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The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) can’t seem to catch a break. The soft drink company is in hot water again, and this time, it’s in Israel. Coke launched a new marketing campaign there earlier in May, and at first, it seemed genius. As explained by The Washington Post, Coke identified the most popular Israeli first names and then printed them on its bottles and cans, hoping to personalize the drinking experience. 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! And who wouldn’t be tempted to grab a bottle of Coke off a shelf when it had your name on it? Tablet Magazine reported that shoppers of all genders and ages squealed as they found their names on Coke cans and rushed to the cash register. Pictures of Coke exploded on social media portals in seconds. But not everyone is happy. Critics (and there are a lot of them) complain the program is discriminatory, including certain names on Coke cans and not others. The soft drink company failed to recognize just how closely cultural identity in Israel is tied to religion and identity, and how sensitive issues of inclusion and exclusion are. The Washington Post reported that one Arab-Israeli citizen sent a legal petition to an Israeli court earlier in the week, pointing out that not one Arabic name is among the most popular Israeli names printed, even though the country’s Arab population is over 1.5 million. While Coca-Cola rebutted this argument, explaining via Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) that anyone who cannot find their name can easily print them out on a coke label at certain designated stores, customers charged that the printers would not be enabled for Arabic script. Coke disagreed. 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! It should come as no surprise if Coke ends up canning (no pun intended) the campaign. It has already faced similar problems in Sweden, when it decided not to put the name “Muhammad” on cans, worrying that it would be too controversial. Needless to say, some Swedes weren’t very happy about that one. Good try, Coca-Cola. Better luck next time. Don’t Miss: Is Ronald McDonald Making American Kids Obese? Read the original article from Wall St. Cheat Sheet

The weak economy is hurting many discount retailers; last Thursday Wal-Mart’s (NYSE:WMT) results missed Wall Street’s expectations, reflecting the stress on low-income consumers, while Target (NYSE:TGT) reported Wednesday that first-quarter earnings plummeted 29 percent, missing its already lowered guidance. Wal-Mart is considered an economic bellwether, because its sales accounts for nearly 10 percent of non-automotive retail spending in the United States. Tough economic conditions followed Wal-Mart to Canada, where its results were exacerbated by what retail analysts have termed the “Target effect.” To better compete with its rival — which launched its first 24 stores in the country in March — Wal-Mart has embarked on an expansion project, but as its recent earnings report showed, performance at its existing stores declined in the past quarter. 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! Target acknowledged in its earnings press release that “softer-than-expected sales trends” were responsible for its lower-than-expected results. But in Canada, the company’s new stores experienced an “unexpectedly strong surge” in sales, as Chief Executive Officer Gregg Steinhafel told investors on the earnings call. Still, he acknowledged that retailer must focus its efforts on strengthening sales in important categories: the repeat-business market segments dominated by Wal-Mart and grocery stores. “We are encouraging our new Canadian guests to make Target a preferred destination for categories throughout the store, including food, health, beauty, and household essentials,” Steinhafel said. The company’s Canadian stores generated sales of $86 million in the last quarter, which ended on May 4, supported by higher-than-anticipated sales in its home and apparel departments — categories in which it competes with Sears (NASDAQ:SHLD) and Wal-Mart. “People shop for food in Canada an average of 1.8 times a week and the idea is that if you get them in for food and other household items, they then cross-shop in the other departments,”  retailing consultant Richard Talbot told the Financial Post. It is for that reason that Wal-Mart opened a plethora of locations with full grocery stores last year. The company increased its store count by 13.8 percent and boosted overall square footage by 10.6 percent, beginning the new fiscal year with 379 locations, of which 209 were grocery-inclusive supercenters and the remaining 170 were standard discount stores. Last year, Wal-Mart operated 333 locations in total. Despite this expansion, Wal-Mart’s same-store sales, operating income and foot traffic suffered during Target’s first quarter of Canadian operations, with weak consumer spending and unusually cold weather hurting results as well. Same-store sales at Canadian stores open for more than a year, an important barometer of retail health, dropped 1.3 percent in the period ended April 30, while customer traffic dropped two percent. As a result, operating expenses grew faster than sales. 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! “Our results were impacted by the unseasonably colder weather this year versus unseasonably warm weather last year and the leap year overlap,” Doug McMillon, president and chief executive of Wal-Mart International told investors on the company’s earnings call. Higher household debt levels weakened consumer spending in Canada as well, he added. Economic conditions have prompted 57 percent of Canadians to shop comparatively, according to a recent RBC survey, a practice that has made competition between discount retailers even stronger. However, the road ahead will not necessarily be an easy one for Target. In the last quarter, Wal-Mart made market share gains of 120 basis points in food, consumables and health and wellness categories, according

With shares of Verizon (NYSE:VZ) trading around $51, is VZ an OUTPERFORM, WAIT AND SEE or STAY AWAY? Let’s analyze the stock with the relevant sections of our CHEAT SHEET investing framework: T = Trends for a Stock’s Movement Verizon is a provider of communications, information and entertainment products and services to consumers, businesses and governmental agencies. It operates in two primary segments: Verizon Wireless and Wireline. Verizon Wireless’ communications products and services include wireless voice and data services and equipment sales, which are provided to consumer, business and government customers across the United States. Wireline’s communications products and services include voice, Internet access, broadband video and data, Internet protocol network services, network access, long distance and other services. As consumers and companies strive to communicate at increasing rates, Verizon stands to see a rising profits as a main provider. Look for rising communications, information, and entertainment to drive profits for Verizon. 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! T = Technicals on the Stock Chart are Strong Verizon stock has been on an explosive run in recent years. In fact, the stock has saw a strong breakout just last year and looks to be getting ready to test previous all-time high prices. Analyzing the price trend and its strength can be done using key simple moving averages. What are the key moving averages? The 50-day (pink), 100-day (blue), and 200-day (yellow) simple moving averages. As seen in the daily price chart below, Verizon is trading above its rising key averages which signal neutral to bullish price action in the near-term. (Source: Thinkorswim) Taking a look at the implied volatility (red) and implied volatility skew levels of Verizon options may help determine if investors are bullish, neutral, or bearish. Implied Volatility (IV) 30-Day IV Percentile 90-Day IV Percentile Verizon Options 16.53% 10% 9% What does this mean? This means that investors or traders are buying a small amount of call and put options contracts, as compared to the last 30 and 90 trading days. Put IV Skew Call IV Skew June Options Flat Average July Options Flat Average As of today, there is an average demand from call buyers or sellers and low demand by put buyers or high demand by put sellers, all neutral to bullish over the next two months. To summarize, investors are buying a small amount of call and put option contracts and are leaning neutral to bullish over the next two months. On the next page, let’s take a look at the earnings and revenue growth rates and the conclusion. E = Earnings Are Increasing Quarter-Over-Quarter Rising stock prices are often strongly correlated with rising earnings and revenue growth rates. Also, the last four quarterly earnings announcement reactions help gauge investor sentiment on Verizon’s stock. What do the last four quarterly earnings and revenue growth (Y-O-Y) figures for Verizon look like and more importantly, how did the markets like these numbers? 2013 Q1 2012 Q4 2012 Q3 2012 Q2 Earnings Growth (Y-O-Y) 15.25% -107.21% 14.29% 12.28% Revenue Growth (Y-O-Y) 4.17% 5.66% 3.92% 3.69% Earnings Reaction 2.76% 0.58% 2.37% -2.94% Verizon has seen increasing earnings and revenue figures over most of the last four quarters. From these figures, the markets have been pleased with Verizon’s recent earnings announcements. 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! P = Average Relative Performance Versus Peers and Sector How has Verizon stock done relative to its peers, AT&T (NYSE:T), Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S), T-Mobile (NASDAQ:TMUS), and sector? Verizon AT&T Sprint Nextel T-Mobile Sector Year-to-D

Some investors hate idiosyncratic risk. Others embrace it. Only a handful of industries suffer negative "surprise" events the way that the cruise industry seems too. The latest shock came earlier this week when Carnival slashed its 2013 guidance because of weak earnings margins. Apparently, customers need a little extra incentive to book a cruise after the February fiasco involving the Carnival Triumph. In conjunction with the revised guidance, many analysts downgraded the stock. Carnival dropped around 6% and the stock is now down 15% from its high before the "Triumph." (zing!) (click to enlarge) Carnival has its hands full right now for very specific reasons, and in a general sense, the cruise industry tends to be highly polarizing. A lot of investors hate it, either because of that idiosyncratic risk or because they dislike the actual product. But others love it, with equal passion, for the exact opposite

Limited Brands Inc (NYSE:LTD) recently reported its first quarter earnings and discussed the following topics in its earnings conference call. Bra Category Outlook Kimberly Greenberger – Morgan Stanley: Amie, my question is for Sharen on Victoria’s Secret. Sharen, I am wondering if you could just help us understand your outlook in the bra category. I know that the business didn’t perform to your expectations here in Q1. What sort of launches do you have coming in the pipeline? You said you are encouraged by what we’ve got coming and is 2Q a big quarter for the bra category or does it sort of accelerate in 3Q and 4Q, if you could just help us with that? 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! Sharen Jester Turney – CEO and President, Victoria’s Secret: Let me just kind of set some context about the bra business. Our bra business in the first quarter was up 4%. We exited about 1 million units that we sold last year that were not in the assortment this year. Performance of those bras started decreasing significantly in Q2 last year (indiscernible) was the right thing to do. We launched Angel’s Fantasies bra and were able to up some of that volume, but not all. We were also going up our largest launch ever, Very Sexy last year and we have high expectations this year for our multi-brand category. We did get double-digit results, but it did fall slightly short of our expectations. So, when you add all of that up and we were still able to run at 4%, so I am very optimistic. We continue to have balanced growth across good, better, best. Good is growing a little faster because of the fashion in the mix and match program and in the Pink (indiscernible) but again we are seeing growth across the good, better, best category. I feel good about Q2. Q2, we do not have a real media launch, that means putting TV behind it nor have we had in the past. We have already (landed) the launch bra for the second quarter. It is a smaller launch quarter than the first quarter. Our biggest launch quarter comes out in the third quarter, this year because of the shift in calendar will be starting in the last week of July. Hong Kong Stores Zick – ISI Group: This is (Zick) in for Omar. Could you give us some more color around how the Hong Kong stores are doing and what do you think the longer term opportunity is in this market? 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! Martin Waters – President, Limited Brands International: We opened two stores in Hong Kong in the last month. One in IFC Centre, which is the most fashionable centre in the whole of Hong Kong and the second in New Town Plaza in the New Territories, which is more representative of more mainstream Hong Kong. Both are great centres for Chinese stores. So, we feel that we are exposing the VSBA proposition to a significant number of tourists from all over the world, but also most importantly from mainland Chinese stores. Another results are really very encouraging and we’ll open a third store within the next month or so and we are looking to open more stores in the balance of ’13 and ’14. A Closer Look: L Brands Earnings Cheat Sheet>> Read the original article from Wall St. Cheat Sheet

For those who believe a hybrid can’t be powerful, stylish or frighteningly fast, Porsche would like a word with you. Volkswagen’s definitive luxury brand is showcasing its new 918 Spyder hybrid that easily breaks the 200 mph mark on the track and leaves other Porsche models in the dust, all while carrying a lithium battery that makes short trips come off gas-free. The million-dollar price tag doesn’t seem to be discouraging anyone from pursuing this car. Porsche reps (9 in all) recently showed off the show-stopping Spyder to 18 writers (a 9:18 ratio) in Leipzig, who got to drive the world’s most anticipated hybrid. It plans to start producing on September 18 (9/18) of this year, yet Motor Trend is already wondering whether the car is the greatest Porsche ever made. 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! How can the 918 Spyder qualify for such a distinction? Among its highlights, the so-called supercar goes 0 to 60 in 2.8 seconds; tops the 211 mph mark on the track; and beats the Porsche Carrera in races by a margin of 20 seconds. While these specs could contribute to the high esteem for the 918, the fact the car can travel up to 18 miles without gasoline makes it a home run. In fact, Porsche is considering the car to be the model for all future Porsches. Frank Markus of Motor Trend was unabashed in his praise for the 918 Spyder, which is said to crank with 887 horsepower and is so fast that engineers had to go to great lengths to make sure it stayed on the ground. A retractable wing helps pull off the feat, a fascinating detail for a car some thought could be weighed down by the battery. 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! On the topic of the car’s electric-only performance, Markus was equally impressed. He described the estimated seven seconds to go from 0 to 60 on electric power “conservative” while remarking the Spyder could fly at speeds over 90 mph without a drop of gas. Of course, the attraction is combining the horsepower of both electric and the traditional engine sources. In these moments, car enthusiasts consider the entire project a success, and the $1 million price tag something approaching reasonable. Do Detroit automakers have an answer for the 918 Spyder? While the short answer is “absolutely not,” some Ford (NYSE:F) enthusiasts are finding their way to the aftermarket tuning shops where you can add torque and horsepower to models like the Ford Focus ST hatch. For pure speed, Ford lovers looking to break the 200 mph-barrier along with the 918 Spyder would gravitate toward the Mustang Shelby GT 500, the car with 662 horsepower that has impressed engineers on the race track and off. Meanwhile, GM’s (NYSE:GM) top performance car is the 2014 Corvette Stingray. This model, which will act as the pace car at the Indy 500, packs a 6.2-liter V-8 engine capable of generating up to 450 horsepower. While neither Detroit automaker has a hybrid option that can compare to the 918 Spyder, both deliver their top performance cars for $70,000 or less. It’s a long way down from the Porsche supercar specs, but it’s also a far cry from the one-million-dollar-price tag. Don’t Miss: Meet the Ford Focus That Packs an Extra Punch. Read the original article from Wall St. Cheat Sheet

Republicans and Democrats are scrambling in Washington, D.C., to introduce legislation that will prevent federal student loan rates from doubling. Should Congress fail to act by July 1, the interest rate for subsidized Stafford loans will increase from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent, a crisis situation for a country whose current students and graduates hold $1.1 trillion in outstanding debt — an amount greater than the nation’s combined credit card debt. It’s a scary prospect for students as their college education costs continue to skyrocket and show smaller and smaller certainties of payoff. Despite the diplomas they receive on graduation day, they attempt to take their first steps in a nation that is slowly recovering from its recession and still suffers from a 7.5 percent unemployment rate. 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! Joseph Stiglitz, a former senior vice president and chief economist at the World Bank and a former member and chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, has spoken openly, and often critically about the student loan crisis. He explains: “Student debt has become an integral part of the story of American inequality … We now have a pay-to-play, winner-take-all game where the wealthiest are assured a spot, and the rest are compelled to take a gamble on huge debts, with no guarantee of a payoff.” Grim enough for you? Unfortunately, we have 6 other facts about student loans that will depress you. 1. Seventy percent of the class of 2013 is graduating with debt In addition, the average student in 2013 owes around $35,200, a number high enough to drop any jaw. The study by Fidelity Investments also highlights that a greater understanding of the total cost of college could have impacted how students addressed their college choices and savings strategies. Half of these students say they are surprised by how much debt they have accumulated, and 39 percent report they would have made different choices related to college planning had they better understood the debt consequences they are now facing. 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! 2. Student debt has tripled between 2004 and 2013 Another bleak reality: even though U.S. consumers are slowly working their way out of debt, students are demonstrating an ability to do the opposite. From 2004 to 2013, consumer debt posted only a modest growth of 9 percent, with student debt actually tripling to $986 billion in that same time span. The loans that were supposed to help students move forward are now holding them back, and as college costs continue to rise, debt only promises to smother the next generation of students more. 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! 3. More than 40 percent of 25-year-olds carry student debt Once these students graduate, the troubles begin to mount. According to American Student Assistance, more than 40 percent of 25-year-olds carry student debt, up from about 26 percent in 2004. Why are they struggling so much? The same study reports that 48 percent of 25-34 year-olds say they’re unemployed or under-employed. With the depletion of available jobs in the U.S., a significant percentage of the recent college grads are unable to find work, no matter how much they forked over for their education. 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! 4. About 17 percent of loans were delinquent at the end of last year Another problem is of these loans falling into delinquency. About 17 percent of loans were delinquent at the end of last year, compared with less than 10 percent in 2004. When only loans in repayment are considered, about one-third are delinquent. Young people acknowledge that t

Urine analysis is no longer the sole province of medical professions and laboratories. An application developed for Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone enables individuals to check levels of blood, protein, and other substances in their urine. But, as this application puts medical analysis in the hands of anyone with access to an iPhone, United States regulators are seeking to put some limitations on the already burgeoning industry. Is Apple now a once-in-a-decade buying opportunity? Click here to get your 24-page Ultimate Cheat Sheet to Apple’s Stock now! Biosense Technologies’ uCheck system has not yet been cleared by the Food and Drug Administration because the agency wants to impose stricter rules for tools that directly diagnose medical conditions through automated analysis and offer treatment. In the case of uCheck, the system employs test strips manufactured by Siemens (NYSE:SI) and Bayer, which are then dipped in urine and read using the smartphone’s camera in order to produce automated results. The problem is that the strips are only approved for a visual reading and require new clearance for automated analysis, according to a letter sent to Biosense from the FDA. The company may also need to gain agency approval for the system as a whole. The agency wants more oversight, and to further this mission, it imposed quality standards for heart stents, ultrasound machines, and other medical devices back in 2011. “We intend to finalize the guidance this year,” agency spokeswoman Synim Rivers told Bloomberg Wednesday via email. “The FDA has proposed a regulatory approach that limits its immediate oversight to a specific, small subset of mobile medical applications that are medical devices and present the greatest risk to patient safety if they don’t work as intended.” In February, the app required to run the automated system was praised at the technology conference TED2013, and it became available in Apple’s app store earlier this year. But the problem of FDA approval lingers. 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 agency wrote a letter to Biosense on May 22 detailing its concerns. Co-founder Abhishek Sen said that the company intends “to work very closely with the U.S. FDA over the coming months to ensure that we continue to deliver accurate, affordable, and convenient diagnostics across the world,” according to Bloomberg. But he declined to give any further information regarding his communications with the agency. This letter gave Biosense the opportunity to meet and discuss the issue. Depending how the company responds, the FDA may follow up with warning letter that details specific violations of the law that must be rectified immediately, Rivers said. The regulator suggested a 510k application, which is the least stringent of FDA device approval pathways, as a possible solution. It only requires the company to prove their product is similar to one on the market. As the letter noted, Acon Laboratories has already submitted data for its urine analyzer. Follow Meghan on Twitter @MFoley_WSCS Don’t Miss: More iOS 7 Redesign Clues Emerge. Read the original article from Wall St. Cheat Sheet

In February, BlackBerry (BBRY) together with Monitise Asia Pacific (part of the Monitise Group of the U.K.) and Permata Bank of Indonesia, launched BBM Money in Indonesia, that allows for P2P (peer-to-peer) money transfer and mobile payments.Monitise announced that the service currently has about 60,000 registered users and the service is on track to have 200,000 registered users by the end of 2013.BBM Money gives BlackBerry Messenger customers the ability to instantly create and access a Mobile Money account from their BlackBerry smartphone and make real-time payments to BBM contacts who are also signed up to the service. The service also enables users to buy mobile airtime credit and transfer money to bank accounts.The real unique aspect of this service is that BBM Money can be used by consumers with access to the service regardless of whether they have a Permata Bank bank account.

Thesis ANN Inc. (ANN) is a multi-channel retailer and distributor of women's apparel, shoes and accessories under the Ann Taylor and LOFT brands. As of the end of last year, the company operated a total of 984 stores in North America with the vast majority of them in the US. The 4,300 employee company was founded in 1954 in New Haven, Connecticut and sports a current market cap of $1.4 billion.In this article, I intend to show that investors still have not forgiven ANN for the horrendous performance the company turned in during the financial crisis and commensurate consumer discretionary spending malaise the company found itself a victim of. The company is growing sales and profits not by simply opening new stores, but by squeezing more productivity and efficiencies from existing square feet and by shuttering underperforming stores. In addition, this sales growth is occurring as margins are maintained