The Week In Review (BEAS, ORCL, MCD, C, GE, MSFT, BIDU, VMW, ERTS, TSCM, VM, WMT, COST, BA, VLO, EBAY)

This was a long and crazy week for stock traders, but the Bond weasels got Monday off and only had a four-day work week.  Thursday was the mystery tank day when the beleaguered tech stocks dove, only to recover Friday.  PPI came in on a nominal basis at +1.1% instead of the +0.4% estimate, but when you look at core PPI without food and energy you only had a +0.1% read in September.

Here were the top stories of the week, sorry if itn’t kept to only 10.

Baidu.com (NASDAQ:BIDU)…… Traded north of $350.00 after a move that just wouldn’t quit, only to tank Thursday down to $300-ish and see a Friday recovery after Jim Cramer gave a $500.00 figure for conjecture. Here we posted some lessons from the dot.com bubble days.  Chinese stock craziness didn’t end.

BEA Systems (NASDAQ:BEAS) got a $17.00 buyout offer from Larry Ellison & Co. or Orcale for some $17.00 per share in cash and then rejected it as undervalued.

McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) raised guidance again.  What a story.

Citigroup’s (NYSE:C) Chuck Prince fired management, but he didn’t fire himself ahead of Monday’s earnings.
https://a673b.bigscoots-temp.com/banking-finance/2007/10/12/why-citi-c-cant/
Deutsche Bank cut Citi to a SELL rating.

24/7 Wall St. took the heads and the tails sides of the General Electric (NYSE:GE) earnings report, and McIntyre’s "tails" appears to have won the better call.  GE may also unload NBC Universal, but not until after the 2008 Olympics.

Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS) is having some serious Halo-envy as it made an $800 million acquisition.

No wonder Jim Cramer was happy all week, besides getting one day off for the CNBC Republican Presidential Debate….. His TheStreet.com (NASDAQ:TSCM) rose to seven-year highs.

Virgin Mobile (NYSE:VM) of billionaire Richard Branson made its IPO debut.

Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) sales were not good, but it cut costs amply and raised EPS targets.  Now that the market has stopped treating this as a grwoth stock, the earnings story is the focus.  Costco (NASDAQ:COST) posted better than expected sales.

Microsft (NASDAQ:MSFT) wants to go after VMware’s (NYSE:VMW) dominance in virtualization, but it wont be ready until later in 2008.  The big deal in VMware breaking $100 we gave some projected valuations even if you put the upside surprise on top of the expected growth rates.

Boeing (NYSE:BA) delayed the launch of the Dreamliner by another 6 months, and its suppliers got hit harder than the aerospace, defense, and jet maker itself.

Valero (NYSE:VLO) warned that feedstocks were killing margins and it gave an earnings warning, butthe stock rallied.

eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) launched its own social networking site, and the reviews are not that encouraging with a "doomed to fail" consensus from our circles.

Jon C. Ogg
October 12, 2007

Jon Ogg produces the 24/7 Wall St. Special Situation Investing Newsletter; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.