net loss of $148M vs profit of $205M on a 36% fall in top line, reflecting a 41% fall in housing revenue, a 36% decrease in unit deliveries and an 8% drop in average selling price. Oh! and a cancellation rate of 34%.

Whats in your wallet?...

In April, Capital One reported a 23.6% drop in Q1 earnings despite an 11.9% rise in revenue as operating costs surged 36.8%. Today, they announced 2000 layoffs.

Don't make it a double...Constellation Brands a Q2 YOY -65% decline in profit on -22% sales decline.

After all the recent semi upgrades from the street...Let the chips fall where they may...

Novellus expects Q2 EPS and revenues to come in at the lower end of its earlier guidance range, due to weakness in the semiconductor equipment industry.

The chip manufacturer said that it is seeing weakening demand in the semiconductor equipment industry and taking preventive actions to cut costs.

The expense control initiatives include a salary reduction of executives for the remainder of 2007 and company shutdowns in Q3 & Q4.

Meanwhile, chipster LSI Corp lowered forward guidance to a loss on lower than expected revenues.

LSI said that it will eliminate approximately 900 positions or about 13% of its non-production workforce.

But everyone needs a Palm PDA, right? Wrong... Palm reported a Q2 44% profit decline, trading was halted on the stock.

Perhaps the bogus brokerage upgrades should be halted as well.

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