nsany

Vibe, the urban music magazine, is clawing its way back to life. New owners and editors are trying to make the magazine a success reality again, and they are making the web a priority ... which shouldn't be news but is for an ailing print industry.

The new editor-in-chief, Jermaine Hall, told AdAge that "Vibe.com is really the hub," and that everything needs to point back to the online presence. The print publication will be just one part of the Vibe Lifestyle Network, a move we're also seeing with the likes of Rolling Stone, where the website is being brought back into the fold (and may actually get some resources).

Even with the cash-for-clunkers program in full effect, demand for new automobiles is the lowest it's been in years. This has heightened competition among automakers, who are being forced to both improve their products and discount their prices. Consumers in the market for a new 2010 vehicle may be treated to a discount.

Toyota Motor (NYSE: TM), for example, plans to introduce a less expensive Prius, and the 2010 Nissan (OTC: NSANY) Sentra will see its sticker price drop by anywhere from $130 to $1,080, based on the features the buyer opts for. Other vehicles that will hit the showroom floors at a discount include the Mercedes-Benz E350 mid sized sedan and the Lexus RX 350, discounted by $3,300 and $700, respectively.

The Energy Department is set to lend money to Ford (NYSE: F), Tesla, and Nissan (NASDAQ: NSANY), according to the Associated Press. The report cites anonymous sources, with the official announcement set for today in Dearborn, Michigan.

Reportedly, Ford has asked to receive $5 billion in loans by 2011, although the sources were not certain on how much money the automaker would receive. Nissan's requested amount was undisclosed and Tesla has reportedly asked for $450 million. The loan program the automakers are trying to tap into was approved by Congress last year in order to help car companies and suppliers develop green vehicles and components (such as the advanced battery) and help automakers meet the new fuel-efficiency standards of 35 miles per gallon by 2020.

Ford (NYSE: F) is the last of the "Big" Three standing on its own two feet. Chrysler and General Motors (OTC: GMGMQ) are on crutches supplied by the federal government. While they're both still upright, those crutches are mighty expensive (the government will own 60% of GM when it emerges from bankruptcy).

Speaking of bankruptcy, Chrysler is already on the other side and now a partner with Fiat. That was perhaps the fastest legal action ever seen. Usually bankruptcy takes between 18 months to two years before a new company emerges.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Abercrombie & Fitch Inc. (NYSE: ANF) beat Q4 earnings estimates handily, sending shares higher.
• Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) did well in the holiday period but offered weak guidance.
• Barclays (NYSE: BCS) one-time gains offset write-downs and said it expects to resume dividend payments.
• Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) shares fell after it announced that it had understated its Q4 and fiscal 2008 loss.
• Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) topped Q4 earnings estimates due in part to volume gain internationally.
• Diageo (NYSE: DEO) earnings rose in the first half, but it cut its full-year forecast.
• GSI Commerce Inc. (NASDAQ: GSIC) "solid" Q4 results led to an analyst downgrade.

Stocks are set for a mixed start as investors keep watching -- and waiting for more details -- the different government plans to bailout the financial market, stimulate the economy and aid homeowners. More here: Before the bell: Stocks set for a mixed start as investors watch government's plans

PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) -- Can the Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) rival follow in its competitor's footsteps as it reports earnings today and post results the market is happy with?
Pepsico reported that fourth-quarter profit fell partly on restructuring and impairment charges, but adjusted results were $1.39 billion, or 88 cents per share, inline with analysts' expectations. PEP shares traded nearly 1% higher in premarket trade, despite saying it forecasts pressure from a stronger dollar. PEP shares were some 2.5% higher by 11 am.

Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) will freeze wages, cut pay for factory executives, eliminate bonuses for all salaried employees and offer voluntary redundancy to plant workers in North America for the first time as it widens output cuts to adjust for slumping vehicle demand. TM shares traded lower in premarket action. TM shares declined some about 1.9% by 11 am.

For employees of Japan's third largest automaker, Nissan Motor Co. (NASDAQ: NSANY), the news today was grim. Nissan announced it will be eliminating a hefty 8.5% of its workforce, or roughly 20,000 jobs.

The news comes at a time when all automakers are struggling to deal with the global recession that continues to keep car buyers off the showroom floors. Nissan said it expects to report its first annual loss in the past nine years.

For the company's most recent quarter, October through December, Nissan reported a $904 million quarterly loss.

Nissan Motor Co. (NASDAQ: NSANY) reported a $904 million quarterly loss and said it expects this year to be its first annual loss in nine years. Nissan is cutting 20,000 jobs, or 8.5% of its workforce. NSANY shares declined over 6.5% in premarket trade.

Barclays PLC (NYSE: BCS) reported Monday that its net profit for 2008 fell just 1% after several major one-off gains helped compensate for over 8 billion pounds ($11.8 billion) of write-downs. The bank's balance sheet, meanwhile, ballooned 67% to 2.05 trillion pounds. Pretax profit for the year dropped 14% to 6.08 billion pounds, well ahead of analyst estimates. Barclays said it will resume dividend payments in the second half of the year. Shares in Barclays soared over 12% in premarket trade.

Nissan Motors (NASDAQ: NSANY - option chain) shares have moved higher today on reports that the company will invest $1.1 billion to make lithium-ion batteries to be used in electric and hybrid cars. This outlay should account for batteries for 200,000 vehicles each year. If you think that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on NSANY.

NSANY opened this morning at $7.02. So far today the stock has hit a low of $6.90 and a high of $7.07. As of 12:50, NSANY is trading at $6.96, up 11 cents (1.6%). The chart for NSANY looks neutral and S&P gives NSANY a 3 STARS (out of 5) hold ranking.

For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a June covered call at the $7.50 level. A covered call is an options position that combines the purchase of stock with the sale of call options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make a 22.0% return in just 6 months as long as NSANY is above $7.50 at June expiration. Nissan would have to fall by more than 11% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.

NSANY has only barely dipped below $6.15, which is this trade's break-even point, in the past year and has shown support around $6.80 recently.

Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer.

DISCLOSURE: Mr. Archer owns and/or controls diversified portfolios of long and short stock and option positions that may include holdings in companies he writes about. At publication time, Brent neither owns nor controls positions in NSANY.

There is no question about the troubles that the American auto makers have been dealing with, and things are not looking too bright for their overseas competitors as well. Toyota (NYSE: TM) announced today that November was another tough month for the Japanese auto maker, as the company witnessed the largest monthly decline in sales for the past 8 years.

During the month, Toyota saw its global sales dip by a massive 21.8%, and highlights the bad news that the company shared with the market earlier this week that 2008 would mark the first time in the past 70 years that the company would be reporting an operating loss for the year.

Earlier this year, the Japanese auto makers had appeared to be somewhat insulated from the slowdown that American makers General Motors (NYSE: GM) and Ford (NYSE: F) were dealing with. The main reason why the Japanese makers were able to weather the storm a bit better was their strong reputation for producing better, more fuel efficient vehicles. While this perception kept the Japanese auto makers stronger for the first part of the year, the overall economic slowdown and credit crunch have been taking their toll recently on all auto makers, the Japanese included.

Ford, Volvo Top List osf Safest U.S. Vehicles
The most new cars and trucks ever earned spots on the insurance industry's annual list of the safest vehicles. For the 2009 model year, Ford and Volvo have 16 vehicles on the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's list of the safest cars, followed by Honda Motor with 13 vehicles. Seventy-two cars, trucks and SUVs received the top safety pick designation for the 2009 model year, more than double the number of vehicles in 2008.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2008-11-24-ford-volvo-car-safety_N.htm

GM: Death of the American Dream
General Motors was the Great American Company. But by clinging to the attributes that made it an icon, GM drove itself to ruin.
http://money.cnn.com/2008/11/21/magazines/fortune/taylor_generalmotors.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008112506

Honda (NYSE: HMC) closed at $22.40 Thursday. HMC overall option implied volatility of 92 is above its 26-week average of 42 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement.

Toyota Motor (NYSE: TM) closed at 67.09 Thursday. TM overall option implied volatility of 70 is above its 26-week average of 39 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement.

Tata Motors (NYSE: TTM), an Indian car manufacturer, closed at $4.50 Thursday. TTM overall option implied volatility of 84 is above its 26-week average of 61 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement.

Nissan (NSADQ: NSANY) closed at $8.57 Thursday. NSANY overall option implied volatility of 76 is above its 26-week average of 49 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

Nissan Motors (NASDAQ: NSANY) will unveil a stripped-down version of its Versa subcompact vehicle this month at the lowest price ever for a brand-new car in the U.S. market. The new Versa won't come with power windows or air conditioning, but will retail at $9,990 -- just a few bills below ten grand. The cheapest new vehicle currently being sold in the U.S. is the Hyundai Accent.

Nissan's valiant attempt here is geared towards converting used-car buyers into new-car buyers. It's true that a car shopper can buy a decent used vehicle for $10k that will most likely have air conditioning and more interior space (and more engine power). The Mexican-made Versa will go on sale November 18 and will be priced $3,000 less than any currently sold Versa in the U.S.

Alexander Edwards with Strategic Vision asks the question I'm thinking: "Automakers seem to be trying to do two things: bring in vehicles in the lowest price range while also trying to deliver cars with some level of nobility and class and extras ... the question is, how many people are going to choose a vehicle that doesn't have air conditioning?"

That one single feature could be killer to Nissan's attempt here. Folks will buy cars with a complete lack of features -- except air conditioning. But will shoppers look at used cars with more size and convenience, or a brand new car without any features which will depreciate considerably the moment it's driven off the dealer lot? In the good news segment, the $10,000 Versa will see a fuel efficiency figure of 34 miles per gallon on the highway.

U.S. stock futures fell Friday morning, after two days of gains and ahead of some economic data that will likely show further economic distress. The economic releases are: the employment cost index for q3, personal income and spending for September, the Chicago manufacturing PMI and the University of Michigan's consumer confidence for October. Global stocks generally declined Friday as oil again dropped below $65 a barrel to around $63.50. Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan cut its benchmark interest rate to 0.3%, which was less than expected, causing the Nikkei to drop by 5%.

Chevron (NYSE: CVX) is due to report this morning, following Exxon Mobil's (NYSE: XOM) record profit reported Thursday.

Burger King (NYSE: BKC) reported first quarter earnings of 38 cents per share, ex-items, below the consensus of 39 cents. Revenues came in at $674 million, versus the consensus of $667.6 million.

Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) shares dropping 14% in after-hours trading after it posted a wider loss and reduced its annual forecast. The game maker also announced layoffs.

Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) on Thursday reported a $1.68 billion fiscal first-quarter loss due to charges, but sales also fell more than 7% from a year ago. In all, ex-items, the company would have lost $65 million, or 9 cents a share on revenue of $2.99 billion for the quarter. Shares were down 3% in after-hours.

Lost in this weekend's news about the $700 billion bailout package for the banking industry was a $25 billion loan package for United States auto manufacturers. This package comes at a time when apparently Congress and the President believe that the American people will see $25 billion as a pittance compared to the $700 billion they're already planning to spend on mortgages. While there certainly is precedence for this move --- the government loaned $675 million to Chrysler in 1980--- this loan package is several orders of magnitude larger.

Ryan Pfenninger of MarketRiders is outraged at this loan package, claiming it is anti-competitive to startup companies like Tesla Motors who are investing their own money in alternative technologies like battery power. $25 billion is a lot of money. Detroit should not be able to argue for 30 years against improved fuel mileage and better technology, and then come back to the same government they persuaded into facilitating their failure, for a bailout.

He points out the immense irony in this loan to auto manufacturers. According to Ryan, General Motors (NYSE:GM), Ford (NYSE:F), and Chrysler are currently struggling significantly against Japanese and other foreign manufacturers who have spent the last many years improving fuel efficiency and developing hybrid and other alternative technologies. If Detroit had spent as much time, money, and effort in research and development as they did lobbying Congress to keep fuel mileage standards low, and made competitive non-gas guzzling vehicles, I would venture a guess these loans wouldn't be necessary.

Ryan believes that most people understand a mortgage bailout was necessary. But he's not so sure that if Detroit fails, this could cripple the United States economy. There are plenty of foreign auto manufacturers with operations in the United States -- Toyota (NYSE:TM), Honda (NYSE:HMC), and Nissan (NASDAQ:NSANY)-- who could easily pick up the slack. Their vehicles are outselling American automobiles. They are building plants in places like East Liberty, OH and Lincoln, AL, providing jobs for people displaced by the failure of Detroit.