goog

As companies try to find ways to cut costs, one popular approach is to leverage software. And an area that is getting lots of traction is supply chain management. Hey, it's worked for companies like Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), right?

A leader in the supply chain software space is JDA Software (NASDAQ: JDAS). Well, now the company is going to get bigger; that is, it will purchase i2 Technologies (NASDAQ: ITWO) for $396 million. In fact, the deal will make JDA the world's largest player in the supply chain space.

Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: JAVA) closed at $8.18. Oracle's (NASDAQ: ORCL) announced in April it was paying $9.50 in cash per share for JAVA. JAVA November option implied volatility is at 57, December is at 57, January is at 59, above its 21-week average of 19, according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement.

CBOE Volatility Index-VIX at 27.90; 10-day moving average is 22.77.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says taking down all of software on the back of this outlook is a mistake.

And on the fifth down day, we decided that SAP's (NYSE: SAP) (Cramer's Take) butt getting kicked means the industry is faltering? This is the thought that went through my head when I saw SAP's disappointing news and its alibi that business is weak. That's why it stumbled. Of course, SAP's comments immediately took all of Europe down. Nobody said, "Hey, maybe it is SAP's fault because Oracle's (NASDAQ: ORCL) (Cramer's Take) kicking their butt." No one said, "Sure it is weak, because in the end Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) (Cramer's Take) got a better mousetrap."

The Street.com's Jim Cramer says that reasonable people who believe the market is a reasonable place to make money are getting back in.

People are getting back to even. In the last 72 hours I have spoken to about 500 investors -- or at least 500 book buyers! -- many of whom have told me they recently either got back to even, having dodged the big decline or gotten in near the bottom, or are actually up nicely because they saw the opportunity in March and rode it back up.

I always figure when you meet people it is strictly anecdotal. But when you meet 500 of them it crosses over into empirical. Here's what I saw of this particular cross-section.

Those with aspirations of unfettered wealth look for clues everywhere. From top schools to unique talents, they build profiles of what it takes to become absurdly wealthy ... as though the process can be blueprinted. Well, if you're looking for answers, the Forbes 400 list is a great place to start. If anyone has mastered the art of making money, it's this collection of billionaires. They have the answers, and you are ready to learn.

A look at the lives of the Forbes 400 implies that the most important attribute is the ability to sift through ambiguity. Contradictions abound, meaning that shades of gray hold the answer to your burning desire for riches. Should you go to a great school? Well, yes ... but only if you're going for an MBA and plan to work for a major financial firm. But, you can still go to an Ivy League school if you're not studying finance but join Skull and Bones. Of course, dropping out of Harvard can be a great way to launch a career in the technology field.

It's tricky. There are no easy answers. But, the road to billions is littered with the corpses of aspiring magnates who thought it wouldn't be difficult. So, don't just read the seven attributes after the jump. Understand them. Read them twice. Then, your future financial situation will be assured.

Or, you can just do one of those chain e-mails and wish for wealth.

[Thanks, Forbes and MSNBC]

Red Hat (NYSE: RHT), a software business whose colleagues include Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL), reported Q2 numbers yesterday after the bell. Today, shares are up quite spectacularly. What's driving all the buying interest?

Well, the results were worthy of praise. Net sales increased 12%. Subscriptions were higher by 15%. Adjusted income, including the elimination of a tax benefit from the total, was 16 cents per share. According to Earnings.com, the market was looking for 15 cents per share. So, we've got the typical beat-by-a-proverbial-penny situation on our hands. I'd rather it be more than a penny, but I'll take it.

Today started out strong with a weaker dollar ahead of tomorrow's FOMC meeting. We have a slew of data coming out the rest of the week and tomorrow's commentary on securities purchases and liquidity programs should likely beat out the notion that rates are still staying at near-zero percent.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 9,829.27 +50.41 (0.52%)
S&P 500 1,071.63 +6.97 (0.65%)
Nasdaq 2,146.30 +8.26 (0.39%)

Top Analyst Upgrades
Top Analyst Downgrades
Top Trader Alert Stocks

Here are some highlights from last week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) just beat low Q3 earnings estimates but revenue also declined.
• Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY) earnings fell short of estimates but revenue was better than expected.
• Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc. (NASDAQ: CBRL) posted better-than-expected Q4 earnings.
• Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) posted a surprise Q3 profit but shares rose slightly on the news.
• Dress Barn Inc. (NASDAQ: DBRN) reported modest growth in both net income and revenue in Q4.
• FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) said that its Q1 earnings and revenue dropped but its cash flow has improved.

Through aggressive M&A, Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) has expanded its software into areas like enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM) and middleware. But the fact remains that the company still has a tremendous franchise in the database market. And the nature of this market is awesome. For example, Oracle has recently implemented a 250 terabyte database for AT&T (NASDAQ: T) and one for 700 terabytes for Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO).

It certainly makes for a highly profitable business. In Oracle's fiscal Q1 report issued Wednesday, the company posted profits of $1.1 billion or 22 cents per share and operating cash flow of $3.7 billion.

U.S. stock futures climbed Thursday morning ahead of housing and employment data set to be released before the opening bell. Meanwhile, stocks climbed Wednesday on optimism over the global economic recovery, but this morning Oracle's revenue miss caused some caution on the Street.

The DJIA nearly hit 9,800 on Wednesday, closing just above 9,791, within shot of the 10,000 mark, a level it has not been above since last October. Since bottoming at multi-year lows in March, the Dow has gained 47%, the S&P 500 has gained 55% and the Nasdaq has gained 65%.

The bulls just keep running. So much so that even the bears have started wearing horns and fake hooves so that they fit in a little better. A tame CPI figure on consumer inflation helped things steady and then a less-bad homebuilder survey allowed the run to continue higher. Oil prices ramped up on lower crude inventories as well. Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 9,790.35 +106.94 (1.10%)
S&P 500 1,068.76 +16.13 (1.53%)
Nasdaq 2,133.15 +30.51 (1.45%)

Top Analyst Upgrades
Top Analyst Downgrades
Top Trader Alerts

Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL), the Redwood City, Calif.-based enterprise software giant that is acquiring Sun Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA), is scheduled to discuss its fiscal first-quarter 2010 results Thursday in a conference call at 5:00 PM ET. You can catch the live webcast of the call on the company's website.

For the three months that ended in August, during which Oracle made another acquisition, as well as a debt offering, analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report earnings per share of $0.30, a mere penny higher than a year ago. But revenue for the quarter is expected to have fallen 3.3% to $5.3 billion.

Memphis-based package delivery giant FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) is generally seen as an indicator of the state of commerce in the U.S. Last week, not only did the Fed's Beige Book report suggest that the economy had stabilized over the summer, with signs of recovery in some districts, But FedEx also boosted its earnings guidance due to stronger-than-expected volume in its international priority-delivery service. So a question going in to FedEx's fiscal first-quarter report this week is whether the company is still a bellwether.

For the three months that ended in August, when FedEx opened distribution hubs in Chicago and Toledo and declared a quarterly dividend, analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are looking for it to report that earnings fell 60.2% from a year ago to $0.49 per share. That's also down 23.4% from the previous quarter, as well as less than the recently updated outlook. First quarter revenue is expected to be down 18.3% from a year ago to $8.2 billion.

Trading volume and news activity were both fairly impressive when you consider just how many traders and investors have headed for the hills or for the beach ahead of the Labor Day weekend. This morning's weak jobless claims did little to offer any great hope for Friday's unemployment and payrolls data. But less-bad retail data kept some positive sentiment alive. This was another one of those days where the overall bull or bear was a mystery figure until the close.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 9,343.47 +62.80 (0.68%)
S&P 500 1,003.16 +8.41 (0.85%)
Nasdaq 1,983.20 +16.13 (0.82%)

Top Analyst Upgrades
Top Analyst Downgrades
Top Day Trader Alerts

On Thursday morning, European Union regulators announced the launch of an antitrust probe into U.S. software maker Oracle's (NASDAQ: ORCL) takeover of Sun Microsystems. The regulatory group believes that the deal could lead to higher prices and limited choice for database software. Approval from this group is considered the main stumbling block for the deal, which has cleared the Department of Justice in the United States.

The final decision has a deadline of 90 days, or January 19, 2009. By this date, the European Commission can decide to clear or to block the deal. More often than not, the Commission will force companies to make changes that would eliminate any concerns over antitrust regulations.