More on Verizon/Alltel, Virgin/Helio, Philly Wi-Fi
Other stuff I recently wrote or chipped in on:
Apple’s gravitational pull
Many Apple retail stores are madhouses on ordinary weekends, so it’s no surprise they were crowded on Black Friday. But according to analysts, some of whom are studying the company’s holiday traffic for the first time, Apple’s performance is worth paying attention to.
According to Piper Jaffray, Apple stores exert “what can best be described as a gravitational pull” on mall shoppers. A shopper walking within 25 feet of an entrance has a 27% chance of going in, said analyst Gene Munster, whose firm spent six hours monitoring foot traffic at Apple stores this weekend. Most of them don’t buy anything, he added, and Apple stores are often in high-traffic parts of shopping centers, but this signals a possible shift in buying intentions to Macs from PCs.
Read Holiday Sales Blog: Do Apple Stores Exert ‘Gravitational Pull’?
Nasdaq loses 6.5% in a rough week
Google, RIM and Other Highfliers Lead the Retreat
The Nasdaq Composite Index sank 7% in three days and ended the week down 6.5%, as highfliers like Google and Apple reversed course midweek and dropped sharply for three straight sessions.
The Nasdaq Composite fell 68.06 points, or 2.5%, to close Friday at 2627.94. It was the Nasdaq’s biggest three-day drop in more than five years, as investors fled large tech stocks that had surged in recent months.
Web Shoppers Find In-Store Pickup Isn’t Always Instant Gratification
When Jeff Keller ordered a Windows Vista upgrade and a wireless-Internet adapter on CircuitCity.com, he expected to save some time, as well as shipping fees, by picking them up at a store near his Oakland, Calif., home.
First came the call that the adapter was out of stock. Then, when he drove to the Circuit City store, he was told that the Vista order had been mistakenly canceled. He waited 20 minutes while a warehouse clerk found another copy of the Microsoft operating system.
Mr. Keller, 30 years old, turned to Best Buy’s Web site to order the missing wireless adapter, again choosing the “buy online, pick up in store” option. He encountered another setback when he arrived at the Best Buy store: His item was in stock but hadn’t been set aside. He waited while a staffer located the product in an aisle and walked it back to the cash register. The whole transaction took about 15 minutes, he said.
“What’s the point of in-store pickup if they don’t have the product ready to go when you arrive?” Mr. Keller asked. “Lesson learned: It’s faster to just pull it off the shelf yourself.”
Retailers are increasingly touting features that let customers order items online, and then pick them up at nearby physical stores. Consumers are offered the ability to save on shipping charges and get orders faster, and retailers find it can boost store sales. Many stores advertise that items will be available for pickup soon after the order is placed, while others take days to transfer online-only items to stores from warehouses.
But as in-store pickup has grown in popularity — Wal-Mart Stores Inc., J.C. Penney Company Inc., Lowe’s Cos. and Payless ShoeSource Inc. have joined the ranks of retailers offering the service — complaints are mounting over faulty Web information and slow service. And some analysts are cautioning retailers that the process is trickier than it looks.
Double-Dipping the Chips
Chip stocks may finally be catching a break. J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank both issued upgrades to the semiconductor sector today, saying that earnings, gross margins and other indicators have bottomed out after a punishing 2006. While most of the market did well in 2006, chip stocks were laggards — the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor index fell 2.5% for the year after a strong 2005.
That may not sound like much, but Deutsche Bank’s Nicolas Gaudois notes that after peaking in late Jan. 2006, the index fell 15% for the rest of the year, which he says by “most historical metrics, this level of underperformance would constitute a ‘normal’ cyclical correction.”
Nasdaq Finishes the Year Up 9.5%
The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 9.5% in 2006 but ended the last trading day of the year on a down note, after a rally by Apple Computer failed to lift the broader technology sector.
Alltel Auction?
Alltel service isn’t available in New York, but that isn’t stopping Wall Street from paying plenty of attention to the wireless provider today. Shares are up more than 5% after Amol Sharma and Dennis K. Berman reported that private-equity firms, hungry for telecoms, are eyeing the company.
Google Surges Past $500 But Nasdaq Is Left Behind
Google shares shot past $500 Tuesday, reaching a new high, but the Nasdaq Composite Index was little moved as investors weighed an increase in oil prices.
The search giant’s shares climbed $14.60, or 3%, to $509.65 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Investors have watched the company’s stock price closely since its $85 opening in August 2004, and several analysts raised their price targets into the $500 to $600 range after its earnings report in October.
In two years, Google’s market capitalization has grown from $30 billion to about $155 billion, making it four times bigger than the company’s closest competitor, Yahoo. Google also passed Chevron to become the 15th-largest company among the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 components.
PC Screens Get Bigger, Cheaper
Sales of flat-panel computer screens eclipsed those of bulkier models for the first time last year, thanks to falling prices that are also luring shoppers to larger-sized screens.