Stocks are moving higher today .....

Cutter, AP



NEW YORK (AP) -- Technology stocks rose Monday after Intel Corp. raised its quarterly dividend and said it would buy back more of its stock.



The news sent Intel's stock up 1.6 percent to $21.14. Another technology company, graphics chip maker Nvidia Corp., was the biggest gainer in the Standard & Poor's 500 index. Nvidia rose 7 percent to $23.79 after Barrons magazine predicted its stock could rise 80 percent over the next year.



The Dow Jones industrial average rose 24 points, or 0.2 percent, to 11,896 in morning trading.



The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 1, or 0.1 percent, to 1,285. The Nasdaq composite index rose 4, or 0.2 percent, to 2,694.



RadioShack Corp. fell 11.4 percent to $15.61 after the electronics retailer said its chairman and CEO, Julian Day, would retire in May. The electronics retailer also released a disappointing forecast for fourth quarter earnings.



J.C. Penney Co. rose 7 percent to $32.43 after the retailer said it would close stores and continue to exit the catalog business. The company also named Vornado Realty Trust Chairman Steven Roth and activist investor William Ackman to its board. Ackman and his hedge fund Pershing Square Management have pushed for major changes in retailers he holds stakes in.



American Express Co., CSX Corp. and Texas Instruments Inc. are scheduled to release their results after the market closes.



Bond prices fell, pushing their yields slightly higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 3.42 percent from 3.40 percent late Friday.



A report from the National Association for Business Economics showed that economists are more positive about economic growth and the job market than at any time since the start of the Great Recession.



No other major economic reports were scheduled to be released Monday. Reports on home prices, consumer confidence and new home sales are due out later in the week. A report on gross domestic product, due out Friday, is expected to show that the economy grew at a 3.1 percent rate in the fourth quarter, up from 2.6 percent in the third quarter.



The economy is also likely to be the focus of President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech Tuesday night.

Why Intel Will Soar to $46 ? , Becuase Jim Cramer said So ...? ( Intel Corporation (Public, NASDAQ:INTC)

Intel Corporation 

(Public, NASDAQ:INTC)
Intel could and should double, Cramer said Wednesday, after last night’searnings report, which was driven by “the most impressive product cycle I can ever recall.”How does he know? After 30 years on Wall Street, he’s seen this before.
 Back in ’82, Intel [INTC  23.99    0.47  (+2%)   ] launched its breakthrough 286 chip, businesses started buying PCs, and the stock doubled in a year. The 386 processor came in ’85, and INTC doubled 18 months later. PCs were becoming a household item in ’89 when Intel released its 486 chip, and it took just 16% for the stock to climb 100%. The Pentium chip hit the market in 1993 and 26 months later Intel had doubled again – then doubled once more 18 months after that when the Web took off. Then there was one more double once the Internet became a household utility.

“Now, suddenly, we have the first new sit-up-and-take-notice product cycle since that last Pentium-based double,” Cramer said. “And I think it's time that Intel’s stock reverts to the old pattern.”

He’s talking about the rise in PC sales thanks to Microsoft’s [MSFT  30.78    -0.04  (-0.13%)   ] new operating system, Windows 7. He means the Intel chips in Apple’s [AAPL  246.38    0.69  (+0.28%)   ] Mac computers. Plus, the company’s exposure to Cramer’s favorite growth trend, the mobile Internet. And he doesn’t see this as just a consumer-driven cycle either. He’s expecting chip demand worldwide to hit the corporate market in the second of the year.

Oddly, though, Intel did nothing today, even despite that fantastic report. But that’s just an opportunity for investors to get in before the stock ramps, Cramer said. INTC’s trading at 12 times earnings? He thinks it should be 18, especially given that Intel’s chips aren’t just part of a PC replacement cycle. They’re being used in a ton of different applications.

“I am calling for a return of the Intel of old,” Cramer said. “Those who do not learn from Intel’s history are doomed to miss this move.” madmoneycnbc.com....

Invest like SpongBob ?

Investing in Tech, the SpongeBob Way
By E. SAVITZ
Barrons
INVESTORS EXHAUSTED BY THE RELENTLESSLY BAD NEWS in the technology sector seem to be trying a new tack: If the news is miserable, simply ignore it. Why let pesky facts get in the way of a good stock idea?
Consider the market's initial reaction to the first major tech-earnings report of the new season: Q4 results from Intel (ticker: INTC). The chip giant's earnings, while well-telegraphed ahead of time, were basically terrible. As CEO Paul Otellini noted in a conference call Thursday, this was just the second time in 20 years that Intel's Q4 revenue was below Q3's. The first time, in 2000, it fell by less than 1%. This time, it plunged 19%.
As for the Q1 outlook, Intel did something odd: It declared that, owing to uncertainty about the economy and customer demand, it wouldn't give revenue guidance. Then, in the very next sentence of its press release, Intel said that for internal purposes, it is assuming revenue will be about $7 billion. (When is revenue guidance not actually revenue guidance? And, by the way, what is the sound of one hand clapping?)
Revenue at the $7 billion level would be a little worse than the consensus view, down 15% from the $8.2 billion reported in Q4, and 27.6% below a year ago. Intel also said its gross margin for the quarter would fall from 53% to the low 40s, due to lower capacity utilization and other factors.
Not much to cheer about. But the stock inched higher Friday anyway. Some investors apparently are working on the theory that the guidance-that-is-not-guidance might be as bad as things are going to get-and that Intel will be a survivor. My reaction, to quote that great philosopher SpongeBob SquarePants: "Well, good luck with that." Sure, Intel will survive, but sticking a stake in the ground and hoping for the best isn't investing; it's gambling. A turnaround in PC demand? It is coming someday, but I see no evidence of it in the numbers Intel reported.
THE SAME PHENOMENON IS EVIDENT at Motorola (MOT). The crumbling of its once-mighty handset business seems to be accelerating. Late Wednesday, the company pre-announced miserable Q4 results. It sold 19 million handsets in the period, compared with 25.4 million in Q3, and 28 million in Q2. At that rate, it soon will have a quarterly handset run-rate of, well, zero. Motorola also said it would lay off 4,000 people -- 3,000 in the handset business. But it cheerfully added that it is developing new smartphones, and that it has been getting a good reception from carriers.
Okay, very nice. Motorola sure needs new smartphones (which are expected to be based on Google's spiffy Android operating system). Unfortunately, while Motorola has been frittering away huge gobs of market share, the smartphone market has been invaded by impressive competitors, like the Apple iPhone, BlackBerry Bold and Palm Pre. Nonetheless, investors, cheered by the, uh, happy news about all those layoffs, bid the stock up nearly 8% Thursday. Paging SpongeBob.
Change Happens: Apple's CEO took a medical leave, while Yahoo!'s new boss arrived. Intel's profit slid 90%. The Nasdaq Composite fell 2.7%, to 1529.
FINALLY, CONSIDER YAHOO! It has a new CEO. After a two-month search, the troubled Internet company replaced founder Jerry Yang with former Autodesk chief Carol Bartz. The Street's initial reaction was to shout "Yahoo!" -- which is exactly what Bartz did at the start of her conference call.
The theory is that with a new CEO, the company will sell its search engine to Microsoft . Bartz, however, told employees she isn't inclined to sell the search business. Bulls are betting Bartz will wheel and deal Yahoo! out of its funk. But if there is no Microsoft deal, she may have to manage her way out. And that could take longer than holders -- whose stock has slid below 12 from about 30 early in 2008 -- want to believe.
Bartz certainly has incentive to drive up Yahoo! 's stock (YHOO). According to an SEC filing, she will get a base salary of $1 million, and a performance bonus of as much as $4 million, plus an annual equity grant -- $8 million for 2009 -- and another $10 million (75% in restricted stock, the rest in cash) in compensation for forfeiting Autodesk options. And she gets five million seven-year options, which vest over time based on Yahoo's shares reaching certain levels. The first third vests when the stock hits 150% of the yet to-be-determined strike price, for instance. Maxed out, her first-year compensation could top $40 million. No wonder she shouted Yahoo!.