Blog Posts by Elizabeth Trotta

Wynn Resorts shares are trading again after a bit of confusion. The stock was halted after someone accidentally filed an 8-K that said Wynn won a land concession, implying progress on a Macao casino. The stock was trading about 6% higher prior to the halt and investors held to their bets after the shares resumed trading.

The first filing said that a Land Concession Contract was published in the official gazette of Macau in January 2012 that permits Palo and Wynn Macau to develop a resort with a five-star hotel, gaming areas, retail, entertainment, food and beverage, spa and convention offerings on the Cotai Land.

An amended 8K retracted the information "in its entirety" and said the earlier filing was unauthorized and made by mistake by the company's agent.

The stock continued to trade about 5% higher in recent activity.Read More »from Wynn Resorts Retracts Filing Mistake, but Investors Stick With Bets

Greg Smith, former head of the Goldman Sachs U.S. equity derivatives business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, didn't pull an emergency exit chute and sign off from his job via an inflatable slide like the now infamous JetBlue employee last August. But he did make quite a splash with his resignation in an Op-Ed in the New York Times Wednesday morning. Nothing Smith had to say about the present era at Goldman Sachs was pleasant, but here are some of the worst, particularly disparaging things he had to say:

1. Poison in the Secret Sauce:  The environment at Goldman Sachs is "now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it," says Smith. And for that, he says the history books may blame CEO Lloyd Blankfein and President Gary Cohn for letting the culture deteriorate under their watch.

2. Muppets!: If respect is important, Goldman is in trouble. "Over the last 12 months I have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as 'muppets,' sometimes over internalRead More »from Goldman and the Muppets: The 5 Most Damaging Things in Greg Smith's Resignation Op-Ed

It might be easier for Ellwood "Bunky" Bartlett to win the lottery than raise a million dollars on Kickstarter, despite the odds.

The funding platform, designed specifically for creative projects, has been getting buzz lately after some wildly successful funding campaigns to develop new video games. Earlier this week, video game project Double Fine Adventure broke two Kickstarter record, pulling in $3.3 million in contributions from more than 87,000 backers.  It reached its goal of $400,000 in just eight hours.

Alternate Funding Realities

But not all ships are rising with the tide. Bartlett, who was working as an accountant and teaching Wicca in Maryland when he netted $27.1 million from MegaMillions in 2007, had better luck winning the lottery than he's had winning funding for his idea.

He launched a pitch to fund his video game idea "Your World" on Kickstarter twelve days ago. Bartlett said in an email that it "has really showed interest" in the concept. "I love the response so far,"

Read More »from Millionaire Lotto Winner Takes to Kickstarter for Video Game Funds

Congress’ official tax analysts estimate the so-called Buffett Rule proposal would make $47 billion over the next 11 years. But that’s a relatively small amount in the face of the $7 trillion budget, and some say the effectiveness of the rule, which would impose a 30% minimum tax rate on those who make more than $1 million a year, is questionable.

“It depends on how it’s ultimately drafted, but we saw with the alternative minimum tax that there were ways to get around it,” says Mark Luscombe, principal analyst at CCH. “It’s quite possible there will be ways to get around this.”

It’s not clear whether any particular deductions would be allowed, so much relies on the final legislative language. If it’s a pure tax on gross income, then investors may look to tax exclusions and tax-exempt investments, which can mean also giving up more attractive returns, says Luscombe. Municipal bonds, for instance, aren’t taxed for federal purposes.

For those who find

Read More »from Buffett Rule: How the 1% Could Get Around It

Earnings are alive and well -- or at least still being reported, at any rate. Today investors are getting figures from a number of key companies, including Wal-Mart (WMT), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Home Depot (HD) and Dell (DELL). World stocks had a mixed session, but U.S. futures are pointing toward a more confident, positive start ahead of those quarterly reports and after declines at the start of the week.

Meanwhile, we're also getting the latest on the health of the housing sector with housing starts and building permits data, followed by industrial production figures later in the morning. The nation reached the legal limits of its borrowing authority, the debt ceiling, Monday as lawmakers continue to squabble about spending cuts. (Federal workers are among those expected to bear them, CNNMoney reports. )

And returning to a story that shocked the business world over the weekend, International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn remains detained in the U.S. He spent the night at New York's Rikers Island jail complex while awaiting his next court appearance on May 20 after being accused of sexual assault and attempted rape at a Manhattan hotel.

ON THE BLOGS:

* Why Lagarde Will Be the Next IMF Managing Director - Felix Salmon, via Seeking Alpha

* Two Red Flags: Russell and the Hang Seng - The Big Picture

* Will the Real "New Subprime" Please Stand Up? - The Reformed Broker, via StockTwits

Read More »from Tuesday’s Stocks to Watch, Analyst Actions and Trading Topics

Welcome to your trading Wednesday. What do we have today? Earnings, of course. And a few acquisitions to the tune of about $5 billion each, plus a continuing slump in the price of silver.

On the latter, the metal's looking at its worst three-day performance since March 2008, according to Bloomberg, as margin requirements have been raised. Silver has had a huge run in 2011, jumping almost 60%, and the debate about whether it will continue heading skyward or pull back has been heating up. Don't know which way it goes from here, but the safe bet is that debate isn't over.

The deal front, meanwhile, has been seeming more active of late, and this day we've got a couple others of note, one in the tech space involving Applied Materials (AMAT) and another in the food arena as ConAgra (CAG) ups its bid for Ralcorp (RAH).

Something else we noticed from this morning, courtesy of Twitter: Doug Kass suggesting this might be a good time to consider getting out of stocks. Doug is the very successful, very well regarded money manager who was spot on in March 2009 when the market had bottomed and he said he was going big on equities. So this is definitely worth thinking about.

Read on, and good trading.

IN THE HEADLINES:

* At Nasdaq, a Pitch and Woo - WSJ

* Silver's Real Problem - WSJ

* The Next Target for Oil is $124: NYMEX Chart

* Glencore Sets I.P.O. Range, Valuing It at $60 Billion - NYTimes

Read More »from Wednesday’s Stocks to Watch, Analyst Actions and Trading Topics

George Soros, famed investor and philanthropist, had a portfolio valued at more than $7.6 billion as of Dec. 31, 2010. This was up from $6.6 billion for Soros Fund Management at the end of the third quarter.

Moves: Soros' portfolio still favors gold, adding to its largest holding, the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD), and hanging onto its stake in NovaGold Resources (NG), its fifth-largest holding. The firm continued to like Apple (AAPL) and to bet big on Delta Air Lines (DAL) in the fourth quarter.

Soros also made shifts in alternative energy, selling out of its positions in First Solar (FSLR) and MEMC Electronic Materials (MEMC), and opening new positions in solar stocks SatCon (SATC) and JA Solar (JASO).

Here are Soros Fund Management's top stock holdings as of Dec. 31, 2010:

• SPDR Gold Trust Gold Shares (GLD)
• InterOil (IOC)
• Monsanto (MON)
• Delta Air Lines (DAL)
• NovaGold Resources (NG)
• Plains Exploration & Production (PXP)
• Teva Pharamceutical (TEVA)
• Emdeon (EM)
• Apple (AAPL)

See

Read More »from George Soros’s Top Stock Holdings

Ken Fisher's private investment firm Fisher Asset Management had a portfolio with 510 positions valued at more than $36 billion as of Dec. 31, 2010.

The firm says it aims to capitalize on opportunities in all areas of global markets, versus "money managers that focus on narrow investment categories like individual countries, regions or sectors." Speaking to that, its largest investment at the end of 2010 was in iShares: MSCI Emerging Markets (EEM).

Fisher's investment team also says it is set apart by its ability to adjust for market conditions, whether that means large cap, small cap, bonds or cash. Fisher, author of the Forbes Portfolio Strategy column, wrote in a Jan. 26, 2011 column, A Year for Stock Pickers, that the market is likely to go sideways and "this is the year to bet correctly, to be a stock picker extraordinaire."

Moves: Fisher added significantly to stakes in CNOOC Ltd. (CEO) and National Oilwell Varco (NOV); both now account for about 1% of his portfolio. He also

Read More »from Ken Fisher’s Top Stock Holdings