Disney Bought Over Marvel... and now Kraft, Nestle, & Hershey is Aiming for Cadbury??

Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Companies worldwide have led $36 billion of takeovers in the past 10 days, according to Bloomberg data. Walt Disney Co. agreed on Aug. 31 to buy comic-book creator Marvel Entertainment Inc. for about $4 billion. The same day, Baker Hughes Inc. agreed to buy BJ Services Co. for $5.5 billion in the largest oilfield-services company takeover since 1998. EBay Inc. agreed a day later to sell 65 percent of its Skype Internet-calling unit to a group led by firm Silver Lake for about $2 billion.

The flurry of takeovers shows that “confidence in the corporate sector has risen off the floor, where it was a year ago,” Lucy MacDonald, who manages $6.8 billion as chief investment officer at RCM UK Ltd., said in a Bloomberg television interview. “Secondly, corporate balance sheets have recovered quite significantly in the last year. We’d expect to see M&A picking up from relatively low levels.”

Kraft Foods Inc.’s 10.2 billion- pound ($16.7 billion) bid for Cadbury Plc may be a sign that Europe’s frozen takeover market is beginning to thaw after the slowest August in five years.

Kraft, the maker of Oreo cookies, said yesterday it would pursue the acquisition after the British maker of Dairy Milk chocolate rejected the offer. The 745 pence-a-share proposal may trigger a competing offer from Nestle SA and Hershey Co., forcing Kraft to increase its bid, according to Warren Ackerman, an analyst at Evolution Securities in London.

The acquisition would be the biggest cross-border deal this year and follows the $21 billion of European takeovers announced in August, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Companies are revisiting plans for mergers that had been shelved during the credit crisis amid signs the recession may be easing. The MSCI World Index has gained 58 percent since hitting a 14-year-low in March, making it easier for firms to fund takeovers with stock.

Mixed Signals

The nation's unemployment rate climbed last month to 9.7 percent — the highest in nearly a generation — but the number of job losses was less than expected and the smallest monthly total in a year.

"It's good to see the rate of job losses slow down," said Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight. But with unemployment rising, "there isn't the underlying fuel there for strong consumer spending growth," which is vital for a strong recovery.

"The bulls let out a collective sigh of relief today, after the government's highly anticipated payrolls report wasn't as sour as expected," said Andrea Kramer at Schaeffer's Investment Research. "Against this backdrop, the bulls won the battle for the session, but the bears won the war for the first week in three."

"While the labor market is still showing significant job losses, the August employment report showed a continued slowing in their pace, and we expect job growth to turn positive by year-end as the recovery becomes entrenched and businesses feel more comfortable hiring," said Barclays economist Dean Maki.

Mega Sale is Back!!

Share market made a downturn in recent days with stocks around the globe, including D.J and Bursa went into the bear market terrritory:

... for the second straight session, fewer than one billion shares exchanged hands on the New York Stock Exchange, "suggesting that there hasn't been much conviction behind the recent moves," Briefing.com said.

Following the rebound, stocks are down less than one percent week-to-date after Monday's 2.4 percent drop, which marked the stock market's worst single-session percentage loss in six weeks.

Despite the recovery, analysts predict greater market volatility ahead."The good news is that there should be enough bulls sitting on the sidelines to keep US stock market pullbacks from becoming meaningful, but with global market sentiment turning negative toward stocks, we expect to see selling pressure build in the US stock market even though signs of incremental improvement in our economy continue to emerge," said Frederic Dickson, chief market strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co.

Burning Curiousity

Recent weeks have been seeing market continues to pursue its greater heights. There are times where we the shares started off with a good momentum.. went down before 12pm break.. only to close at a higher position. I'm sure these have placed lots of question marks on everybody's mind, wondering what is actually happening.

The market no longer predictable, as we see major heavyweights lose points, while smaller caps' stocks chalked up +20% intra-day. However, I still think that companies with large market caps and good foundation will survive this round of flip-flops and will eventually stand out with a much greater peaks.

... and I'm adding another stock into the list... E&O... y? we'll see....

Bears, Bulls, and.... Swines?

For the past few weeks, share market has been in a flip-flop condition. With many people expecting a bear market towards the end of the year, here comes the bulls running wild. The momentum has been tremendous and it is almost certain that we have passby the long-waiting "V", not until the swines came out from nowhere. The bull has certainly lowered down the gear in around a week ago. However, business is about to pick up again during the end of last week and the opening of this week (after the long weekend holidays due to Labor Day) showed that the market is still bullish regardless of the news on the deadly Influenza A (H1N1) spreading around the world.

Back to our local shares, KLCI fared very well too, will the share points successfully passed the 1,000 test level and maintained within the range of 1,000 - 1,030. Blue-chips are the main gainers, with boosted confidence in consumers continue to invest in equities.

On personal note, here are 3 local shares with good fundamentals and showed to have bright perspective & most importantly, safe to invest in long run: YTLPOWER, IJMLAND, and LION Div.