Friday Morning Coffee with TradingMarkets

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Dick's Sporting Goods Beats ... Lehman a Hostile Takeover Target? ... Financials Drive the Dollar Down ... Inside the Blizzard ... Venture Capital and Bear Market Opportunities

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TradingMarkets 7 Stocks You Need to Know for Today

Here are 7 stocks for traders for today from TradingMarkets.com:

• Upscale women's clothing retailer Ann Taylor (ANN | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) reports earnings Friday morning before the market opens. Analysts are expecting EPS of $0.48.
  
  
• Massey Energy (MEE | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) was among the energy stocks continuing to move higher on Thursday. MEE was up more than 6% on the day.
  
  
• An analyst with Ladenburg Thalmann upgraded shares of Lehman Brothers Holdings (LEH | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) to a "buy", saying that the investment bank was increasingly likely to be the target of a takeover.
  
  
• Citigroup analysts lowered their third quarter earnings estimates for Goldman Sachs (GS | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) among other Wall Street investment banks.
  
  
• Children's Place Retail Stores Inc. (PLCE | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) gained more than 11% on Thursday after reporting quarterly earnings losses that were not as bad as analysts had feared.
  
  
• Slowing sales growth was blamed for the disappointing quarter reported by Salesforce.com (CRM | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating), which ended the day down more than 18%.
  
  
• Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) rallied by more than 15% on Thursday on surprisingly optimistic full year earnings guidance. The retailer also announced quarterly earnings that were not as poor as expected.
  
  

For a list of today's highest PowerRating stocks, click here.

TradingMarkets 5 PowerRatings Stocks for Today

TradingMarkets Making Great Traders

The $NYA Confirms Narrow Bear Market Rally - TradingMarkets
There are rallies and then there are bear market rallies. If you are having a hard time figuring out which type this rally is, then Kevin Haggerty's most recent column is must-read reading for you.

Fringe Banking and Cash America International - TradingMarkets
Fringe banking has grown substantially with millions of households with no banking relationship. For Investors, the volatility within this consumer market, and especially with CSH, is worth taking a look at.

7 ETFs You Need to Know for Today - TradingMarkets
Energies and materials were the big gainers again among exchange-traded funds on Thursday. Friday's 7 ETFs includes the ProShares UltraShort Oil & Gas ETF, DUG.

TradingMarkets 5 Business Stories You Need to Know

Dick's Sporting Goods Beats on Lower Profits - CNN Money
Lower earnings year over year don't prevent Dick's Sporting Goods from beating analyst estimates by three cents on Thursday.

Dick's Sporting Goods is the Featured Stock in our Up or Down Stock Contest. You have until 4 p.m. EST today to tell us whether you think Dick's Sporting Goods will be Up or Down on Friday. Click here to play our TradingMarkets Up or Down Stock Contest for your chance to win $1,000 a month by correctly guessing the direction of a stock!

About That Lehman Bid - Wall Street Journal
Are rumors that Lehman Brother's is vulnerable to a hostile takeover well-founded? The Wall Street Journal's Deal Journal is not necessarily convinced that such a move would be a good idea.

Faltering Financials Sap Greenback Rally - Financial Times
Renewed fears that the U.S. financial system is still far from recovery finally caught up with the U.S. dollar, which was sharply lower on Thursday.

Revisiting the Activision, Blizzard Merger - BusinessWeek
There's more to the merger of Activision and Blizzard than the latter's breakout hit, World of Warcraft, as this BusinessWeek profile of the software gaming company reveals.

On Tech and Bear Market Investing - Portfolio.com
A quick conversation with venture capitalist and technology investor Alan Patricof.

For more stories as they happen, go to our Breaking News section.

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