Republicans continue to lead the races for both Governor and Senator in Illinois, albeit by close margins. Mark Kirk is ahead of Alexi Giannoulias 46-42 for the state's open Senate seat and Bill Brady is ahead of Pat Quinn 45-40 for Governor.
There are three main reasons Republicans are headed for big gains across the country this year and the Illinois races exemplify all three of them:
-Independents are leaning strongly toward the GOP. Kirk leads Giannoulias 46-31 with them and Brady has a 45-27 advantage over Quinn with them.
-Republican voters are much more unified around their candidates this year than Democrats are. 87% of GOP identifiers are planning to vote for Kirk while only 78% of Democrats are planning to vote for Giannoulias. In the Governor's race 86% of Republicans support Brady while Quinn's only getting 75% support from his party.
-Republican voters are much more likely to head to the polls this year than Democrats. In 2008 Barack Obama won Illinois by 25 points. Those who say they're likely to vote this year only supported him by 14 points. That's a strong indication that many of the voters who were a part of the Obama 'wave' are staying at home this year.
No matter who wins either of these races Illinois voters will be left with a Governor and Senator that they don't like. Giannoulias' favorability is 35/49, Kirk's isn't much better at 39/45. Quinn's approval is 32/54 and that's a good thing for Brady because voters don't like him either, giving him a favorability of 39/45.
The presence of the third party candidates in the race seems to really be hurting Giannoulias. In a straight head to head between him and Kirk he trails by only a 46-45 margin. But a fair number of progressive voters who don't like Giannoulias but can't bring themselves to vote for Kirk are supporting the minor candidates in the contest.
As for Quinn he's made an impressive comeback over the course of the campaign and his prospects certainly look a lot better than they did back in the spring and summer. But at the end of the day it's an open question whether an incumbent Governor with a 32% approval rating can win reelection, no matter how blue their state or weak their opponent.
Full results here
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Bank of America, Or American Banks (NYSE: WFC) (NYSE: JPM) (NYSE: BAC)
NEW YORK - The major United States bank have remained mostly flat since they reported their earnings. J.P Morgan is down 6.9% or $12 billion of market capitalization since it reported, despite reporting a profit of $4.4 billion. Investors worried about the foreclosure scandal that had just began to unfold. But despite recent clarification the stock has remained lower.Bank of America has lost 7.3% since or approximately $10 billion of market capitalization since it reported just over a week ago. The bank reported $3.1 billion of adjusted profit but lost $7.3 billion with the goodwill charge. To read our BAC report click here.
Wells Fargo has been the best performing bank since it reported, the stock is up 6.5% or about $8 billion of market capitalization. The bank reported record profits of $3.34 billion. To see the full Wells Fargo report click here.
Citigroup is up 5% or about 6 billion of market capitalization since it reported $2.1 billion of profit. Surprisingly the bank is valued higher than Bank of America despite lower profits the stock has vaulted higher then its peer.
PNC Financial the 6th largest bank in the U.S., surprisingly is only 2.1% higher despite near record results when it reported just over a week ago. The bank announced $1.1 billion of profits. To see the full PNC report click here.
Close Senate race in Colorado
The Senate race in Colorado continues to look like it will be one of the closest in the country on Tuesday night. PPP's final poll there finds Ken Buck ahead of Michael Bennet by the slimmest of margins, 49-48.
Each candidate has his party base pretty much sewn up. Bennet is winning 87% of Democrats and Buck is winning 86% of Republicans. Giving Buck his slim lead is a 50-46 advantage among independents.
One thing interesting to note within the results is that with respondents who say they've already voted- accounting for 66% of the sample- Bennet is actually ahead by a 52-46 margin. Buck leads 55-41 with those who say they have not yet cast their ballots. Bennet should probably be rooting for ugly weather on election day, any little thing could help in such a close race if he already has a lead in the bank.
Bennet continues to sport poor approval numbers- 39% of voters give him good marks while 47% say they aren't happy with his job performance. Those numbers, not coincidentally, correlate closely with Barack Obama's poor 41/53 breakdown in the state. Bennet's stayed in this race because Buck has proven to be a weak candidate as well with a 44/48 favorability. Republicans might have had an easier time with a different nominee- we looked at a hypothetical contest between Bennet and GOP primary loser Jane Norton on this poll and found Norton would lead by a wider 47-43 margin.
In 2004 Ken Salazar's victory in the Colorado Senate race provided a rare bright spot for Democrats on a night when they lost pretty much every other close contest- can Bennet do the same? We'll know soon enough.
In the Governor's race John Hickenlooper is looking a little bit more solid than he did a week ago and now leads by 5 points, getting 48% to 43% for Tom Tancredo and 8% for Dan Maes. Hickenlooper will probably win but there's a very good chance he will do so without cracking 50% of the vote.
The Republican split has proven critical to his chances for victory. Hickenlooper is taking 87% of the Democratic vote while Tancredo is getting just 71% of Republicans with 15% still planning to cast their votes for Maes. Tancredo's beating Hickenlooper with independents 49-45, but unless he can push up closer to 85% of the Republican vote he's not going to be able to pull it out.
Full results here
Each candidate has his party base pretty much sewn up. Bennet is winning 87% of Democrats and Buck is winning 86% of Republicans. Giving Buck his slim lead is a 50-46 advantage among independents.
One thing interesting to note within the results is that with respondents who say they've already voted- accounting for 66% of the sample- Bennet is actually ahead by a 52-46 margin. Buck leads 55-41 with those who say they have not yet cast their ballots. Bennet should probably be rooting for ugly weather on election day, any little thing could help in such a close race if he already has a lead in the bank.
Bennet continues to sport poor approval numbers- 39% of voters give him good marks while 47% say they aren't happy with his job performance. Those numbers, not coincidentally, correlate closely with Barack Obama's poor 41/53 breakdown in the state. Bennet's stayed in this race because Buck has proven to be a weak candidate as well with a 44/48 favorability. Republicans might have had an easier time with a different nominee- we looked at a hypothetical contest between Bennet and GOP primary loser Jane Norton on this poll and found Norton would lead by a wider 47-43 margin.
In 2004 Ken Salazar's victory in the Colorado Senate race provided a rare bright spot for Democrats on a night when they lost pretty much every other close contest- can Bennet do the same? We'll know soon enough.
In the Governor's race John Hickenlooper is looking a little bit more solid than he did a week ago and now leads by 5 points, getting 48% to 43% for Tom Tancredo and 8% for Dan Maes. Hickenlooper will probably win but there's a very good chance he will do so without cracking 50% of the vote.
The Republican split has proven critical to his chances for victory. Hickenlooper is taking 87% of the Democratic vote while Tancredo is getting just 71% of Republicans with 15% still planning to cast their votes for Maes. Tancredo's beating Hickenlooper with independents 49-45, but unless he can push up closer to 85% of the Republican vote he's not going to be able to pull it out.
Full results here
Miller leads in Alaska
Joe Miller is favored heading into the final two days of the US Senate campaign in Alaska. 37% of voters say they'll pick him while 30% plan to vote for Scott McAdams and another 30% plan to write in Lisa Murkowski.
Miller is winning despite having the worst personal favorability numbers of the three candidates. Only 36% have a positive opinion of him while 59% view him in a negative light. McAdams is by far the most popular with 50% rating him favorably to only 30% with an unfavorable one. Voters aren't very enamored with Murkowski either, giving her a 37/53 approval rating.
How can McAdams be so much more popular than Miller yet still be trailing the race? It's because 92% of the small group of voters that does like Miller is planning to vote for him. But only 56% of the voters with a positive opinion of McAdams are intending to cast their ballots for him, while 31% of them are going for Lisa Murkowski.
The high number of voters who like McAdams, dislike Miller, and are voting for Murkowski place the race in a whole different light than has been thought of the last few months. Murkowski's campaign, rather than propping herself up at the expense of Miller, may actually end up propping Miller up at the expense of McAdams. You never know how things would have unfolded in a two way race but Murkowski seems to be taking a lot more voters away from McAdams than she is from Miller.
It appears that Murkowski will lose this race. There are 2 main reasons for that. The first is that she retained little goodwill from Republicans after deciding to make an independent bid. Only 27% of GOP voters are planning to vote for her on Tuesday, down from 31% from a PPP poll earlier in October. The second reason Murkowski's headed for a loss is that she failed to dominate with independents. She is slightly ahead with them, getting 34% to 32% for McAdams and 31% for Miller. But they're not providing her with a strong base of support the way Democrats are for McAdams and Republicans for Miller.
In a cycle that has seen a lot of strange races, this one may well be the strangest. It would be premature to write off anyone at this point but Miller does look to be the favorite headed into the final stretch.
Full results here5% off the price of Apple? (NASDAQ: AAPL)
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) is down 5% from its all-time high of $319. It's most recent quarter blew past analyst expectations by 15%, earnings $4.64 per share. The stock dropped on the news, yet prospects for Apple keep getting stronger. The company was in the early innings of its iPad launch, which was just picked up by Verizon and AT&T in the coming quarter. The final quarter of the year is also the Chrsitmas quarter. Sales from Apple's new iPod lineup should impact sales in a positive way. The company also blew past Research in Motion last quarter, selling 14 million iPhones - an Apple record. Apple has pulled back as investors take profit. Who knows when the stock will regain its momentum and leap forward once more.
Longtime Can-Am Midget Club racer Dan May killed in an automobile crash
Earlier today, I received the following note from Cindy Lorenz of the
Can-Am Midget Club. Inside Track offers its condolences to Dan May's
family and friends.
Can-Am Midget Club. Inside Track offers its condolences to Dan May's
family and friends.
"I am sorry to report that longtime Can-Am Midget racer Dan May was
killed in an automobile accident on Friday in Ancaster (ON).
Visitations will be at the Dodsworth and Brown Funeral Home in Ancaster,
on Tuesday from 2-4 and 7-9. The funeral will be at 11 a.m. on
Wednesday.
Dan May and his father Ross have been involved with the racing community
in stock cars and TQ Midgets for many years. He will be sorely missed."
Titans lost Young, Britt and the Game Against Chargers 33-25
The San Diego Chargers won a valuable victory over the Tennessee Titans 33 to 25.In what has become his style, San Diego fought against the Titans and his own mistakes in order to obtain a valuable result for Norv Turner and his men kept alive in their division but with the very high costs.
For Tennessee, the losses were significant because in addition to losing the division lead, then whoever wins between Houston and Indianapolis will take his place, Kenny Britt succumbed to a thigh injury and quarterback Vince Young, good performance with 235 yards and two touchdowns , left the game for what was reported as a knee injury.
The first score of the NFL betting game, according to the season for the Chargers, was a safety for the visitors after a blocked punt Mike Scifres. San Diego had to paddle upstream almost the entire first half but despite a goal by Chris Johnson, and Young's pass to Craig Stevens, the Chargers reached the half down only five.
In the third quarter achieved locals take the lead by five points thanks to a field goal and a reception by Antonio Gates, arguably the man of the match with 123 receiving yards and a touchdown.
But the ineffectiveness of the Chargers offensive series to close the opening the door would return to the Titans who found eight points down in the middle of the last four were approached by a huge 71-yard pass to Nate Washington Young, another major performance 117 yards and a touchdown, needing only two-point conversion to tie the game. The attempt, however, fail to San Diego giving breathing space.
The Chargers would benefit from the opportunity by getting a touchdown pass from Philip Rivers to Darren Sproles. In another distressing and incomprehensible error premises failed extra point that would have the advantage of two runs giving an opportunity to the team of the AFC South.
Their return was cut short by the aforementioned Young injury in an attempt to career appeared to trip over the grass clutching his knee right away without having received any contact.
That was all for the match that kept the hopes of the Chargers (3-5) and left the Titans with many problems, few of which are related to the positions of their division. Must await the injury status of both players...
Legendary NASCAR Vice President Jim Hunter Dies
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Oct. 30, 2010) – NASCAR Vice President of Corporate Communications Jim Hunter, whose career in motorsports spanned portions of six decades as both a journalist and public relations professional, died Friday night in Daytona Beach, Fla. following a 12-month battle with cancer. He was 71.
“Jim Hunter was one of NASCAR’s giants,” said NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France. “For more than 40 years Jim was part of NASCAR and its history. He loved the sport, but loved the people even more. It seems as if everyone in the sport called him a friend. Jim will forever be missed by the NASCAR community. Our sympathies go out to his entire family.”
Added NASCAR President Mike Helton: “Jim was a uniquely talented man that cannot be replaced. He was a great friend and mentor to so many in the sport. His influence will remain with and be carried on by so many of the people he touched. This is a sad day for Jim’s family and his extended, NASCAR family.”
As a young man growing up in his native South Carolina, Hunter was a football and baseball player at the University of South Carolina. Those years preceded a future of being immersed in the sports world, primarily motorsports. Hunter learned motorsports from “both sides” by working as a newspaper reporter/editor and a public relations representative.
As a member of the media, Hunter was sports editor of the Columbia Record newspaper; he had an award-winning stint at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution; he was a columnist for Stock Car Racing magazine; and he authored a number of books, including a widely-read biography on NASCAR great David Pearson, entitled “21 Forever”.
On the public relations side, hunter broke into that business in the 1960s, with Dodge’s motorsports operation. He handled public relations for a number of top IndyCar drivers before going on to become the public relations director at his beloved Darlington Raceway and Talladega Superspeedway.
In 1983, Hunter was named to his first executive position in his first NASCAR stint, becoming NASCAR’s vice president of administration. In 1993 he was named president of Darlington Raceway and corporate vice president of the International Speedway Corporation. He remained at Darlington until 2001 when he accepted an offer from then-NASCAR Chairman and CEO Bill France Jr. to return to Daytona Beach to lead an expanded public relations effort aimed at responding to the needs of burgeoning media coverage.
Hunter won numerous awards during his career, including: the Hugh Deery Memorial Award in 1988; South Carolina Ambassador for Economic Development in 1994; South Carolina Tourism Ambassador of the Year in 1997; the National Motorsports Press Association’s Joe Littlejohn Award in 2005; and the Buddy Shuman Award in 2006.
Hunter is survived by his wife of 48 years, Ann Hunter; his children, Scott Hunter and Amy McKernan and his grandchildren Dakota Hunter, and Hunter and Luke McKernan.
In lieu of flowers the family asked that donations be made to The NASCAR Foundation or Hospice of Volusia/Flagler County. Funeral arrangements will be announced later.
From NASCAR
Limelight (NASDAQ: LLNW) in the Spotlight (NYSE: CRM) (NYSE: VMW)
Limelight Networks reports earnings on Friday. Consensus estimates are for -$0.01 per share on revenue of $47.81 million. The provider of content delivery services over networks has been heated along with the other cloud computing stocks such as Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) and VMWare (NYSE: VMW).
Though Limelight Network's market cap is much smaller, the stock price is up 15% in the last month, and closed Friday at $6.79.
Though Limelight Network's market cap is much smaller, the stock price is up 15% in the last month, and closed Friday at $6.79.
The Buccaneers tied the best betting record in the NFC to beat the Cardinals
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have shown that they are serious this NFL betting season when placed together with the Falcons and Giants as the best brands in the NFC 38-35 on the road, beating the Arizona Cardinals.The man of the match was the Bucs rookie running back, LeGarrette Blount with 22 carries for 120 yards and two touchdowns.
Another who scored twice in the match was the Arizona star receiver, Larry Fitzgerald also caught six passes for 72 yards.
Blount addition to the above, one that stood out for the Buccaneers cornerback Aqib Talib was that recorded five tackles and two important interceptions.
Max Hall was the starting quarterback for the Cardinals, however, was replaced by Derek Anderson, however both threw a touchdown pass and was intercepted twice, Anderson Hall 234 yards and managed only 71.
Pin the opposing team, Josh Freeman hit 18 of 25 passes for 278 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions.
With this result, Tampa Bay's record is 5-2, tied with Atlanta at the top of the NFC South, while Arizona fell to 3-4 occupying the third place in the NFC West.
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Yamana Gold (NYSE: AUY) Prepares to Shine. (NYSE: AEM)
Yamana Gold (NYSE: AUY) is expected to report earnings of $0.14 on Wednesday on revenue of $420.82 million. With the price of gold reaching new highs, Yamana has not risen proportionally. The stock is at $10.99, comparable to where it's been over the last year. Faster growing gold produces such as Eldorado (NYSE: EGO) and Agnico Eagle (NYSE: AEM) have greatly outperformed Yamana Gold. The company has disappointed investors in the past. Will this quarter be different with gold prices climbing forever higher?
To read the full report, click here.
To read the full report, click here.
Does Bing Bring in the Bling? (NASDAQ: MSFT) (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: YHOO)
Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) Bing search engine has been taking market share ever since it was launched. According to Net Applications, Bing is the 4th largest search engine by query volume on the Internet at 3.25%. Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) is in first at %83.34%, followed by Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) and 6.32% and then Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) at 4.96%. Bing does offer similar search results, but also houses some interesting new features for a search engine. Its home page is quite appealing and its Bing Maps shows high quality birds-eye-view images. Although not as easy to navigate as Google, Bing sure is creeping up on Yahoo in the United States. Some reports have said that Microsoft recently passed Yahoo as the second largest search engine, if all of the Microsoft Network search engines are included, such as Windows Live, and MSN.
Manchin favored in WV
The Senate contest in West Virginia is between Joe Manchin's popularity and Barack Obama's unpopularity and in the end it looks as though Manchin's popularity will win out. Manchin leads John Raese 51-46 in PPP's final look at the race.
Manchin is the most popular politician we've polled on anywhere in the country this year and it's by a wide margin. On this final poll his approval rating hit the 70% mark with only 22% disapproving of him. Usually you would expect someone with those kinds of numbers to have an easy time of it but Manchin's been hampered by efforts to tie him to Barack Obama and national Democrats. Obama's approval rating in the state is only 31% with 61% of voters disapproving of him.
About a month ago it looked like there was a very real chance Manchin could lose. But three key things have put him in a position for victory:
-John Raese did not prove to be a particularly strong opponent. The first time PPP polled the race, his favorability was 41/35. On this final poll his favorability is 41/47. As voters have gotten to know Raese and make up their minds about him they've generally found him to be unappealing. It would take an extremely formidable candidate to beat someone like Manchin-Raese doesn't seem to be that guy.
-Democrats in West Virginia aren't having the same kind of enthusiasm issues that are plaguing their party throughout most of the country. John McCain won the state by 13 points in 2008 and those planning to vote this year supported McCain by a basically identical 12 points. Unfortunately the lesson for Dems here- nominate your most popular politician anywhere in the country- is not particularly transferable to other states.
-Manchin has made enough conservatives comfortable voting for him. He's winning 19% of the Republican vote, more than any other Democratic Senate nominee we've polled on except for Chris Coons in Delaware. Manchin will still lose the conservative vote overwhelmingly but it looks like he'll cut his losses enough on that front for his margins with moderates and liberals to put him over the top.
This race is still close enough that an upset Tuesday is not impossible- but it appears likely that Manchin will survive the tide.
Full results here
Manchin is the most popular politician we've polled on anywhere in the country this year and it's by a wide margin. On this final poll his approval rating hit the 70% mark with only 22% disapproving of him. Usually you would expect someone with those kinds of numbers to have an easy time of it but Manchin's been hampered by efforts to tie him to Barack Obama and national Democrats. Obama's approval rating in the state is only 31% with 61% of voters disapproving of him.
About a month ago it looked like there was a very real chance Manchin could lose. But three key things have put him in a position for victory:
-John Raese did not prove to be a particularly strong opponent. The first time PPP polled the race, his favorability was 41/35. On this final poll his favorability is 41/47. As voters have gotten to know Raese and make up their minds about him they've generally found him to be unappealing. It would take an extremely formidable candidate to beat someone like Manchin-Raese doesn't seem to be that guy.
-Democrats in West Virginia aren't having the same kind of enthusiasm issues that are plaguing their party throughout most of the country. John McCain won the state by 13 points in 2008 and those planning to vote this year supported McCain by a basically identical 12 points. Unfortunately the lesson for Dems here- nominate your most popular politician anywhere in the country- is not particularly transferable to other states.
-Manchin has made enough conservatives comfortable voting for him. He's winning 19% of the Republican vote, more than any other Democratic Senate nominee we've polled on except for Chris Coons in Delaware. Manchin will still lose the conservative vote overwhelmingly but it looks like he'll cut his losses enough on that front for his margins with moderates and liberals to put him over the top.
This race is still close enough that an upset Tuesday is not impossible- but it appears likely that Manchin will survive the tide.
Full results here
Wynn for the Win (NASDAQ: WYNN) (NYSE: LVS)
Wynn Resorts reports its winning numbers after the market close on Tuesday November 2. Analyst expect the company to earn $0.39 per share on revenue of $990.83 million. Wynn is however expected to shoot the lights out, as its pee Las Vegas Sands did last week. Las Vegas Sands earned $0.34 per share when the market was expected $0.24 - a 41% earnings beat. Wynn is also a play on Chinese gambling, as the company has popular luxury resorts in Macau.
Wynn Shares closed at $107.16 on Friday.
Does Coinstar Stand a Chance Against Netflix? (NASDAQ: NFLX) (NASDAQ: CSTR)
Coinstar and Netflix each offer their users movie and DVD rentals. But the real question is, which company does it better? Coinstar operated pay machines where users can rent movies and then return them. Coinstar simply needs to update its machine every once in a while with new movies, however all of the delivery charges are services essentially by the user. Netflix on the other hand allows its subscribers to download the movies online. It also ships DVDs to those who do not use the online option. The DVD can then be places back in the mail. Netflix does incur deliver charges however which could grow depending on fuel prices. Its online business does seem to be the best model as the only limiting factor is bandwidth constraints set by the provider. However with the downloadable option, movies can be watched where ever, whenever. The mailing of DVDs seems impractical when under time constraints.
Will Pfizer Suffer The Same Fate As Merck? (NYSE: PFE) (NYSE: MRK)
Pfizer prepares to report on Tuesday. Consensus says that earnings of $0.51 are expected on revenue of $16.69 billion. Merck, the other drug giant, earned $0.85 last Friday, but missed revenue estimates. The company made $11.12 billion in sales when analysts were expecting $11.24 billion. The company also lowered its guidance.
Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and AT&T (NYSE: T) kick off iPad (NASDAQ: AAPL) sales.
Both Verizon and AT&T received the iPad at their retail stores on October 28th. AT&T customers have the luxury of selected between any one of Apple's iPad models. Verizon will only receive the Wi-Fi version of the iPad, as the iPad does not yet support Verizon's CDMA network. And extra attachment is bundled with the iPad for Verizon customers however, which will allow users to connect to a MiFi mobile hotspot.
Does One Chase BAC or Go Far?(NYSE: WFC) (NYSE: BAC) (NYSE: JPM) (NYSE:C) (NYSE: PNC)
NEW YORK - The major United States bank have remained mostly flat since they reported their earnings. J.P Morgan is down 6.9% or $12 billion of market capitalization since it reported, despite reporting a profit of $4.4 billion. Investors worried about the foreclosure scandal that had just began to unfold. But despite recent clarification the stock has remained lower.Bank of America has lost 7.3% since or approximately $10 billion of market capitalization since it reported just over a week ago. The bank reported $3.1 billion of adjusted profit but lost $7.3 billion with the goodwill charge. To read our BAC report click here.
Wells Fargo has been the best performing bank since it reported, the stock is up 6.5% or about $8 billion of market capitalization. The bank reported record profits of $3.34 billion. To see the full Wells Fargo report click here.
Citigroup is up 5% or about 6 billion of market capitalization since it reported $2.1 billion of profit. Surprisingly the bank is valued higher than Bank of America despite lower profits the stock has vaulted higher then its peer.
PNC Financial the 6th largest bank in the U.S., surprisingly is only 2.1% higher despite near record results when it reported just over a week ago. The bank announced $1.1 billion of profits. To see the full PNC report click here.
GOP headed for PA sweep
Pennsylvania flirted a little bit with Democrats in the final weeks of this year's election, making them think they might be able to pull off an upset in the Senate and/or Gubernatorial contests that had looked good as gone for most of the year. It looks like the GOP will in the end sweep those races though, if by smaller margins than they had shown in polling throughout much of 2010.
In the Senate race Pat Toomey leads Joe Sestak 51-46 and in the race for Governor Tom Corbett is up 52-45 on Dan Onorato. The story here is an inordinate number of Democrats unhappy with Barack Obama- and voting Republican because of it. The President's approval rating within his own party is only 73% in Pennsylvania, with 21% of Democrats disapproving of him. Those Democrats unhappy with Obama are leaning strongly Republican, planning to vote for Toomey by a 68-23 margin and for Corbett by a 69-25 spread.
What that leads to overall is 15-19% of Democrats voting Republican in these two races. Meanwhile GOP voters are extremely unified, giving each of their nominees 88%. Independents are splitting pretty evenly so it is that party unity advantage that has the GOP candidates in a position to win here.
As is the case for him throughout the Midwest Obama's very unpopular in Pennsylvania with 54% of voters disapproving of him to just 40% who think he's doing a good job. Outgoing Governor Ed Rendell has also fallen strongly out of favor, posting only a 34% approval number while 53% of voters disapprove of him. As we saw in Wisconsin earlier this week the combination of an unpopular Democratic President and an unpopular Democratic Governor has the potential to be lethal for the party's hopes of keeping some of these offices under their control.
Any thought that Democrats might have been better off with Arlen Specter as their nominee can be laid to rest. We asked respondents how they would have voted in a hypothetical match up between him and Toomey led 49-40, an even wider lead than the one he's posting against Sestak.
Full results here
In the Senate race Pat Toomey leads Joe Sestak 51-46 and in the race for Governor Tom Corbett is up 52-45 on Dan Onorato. The story here is an inordinate number of Democrats unhappy with Barack Obama- and voting Republican because of it. The President's approval rating within his own party is only 73% in Pennsylvania, with 21% of Democrats disapproving of him. Those Democrats unhappy with Obama are leaning strongly Republican, planning to vote for Toomey by a 68-23 margin and for Corbett by a 69-25 spread.
What that leads to overall is 15-19% of Democrats voting Republican in these two races. Meanwhile GOP voters are extremely unified, giving each of their nominees 88%. Independents are splitting pretty evenly so it is that party unity advantage that has the GOP candidates in a position to win here.
As is the case for him throughout the Midwest Obama's very unpopular in Pennsylvania with 54% of voters disapproving of him to just 40% who think he's doing a good job. Outgoing Governor Ed Rendell has also fallen strongly out of favor, posting only a 34% approval number while 53% of voters disapprove of him. As we saw in Wisconsin earlier this week the combination of an unpopular Democratic President and an unpopular Democratic Governor has the potential to be lethal for the party's hopes of keeping some of these offices under their control.
Any thought that Democrats might have been better off with Arlen Specter as their nominee can be laid to rest. We asked respondents how they would have voted in a hypothetical match up between him and Toomey led 49-40, an even wider lead than the one he's posting against Sestak.
Full results here
Is Teva Pharma Addicted to Drugs? (NASDAQ: TEVA)
Teva Pharmaceutical is expecting to earn $1.1 billion when it reports on Tuesday. The generic drug maker has been down on its luck in the past few months as some investors fear that it could lose patent protection on its top selling drug earlier than expected. Teva does specialize in generic drugs however, which some say is the way of the future.
"Marketing ability trumps patent protection when we're dealing with generic drugs," Said Andy "Raw" Kibbens, co-CEO of The Markets Are Open. "I believe TEVA is well positioned."
To read Kibbens' full report, click here.
"Marketing ability trumps patent protection when we're dealing with generic drugs," Said Andy "Raw" Kibbens, co-CEO of The Markets Are Open. "I believe TEVA is well positioned."
To read Kibbens' full report, click here.
Agrium Mines for Results (NYSE: AGU) (NYSE: POT) (NYSE: BHP)
Agrium, which reports earnings on Wednesday, has been on a tear ever since fertilizer peer, Potash Corp, received a bid from BHP Billiton. Agrium closed trading on Friday at $88.51, which is up over 40% in the past three months. Analysts expect the company to earn $0.87 per share on revenue of $2.10 billion.
Potash Corp of Saskatchewan had reported previously, earnings $1.32 per share, beating analyst estimates of $1.16. The entire sector however has been heated up, as the seemingly rare fertilizer products that the industry produces is in high demand. It is still unclear what the fate of Potash Corp will be and if BHP Billiton will increase its bid.
To Read Kibbens' Potash report, click here.
Potash Corp of Saskatchewan had reported previously, earnings $1.32 per share, beating analyst estimates of $1.16. The entire sector however has been heated up, as the seemingly rare fertilizer products that the industry produces is in high demand. It is still unclear what the fate of Potash Corp will be and if BHP Billiton will increase its bid.
To Read Kibbens' Potash report, click here.
When will Apple get the iPhone 4? (NASDAQ: AAPL) (NYSE: VZ) (NASDAQ: QCOM)
Rumour has it that Verizon, the giant wireless company will receive the iPhone 4 sometime in early 2011. Other reports have cited that Apple has ordered QualComm chips needed for the phone to function on Verizon's network. Verizon has over 90 million wireless subscribers, and a powerful network that can accommodate the added iPhone usage. iPhones can use up to 10 times the average bandwidth of a regular phone. This comes from voice, video, and other data browsing capabilities that users with smartphones love.
If Verizon gets the iPhone, both Apple and VZ will benefit greatly. Smartphone revenue for Verizon is said to be approximately double the revenue from a regular 'dumb' phone. The deal would also unlock millions of potential customers for Apple. Apple has been able to beat analyst expectations without the help of Verizon so far. Who knows what could happen if Verizon gets the newest iPhone.
If Verizon gets the iPhone, both Apple and VZ will benefit greatly. Smartphone revenue for Verizon is said to be approximately double the revenue from a regular 'dumb' phone. The deal would also unlock millions of potential customers for Apple. Apple has been able to beat analyst expectations without the help of Verizon so far. Who knows what could happen if Verizon gets the newest iPhone.
Electronic Arts Challenges Everything (NASDAQ: ERTS)
Electronic Arts, the maker of video games for PlayStation, XBox, and Wii will report quarterly results on Tuesday. There are very low expectation for the company as earnings are estimated to be -$0.10 per share on revenue of $814 million. The shares have been beaten down lately and reside just 2 points off their lows.
Paul headed for easy victory
Rand Paul has expanded his lead in the Kentucky Senate race even further over the last week and is headed for a blowout win. His margin over Jack Conway is 55-40.
Kentucky is obviously a conservative state. Conway's ability to win was always going to depend on getting a lot of folks who supported John McCain in 2008 to vote Democratic for the Senate this time around. The most amazing finding on this final poll is that Rand Paul is actually picking up more Obama voters (15%) than Conway is McCain voters (9%). That's the formula for a landslide.
Over the last month of the campaign this went from being a relatively competitive race to a not so competitive one. That didn't have a ton to do with Rand Paul- his favorability in early September was 45/40 and now it's 48/43, basically unchanged. The shift is more a reflection of Jack Conway's image with Kentucky voters being shattered in the closing days. Seven weeks ago his favorability split evenly with 36% of voters rating him positively and negatively alike. Now he's very unpopular with only 34% of voters saying they like him and 52% expressing unfavorable opinions toward him.
In the end Rand Paul did not have any trouble reunifying his party after the Republican primary- GOP voters are going for him by an 88-8 margin. Conway meanwhile is bleeding Democratic support. He's getting only 61% of the vote from his own party while a full 34% say they plan to vote for Paul. Paul also has a 48-40 advantage with independents.
Barack Obama's approval rating in Kentucky is 31% with 62% of voters disapproving of him. This race may have been a stretch for Dems even with a perfect campaign and candidate. And in the end they had neither.
Full results here
Kentucky is obviously a conservative state. Conway's ability to win was always going to depend on getting a lot of folks who supported John McCain in 2008 to vote Democratic for the Senate this time around. The most amazing finding on this final poll is that Rand Paul is actually picking up more Obama voters (15%) than Conway is McCain voters (9%). That's the formula for a landslide.
Over the last month of the campaign this went from being a relatively competitive race to a not so competitive one. That didn't have a ton to do with Rand Paul- his favorability in early September was 45/40 and now it's 48/43, basically unchanged. The shift is more a reflection of Jack Conway's image with Kentucky voters being shattered in the closing days. Seven weeks ago his favorability split evenly with 36% of voters rating him positively and negatively alike. Now he's very unpopular with only 34% of voters saying they like him and 52% expressing unfavorable opinions toward him.
In the end Rand Paul did not have any trouble reunifying his party after the Republican primary- GOP voters are going for him by an 88-8 margin. Conway meanwhile is bleeding Democratic support. He's getting only 61% of the vote from his own party while a full 34% say they plan to vote for Paul. Paul also has a 48-40 advantage with independents.
Barack Obama's approval rating in Kentucky is 31% with 62% of voters disapproving of him. This race may have been a stretch for Dems even with a perfect campaign and candidate. And in the end they had neither.
Full results here
Do Earnings at FICO Matter? (NYSE: FICO)
Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE: FICO) provides analytic software and data management services intended to help reduce losses from fraud and other risks. The company reports earnings on Wednesday and is preparing to earn $0.41 per share on revenue of $151 million.
To Read Edwards' full report, click here.
To Read Edwards' full report, click here.
Is BP still in a Bad Position? (NYSE: BP) (NYSE: HAL)
The fate of BP still lies in the hands of the government as questions still loom about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Earnings for the oil giant are set to come in at $1.51 when it reports on Tuesday. Revenue is expected to be $72.46 billion for the quarter.
Halliburton has been blaming BP for the disaster, but recently some of the blame was shifted to HAL in a report saying that the cement used in the well in the Gulf was unstable. HAL fired back with a report saying that the results from the cement test were positive.
Halliburton has been blaming BP for the disaster, but recently some of the blame was shifted to HAL in a report saying that the cement used in the well in the Gulf was unstable. HAL fired back with a report saying that the results from the cement test were positive.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Where is the Logic? (NASDAQ: INTC)
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) released earnings after hours yesterday. The giant chip manufacturer posted 52 cents per share earnings - a 2 cent earnings beat, smashing Wall Street estimates. Intel said that the quarter was helped by corporate demand and emerging markets. Revenue jumped to $11.1 billion, way above analyst hopes for $10.99 billion. Intel guided upwards, forecasting revenues between $11 and $11.8 billion.
Intel (INTC) shares rose 15 cents after hours. The stock trades at 10.6 times earnings making it highly attractive. The rosy outlook should draw in investors looking to pay a low price for solid growth.
Intel (INTC) shares rose 15 cents after hours. The stock trades at 10.6 times earnings making it highly attractive. The rosy outlook should draw in investors looking to pay a low price for solid growth.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Killer Talent: A David Fincher Profile (Part 3)
With his latest film The Social Network in cinemas this month, Trevor Hogg profiles the career of director David Fincher in the third of a three part feature... read parts one and two.
“When it became apparent that I wasn't going to be involved in Black Dahlia [2006],” stated director David Fincher, “I didn't go, ‘All right, find me another obsession tale.’ I wasn't looking to make another serial-killer movie. But when I read Zodiac [2007], I just thought I'd hate to see this and not have been involved.” Based on the book by former San Francisco Chronicle political cartoonist Robert Graysmith, the movie centres around the police and the author (Jake Gyllenhaal) trying to unravel the identity of the multiple murderer who during the late 1960s and early 1970s sent taunting letters and ciphers to newspapers. “Growing up in [the Bay Area's] Marin [County] in this time, there were a lot of questions that had never been answered for me,” remarked the filmmaker, “like, ‘Whatever happened to [the Zodiac case]? How did that end up?’ It disappeared off the front page, and then it was off page four, and then it was in the metro section, and then it was gone. There was no real sense of, ‘Did they ever get close?’ I opened [the script] going, ‘Uh-oh, I don't know.’ And then halfway in, I was like, ‘This is pretty interesting.’” Fincher believes a major reason the case remains unsolved is because of public apathy. “We were interested in it until it got too boring. People were outraged that this guy hadn't been brought to justice until they [the 49ers, an American football team] drafted Joe Montana and nobody in San Francisco cared anymore.”
“I did want it to be emotional, not just facts like Court TV. But I wasn’t interested in spending time to tell the back story of any of these characters,” explained David Fincher. “I just wanted to know what they did in regards to the case.” Actor Mark Ruffalo (You Can Count on Me) plays San Francisco Detective Dave Toschi who along with his partner Detective Bill Armstrong (Anthony Edwards) led the police investigation. “Dave was somebody who was not afraid of the camera, and so there was just a lot of material available on what he looked like and how he sounded,” said Ruffalo. “It was such an enormous part of his life – his career, his life, his family, everything was caught up in it. He was being groomed to be Chief of Police. He was on the rise. To have it go down the way it did, in such an ignoble way, I don’t think you recover.” Gone are flashy camera movements which were featured prominently in Panic Room (2002). “[David Fincher] said he wanted to do a piece that was in the vein of All The President’s Men [1976], that had been all about acting.” The filmmaker wanted to make sure there were no unnecessary distractions. “How do we remind people at all times that what they’re seeing is true?” asked Fincher. “We decided, rightly or wrongly, to present it in the simplest conceivable way. The actors would walk into a room with a Styrofoam cup, deliver their four pages of dialogue, and that would be it. We were going to make the information king and the movie would live or die by the believability of the performances.”
“I remember vividly the day he [Zodiac] called [attorney] Melvin Belli on live TV during the Jim Dunbar show,’ recalled the director. “I was in the second grade and I remember my dad taking the day off from work after that. I don’t think we ever found out it was a hoax—a guy calling from a mental institution—but I do remember people talking about it that day.” Contemplating the motives of the serial killer who haunted his childhood, David Fincher remarked, “The thing that’s fascinating for me about Zodiac is I believe his compulsion and his addiction were not ultimately about maiming people or murdering them, it became about communicating with the San Francisco Chronicle and that became far more gratifying and far more seductive than what he started out doing.” Fincher sought to achieve authenticity when retelling the true life story. “We wanted the murder sequences to feel like you were there. When we asked Mike Mageau and Bryan Hartnell [the Zodiac’s two surviving victims, who served as consultants on the film] about it, they both said it came out of nowhere and happened very, very quickly.” The filmmaker added, “There are terrible fallouts from these murders, and it didn't seem right to turn it into a video game and put the audience in the stalker's head.”
“One of the things the movie is talking about is, ‘What is closure?’” said David Fincher of the picture which ended up with a runtime of two hours and forty-five minutes. “We screened the movie many times. We tried to make the movie as short as we could. But we also made promises to people that we were going to tell their story and they would not be turned into plot devices—Nameless Victim No. 1.” The cast in the $65 million production are actors Robert Downey Jr. (Chaplin), Brian Cox (Manhunter), John Carroll Lynch (Shutter Island), Dermont Mulroney (My Best Friend’s Wedding), Chloë Sevigny (Boys Don’t Cry), Elias Koteas (Shooter), and Candy Clark (Blue Thunder). Reacting to the film, about the “ultimate boogeyman”, earning $85 million worldwide, David Fincher remarked, "I guess people just don't like irresolution. But, that's what I thought was interesting about it.” At the Cannes Film Festival the mystery-thriller contended for the Palme d’Or while screenwriter James Vanderbilt (Basic) received a Writers Guild of America nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. The Online Film Critics Society Awards nominated the non-fiction movie for Best Director, Best Editing, Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay; it also received nominations from the Empire Awards for Best Director, Best Film, and Best Thriller.
David Fincher’s seventh cinematic endeavor The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) is an adaptation of a fictional short story by Scott F. Fitzgerald about a man who ages backwards. “Obviously David [Fincher] is different than Michael Mann [The Insider] or Steven Spielberg [Munich],” observed screenwriter Eric Roth. “Everybody has a process and each of them tries to get the best work from you and you try to get the best ideas from them.” Producer Kathleen Kennedy (War of the Worlds) thought Roth was the perfect choice to craft the script for the $150 million production. “Eric was the ideal person to fully realize the potential of such a large-scale but deeply personal story,” stated Kennedy. “In Forrest Gump [1994], he revealed intimate portraits against the backdrop of epic stories, and a gift for richly observed detail.” Reflecting on the picture which awarded him with an Oscar, Eric Roth remarked, “Not to disparage Forrest Gump, but I feel this to be more mature writing. Some of it is much more personal because both my parents died while I was writing this, so there were obviously personalized things about love and life and death.” Roth gave an example, “I remember, I asked my mom, ‘Are you afraid?’ and she said, ‘I'm curious.’ And I think that's almost the first line of the movie.”
On the creative challenge of developing the cinematic personas portrayed by Brad Pitt (Burn After Reading), Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth), Julia Ormond (Smilla’s Sense of Snow), Elias Koteas, Taraji P. Henson (Hurricane Season), Earl Maddox (Little Chenier), Jacob Tolano (Guy in the Trunk), Donna DuPlantier (The Roe Effect), Jason Flemyng (Clash of the Titans), David Jensen (The Mist), Ed Metzger (Dog Day Afternoon) and Joeanna Sayler (Trust Me), the screenwriter stated, “Whether you like them or not you have to give them some reality, some history, some psychological traits that would be accurate for that personality.” The biggest complication was in the depiction of the title character over the various stages of his life. “There was some talk for a while of having four or five actors playing Benjamin at different ages, but I had faith that David could figure it out.” Playing the role of Button is an actor working on his third project with David Fincher. “For Brad Pitt, it's harder acting than other roles that are so huge, because to be quiet is the hardest thing.” Eric Roth recalled a conversation with an Oscar-winning performer. “I remember Bob DeNiro telling me that the hardest thing to do as an actor is to listen. He said most actors are planning what to say next, and if you watch really good actors, they're listening.” Pitt laments the lack of respect the elderly receive from the younger members of society. “I wouldn't say our culture leans toward respecting the wisdom of age and those who've been around a lot. It's Beavis and Butt-head, 'You're old!’”
“I remember Tom Hanks [Castaway] said, ‘Gee, your movies are always about loneliness,’” stated Eric Roth. “And I don’t know if that’s true. I don’t think the movie is necessarily about loneliness. It’s more about what comforts you.” Brad Pitt believes, “It's a tragedy in the sense that any love involves loss, and that's the risk you take.” Reflecting on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, David Fincher commented, "I like to think of it as being about the dents that we make on each other.” Julia Ormond was intrigued by project because of the involvement of Fincher. “I love the choices that he made with it,” admired Ormond. “There's a moment in it when Brad is leaving Cate, or when Benjamin is leaving Daisy, and he's stealing out at night, and looks at her in the bed. And she's looking right back at him, and nothing is said.” Eric Roth was concerned that the celebrity status of the leading man would serve as a distraction. “We had test screenings early on and test groups only talked about Benjamin,” remembered the screenwriter. “We realized, they're not talking about Brad Pitt… because they got lost in the character.”
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button earned $334 million worldwide and won Oscars for Best Art Direction and Best Visual Effects while contending for Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Original Score, Best Sound, Best Picture, Best Actor (Brad Pitt), Best Supporting Actress (Taraji P. Henson) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Eric Roth and Robin Swicord). At the BAFTAs the epic fantasy tale won Best Makeup, Best Production Design, Best Special Visual Effects along with receiving nominations for Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Director, Best Editing Best Film, Best Actor (Brad Pitt), Best Music, Best Adapted Screenplay. The Golden Globes nominated The Curious Case of Benjamin Button for Best Director, Best Picture – Drama, Best Original Score, Best Actor (Brad Pitt), and Best Screenplay. David Fincher was honoured with a nomination by the Directors Guild of America. The film was nominated at the Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role (Taraji P. Henson), and Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role (Brad Pitt). At the Young Artist Awards, Madisen Beaty competed for Best Young Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture.
“The fascinating thing about Facebook is that it was created by a group of nerds who were a bit anti-social when it came to meeting girls on the campus,” stated Emmy-winner Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men), who wrote the screenplay for The Social Network (2010). Sorkin believes the story has dramatic quality that lends itself to the big screen. “This is not a film about the internet and the new technologies but a film about loyalty, ambition, friendship, power, money, jealousy and betrayal. These are universal themes. It’s a story that could have been written by Shakespeare or Aeschylus. The film is structured with several versions of reality depending on the perspective of the narrator. David Fincher is a visionary director who knew how to make my script fantastic in terms of style.” Fincher was intrigued by Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg portrayed in the picture by Jesse Eisenberg (Zombieland). “What did it feel like for someone like him to be 17 to 21 and have all these venture capitalists tapping him on the shoulder and saying, ‘Come over here.’? If success accelerates the process of you becoming who you really are, how does that work when success happens so rapidly? How we feel about Zuckerberg is not how I see the story. The way I see drama, the context is the story.”
Facebook spokesman Larry Yu is less than pleased with the project. “It's a sign of Facebook's impact that we're the subject of a movie — even one that's fiction,” remarked Yu. “What matters more to us is staying focused on what we're building to continue to offer a useful, innovative service that makes it easy for people to connect and share.” Asked to react to the Hollywood production, Mark Zuckerberg responded, “The real story of Facebook is just that we've worked so hard for all this time… we just sat at our computers for six years and coded.” Chris Hughes, a Facebook co-founder who left in 2007 to join the Obama presidential campaign, supports Zuckerberg’s opinion. “It’s crazy because all of a sudden Mark becomes this person who created Facebook to get girls or to gain power,” stated Hughes. “That’s not what was going on. It was a little more boring and quotidian than that.” Cathy Anderson, the CEO of the San Diego Film Commission is not a big fan of Hollywood depictions of the computer industry. “Technology is a backdrop for many movies,” explained Anderson, “but producers often opt for fictionalized companies so they can take artistic liberties and make their stories more entertaining with sex and violence. Documentaries lend themselves more to real companies, like Super Size Me [about McDonald’s] and Michael Moore's work.” Jonathan Salem Baskin, the author of Branding Only Works on Cattle remains skeptical about the social impact of the picture. “If Michael Moore can't blow up a company [General Motors in Roger & Me] or industry [health care, in Sicko] in documentaries,” stated Baskin, “what can a biopic, slightly imagined, on Zuckerberg, do? Few, if any, of [Facebook's] customers will care. No one will stop using Facebook. Privacy [the revelation that consumer companies had access to user’s personal information] can hurt, but a movie? Please. It can only help them.”
“There is almost a fantasy aspect of these college kids in a dorm room [helping create] a billion-dollar company,” said Ben Mezrich, who wrote The Accidental Billionaires, the book on which the movie is based. “It's the American myth. [Zuckerberg] is an anti-hero, which Americans love. But he is so much more: a socially odd guy who sweats, is arrogant, confident, brilliant. Facebook is him showing the world what he can do.” Producer Scott Rudin (No Country for Old Men) maintains that the controversial scene with two young women offering lines of cocaine from their naked breasts to Napster co-founder Sean Parker will remain in the picture. “We made exactly the movie we wanted to make,” declared Rudin. Despite allegations that the scene was made up, Parker did in fact leave Facebook after a cocaine-related arrest in 2005. Responding to accusations of creative embellishment, Fincher stated, “I'm not the one to talk about the need for 'likable' or 'sympathetic' characters.” Budgeted at $47 million, The Social Network, which is considered to be a serious contender for Best Picture at the 2011 Academy Awards, stars Rooney Mara (Youth in Revolt), Andrew Garfield (Never Let Me Go), Rashida Jones (I Love You, Man), Brenda Song (Boogie Town), Justin Timberlake (Black Snake Moan), Joseph Mazzello (The River Wild), Malese Jow (You’re So Cupid!), and Max Minghella (Bee Season).
The Millennium Trilogy is a series of novels penned by the late Stieg Larsson which revolves around the relationship between investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the eccentric computer hacker Lisbeth Salander. David Fincher has been given the task of producing the first installment, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011); making the project more difficult for him is the global popularity of the original Swedish version. “We’re going to really do these, in all their glory,” declared Amy Pascal, the co-chair of Sony Pictures Entertainment. “Otherwise why do them? They’re very R-rated movies. It’s the shock of what’s really going on underneath the surface of society. If you don’t actually make good on that, you haven’t told the story.” Cast in the lead roles are Daniel Craig (Defiance) and Rooney Mara; other actors include Stellan Skarsgård (King Arthur) and Robin Wright (Unbreakable). Mara faces a tough acting challenge as many film critics believe that Salander has already been definitively portrayed by Noomi Rapace (Daisy Diamond). Broached on whether he will direct the remaining two films, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, David Fincher replied, “There are no plans for them right now. You have to make one that people want to see a sequel to [first].”
There is no shortage of potential projects on the production slate for the filmmaker. A couple of remakes being considered by the Denver native are The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975), Heavy Metal (1981), and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954). “[Ness] is so not a serial-killer movie,” stated Fincher of the story based on the graphic novel Torso. “It's about the deconstruction of the myth of [Untouchables leader] Eliot Ness. It has way more to do with Citizen Kane [1941] than it has to do with Se7en [1995]. Ehren Kruger [Arlington Road] wrote a script that's pretty great.” Other graphic novel adaptations that the director has in mind are the plague-infested Black Hole and the hired gun The Killer. “It's that thing we always love from contract-killer movies: the existential assassin,” enthused David Fincher who has also been linked to Rendezvous with Rama. “It's a project I've always loved,” admitted the moviemaker of the science fiction tale written by Arthur C. Clarke. “It's probably technologically within striking distance right now. That was always the thing: You couldn't afford to build these things as sets. It's just too huge.” Two scripts composed by Steven Knight (Dirty Pretty Things) have also captured the attention of the director; the biopic Pawn Sacrifice about the unconventional chess genius Bobby Fischer and the culinary-themed Chef which Fincher describes as being a “celibate sex comedy.” Moving beyond the big screen to TV, David Fincher is looking at collaborating with Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron (Monster) to produce an HBO adaptation of the book Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker.
“Editing David's film is like putting together a Swiss watch,” revealed Angus Wall who was the film editor for Zodiac. “All the pieces are so beautifully machined. He's incredibly specific. He never settles. And there's a purity that shows in his work.” Counting Chinatown [1974] and All the President’s Men amongst his favourite movies, David Fincher stated, “Entertainment has to come hand in hand with a little bit of medicine. Some people go to the movies to be reminded that everything's okay. I don't make those kinds of movies. That, to me, is a lie. Everything's not okay.” Pondering his cinematic catalogue of eight pictures, Fincher remarked, “You can either look at your career as the things that you're going to leave behind… Or you can be realistic about the fact that you're going to learn as you practice what you do.”
For more on the director be sure to visit The Works and Genius of David Fincher.
You can also check out the official webite for The Social Network and read the screenplay by Aaron Sorkin here.
Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada.
“When it became apparent that I wasn't going to be involved in Black Dahlia [2006],” stated director David Fincher, “I didn't go, ‘All right, find me another obsession tale.’ I wasn't looking to make another serial-killer movie. But when I read Zodiac [2007], I just thought I'd hate to see this and not have been involved.” Based on the book by former San Francisco Chronicle political cartoonist Robert Graysmith, the movie centres around the police and the author (Jake Gyllenhaal) trying to unravel the identity of the multiple murderer who during the late 1960s and early 1970s sent taunting letters and ciphers to newspapers. “Growing up in [the Bay Area's] Marin [County] in this time, there were a lot of questions that had never been answered for me,” remarked the filmmaker, “like, ‘Whatever happened to [the Zodiac case]? How did that end up?’ It disappeared off the front page, and then it was off page four, and then it was in the metro section, and then it was gone. There was no real sense of, ‘Did they ever get close?’ I opened [the script] going, ‘Uh-oh, I don't know.’ And then halfway in, I was like, ‘This is pretty interesting.’” Fincher believes a major reason the case remains unsolved is because of public apathy. “We were interested in it until it got too boring. People were outraged that this guy hadn't been brought to justice until they [the 49ers, an American football team] drafted Joe Montana and nobody in San Francisco cared anymore.”“I did want it to be emotional, not just facts like Court TV. But I wasn’t interested in spending time to tell the back story of any of these characters,” explained David Fincher. “I just wanted to know what they did in regards to the case.” Actor Mark Ruffalo (You Can Count on Me) plays San Francisco Detective Dave Toschi who along with his partner Detective Bill Armstrong (Anthony Edwards) led the police investigation. “Dave was somebody who was not afraid of the camera, and so there was just a lot of material available on what he looked like and how he sounded,” said Ruffalo. “It was such an enormous part of his life – his career, his life, his family, everything was caught up in it. He was being groomed to be Chief of Police. He was on the rise. To have it go down the way it did, in such an ignoble way, I don’t think you recover.” Gone are flashy camera movements which were featured prominently in Panic Room (2002). “[David Fincher] said he wanted to do a piece that was in the vein of All The President’s Men [1976], that had been all about acting.” The filmmaker wanted to make sure there were no unnecessary distractions. “How do we remind people at all times that what they’re seeing is true?” asked Fincher. “We decided, rightly or wrongly, to present it in the simplest conceivable way. The actors would walk into a room with a Styrofoam cup, deliver their four pages of dialogue, and that would be it. We were going to make the information king and the movie would live or die by the believability of the performances.”
“I remember vividly the day he [Zodiac] called [attorney] Melvin Belli on live TV during the Jim Dunbar show,’ recalled the director. “I was in the second grade and I remember my dad taking the day off from work after that. I don’t think we ever found out it was a hoax—a guy calling from a mental institution—but I do remember people talking about it that day.” Contemplating the motives of the serial killer who haunted his childhood, David Fincher remarked, “The thing that’s fascinating for me about Zodiac is I believe his compulsion and his addiction were not ultimately about maiming people or murdering them, it became about communicating with the San Francisco Chronicle and that became far more gratifying and far more seductive than what he started out doing.” Fincher sought to achieve authenticity when retelling the true life story. “We wanted the murder sequences to feel like you were there. When we asked Mike Mageau and Bryan Hartnell [the Zodiac’s two surviving victims, who served as consultants on the film] about it, they both said it came out of nowhere and happened very, very quickly.” The filmmaker added, “There are terrible fallouts from these murders, and it didn't seem right to turn it into a video game and put the audience in the stalker's head.”“One of the things the movie is talking about is, ‘What is closure?’” said David Fincher of the picture which ended up with a runtime of two hours and forty-five minutes. “We screened the movie many times. We tried to make the movie as short as we could. But we also made promises to people that we were going to tell their story and they would not be turned into plot devices—Nameless Victim No. 1.” The cast in the $65 million production are actors Robert Downey Jr. (Chaplin), Brian Cox (Manhunter), John Carroll Lynch (Shutter Island), Dermont Mulroney (My Best Friend’s Wedding), Chloë Sevigny (Boys Don’t Cry), Elias Koteas (Shooter), and Candy Clark (Blue Thunder). Reacting to the film, about the “ultimate boogeyman”, earning $85 million worldwide, David Fincher remarked, "I guess people just don't like irresolution. But, that's what I thought was interesting about it.” At the Cannes Film Festival the mystery-thriller contended for the Palme d’Or while screenwriter James Vanderbilt (Basic) received a Writers Guild of America nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. The Online Film Critics Society Awards nominated the non-fiction movie for Best Director, Best Editing, Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay; it also received nominations from the Empire Awards for Best Director, Best Film, and Best Thriller.
David Fincher’s seventh cinematic endeavor The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) is an adaptation of a fictional short story by Scott F. Fitzgerald about a man who ages backwards. “Obviously David [Fincher] is different than Michael Mann [The Insider] or Steven Spielberg [Munich],” observed screenwriter Eric Roth. “Everybody has a process and each of them tries to get the best work from you and you try to get the best ideas from them.” Producer Kathleen Kennedy (War of the Worlds) thought Roth was the perfect choice to craft the script for the $150 million production. “Eric was the ideal person to fully realize the potential of such a large-scale but deeply personal story,” stated Kennedy. “In Forrest Gump [1994], he revealed intimate portraits against the backdrop of epic stories, and a gift for richly observed detail.” Reflecting on the picture which awarded him with an Oscar, Eric Roth remarked, “Not to disparage Forrest Gump, but I feel this to be more mature writing. Some of it is much more personal because both my parents died while I was writing this, so there were obviously personalized things about love and life and death.” Roth gave an example, “I remember, I asked my mom, ‘Are you afraid?’ and she said, ‘I'm curious.’ And I think that's almost the first line of the movie.”On the creative challenge of developing the cinematic personas portrayed by Brad Pitt (Burn After Reading), Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth), Julia Ormond (Smilla’s Sense of Snow), Elias Koteas, Taraji P. Henson (Hurricane Season), Earl Maddox (Little Chenier), Jacob Tolano (Guy in the Trunk), Donna DuPlantier (The Roe Effect), Jason Flemyng (Clash of the Titans), David Jensen (The Mist), Ed Metzger (Dog Day Afternoon) and Joeanna Sayler (Trust Me), the screenwriter stated, “Whether you like them or not you have to give them some reality, some history, some psychological traits that would be accurate for that personality.” The biggest complication was in the depiction of the title character over the various stages of his life. “There was some talk for a while of having four or five actors playing Benjamin at different ages, but I had faith that David could figure it out.” Playing the role of Button is an actor working on his third project with David Fincher. “For Brad Pitt, it's harder acting than other roles that are so huge, because to be quiet is the hardest thing.” Eric Roth recalled a conversation with an Oscar-winning performer. “I remember Bob DeNiro telling me that the hardest thing to do as an actor is to listen. He said most actors are planning what to say next, and if you watch really good actors, they're listening.” Pitt laments the lack of respect the elderly receive from the younger members of society. “I wouldn't say our culture leans toward respecting the wisdom of age and those who've been around a lot. It's Beavis and Butt-head, 'You're old!’”
“I remember Tom Hanks [Castaway] said, ‘Gee, your movies are always about loneliness,’” stated Eric Roth. “And I don’t know if that’s true. I don’t think the movie is necessarily about loneliness. It’s more about what comforts you.” Brad Pitt believes, “It's a tragedy in the sense that any love involves loss, and that's the risk you take.” Reflecting on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, David Fincher commented, "I like to think of it as being about the dents that we make on each other.” Julia Ormond was intrigued by project because of the involvement of Fincher. “I love the choices that he made with it,” admired Ormond. “There's a moment in it when Brad is leaving Cate, or when Benjamin is leaving Daisy, and he's stealing out at night, and looks at her in the bed. And she's looking right back at him, and nothing is said.” Eric Roth was concerned that the celebrity status of the leading man would serve as a distraction. “We had test screenings early on and test groups only talked about Benjamin,” remembered the screenwriter. “We realized, they're not talking about Brad Pitt… because they got lost in the character.”The Curious Case of Benjamin Button earned $334 million worldwide and won Oscars for Best Art Direction and Best Visual Effects while contending for Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Original Score, Best Sound, Best Picture, Best Actor (Brad Pitt), Best Supporting Actress (Taraji P. Henson) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Eric Roth and Robin Swicord). At the BAFTAs the epic fantasy tale won Best Makeup, Best Production Design, Best Special Visual Effects along with receiving nominations for Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Director, Best Editing Best Film, Best Actor (Brad Pitt), Best Music, Best Adapted Screenplay. The Golden Globes nominated The Curious Case of Benjamin Button for Best Director, Best Picture – Drama, Best Original Score, Best Actor (Brad Pitt), and Best Screenplay. David Fincher was honoured with a nomination by the Directors Guild of America. The film was nominated at the Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role (Taraji P. Henson), and Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role (Brad Pitt). At the Young Artist Awards, Madisen Beaty competed for Best Young Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture.
“The fascinating thing about Facebook is that it was created by a group of nerds who were a bit anti-social when it came to meeting girls on the campus,” stated Emmy-winner Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men), who wrote the screenplay for The Social Network (2010). Sorkin believes the story has dramatic quality that lends itself to the big screen. “This is not a film about the internet and the new technologies but a film about loyalty, ambition, friendship, power, money, jealousy and betrayal. These are universal themes. It’s a story that could have been written by Shakespeare or Aeschylus. The film is structured with several versions of reality depending on the perspective of the narrator. David Fincher is a visionary director who knew how to make my script fantastic in terms of style.” Fincher was intrigued by Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg portrayed in the picture by Jesse Eisenberg (Zombieland). “What did it feel like for someone like him to be 17 to 21 and have all these venture capitalists tapping him on the shoulder and saying, ‘Come over here.’? If success accelerates the process of you becoming who you really are, how does that work when success happens so rapidly? How we feel about Zuckerberg is not how I see the story. The way I see drama, the context is the story.”Facebook spokesman Larry Yu is less than pleased with the project. “It's a sign of Facebook's impact that we're the subject of a movie — even one that's fiction,” remarked Yu. “What matters more to us is staying focused on what we're building to continue to offer a useful, innovative service that makes it easy for people to connect and share.” Asked to react to the Hollywood production, Mark Zuckerberg responded, “The real story of Facebook is just that we've worked so hard for all this time… we just sat at our computers for six years and coded.” Chris Hughes, a Facebook co-founder who left in 2007 to join the Obama presidential campaign, supports Zuckerberg’s opinion. “It’s crazy because all of a sudden Mark becomes this person who created Facebook to get girls or to gain power,” stated Hughes. “That’s not what was going on. It was a little more boring and quotidian than that.” Cathy Anderson, the CEO of the San Diego Film Commission is not a big fan of Hollywood depictions of the computer industry. “Technology is a backdrop for many movies,” explained Anderson, “but producers often opt for fictionalized companies so they can take artistic liberties and make their stories more entertaining with sex and violence. Documentaries lend themselves more to real companies, like Super Size Me [about McDonald’s] and Michael Moore's work.” Jonathan Salem Baskin, the author of Branding Only Works on Cattle remains skeptical about the social impact of the picture. “If Michael Moore can't blow up a company [General Motors in Roger & Me] or industry [health care, in Sicko] in documentaries,” stated Baskin, “what can a biopic, slightly imagined, on Zuckerberg, do? Few, if any, of [Facebook's] customers will care. No one will stop using Facebook. Privacy [the revelation that consumer companies had access to user’s personal information] can hurt, but a movie? Please. It can only help them.”
“There is almost a fantasy aspect of these college kids in a dorm room [helping create] a billion-dollar company,” said Ben Mezrich, who wrote The Accidental Billionaires, the book on which the movie is based. “It's the American myth. [Zuckerberg] is an anti-hero, which Americans love. But he is so much more: a socially odd guy who sweats, is arrogant, confident, brilliant. Facebook is him showing the world what he can do.” Producer Scott Rudin (No Country for Old Men) maintains that the controversial scene with two young women offering lines of cocaine from their naked breasts to Napster co-founder Sean Parker will remain in the picture. “We made exactly the movie we wanted to make,” declared Rudin. Despite allegations that the scene was made up, Parker did in fact leave Facebook after a cocaine-related arrest in 2005. Responding to accusations of creative embellishment, Fincher stated, “I'm not the one to talk about the need for 'likable' or 'sympathetic' characters.” Budgeted at $47 million, The Social Network, which is considered to be a serious contender for Best Picture at the 2011 Academy Awards, stars Rooney Mara (Youth in Revolt), Andrew Garfield (Never Let Me Go), Rashida Jones (I Love You, Man), Brenda Song (Boogie Town), Justin Timberlake (Black Snake Moan), Joseph Mazzello (The River Wild), Malese Jow (You’re So Cupid!), and Max Minghella (Bee Season).
The Millennium Trilogy is a series of novels penned by the late Stieg Larsson which revolves around the relationship between investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the eccentric computer hacker Lisbeth Salander. David Fincher has been given the task of producing the first installment, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011); making the project more difficult for him is the global popularity of the original Swedish version. “We’re going to really do these, in all their glory,” declared Amy Pascal, the co-chair of Sony Pictures Entertainment. “Otherwise why do them? They’re very R-rated movies. It’s the shock of what’s really going on underneath the surface of society. If you don’t actually make good on that, you haven’t told the story.” Cast in the lead roles are Daniel Craig (Defiance) and Rooney Mara; other actors include Stellan Skarsgård (King Arthur) and Robin Wright (Unbreakable). Mara faces a tough acting challenge as many film critics believe that Salander has already been definitively portrayed by Noomi Rapace (Daisy Diamond). Broached on whether he will direct the remaining two films, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest, David Fincher replied, “There are no plans for them right now. You have to make one that people want to see a sequel to [first].”There is no shortage of potential projects on the production slate for the filmmaker. A couple of remakes being considered by the Denver native are The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975), Heavy Metal (1981), and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954). “[Ness] is so not a serial-killer movie,” stated Fincher of the story based on the graphic novel Torso. “It's about the deconstruction of the myth of [Untouchables leader] Eliot Ness. It has way more to do with Citizen Kane [1941] than it has to do with Se7en [1995]. Ehren Kruger [Arlington Road] wrote a script that's pretty great.” Other graphic novel adaptations that the director has in mind are the plague-infested Black Hole and the hired gun The Killer. “It's that thing we always love from contract-killer movies: the existential assassin,” enthused David Fincher who has also been linked to Rendezvous with Rama. “It's a project I've always loved,” admitted the moviemaker of the science fiction tale written by Arthur C. Clarke. “It's probably technologically within striking distance right now. That was always the thing: You couldn't afford to build these things as sets. It's just too huge.” Two scripts composed by Steven Knight (Dirty Pretty Things) have also captured the attention of the director; the biopic Pawn Sacrifice about the unconventional chess genius Bobby Fischer and the culinary-themed Chef which Fincher describes as being a “celibate sex comedy.” Moving beyond the big screen to TV, David Fincher is looking at collaborating with Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron (Monster) to produce an HBO adaptation of the book Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker.
“Editing David's film is like putting together a Swiss watch,” revealed Angus Wall who was the film editor for Zodiac. “All the pieces are so beautifully machined. He's incredibly specific. He never settles. And there's a purity that shows in his work.” Counting Chinatown [1974] and All the President’s Men amongst his favourite movies, David Fincher stated, “Entertainment has to come hand in hand with a little bit of medicine. Some people go to the movies to be reminded that everything's okay. I don't make those kinds of movies. That, to me, is a lie. Everything's not okay.” Pondering his cinematic catalogue of eight pictures, Fincher remarked, “You can either look at your career as the things that you're going to leave behind… Or you can be realistic about the fact that you're going to learn as you practice what you do.”
For more on the director be sure to visit The Works and Genius of David Fincher.
You can also check out the official webite for The Social Network and read the screenplay by Aaron Sorkin here.
Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada.
No More Rain Clouds (NYSE: CRM)
Salesforce.com, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) is on the move again. The stock jumped over 5.5% today and continued to go up after hours. The favorite among cloud computing plays plummeted last week after Equinix (EQIX) a data centres services company guided lower in the revenues department. Investors have begun bringing their money back into the cloud computing stocks as they shrugged off the idea that perhaps Salesforce.com and other cloud plays may not be affected in the same way as Equinix was.
Salesforce.com employs cloud computing concepts to help companies save money on storage space, electricity, and cooling for example, buy moving their data to a central cloud server, which is essentially shared. Salesforce.com also runs its own software to aid companies in customer relationship management. Salesforce provides statistics and methods of communication to allow its clients to operate at maximum efficiency.
The stock price closed at $105.47 in yesterday's trading.
Salesforce.com employs cloud computing concepts to help companies save money on storage space, electricity, and cooling for example, buy moving their data to a central cloud server, which is essentially shared. Salesforce.com also runs its own software to aid companies in customer relationship management. Salesforce provides statistics and methods of communication to allow its clients to operate at maximum efficiency.
The stock price closed at $105.47 in yesterday's trading.
Artist Night 3b - Chocolates
I finally got a chance to mold some chocolates tonight. I remember making these things with my family when I was a lot younger. It seemed so much easier back then. Then again, this is the first time I have molded chocolate in more than 15 years, so I shouldn't have expected it to be super easy.
I bought the molds from Amazon (my favorite store ever) and they arrived last Saturday. I even tried to get ones that looked like what we had when I was younger. I bought the melting chocolate at an arts and crafts store close to my house.
I tried a double boiler and the microwave to melt the chocolates. The microwave worked, but the boiler seemed to work much better. It also kept the chocolate warm and melty while it was being put into the molds. My favorite part about the double boiler was that I got to look at this:
A bowl full of warm, melted, chocolatey awesomeness. It smelled really good too. I was tempted to pick up the spoon and shovel it into my mouth. But I refrained. (That is a scene from another story that's running around in my head though.) It was also really fun to play with. When it was warm, I could spoon a whole glob of chocolate into the air. It would solidify just a little bit so it kept its shape. When I wiggled the spoon though, it would liquify again and drip back into the bowl. Fascinating.
Painting the chocolate was the difficult part. I only bought brown and white pieces thinking that food coloring would work for the other Halloween colors that were needed. It didn't work quite as well as I had hoped. One drop of the food coloring totally changed the melted white candy from a smooth, melted consistency to a dry, crumbly mess. That really surprised me. Adding a lot more melted chocolate to the colored crumbles finally made it useful again. Next time, I'll just get the colored candy bags.
Painting the molds took a lot longer than I was planning. You need to color all the parts you want colored first. Then you freeze the molds to let the chocolate solidify, then you can fill in the rest of the space. All the molds had lots of details that could be filled in, but I didn't have the patience to do all of it. In the end, I only used three colors - orange, black, and white. But that worked pretty well for a lot of the Halloween molds.
This ghost shows how they turned out. It's definitely not perfect, but who cares? I actually like how his eyes turned out a little crazy. If I had more time, I would have gone with a white ghost and a black background. Oh well, at least I have more ideas for next time.
Altogether, it was a really fun artist's night. It probably would have been better if I had more sleep the last two nights, but what can you do when stories and characters are running around, wreaking havoc in your mind?
I bought the molds from Amazon (my favorite store ever) and they arrived last Saturday. I even tried to get ones that looked like what we had when I was younger. I bought the melting chocolate at an arts and crafts store close to my house.
I tried a double boiler and the microwave to melt the chocolates. The microwave worked, but the boiler seemed to work much better. It also kept the chocolate warm and melty while it was being put into the molds. My favorite part about the double boiler was that I got to look at this:
Painting the chocolate was the difficult part. I only bought brown and white pieces thinking that food coloring would work for the other Halloween colors that were needed. It didn't work quite as well as I had hoped. One drop of the food coloring totally changed the melted white candy from a smooth, melted consistency to a dry, crumbly mess. That really surprised me. Adding a lot more melted chocolate to the colored crumbles finally made it useful again. Next time, I'll just get the colored candy bags.
Painting the molds took a lot longer than I was planning. You need to color all the parts you want colored first. Then you freeze the molds to let the chocolate solidify, then you can fill in the rest of the space. All the molds had lots of details that could be filled in, but I didn't have the patience to do all of it. In the end, I only used three colors - orange, black, and white. But that worked pretty well for a lot of the Halloween molds.
This ghost shows how they turned out. It's definitely not perfect, but who cares? I actually like how his eyes turned out a little crazy. If I had more time, I would have gone with a white ghost and a black background. Oh well, at least I have more ideas for next time.Altogether, it was a really fun artist's night. It probably would have been better if I had more sleep the last two nights, but what can you do when stories and characters are running around, wreaking havoc in your mind?
Is It Time To Chase This Stock? (NYSE: JPM)
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) is set to report its quarterly earnings on Wednesday morning. The stock has been beaten down with its peers in the financial sector even as JP Morgan had spectacular earnings last quarter. For this most recent quarter earnings are expected to come in at $0.88 per share on average.
JP Morgan's stock price resides at $40.40 as investors bid the price up 1.69% on Tuesday.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is a financial holding company. JPMorgan Chase’s principal bank subsidiaries are JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association, a national banking association with United States branches in 23 states, and Chase Bank USA, National Association, a national banking association that is the Firm’s credit card-issuing bank. JPMorgan Chase’s principal nonbank subsidiary is J.P. Morgan Securities Inc., its United States investment banking firm. Its activities are organized into six business segments: Investment Bank, Retail Financial Services, Card Services, Commercial Banking, Treasury & securities services and Asset Management. Its wholesale businesses comprise the Investment Bank, Commercial Banking, Treasury & Securities Services and Asset Management segments. Its consumer businesses comprise the Retail Financial Services and Card Services segments.
JP Morgan's stock price resides at $40.40 as investors bid the price up 1.69% on Tuesday.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is a financial holding company. JPMorgan Chase’s principal bank subsidiaries are JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association, a national banking association with United States branches in 23 states, and Chase Bank USA, National Association, a national banking association that is the Firm’s credit card-issuing bank. JPMorgan Chase’s principal nonbank subsidiary is J.P. Morgan Securities Inc., its United States investment banking firm. Its activities are organized into six business segments: Investment Bank, Retail Financial Services, Card Services, Commercial Banking, Treasury & securities services and Asset Management. Its wholesale businesses comprise the Investment Bank, Commercial Banking, Treasury & Securities Services and Asset Management segments. Its consumer businesses comprise the Retail Financial Services and Card Services segments.
South Florida Bulls vs. West Virginia Mountaineers Odds
The South Florida Bulls and the West Virginia Mountaineers will both be trying to pick up a win on Thursday when they battle at Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium.Kick off time from West Virginia is scheduled for 7:30PM Eastern Time with national television coverage provided by ESPN.
Sportsbook.com currently have the Mountaineers listed as 10½-point favorites versus the Bulls.
South Florida lost its last outing, a 13-9 result against Syracuse on October 9. South Florida failed to cover in that game as a 8-point favorite, while the 22 combined points took the game UNDER the total.
West Virginia was a 49-10 winner in their most recent outing at home against UNLV. They covered the 27–point spread as favorites, while the total score (59) made winners of OVER bettors.
Betting trends to consider:
The total has gone OVER in 4 of South Florida's last 5 games on the road
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of South Florida's last 5 games when playing West Virginia
South Florida is 4-2 SU in its last 6 games
South Florida is 1-4 SU in its last 5 games on the road
West Virginia is 11-1 SU in its last 12 games at home
West Virginia is 4-1 SU in its last 5 games
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of West Virginia's last 5 games when playing South Florida
West Virginia is 1-4 ATS in its last 5 games when playing South Florida
Online Casino and Online Video Poker Review
The online casino gaming industry has become a massive business, and the amount of people that gamble online increases every year.Many of websites claim to have the best online video poker games or the best online roulette games, but you have to check to be sure where to deposit you money.
Many others provide free casino games as well great bonuses, if you want to learn how to play casino games it is important to keep in mind one simple fact. The games are designed to take your money. Sure you may be able to adjust your play and come out a winner from time to time or even become an almost break even player, but over the long term you will experience some losses.
If you want a game that relies on skill and strategy, try playing online casino. It still requires some luck, but playing against other players is better than playing against the house any day.
There are three general categories of casino games: table games, electronic gaming machines, and random number ticket games such as Keno and simulated racing.
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