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In order to spur spending, retailers have been offering shoppers discounts off their total ticket after signing up for their store-brand credit cards. And more often than not, those cards carry the Visa (V) logo.

 

Well, some merchants appear to be tired of Visa skimming off the top of those sales. This week, Target (TGT) announced it will no longer issue cards with the Visa logo and instead encourage shoppers to sign up for its own plastic “REDcard.”

 

And leading retailer Macy’s (M) said last month that American Express (AXP) will start servicing its store credit cards for Macy’s and Bloomingdale's locations instead of Visa.

 

By Jim Cramer, TheStreet

 

Have you noticed that the oil stocks are now higher than they were when oil hit its high? Have you noticed that the sector has far outstripped its last two runs into the $80s?

 

I think that's because the sector has growth in it. That's right, the oil companies, after sitting on their reserves or just letting them stagnate, are now spending again, drilling again, buying again, whether it be Apache (APA), Exxon Mobil (XOM), BP (BP) or Chevron (CVX), and we can see the bias causing the stocks to move.

 

 

Mimosas and brunch at Burger King (BKC)? What’s next in the quest for breakfast sales -- quiche and a croquet game with the King?

 

Burger King is turning its battle with McDonald's (MCD) for early morning sales into a battle of words. In selected markets, the BK is advertising the availability of a "Burger King brunch." The move away from breakfast is apparently supposed to evoke ideas of higher quality than just a conventional meal of (perish the thought!) eggs and coffee.

 

The brunch menu is debuting in test markets that include Massachusetts, Florida and parts of Canada. But will it be enough to loosen Mickey D’s iron grip on breakfast sales?

 

The second of two financial companies looking to establish futures trading based on domestic box office performance of movies received regulatory approval Tuesday to set up a market.

 

The ruling from the Commodities Futures Trading Commission sanctions Cantor Fitzgerald to create the infrastructure for movie-futures trading.

 

Similar approval was given Friday to Chicago-based Media Derivatives.

 

Talk about rebounds!

In 2009, ASML Holding (ASML), a maker of lithography equipment used to etch computer circuits onto silicon, lost 45 cents per ADS (American Depository Share).

In 2010, Standard & Poor's is projecting that the company will make $2.41 per ADS.

The reason for the rebound is pretty simple:

 

Feel like a little high-risk, high-reward action? More than a dozen small-cap ETFs that fall into this category have come out in the past month, according to Index Universe.

Exchange-traded fund (ETF) providers are pinning their hopes to these new small caps as the economy continues to recover. Many of these ETFs are tied to smaller companies in specific industries, such as utilities, materials or consumer staples.

"Small caps traditionally lead the way out of a recession," the president of one ETF firm told Index Universe. 

If you were a Goldman Sachs (GS) investor, would you have wanted to know that an investigation of the company was underway by the Securities and Exchange Commission?

That's been a hot topic of discussion this week as investors digest the news that the firm was hit by civil-fraud charges Friday. Goldman's stock fell by nearly 13% after news of the SEC complaint hit.

I think that most corporate news is generally already baked into a stock's price -- even before it's announced. But in this case, I'd say Goldman investors were unprepared for the bomb that dropped.

So should Goldman have told everyone?  

By Dan Weiner, editor of Fund Focus Weekly

 

Vanguard announced last week that it's handing an 8.5% piece of the Vanguard Windsor II Fund (VWNFX) to Sanders Capital, and in particular John Mahedy, who used to work on Windsor when he was at AllianceBernstein.

• Five Toxic Funds for Your 401(k)

Unfortunately, rather than give Mahedy and his team a mandate to run a value fund, Vanguard is simply continuing to add chefs to the Windsor II kitchen, and the meal gets less and less tasty with each one.

 

I’m one of the leading experts on Vanguard funds, so this is particularly irksome to me. But the bigger lesson that you can take away from the increasingly messy management of Windsor II is that multi-manager funds are almost always bad news for your 401k. And here’s why:

 

 

By Jim Cramer, TheStreet

 

Think about what you heard after the Goldman Sachs (GS) news on Friday: The public will think, again, the game is rigged and that the government is anti-business, deservedly, because the markets can't be trusted.

Plus, Google (GOOG) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) were "bad," meaning that tech and semiconductors in particular had moved up too much and were headed back to more realistic levels.

 

Most of all, you got a sense of the market's "fragility." No one would say, "It's time to buy." No one. My mailbox was full of end-of-the-world submissions; palpable hatred was back.

 

 

By Richard Band, editor of Profitable Investing

 

Why do investors keep repeating self-destructive (money-losing) behavior?  You can see the syndrome at work in the recent explosive rally among the real estate trusts.

Since Feb. 9, the Morgan Stanley U.S. REIT Index (RMZ) is up about 25%. The same index has skyrocketed over 150% from its March 2009 low -- about double the gains for the broader market.

 

As a result, dividend yields in the sector have collapsed... And low-risk dividend investors somehow are getting duped into thinking REITs are solvent investments. Many of them aren't. Meanwhile, the Street still loves to hate telecom leaders Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T) despite low P/E ratios and hefty dividend yields.

 

By Michael Shulman, editor of ChangeWave Shorts

 

The headlines are screaming that the Greek debt issue is resolved, and it's time to move on. This is simply not true, and European authorities have made the crisis worse by creating a serious moral hazard by pledging help to Greece.

• Buys and Sells in 8 Top Greece Stocks

The nature of the aid and the trigger for it are still unclear -- classic European political fudge -- and the current actions to backstop Greece's ability to borrow will now lead to similar demands from Portugal and Spain. The Irish could use help, too, but are too stubborn and angry at the rest of Europe to ask.

 

So how do you play this as an everyday investor? After all, Unless you are a fairly expert day trader living behind screens, trading currencies is out of the question. But don't despair -- cashing in on Greece's debt woes is easier than you think.

 

The Financial Tide has become the Red Tide. There was a line in the Pogo comic strip: " We have met the enemy....and he is us!" What scares me the most is that all this deficit spending that is going on at the local, state and federal level all has to come from the same pocket book -- mine! I was watching one of the Tea Bagger rallies on TV and a woman had a poster with the picture of a baby and the caption:" I'm only 6 hours old and I'm already $46,000 into debt"

Back in the first quarter of 2007 when the stock market was down and looking like it was going to continue downward for a while, I personally started cutting back. I moth-balled my credit cards and begin to use only my debit cards. If I didn't have the money, I didn't buy it. My government seems to have never gotten the word.

All I hear is how they are considering trimming next years budget. How about this years budget? I've asked my friends that work for "the Man" if they have been asked to cut back. They all say no. They have been told if it's budgeted go ahead and spend it.
 

You'll pardon me, I hope, if I'm nervous heading into Qualcomm's (QCOM) second-quarter earnings announcement Wednesday.

Last quarter, Qualcomm's shares dropped 14.3% -- or $6.72 a share -- on Jan. 28, the day after the company released first-quarter earnings and announced guidance for future quarters. In its guidance, Qualcomm executives predicted lower-than-expected revenue and earnings for the second quarter.

Since then, the company has restored most of the decrease it predicted three months ago. But Qualcomm has a record of delivering earnings surprises -- and the surprises aren't always pleasant.

 

The Double Down: Call it a marketing gimmick or a taste sensation. KFC is hoping to call it a money maker.

The fast-food chain, owned by Yum Brands (YUM), has been relentlessly promoting the breadless sandwich featuring bacon and cheese between two chicken filets. At 540 calories (for the original recipe version), the Double Down has received quite a bit of attention.

Taste-testers were less than thrilled. "My tongue hurts. Salt burn," wrote one newspaper reporter after trying it. But a New Jersey man ate almost five in 30 minutes.  

By Jeanine Poggi, TheStreet

 

Blockbuster (BBI) shares are rising, even as the rest of the retail sector limps along.

 

Shares of Blockbuster are gaining 40% to 57 cents today, following a 33% surge last week.

 

The company said on Friday it’s postponing its annual shareholders meeting until June 26 to give executives more time to devise a plan to restructure its debt and avoid being delisted. Management also said that it will ask shareholders to vote on a reverse stock split during the annual meeting.