USA Today

For this weeks blog, i will be doing " Review an Article from the USA Today Money Page. Include a link to the article and then your review of what was presented". Black Friday effect: Weekend sees rise in shoppers, retail federation says 195 million shoppers visited stores and websites over the weekend. Americans spent an estimated $41.2 billion over the holiday weekend, an amount on par with last year. Which in other words meant that sales went up a crap load for businesses around the country. The weekend proved that shoppers were willing to spend on bargains, it might not reveal much about the rest of the holiday shopping season. This was a big shock for many seeing as how the economy is going down the drain money wise as we speak. To have sales go up a bunch once again, Retailers have gathered up and came up with "Cyber Monday".

Review of Portfolio: 11/23/09 to 11/27/09

For this week I will be doing a review of our portfolio. We didn't buy or sell anything last week for the Stock Market. We paid no commission for any of our stocks for this week because we didn't buy or sell. The markets were closed on Thursday of this week so we didn't gain or lose anything for this day. We had a total equity on Friday of $98,977.25 and a cash balance of $67,818.75. The value of our Portfolio went down by about $1,000. Our portfolio went down because some of the companies are starting to go back down in value, but in the weeks to come our portfolio should gain more money because of Christmas coming up and all of the Christmas shopping that people will do. There are no stock splits or stock dividends for this week.

Housing Review

For this weeks blog, i will be doing, "Review of the economy in general. What is happening and why". Home sales surged for the second month in a row in October, climbing to the highest level in 2½ years as first-time buyers rushed to take advantage of an expiring tax credit. Home sales % jumped up 10.1% since October. First time home owners, were able to claim a 8,000 tax credit making it a lot more easy to purchase a home. People who have owned their current homes for at least five years can now claim a tax credit of up to $6,500 for a home purchase. This huge surge in home purchasing is majorly messing up the "7 month" home supply on the market and is sending community's into bidding wars. This was all caused by the govt trying to counter that trend by offering a tax incentive for first-time buyers and by keeping mortgage rates around 5% since the spring. Home sales are likely to drop over the winter as buyers hibernate for a few months without the looming tax credit deadline.

Competitor Review for 11/16/09 to 11/20/09

For this week I will doing a competitor review for Activision Blizzard against EA games. For this week Activision and EA games started at about the same. Activision and EA both went down with Activision about EA on Monday. On Tuesday Activision was still ahead of EA. On Wednesday Activision was a bit of ways ahead of EA. On Thursday Activision gained a bigger lead over EA but still went down in the stock market. So far today Activision is still higher than EA.

New products/services

For "New Products/services provided in an industry you hold." i will be going over what Valve "the company" came out with, "Left 4 Dead 2". Left 4 Dead 2 has attracted an unusually high volume of pre release controversy. It has received a combination of positive, negative, critical, and community reactions. But the game still had a very high rate of sales. The game plot Like Left 4 Dead , the sequel involves the aftermath of apocalyptic . There has been an outbreak of a viral eating disease that causes infected humans to behave like zombies . The game release has pulled almost, if not more sales then COD6. And "GameStop" is having "Black Friday" where the sales of this game will sky rocket.

Review of the Market for 11/16/09 to 11/20/09

The S&P 500 on Monday went up 15.8 points, or 1.8%. On Tuesday it went up 1 point to close above the key 1,100 level. On Wednesday it went down less than one point. On Thursday it went down 1.3%. On Friday it went down 0.6% at midday.

The DJIA on Monday went up 136 points, or 1.3%. On Tuesday it went up 30 points or, 0.3%. On Wednesday it went down 11 points, or 0.1%. On Thursday it went down 94 points, or 0.9%. On Friday it went down 44 points, or 0.%, at midday.

The NASDAQ on Monday went up 30%, or 1.4%. On Tuesday it went up 0.3%. On Wednesday it went down 10 points, or 0.5%. On Thursday it went down 36 points, or 1.6%. On Friday it went down by 0.7%, at midday.

New Products

Activision's "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2," crushes records -

Over 300 million dollars were made the other week as the latest Call of Duty franchise game blows sales away for its opening debut. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 sold 4.7 million copies and made 310 million dollars in the United States and Great Britain alone. The video game even surpassed "The Dark Knight," which had the record of the top opening weekend with 154 million US dollars in July of last year. The Call of Duty franchise has now become a bone crushing phenomenon in the entertainment industry. With online gaming now, the video game industry sales have made dramatic sales. Activision believes that their new installment will have the California based company will set record operating margins.

Competitor

For this week I will be doing a Competitor Review on Activision Blizzard. Ill be comparing Activision Blizzard to "THQ Inc" and how well each did to each other. On Monday Blizzard and THQ were at the same. Tuesday, Blizzard went down 1%. while THQ was on a huge drop of 4%. On Wednesday Blizzard stayed at the 1% drop, while THQ had another drastic change of going up 7.5%. Come Thursday, Blizzard rose around .1% while THQ dropped about 1.5%. Finally on Friday, Blizzard went up another 2%, and THQ dropped another %. So make short, Blizzard as well as THQ were both on financial roller coasters.

Review of Portfolio: 11/9/09 to 11/13/09

For this week we didn't buy or sell anything. Our total equity is $99,078.35. Our Cash Balance is $67,206.35. Our portfolio gained money because there was a new game that came out this week called, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. This game raised the price of Activision Blizzard from $11.54 per share to $11.69 per share. Best Buy also had an increase in stock during the week because of Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 being released in stores. No stock dividends or splits occurred during this week

Review of the market for the week

For "Review of the Market for the week: What happened the previous week for the following indicies: S&P 500" Ill be giving a brief over look at how good the company's did over a weeks span.
DJIA
NASDAQ

The S&P 500 (SPX) gained 7 points, or 0.7%
The S&P 500 (SPX) gained 2 points, or 0.2%
The S&P 500 (SPX) gained 1 point, or 0.1%
The S&P 500 (SPX) gained 20 points, or 1.9%
The S&P 500 (SPX) gained 3 points or 0.3%
The S&P 500 ended this week at 1,059.81

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) rose 77 points, or 0.8%
The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) lost 17 points, or 0.2%
The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) gained 30 points, or 0.3%
The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) gained 205 points, or 2.1%
The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) added 17 points, or 0.2%
The Dow Jones is currently at 9,938.09

the Nasdaq composite (COMP) rose 4 points, or 0.2%
the Nasdaq composite (COMP) rose 8 points, or 0.4%
the Nasdaq composite (COMP) lost 2 points, or 0.1%
The Nasdaq composite (COMP) climbed nearly 50 points, or 2.4%
The Nasdaq composite (COMP) rose 7 points, or 0.3%.
The Nasdaq composite is currently at 2,103.76

Competitors Review: 11/2/09 - 11/6/09

For this week I will be doing a Competitor Review on Activison Blizzard and comparing them to Electronic Arts, Inc. Activision Blizzard started this week at the same point as Electronic Arts, Inc. As the week goes on Activision Blizzard gains a bigger lead over Electronic Arts, Inc. Moving towards the end of the week Electronic Arts, Inc is starting to gain some ground on Activision Blizzard. At about the middle of the week on Wednesday Electronic Arts hit its low for this week and from there started gaining till about Friday where it ended at only 2-3% lower then Activision Blizzard. Activision Blizzard had a help this week with the release of DJ Hero and Band Hero, while Electronic Arts had help with the game Dragon Age: Origins and its expansion packs for the PC and Xbox 360.

Company News: 11/2/09 - 11/6/09

Activision Blizzard increases its profits this week. It says that its main contributors to its profits are a couple of the video games it has recently released. Activision Blizzard says that the "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" and the map pack for "Call of Duty: World at War" really helped. It also says that pushing back their racing game called "Blur" to next year won't help much. They say they had two of the quarters top 10 sellers in the U.S. with the games "Guitar Hero World Tour" and "Guitar Hero 5". Activision Blizzard expects to release five games this quarter for the Holidays. The games are "Tony Hawk: Ride", "Bakugan Battle Brawlers", "DJ Hero", "Band Hero", and "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2". They warned that the "World of Warcraft" game suffered a setback. The setback is due to the Chinese authorities refused license to NetEase.com Inc's application to operate the latest version of the game.

Company news

The Droid won't help Motorola -

The new Motorola Droid, which was on sale officially today, won't really save Motorola or Verizon. The new smartphone that's powered by the new google android operating system needs to be a big hit in order help Motorola and Verizon. The reviews of the Android OS have been fairly decent yet not might make the hype it has been building these past several weeks. The Droid needs to be a big hit for Motorola seeing as how the razr which was released in 2004, was the last big relevant phone they had.

Competition Review

The main competitor to Verizon(VZ), AT&T (T) is once again blowing past Verizon with its new Centinnial Communications Corp. purchase for a staggering $945 million. Now AT&Ts coverage expands to Puerto Rico, U.S. Midwest, and the Soutwestern U.S.

Review of the Market for 10/26/09 - 10/30/09

The S&P 500 for this week went down in value to about 1,036. On Monday of this week it fell 13 points, or 1.2%. The index for Tuesday rose 3 points, or 0.3%. On Wednesday the index fell 21 points, or 2%. The index on Thursday rose 23 points, or 2.3%, which was its biggest gain in one day as of July 23rd. The index on Friday fell 30 points, or 3.0%.

The DJIA for this week went down in value to about 9,712. The index for Monday fell 104 points, or 1%. The index for Tuesday rose 14 points, or 0.1%. The index for Wednesday lost 119 points, or 1.2%, to close at 9,762.69. The index for Thursday gained around 200 points, or 2%, it was the biggest day since July 15th. It came exactly 80 years after the Wall Streets crash in 1929. The index for Friday lost about 250 points, or 2.5%, it was the Dow's biggest one day sell off since April 20th.

The NASDAQ for this week went down in value to about 2,045. The index for Monday 13 points, or 0.3%. The index for Tuesday lost 26 points, or 1.2%. The index for Wednesday fell 56 points, or 2.7%. The index for Thursday rose 38 points, or 1.8%. Its biggest one day gain in about a month. The index for Friday lost 52 points, or 2.5%.

Review on our portfolio 10/26/09-10/03-09

For "Why you picked to purchase or sell the stock you did this week. Stock dividends declared or splits that occurred to the stock you own.". We for this week did not purchase or sell any stock we currently have. We were also charged no commission for the fact of us not buying/selling any of our current stock. Our portfolio on the other hand did gain around 100 spots in the ranking system.