David Urani

* The dollar is approximately 1.0% higher today against a basket of currencies on positive comments from Japan. Finance Minister Yosano noted that he has complete trust in U.S. debt, and in fact continues to support the dollar as the global currency. This comes as a relief after the likes of Russia and China expressed concern over America's reckless spending, moving to create a universal global currency based on several currencies.
* You probably thought that bailouts were over by now, but in fact insurance giant Hartford Financial (HIG) became the latest company to get one. Six major insurers were approved to receive funds last month, and Hartford is the first so far to accept. It will take $3.4 billion, and the company will also sell $750.0 million of common stock to shore up its capital position.
* Ashes to ashes : The tobacco industry is about to take a big hit, as a law designed to put tobacco products under FDA authority looks set to pass the house and be signed by the president after it was approved by the senate on Thursday. The law would demand that certain ingredients be disclosed, ban flavored products, restrict advertising, add stricter warning labels, and impose various fines.
* In a move that is sure to reshape the financial sector, money manager Blackrock (BLK) is set to pay $6.6 billion in cash plus $6.9 billion in stock for Barclays' highly respected Barclays Global Investors unit. The combined company will manage a whopping $2.7 trillion in assets. Most of you have probably heard of Blackrock before, but in due time this will surely become a household name.

Carlos Guillen

Overall tech shares are continuing to retreat in today's trading session for the third day in a row. The chip sector, as measured by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, has decreased over 3.0% from Thursday's closing price. This recent drop comes a day after National Semiconductor (NSM) posted strong financial results for the May quarter, and we believe the drop is just profit taking.

National reported revenue of $281.0 million, which landed above the Street's consensus estimate of $273.0 million. Revenue contracted by 3.97% sequentially and by 39.2% year over year. The strength in revenue during the quarter, which allowed revenue to come in slightly above guidance, came from strong turns orders. In fact, overall orders increased for the first time in four quarters by 30%, allowing for a sequential increase in backlog and for a book-to-bill ratio above parity. An apparent new handheld product cycle allowed revenue and bookings to come in better than expected. Mobile handheld revenue grew by about 6.0% QOQ and bookings were up 50.0% QOQ.

Strong improvements in cost of goods sold and operating costs allowed the bottom line to come in above all expectations. The company reported a loss of $028 per share, which was higher than the Street's estimate of $0.38 per share. The company is focused on reducing capacity to improve utilization rates. The August quarter outlook was also strong, as revenue is expected to increase by 2.0% to 9.0%. The evidence that the business is improving was simply overwhelming. Bookings increased 30.0%, turns were strong, overall inventory depletions decreased, operating expenses were better than expected, and utilization improved and is expected to improve further as capacity will be significantly reduced.

We expect industry utilization rates to significantly improve during the next couple of quarters as semiconductor companies have considerably cut down on manufacturing capacity. In addition, driven by both supply chain replenishment and some consumer demand, utilization rates should also benefit from a higher level of revenues, that is in comparison to the depressed levels that were reached in the first quarter of this year.