When Will The Credit Crunch Hit GE?

Over one third of GE's revenue is derived from financial services. To date, the company has apparently been immune from the current crisis currently devastating the financial sector. Apart from a small write down related to the closure of their fledgling subprime unit, GE has taken no write downs or losses on their financial activities. How long can this last?

Yes, Immelt has been rampantly buying stock. But so have executives at Wachovia in the 40's.

Yes, GE is international, industrial, and a conglomerate. But maybe that's the reason the stock has held up relatively well over the past six months.

There are plenty of arguments in GE's favor, but with credit contracting, the velocity of money slowing, the the financial world intertwined with a myriad of derivatives, doesn't it seem plausible that there might be some fall out coming?

The recent spike in GE's stock price is just begging to be sold.

Verisign: We Like Money

If you own any domain names, get ready to give Verisign more of your money for no valid reason. They just announced another increase in .com and .net domain name registry fees.

Like all good technology stuff, you would expect the cost of domain name registrations to decrease over time. But this will not be the case for domain names following the contract approved by ICANN last year, which paved the way for annual price increases for registry operator Verisign.

When the first price increase in the history of the internet took place last year, Elliot Noss, CEO of domain name registrar Tucows lamented, "This now signals a near-annual event that will take place in all major gTLDs. It is simply wrong.”

Personally, I think Verisign is just sour because so many of their past efforts to make money in domain names have bombed only to be successfully resurrected a few years after Verisign gave up. The only tool left in their bucket is the newfangled, annual registry fee increase.

The Eternal Amazon.com Question

The eternal Amazon.com question...

Is it an overpriced technology stock or an insanely overpriced retail stock?

Just something that came to mind after seeing this AP release stating that Amazon has the richest valuation in the consumer discretionary sector of the S&P 500.

Communicate.com Acquires Auctomatic

Communicate.com, holder of a portfolio of high value generic domain names has acquired Auctomatic.

Auctomatic helps manage eBay auctions. Communicate.com will supposedly use this technology to help build out some of their domain names to branded properties.

Over the past few years, the company has been working to transform itself from a fringe player primarily dependent on PPC income, to a company with a growing stable of popular destination websites. In theory, their domain name portfolio will give them an edge through generic traffic and strong branding. Auctomatic may give them another edge.

Communicate.com has also renamed the company Live Current Media, Inc.

The Party's Almost Over For Monsanto

Shares Monsanto rocked 10% higher after the company raised its 2008 guidance. This news carried the rest of the ag sector higher and brought fresh hope that "agriculture is different."

The latest rise in Monsanto comes two days after shares dipped as low as $90 per share. Today's move puts the stock at $114.54 and back above the 50 day moving average. It also puts the stock back into the range where the better trade is on the short side.

Yes, the huge gains in agriculture stocks are backed by strong earnings and a bright future. "The world needs food," "people gotta eat," "India and China," and the whole set of standard rally cheers all still apply.

But after today, there's one less positive catalyst to move the stock, the recent skittish pile-on short sellers have covered, and the stock is potentially carving out a lower high on the near term chart.