Filed under: Before the bell, Earnings reports, Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Deals, Microsoft (MSFT), Apple Inc (AAPL), Market matters, JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Research in Motion (RIMM), KB HOME (KBH), Washington Mutual (WM), Economic data, Financial Crisis

Just one day after investors ran up stocks in expectation of a bailout plan, U.S. stock futures dropped significantly Friday as the $700 billion bailout plan wasn’t approved after all and as Washington Mutual was seized by regulators in the country’s largest-ever failure. Discussions over the bailout are still ongoing, while JPMorgan Chase was forced to acquire the rest of WaMu. To add to an already tense environment, the final release of the second-quarter GDP is due at 8:30 a.m. EDT, and the September University of Michigan’s consumer confidence index is due out at 10 a.m EDT.

Washington Mutual Inc. (NYSE: WM) was seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Thursday, and then sold the thrift’s banking assets to JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) for $1.9 billion. It was the largest failure by a U.S. bank. JPMorgan also said it would raise another $8 billion through the sale of stock. WM shares are down almost 85%, JPM’s down over 2% in pre-market trading.

Research In Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) posted a sharply higher quarterly profit on Thursday, in line with expectations, but gave a forecast that was below expectation. Investors are concerned that as the economy slows, RIM’s big corporate clients could scale back BlackBerry purchases and upgrades. Deutsche Bank downgraded RIM from Hold to Sell, saying it relies more on hardware sales thse days, which means new product launches in this environment could worsen. RBC Capital Markets also downgraded RIM from Outperform to Sector Perform, but Credit Suisse, upgraded RIM from Underperform to Neutral. RIMM shares are down over 20% in pre-market trading.

Continue reading Before the bell: Stocks to tank; WM, RIMM, AAPL, MSFT, HBC, KBH, JBL

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Filed under: After the bell, Deals, Market matters, Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Amer Intl Group (AIG), Broadcom Corp’A’ (BRCM), Financial Crisis

Today would have likely felt like Day 3 of the market siege, but thankfully the master of the universe came to a key firm’s rescue. The bad news is that the stock markets were blended all day and the key index levels didn’t gain at the end of the day. The good news is that there was no systematic free fall. Bernanke changed his tone marginally to convey a superior bailout message, and Paulson was more on target today in conveying the need and lack of outright costs to the system. Things are so bad that the Presidential campaigns are being put on hold temporarily.

Here are today’s unofficial closing bell levels:
DJIA 10,825.17 -29 -0.275%
NASDAQ 2,155.68 +2.35 +0.11%
S&P500 1,185.89 -2.23 -0.19%
10YR T-Note 3.771% (-0.07%)
Top Analyst Upgrades
Top Analyst Downgrades
52-Week Low Club

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) was the real stabilizer today despite what the overall index levels shut at. It raised $5 billion in a stock sale and received a $5 billion investment from Warren Buffett. Shares were up nearly 6% at $132.20 right before the close.

Broadcom Corp. (NASDAQ: BRCM) shares were up over 5% at $19.35 in the final minutes today. This is on further clarification in the company’s patent victory over its intellectual property.

American International Group (NYSE: AIG) saw shares tank this day, again. Shares were down 22% at $3.87 in the final minutes of the day. This is AIG’s reward for accepting an $85 billion package from Uncle Sam for an 80% stake.

Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) was up 34% on over 225 million shares at $1.76 today on no short selling and on hopes that the government’s bailout package increased chances of approval would spare the company from the hangman.

Sequenom Inc. (NASDAQ: SQNM) was the massive biohealth winner today after presenting very positive data on its Down Syndrome tests showing perfect results in 400 screens. Shares were up 35% at $27.85 in the final minutes today.

First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) was one of today’s large alternative energy winners. The senate extended solar tax credits after realizing how silly it would have looked if they let them expire. Shares were up 5% at $223.00 in today’s final minutes.

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Filed under: Business, Security, Utilities, Features, Windows, Productivity, Freeware, Open Source

I’m always on the lookout for apps that can ease my workload or free up some room in my budget, and open source applications are an excellent way for me to accomplish both.

If you’re in the same boat as me, hopefully you’re already utilizing some open source options. If not, I’ve put together this list of two dozen great applications that I have the ability to depend on to keep things running smoothly on my office LAN and customer systems as well.

Some of these you’ll recognize, but I hope that there are some that are new to you as well.

1. PING - I may be beating a dead horse here with my love of PING, but it’s just a great piece of open source. Drive imaging with network and spanning support, password blanking, it’s just an excellent app.
2. NTRegEdit - The Windows Registry editor hasn’t seen many changes over the years. NTRegEdit offers some great additional features like recursive export, color coding, improved searching, and quick edit window below the values list.
3. Safarp - A portable alternative to appwiz.cpl (add/remove programs), it provides a few extra useful features - like silent uninstalls and fixes of Windows Installer-based apps. It also opens in a flash, unlike the clunky appwiz.
4. WPKG - Maintaining software installs on computers in a small business environment can be a tiny frustrating sometimes. WPKG gives you push/pull installs and it can run as a service, so silent installs run transparently with no user ineteraction.

Continue reading 24 Great Open Source Apps for Admins & Technicians

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