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Wisconsin is not the most unemployment-friendly state. The state legislature’s Joint Finance Committee voted Monday to approve a proposal that would require Wisconsin’s unemployed to double their work searches from two to four searches per week. Should they fail to meet requirements, they would lose their benefits, NBC 15 reported Monday morning, hours before the vote. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! The budget committee approved the proposal Monday afternoon, making Wisconsin a state with one of the toughest job requirement searches in the country, compared to states like Pennsylvania and Michigan who only mandate that their unemployed apply to a minimum of two jobs per week. According to a briefing paper by the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, only three other states require four or more searches a week. Though the change was up for a vote Monday in the legislature’s Joint Finance Committee, the full legislature will have to agree for the change to take effect. The Democrats are against the proposal, claiming it is “designed to kick people off of unemployment insurance.” Republicans deny this claim, explaining that the proposal will work to better encourage people to secure jobs. Don’t Miss: Fed’s Easy Money Policy Gets a Green Light From Low Inflation. Read the original article from Wall St. Cheat Sheet

Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) appears to have added another arrow to its social media quiver by purchasing the microblogging platform Tumblr. The $1.1 billion acquisition has just been approved by Yahoo’s board according to anonymous sources via the Wall Street Journal. Tumblr’s board approved the deal yesterday, reports Forbes. Marissa Mayer, who has run Yahoo since leaving Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) last year, engineered this latest acquisition after becoming interested in the social media startup several months ago. Founded in 2007, Tumblr has rocketed in popularity with its unique blend of blogging and social networking. The company only recently added advertising to its service last year which has so far generated $13 million in revenue. Tumblr has recently seen its user base double from 58 million unique users in 2012 to 117 million users this March according to statistics from comScore (NASDAQ:SCOR). Meanwhile, Tumblr’s smartphone user base has tripled from 4 million users in 2012 to 12 million unique users this year. This would add significantly to Yahoo’s smartphone user base which is already around 84 million… Interestingly, Yahoo’s purchase of Tumblr is all in cash. Typically, acquisitions of this magnitude involve a significant stock component. For example, Facebook’s (NASDAQ:FB) $1 billion purchase of Instagram was comprised of only $300 million in cash while the rest in of the value was offered in company shares. David Karp is the mastermind behind Tumblr. Here’s how Yahoo has traded over the past week: Follow Nathanael on Twitter (@ArnoldEtan_WSCS) Read the original article from Wall St. Cheat Sheet

Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ:URBN) will report earnings after markets close on Monday, May 20th. Urban Outfitters, Inc. operates retail stores and direct response, including a catalog and Web sites. The Company’s Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie retail concepts sell fashion apparel, accessories, and household and gift merchandise. Urban also designs and markets young women’s casual wear which it provides to the Company’s retail operations and sells to retailers worldwide. Here is your Cheat Sheet to Urban Outfitters Earnings: Earnings Expectations: Analysts expect earnings of $0.29 per share on revenues of $654.94 million. Currently, the company’s P/E ratio stands at 27.01. Analyst Trends: Analysts have a more negative outlook for the company’s next-quarter performance. Over the past three months, the average estimate for next quarter’s earnings has fallen from a profit of $0.51 to a profit $0.48. For the current year, the average estimate is a profit of $1.92, which is worse than the estimate ninety days ago. Earnings Trends: Here’s how Urban Outfitters has been performing on an annual basis: Fiscal Year 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Revenue ($) in millions 1,835 1,938 2,274 2,474 2,795 Diluted EPS ($) 1.17 1.28 1.60 1.19 1.62 Next, our CHEAT SHEET investing framework asks us to drill down to the recent quarterly data: Quarter Jan. 31, 2012 Apr. 30, 2012 Jul. 31, 2012 Oct. 31, 2012 Jan. 31, 2013 Revenue ($) in millions 730.65 568.93 676.27 692.89 856.83 Diluted EPS ($) 0.2698 0.23 0.42 0.40 0.5563 Past Performance: Urban Outfitters has beat analyst estimates 2 times in the past four quarters. This is not consistent enough to get bullish yet. “E = Earnings Are Increasing Quarter-Over-Quarter” is a core component of our successful CHEAT SHEET investing framework. Don’t waste another minute – click here to discover our CHEAT SHEET stock picks now! (Company fundamentals provided by Xignite Financials. Email any earnings discrepancies to earnings [at] wallstcheatsheet.com) Read the original article from Wall St. Cheat Sheet

Raven Industries (NASDAQ:RAVN) will report earnings before markets open on Monday, May 20th. Raven Industries, Inc. is an industrial manufacturer focusing on plastics and electronics. The Company manufactures ultra thin and reinforced plastic sheeting, provides electronic manufacturing services, and manufactures precision products for agriculture. Raven also provides balloons, inflatables, contract electronics, and industrial controls through its subsidiaries. Here is your Cheat Sheet to Raven Industries Earnings: Earnings Expectations: Analysts expect earnings of $0.44 per share on revenues of $112.64 million. Currently, the company’s P/E ratio stands at 23.64. Analyst Trends: Analysts have a more positive outlook for the company’s next-quarter performance. Over the past three months, the average estimate for next quarter’s earnings has risen from a profit of $0.31 to a profit $0.33. For the current year, the average estimate is a profit of $1.46, which is better than the estimate ninety days ago. Earnings Trends: Here’s how Raven Industries has been performing on an annual basis: Fiscal Year 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Revenue ($) in millions 279.91 237.78 314.71 381.51 406.18 Diluted EPS ($) 0.85 0.79 1.12 1.39 1.44 Next, our CHEAT SHEET investing framework asks us to drill down to the recent quarterly data: Quarter Jan. 31, 2012 Apr. 30, 2012 Jul. 31, 2012 Oct. 31, 2012 Jan. 31, 2013 Revenue ($) in millions 96.33 117.92 101.67 97.01 89.58 Diluted EPS ($) 0.3012 0.52 0.32 0.30 0.3037 Past Performance: Raven Industries has beat analyst estimates 2 times in the past four quarters. This is not consistent enough to get bullish yet. “E = Earnings Are Increasing Quarter-Over-Quarter” is a core component of our successful CHEAT SHEET investing framework. Don’t waste another minute – click here to discover our CHEAT SHEET stock picks now! (Company fundamentals provided by Xignite Financials. Email any earnings discrepancies to earnings [at] wallstcheatsheet.com) Read the original article from Wall St. Cheat Sheet

A hallmark disease of an overweight, desk bound nation, diabetes instigates a staggering economic burden on our healthcare system where total costs, including hospital inpatient care, doctor visits, medication, and reduced or lost productivity have been estimated at $245 billion in 2012, a 41% increase in the last five years. Further, diabetes costs the average sufferer $13,700 per year in tending to the disease to maintain a certain quality of life and avoid death.Keeping in step with the climb of obesity in the U.S., diabetes is big business with pharmaceutical firms committing large portions of their R&D budgets to new and better ways to get insulin into and throughout the body. Most have failed, but the brass ring remains an oral version -- a pill, taken discretely every day just like vitamins or aspirin. Now it appears a small, Israeli biotechnology firm, laboring almost anonymously in early phase

While the DJIA and S&P500 are hitting new highs on a daily basis, it is worth noting that the broad energy sector, as measured by the Spider Energy ETF (XLE), has severely underperformed the overall market. The energy sector has lagged the broad market (DJIA) by some 25 percentage points over the past 5 years. And this in spite of the outperforming refining and MLP sectors within the energy space.What if energy stocks joined this rally? I think they will. And I think the DJIA and S&P500 could easily move up another 2-3% on the back of an energy sector rally. Here's why.DIA data by YChartsAccording to Standard & Poors, the energy sector now composes only 10% of the S&P500. According to Bespoke Investment, this is down from 15.3% in 2008. There have been a number of reasons for the energy sector's contraction

I wish I had easy answers but I sure don't. Just look at our Big Chart – we flipped it bullish and put up new level targets just two weeks ago and already the Russell is up 5% to test 1,000.  All 3 lines over 1,000 and we're back to being bullish until 3 of 5 fail to hold our "Must Hold" lines.   We should be celebrating this but we played too cautiously as what we thought was a top and I never officially put "5 Inflation Fighters Set to Fly" or our "5 Trade Ideas that Make (made) 500% in an up Market" into our portfolios and I only said: So lots of fun ways to participate in the next mega-rally.  We don't need S&P 1,900 – just holding 1,600 would do us quite well and I cannot emphasize enough that these are HEDGES to our current BEARISH stance – just in case we're wrong and a correction never comes and the markets go up and up forever and all of our bearish positions expire worthless.  In reviewing those posts, I realize I went heavily into detail about my thoughts of the current market environment and we decided we'd better go with the flow until the flow changes and, frankly, I don't have a lot to add to that.  A week ago we reviewed our "5 Trade Ideas" that made ridiculous amounts of money in a very short time but, as I have been reminded this weekend – unless I specifally state something should be included in one of our virtual portfolios – it doesn't occur to people that they should add it to theirs so we have been out of balance bearish in our portfolios and have gotten hit pretty hard in this relentlessly climbing market.   That's my fault then and my solution is to make things less confusing and go back to my favorite system for managing trades and that's to have a portfolio for short-term trading and one for long-term trading (the Income Portfolio is a separate strategy and won't be affected) and we'll be instituting that beginning next week.  The idea is to practice the basics – position sizing, scaling in, scaling out, using stops, reacting to news, diversifying positions, etc.  The Long-Term Portfolio is generally for short-term positions that don't work but that we would like to stick…

Below are companies that have recently had large insider buying in excess of $200,000 worth of stock. As a caveat, please only consider this as a starting point in your investment research as these are only the opinions of this blogger:Walter Energy (WLT) is predominately focused on producing and exporting coal for the steel industry. The stock's performance has not been pretty the past year where it currently sits just above its $16.08 52-week low and far from its $58.06 52-week high. Nevertheless, board director Joseph Leonard sees the stock moving higher ,purchasing a sizeable 16,700 shares on May 6. This equates to $475,000 worth of stock. The stock has become more of a value stock as it now trades at just .5x price to sales and 1.2x price to book value. Moreover, it did smash consensus estimates in its most recent quarter, while analysts are expecting

General Electric (NYSE:GE) was supposed to sell off its division that produces the products that helped it become a household name in the United States, but the recession derailed that plan. Now, the company is taking what could be its final foray into recapturing lost market share in a set of industries that it practically created from scratch. General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt has invested $1 billion into the company’s lighting and appliance, consumer brands division (GE Home & Business Solutions) and placed Dr. Charles “Chip” Blankenship in charge as CEO of the division. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! The company may now produce trains and planes but its consumer brands are still an $8 billion business. Unfortunately, the consumer brands division that Blankenship has taken the reins of is has the company’s second lowest profit margin at 4 percent, according to Bloomberg. Only GE’s nascent energy management division has a lower profit margin and that division is a rapidly growing, emerging market. If Blankenship cannot pull off a turn around, GE may no longer be found in kitchens and homes. Energy efficient bulbs like this are a new market and GE is struggling to keep up A number of factors have colluded to make GE’s home and business solutions division something the company may still try to distance itself from in the future. Governments around the world have taken serious aim at incandescent light bulbs. Also, the recession and a tepid housing market made GE’s home appliances almost a luxury item. The company faces very stiff competition in both lighting and appliances now from a number of firms. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! The global shift to replace the incandescent light bulbs that Thomas Edison made affordable and lit up the U.S. with in favor of longer-lasting LED bulbs has been particularly hard on GE. Lighting is a $14.4 billion market, but companies like Lighting Science Group Corp. have taken large chunks of that away from GE. Korean electronics manufacturer Samsung (SSNLF.PK) also competes directly against GE’s appliance business. “We said we could do it if we got that investment, and now we’re at the point in this experiment where we have to be able to do what we say,” said Blankenship. “We’re making the last products with the GE monogram on them, and we want to make sure we do that justice.” Indeed, the results for the first quarter of Blankenship in charge have come in and he has made his division the fastest growing in terms of operating income. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! The division’s operating income rose 39 percent to $79 million. Still, that is only 2.2 percent of GE’s overall net income of $3.53 billion during the period. A lot more work needs to be done to make Blankenship’s division have a real future with the company. Can he pull it off or will GE make the full transition away from making products for the consumers who helped make it a household name? Don’t Miss: Are Soaring Natural Gas Prices Helping the Economy? Read the original article from Wall St. Cheat Sheet

Determined to make Windows 8 work no matter what it took, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) may have given users a reason to get on board. The company is rolling out improvements that give devices running its maligned OS better performance and more apps while offering more affordable ways to use the system. Taken together, there are reasons to believe Windows 8 could be more successful than anyone expected. Windows 8 apologists have remarked that the OS’s touch screen options are its best features, so Microsoft has planned to get more devices with touch screens out to users. As for the battery problems found in some of the laptops and tablets, the company believes the issues will be solved when Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) Haswell chips come out in laptops later in the year. As for user interface issues, the biggest problem of all for Windows 8, Microsoft has unveiled updates, known as Windows 8.1, which address several of the critics’ concerns. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! Most importantly, Microsoft is making sure lower priced devices running Windows 8 become available to consumers in the coming months. Between a Haswell-enabled Ultrabook for $599 and other tablets for half that price, huge numbers of consumers will consider giving Microsoft’s latest OS a second look. The low-end market is crucial for Microsoft, as PC users traditionally turned to Windows products for better pricing and fewer cult-like associations. The early failures of Windows 8 were considered a huge reason for the decline in PC sales in 2012 and so far this year. Microsoft is showing some measure of humility in taking criticism and offering solutions to the perceived shortcomings of Windows 8. H0ld-outs still might come around. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! Windows users who haven’t been keen on learning the new system interface remain the final frontier. Customers dedicated to the brand on some level need a reason to do the work required to master Windows 8. The new selection of apps, the improved battery life and processing power in the tablets and the increase in touch options should go a long way. Yet the improvements in user friendliness and more affordable devices are the best sellers for Windows 8 (and its updates). By staying dedicated to its operating system, Microsoft may have given itself a reason to celebrate. Don’t Miss: These Popular Tech Names Are Ripping Higher. Read the original article from Wall St. Cheat Sheet