| On Sale: 29 Stocks at Bargain-Basement Prices
IN THE END, 2007 WAS A WEIRD YEAR for tech investors. On the one hand, the shares outperformed the major indexes, and a select group of stocks -- Google, Apple, Amazon, Research In Motion, VMware -- produced spectacular returns. As I have noted several times in this space, large-cap, high-growth tech became a refuge for investors seeking protection from the hurricane blowing through the financial and housing sectors. But returns were a lot less compelling when it came to anything smacking of risk. Small-cap? Not so good. In the red? Bad. Highly leveraged? Worse. And therein, opportunity lies. Some names the Street shunned deserved it; others suffered undeservedly. The trick is separating the wheat from -- what's the saying? -- the crap. (Not the original, but I prefer my version.) This is not the first time the stock market has chosen to ignore small-cap tech.
Ex-CEO Agrees To Give Back $620 Million
In one of the largest executive-pay givebacks in history, former UnitedHealth Group Inc. Chief Executive William McGuire has agreed to forfeit about $620 million in stock-option gains and retirement pay to settle civil and federal-government claims related to stock-option backdating. The settlement comes a year after the options-backdating scandal led to Dr. McGuire's ouster from the Minnetonka, Minn., company, one of the largest U.S. health insurers. Dr. McGuire had been among the most successful and highest-paid executives in the U.S. Stock options allow executives to buy stock at a fixed price, generally the market price on the day the options were granted. In the scandal, dozens of companies pretended that options were granted at an earlier date than they actually were.
Sooners roll over Jayhawks, but 25 turnovers leaves sour taste for ...
And the best player on the court, perhaps for the first time, was Nyeshia Stevenson. The sophomore Sooner reserve led everybody with 15 points and five assists, blocked two shots and committed only two of OU's giveaways."That's a kid who's hard to guard," Henrickson said of Stevenson, who hit 6 of 11 from the field. "She can pull up, she can drive to the basket and she can hit the 3. That's hard to guard."Previously, Stevenson's high-minute mark was 29 at Oklahoma State, though her average had been 17.4. Against Kansas, she played 32 minutes and knew something was different."I was definitely aware that I was playing longer," she said. "Those media timeouts were coming and coming."There was no explanation for all the turnovers other than the clear fact focus remains an issue for which the Sooners must focus and the possibility that taking a big lead might have led to some of that loss of focus.Though OU led just 11-10 71⁄2 minutes into the game, it was 20-10 with 9:49 left in the first half and 33-15 3:20 before the half.
Bear-proofing your investments
Just for variety, the stock markets briefly stopped unravelling Friday morning. Then, it was back to the business of losing money for investors. After five consecutive great years for stocks, we're really getting hammered. Close to 900 points were sheared off the S&P/TSX composite index this week, a decline that left the index about 13-per-cent below its peak last July. .
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