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Apparel maker Guess?, Inc. (NYSE: GES), competitor of Gap (NYSE: GPS), reported some fashionable stats for its third quarter on Thursday after the market close. Indeed, double-digit growth rates are always in style as far as Wall Street is concerned. Especially during this tough period for retail selling.

Guess? said that total net sales for Q3 increased over 12% to nearly $528 million. Diluted earnings per share expanded by over 11% to $0.69. This was a six-penny beat on the bottom line. You know, you can't really blame the analysts for missing this one by such a wide margin. Honestly, you would figure that a company like Guess? would have a difficult time moving its clothing and accessories with all the financial turmoil going on around it.

Management, apparently, wasn't asleep at the wheel. However, there are some important negatives to note. First, gross and operating margins slipped during the quarter. Second, comps at the company's retail locations dipped 0.8%. Third, guidance has changed to a lower range due to a conservative outlook. This is to be expected, certainly, since it is hard to believe that Guess? won't find some issues with its business model in the short-term considering that the brand premium associated with its jeans might not be viewed as the best value proposition out there by the struggling Christmas-shopping consumer.

Viacom (NYSE: VIA) had some nasty news for about 7% of its human resources. According to this item, 850 people will lose their jobs at the media conglomerate. In addition, those working in senior-management capacities will reportedly not see any increases in their salaries next year.

Let me say right off the bat that I feel badly for anyone who loses a job. It's one of the toughest things a person can go through. That being said, I do have to say that I think Viacom has no choice but to become leaner. In fact, all the media companies need to take a hard look at how many people they have on their payrolls. Even in good times, I find that, businesses associated with Hollywood oftentimes are way too bloated.

But Viacom and the rest of its colleagues need to look beyond job cuts and salary freezes as a way of keeping costs under control. They need to look at every budget for every piece of content in their development pipelines and slash where appropriate. They need to ask themselves if the talent on a particular project is too expensive. Again, this isn't just an exercise for recessionary periods. This is something that should be done all the time. Hollywood does not do enough in terms of operating efficiently. I mean, consider that many media companies like Disney (NYSE: DIS), News Corp. (NYSE: NWS), and General Electric's (NYSE: GE) NBC Universal have so many integrated assets at their disposal. Shouldn't they be making better use of them, engaging a bit more synergy? Ah, but synergy is dead, isn't it? At least, that was the theory behind the split of old Viacom into new Viacom and CBS (NYSE: CBS), right?

Youth-retailer Aeropostale (NYSE: ARO) had a much better third quarter than I thought it would have. I was expecting a lower earnings growth rate and a worse performance in terms of same-store sales. Diluted earnings per share actually rose over 30%, coming in at $0.63. Way to go. And this performance beat expectations by a penny, according to Reuters Estimates. Net sales increased 17%. Double-digit expansion in both the top and bottom lines really is something to crow about in this terrible mall environment.

At least as far as I'm concerned, the 5% fall in same-store sales for the month of November wasn't too bad, especially considering that comps increased 7% for Q3 as a whole. Plus, on a year-to-date basis, comps rose 7%. Management can be proud of its achievements. However, that 5% drop in comparable sales for November is, unfortunately, a sticking point in terms of buying the retailer's stock. The economy has gotten much worse since I wrote about Aeropostale back in August. This decline might be a precursor to more bad times ahead. In fact, the stock is no longer as strong as it was earlier in the year. Shares of Aeropostale are trading closer to a 52-week low as opposed to a 52-week high.

There's no question that Aeropostale, whose colleagues at the mall include Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF), Gap (NYSE: GPS) and American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE: AEO), has been efficiently marketing to its target audience. There's also no question that now may not be the time to roll the dice on a business that caters to fickle demos. Personally, I think Aeropostale offers value at these levels. But I'd still rather wait for the macro economy to improve before getting into this retailer.

Disclosure: I don't own any company mentioned; positions can change at any time.

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is in mortal competition with Sony (NYSE: SNE). The Xbox 360 wants to destroy the PlayStation 3. Of course, both would like to take out the Nintendo (OTC: NTDOY) Wii, but that's a pipe dream at this point. Microsoft mainly wants to claim victory over Sony because the systems of those two companies are more comparable to each other than they are to the Wii. And it looks like the most recent Black Friday may have been a win for Microsoft.

According to this source, the Xbox 360 outsold the PlayStation 3 by a margin of three-to-one. Also, Microsoft increased its console sales on Black Friday by 25% on a year-over-year basis. This data comes from Microsoft itself. Assuming it is close to accurate, Sony continues to find itself in a terrible position. Really, this current console cycle has been difficult for the PlayStation franchise. But while Microsoft won bragging rights, I can't help but wonder if the real winner from this increase in Xbox 360's installed user base is actually Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI). It's currently my favorite publisher, and I own it in my portfolio. And given that the article I cited mentions the fact that the Xbox 360 enjoys a healthy game attach rate (the game attach rate is an indicator of how many software titles are purchased per console for a particular system), I figure that a lot of the new Xbox 360 owners will be attaching titles such as Call of Duty and Guitar Hero to their systems. These two brands play very well on the powerful console, and they are must-own games for a lot of users.

Admittedly, I'm sure other publishers will benefit from all the new Xbox 360 owners. Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS), THQ (NASDAQ: THQI), and Take-Two Interactive (NASDAQ: TTWO) are all obviously happy over Microsoft's Black Friday performance. But I believe Activision Blizzard to be the best positioned of the group. Its portfolio should rock over the holidays, and I think the company will take full advantage of all the console sales from now until the new year.

Disclosure: I own Activision Blizzard; positions can change at any time.

Marvell Technology Group's (NASDAQ: MRVL) Q3 earnings report had some great numbers that made me want to consider the stock as a potential buy. However, some things about the long-term price action of the company's shares makes me want to avoid the stock altogether.

The bottom line for the storage and networking tech company increased 64% to $0.23 per diluted share; this number beat estimates by three pennies. Pretty cool, right? Here are a couple more positives: operational cash flow increased 41% on a sequential basis compared to Q2 of this year, and free cash flow increased 47% on the same basis. On a year-over-year basis, operational cash flow increased more than ten times, leading to a huge increase in free cash flow. And non-GAAP gross margin, while not seeing an increase, saw fit to at least remain flat instead of decreasing. Not bad. Marvell's shares traded 8% higher in premarket action.

Here's the deal, though. I'm not sure I'd want to buy Marvell at this point in the dreadful economic cycle. Going back to the long-term price action, there's no escaping the significant decline in the stock price as a result of potential future weakness in its business. For example, recently, Melly Alazraki wrote about Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone and how sales of that device might be affected by the recession. Marvell is a supplier to the iPhone.

With the stock in single-digit territory, and with the global markets acting horribly, I just can't see buying Marvell. Indeed, I enjoyed the earnings report. But one must consider the company is unsure about demand for the stuff it sells going forward. Maybe Marvell might make a trade or something, but I'm not ready to go long-term on it just yet.

Disclosure: I don't own any company mentioned; positions can change at any time.

I happened to be reading two articles on CIO.com yesterday concerning Nintendo (OTC: NTDOY) and its Wii distribution strategy. There was an older one from August discussing the reasons why the Wii has been in short supply. Was Nintendo purposely making the Wii a rare commodity? Were there indeed production problems? The second mentioned Nintendo's decision to increase the availability of the Wii so that as many consumers as possible will become part of that system's user base. The headline said that Wii shipments will be doubled.

Let me give you my unscientific perspective on this topic. On an anecdotal basis, over the weekend, I noticed that, in my area at least, if you wanted a Wii you got a Wii. Also, if you wanted a Wii Fit, you got a Wii Fit. You didn't have to wait in line at three in the morning, you didn't have to go online, punch up eBay and get into some obnoxious bidding war to score a console so that your kid would be content on Christmas morning. The availability of the Wii hasn't been better.

And I tell you, this could be, from one point of view, bad for Nintendo. It might even be good for Sony (NYSE: SNE) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). After all, if the Wii demand is possibly now satiated (according to my anecdotal observations), then interest may jump in the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Sumner Redstone, the executive chairman of both CBS (NYSE: CBS) and Viacom (NYSE: VIA), has been having a difficult time during the recession. Because of financial pressures, he's been forced to sell stock assets to cover some of his debt problems. Now comes word that he's jettisoned his controlling stake in Midway Games (NYSE: MWY).

Redstone, according to The New York Times, divested himself of his Midway investment. And what a miserable investment it was. If you've followed the story of Midway Games at all, you know it's been nothing but a loser. Losses, revenue declines, and questions about the quality of the publisher's software pipeline seemed to always plague the earnings reports.

Redstone's stake was once worth $700 million. Know what he sold that stake for? $100,000 plus the assumption of debt valued at $70 million. Talk about a lousy loss. Midway just couldn't compete against the likes of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI) and Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS). You've got to wonder what Redstone saw in the company.

Did anyone see this coming? Honestly, I didn't think that Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) Four Christmases, starring Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon, would be the number-one movie over the five-day Thanksgiving time period. According to preliminary data at Boxofficemojo, the holiday flick took in more than $46 million at domestic theaters for the Wednesday-through-Sunday frame. I've seen the ad campaign for Christmases, and I have no intention of taking in a screening of it. I guess it was the right product at the right time.

Summit Entertainment's Twilight came in second with $39 million. Considering how hyped up this one was, and how much of an ardent following it seems to possess, frankly, I'm surprised. Where were all the teens to push this to the top of the heap? They were certainly available to pack the theaters. And those who saw it during its debut weekend had ample opportunity to engage a repeat viewing or two. Still, at a reported budget of about $37 million, the project should be profitable for Summit Entertainment (I wish I knew how much was being spent on marketing, though). It's total take so far is approaching $120 million.

Bolt from Disney (NYSE: DIS) was third with $36 million. So far, its total gross stands at almost $67 million. I'm disappointed that the cartoon isn't closer to $100 million by now. I mean, this is the Disney brand we're talking about. Plus, Bolt could be considered a test of both John Lasseter's hit-making skill and of the value of the Pixar purchase (as I alluded to in a previous piece). I expected more from this one, and I'm sure Disney execs were counting on a higher gross by this point as well (no matter what they will say in public).

If you thought Black Friday was just for brick-and-mortar retail, think again. The official start of the online shopping rush is the Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday (Cyber Monday is its name), but don't think that companies like Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Blue Nile (NASDAQ: NILE) are going to wait that long. They're in the game now. And they want your attention. More importantly, they want you to use the virtual shopping carts at their respective sites early and often. It's really crucial this year, because the economy stinks, and growth in spending isn't going to be great.

According to CNBC, Amazon's strategy is to use very low prices as a way of stopping competitors like eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) dead in their electronic tracks. This Christmas season, retailers, whether online or not, may find themselves in a no-win situation. They have to lower prices to encourage people to shop. But quality growth in top-line sales is questionable. When managements see the bad news flow about the global recession, they become scared and want to become even more aggressive in terms of pricing. The strategy may work and it may not. It's a vicious circle. Don't get me wrong, the retail industry faces this problem every year at this time, but you have to agree that the current economic cycle is particularly noxious. It's times like these, however, when retailers should want to offer more than just a value proposition. They should want to offer a differentiated shopping experience, a better selection of items. They should strive to offer up a brand image that makes you want to hit their inventories first. They need to step away from trying to undercut all their competitors and instead figure out how to stock the right merchandise in the right amounts. And when it comes to a business like Amazon, I think there's great opportunity to go beyond low-pricing strategies. Quite frankly, I don't care whether Amazon has the lowest prices or not. I find it easier to do some of my holiday shopping on the site. It saves me time during this busy season, I trust the security of the platform, and I know that the supply chain is efficient and reliable. And I definitely think of Amazon first when looking to do online shopping because of its valuable brand equity.

Sears (NASDAQ: SHLD) is scheduled to report earnings for the third quarter on Tuesday, December 2. The expectation is for a loss of $0.49 per share. I think it's therefore safe to say that the retailer won't be turning a profit.

Sears has been one awful retail story as of late. Actually, just about every retailer has been awful as of late. It's no surprise, of course, considering the economy. But Sears has been experiencing challenges even beyond what can be explained by the economy. The company has been missing estimates, same-store sales haven't been great, and if you take the time to talk to people about Sears, or if you follow the comments of pundits, you'll sometimes note a tone of repulsion when it comes to the big chain.

I haven't been a fan of the shopping experience at Sears either, and it's been a very, very long time since I've stepped into a Kmart. In fact, there isn't a Kmart close to me. Eddie Lampert's enormous task of helping to turn this ship around is not one I envy. Of course, many retailers make the mistake of only focusing on merchandising in the stores and figuring out what should be in the weekly circulars. Don't get me wrong, that's important stuff. But Sears needs to engage a branding campaign to make people feel good about its stores, to feel confident about the shopping environment. When you look at TV ads by Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and Target (NYSE: TGT), you can't help but marvel at the branding acumen of those retailers. Sears needs to get creative, too.

Computer-networking icon Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) is trying to cut costs wherever it can. In a sign of the times, Cisco will shut offices for four days during the Christmas/New-Year period in an effort to defend its profit margins (critical operations will remain open). Other tech companies that are trying to utilize time off for employees as a way of saving money include Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) and Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE).

When I read headlines like this, it makes me doubt the current rally we've seen in the markets. Indeed, bear-market rallies are common when things get way oversold. Then the euphoria gets put in perspective when we realize that it's going to be a long time until the economy truly finds its way back into a cycle of growth.

Businesses like Cisco will suffer from declining top-line sales as its customers become increasingly conservative with their investment capital. At that point, the only defensive move is to cut costs. And that's not a great position to be in. It limits management's ability to run operations, and it sends a bad message to Wall Street. Like some people have been saying, tools such as cost-cutting and layoffs aren't necessarily being perceived as positive elements in this cycle; they only serve to accentuate the dread of the slowing global economy.

I saw some interesting Nielsen data posted at Silicon Alley Insider the other day about traffic levels at eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY). They seem to be on the decline. I don't want to spend time repeating a bunch of the numbers here, but suffice to say that trends in unique visitors and page views on a year-over-year basis have not been favorable to the online-auction entity. One quick example would be the 33% drop for the page-view category seen in October.

What the heck is going on? Man, I remember when eBay was loved unconditionally and considered to be the best yard sale on the block. Heck, it wasn't just for closet-cleaning exercises; a person infused with even a modicum of an entrepreneurial spirit could easily start a business on the site. And its brand was second-to-none in this space. Well, eBay's brand equity remains high, but the bloom has definitely come off the rose, at least from my perspective.

On an anecdotal basis, I've heard many complaints about eBay, especially from the point of view of the sellers. But there's no question that eBay has to do something about the declining stats. People are spending less time at the site, and that surely won't do much in terms of appeasing the sellers.

Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG) released its Q4 earnings on Tuesday. Did the numbers have all the makings of a hit? To start off, revenues declined over 1%. That's not hit material, to be certain. Here's something that might get your toes tapping, however: income from continuing operations came in at $0.04 per share, a pretty musical achievement considering that analysts thought that a loss of $0.02 per share would be recorded. And I have to note that the company did pretty good on the free-cash-flow front (I also noted this in a previous piece).

But here's the deal with Warner Music Group: like the music industry in general, it's still trying to adjust to the digital age. Buying music recorded on physical media just isn't where it's at these days, thanks to Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and others. The music industry would really love to get more money for their content, but because of the popularity of the low-pricing scheme at iTunes and other download sites, I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon. Indeed, when I purchase songs at Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), I really appreciate that $0.99 price point, and I probably would loathe paying $1.29, $1.39, etc., per tune.

In the end, even with the earnings beat, I'm not sure I could seriously consider Warner Music Group as a great investment idea. Forget that the company's release schedule is reportedly being affected by the recession and that this may shift potential earnings excitement to the latter part of the year -- you've got to remember that this is a low-priced stock in a difficult market environment. As of Tuesday's close, Warner Music Group was trading for less than $3 per share. The stock has been very weak lately, a falling knife, in fact. Best not to attempt a catch of this particular blade.

Disclosure: I don't own any company mentioned; positions can change at any time.

American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE: AEO), whose competitors at the mall include Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF) and Gap (NYSE: GPS), is part of a sector I'm not much of a fan of currently: retail. Just saying the word aloud makes it sound repulsive these days. Don't get me wrong, retail will come back (someday). For now, though, it's difficult to look at the numbers associated with the industry, especially the same-store sales.

Looking at American Eagle, I can see that its third quarter was, as expected, not too inspiring. Adjusted earnings per share dropped 33% to $0.30. Worse, comps plunged 7%. Last year at this time, comps increased 2%.

It's tough out there, folks, and it probably will get tougher. American Eagle, like every retailer out there, is facing a perplexing problem. What's the best way to get traffic through the door? Marketing and promotions. What do retailers have to focus on this Christmas season? Containment of costs. Margins are important, and management doesn't want them to deteriorate too badly. You can see the challenge. Plus, American Eagle can't really count on its target shopper. Young people are oftentimes fickle and ready to jump to some other business near the food court. Not a great position to be in.

There was a short blurb about Xerox (NYSE: XRX) in the news on Monday. Management at the company wanted investors to know that it won't be needing to beg for the green stuff. Cash flow from operating activities, existing credit facilities, and a leaner business will carry the technology company through the current difficult period. Xerox gave a wide earnings range for 2009, saying it should book between $1 and $1.25 per share. Analysts are counting on $1.15 per share.

Well, that range makes it kind of difficult to predict how things will turn out in terms of whether the company will beat Wall Street or not; might as well flip a quarter. The more important thing to focus on is that Xerox will be profitable and that it is confident in its liquidity. The stock was up almost 18% at the close yesterday on nice volume. With the recent rally, should you look at Xerox as an investment, or a trade?

Xerox isn't one of my favorite stocks. I have no interest in it on a long-term basis. It just isn't a leading innovator these days, and there are way better alternatives out there if you want a core, long-term holding in the tech sector. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) are three names off the top of my head I'd look at first.