New Orleans Saints are Superbowl Champs but what of the Commercials?

A football team embraced by a city as escapism; and for the excitement it provided the residents of New Orleans following the disastrous aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, has now come full circle to offer its hometown the celebration it deserves and desires. The New Orleans Saints defeated the Indianapolis Colts in Superbowl XLIV, the 44th such contest of football's conference champions, and sent the French Quarter and the surrounding and still rebuilding areas into a frenzy that's likely the continue well into Mardi Gras.

As much as the spectacle of the Superbowl is remembered for what happens on the field, it gets almost as much attention for what happens in between the action. Commercials, are always a hot ticket and with price tags in the $2.5Million to $3Million range for a spot this year it was up to corporations to deliver catchy, memorable and likable ads. A game that featured two of the league's top Quarterbacks was sure to be a windfall for CBS Corp. (CBS), and early ratings would suggest that's the case. A report this morning puts viewership of the game at a 23 year high. That's a lot of eyeballs watching the players on the field and all those commercials.

Alcohol always seems to go after the comedic bone with Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD) and its legendary stable of Superbowl spots. The Clydesdale's, the Wassup guys, the Frogs and more have all pushed Budweiser Beer onto the masses for years with recent Bud Light ads becoming the "lighter" touch. This year's game featured the musical technique known as Auto-tune with several men crooning to each other over the phone after getting some Bud Light. The ad also featured Auto-tunes foremost proponent Mr. "I'm In Love With A Stripper" T-Pain, or as he's known amongst the younger hipster crowd, the dude on the [expletive] boat with Andy Samberg.

Motorola (MOT) went for comedy and sex appeal as it showed off its new Android powered smartphone the Devour. Using Google's (GOOG) Android operating system and its own MOTOBLUR interface, Motorola looks to continue the successful smartphone push it has enjoyed on Verizon (VZ) with the Droid. The ad featured a bubble bathing Megan Fox pondering what if any consequences would arise from her sending a photo of herself in the bath. Subsequently men all over the country are instantly distracted and much chaos ensues. The company has even put several out-takes from the ad on its website.

Staying with Google for a moment, the company for the first time has decided to advertise on this big a stage. The results, one part sappy, one part romantic, one part technology and all parts effective for portraying the message of Google being THE destination to find anything. The ad features the main Google search screen as a story unfolds of Boy meets French Girl, Boy searches for ways to impress French Girl, Boy Searches for flights to France, Boy searches for work in France, Boy searches for chapels in France, Boy searches for help building a crib.

Discount Brokerage and Superbowl mainstay E*Trade (ETFC) brought back its popular baby investors with a little twist, female companions and a new catch-phrase "milk-a-holic".

Taken together, the ads this year have according to early reviews been lacking the punch of previous incarnations, but sifting through the mass of advertisements, which are all featured on a special YouTube channel one can still find some that will undoubtedly be talked about over the water-cooler for the week to come.

Disclosure: Author owns GOOG, VZ

What a Difference a Day Makes, Markets rebound Tuesday

Four Days of heavy sell-offs for North American Markets were met with enthusiastic buying as earnings, financial executive appearances and economic data supported a more bullish tone. Technology led the rise with the Nasdaq gaining more than 3.5% while the Dow Jones and S&P followed with gains of 2.5-3%.

Earnings from Wal-Mart (WMT) pushed stocks higher at the open as the benchmark retailer said it was expected a solid Christmas shopping season. Investors applauded the earnings beat and forecast and sent shares up more than 6%.

In the financial sector, a day after E*Trade Financial (ETFC) plunged 59%, a somewhat rebuttal to the bankruptcy fears from another analyst sent E*Trade soaring back 40%. A swing trader's dream stock the last couple of days, but the risks with this company still remain. E*Trade has assured it is well capitalized to absorb loan write-down losses and that bankruptcy is not in its future. In other financial circles, Bank Of America (BAC) reported that it will write down $3Billion more in losses, while Goldman Sachs (GS) CEO Lloyd Blankfein spoke at a conference showing the street once gain how brilliant the business and trading side of Goldman is. The context of Blankfein's talk; Goldman will not be taking any more write-downs and is still shorting Sub-Prime sectors. I for one think that Goldman's earnings will once again be stellar and prove to Investors it is not only Best of Breed on the Street but seemingly in its own Pantheon of Investment Banking. Shares of GS rallied heavily today, up almost 9% coming back to $233/share.

Technology was a big winner, as the Nasdaq paced gains, with Apple (AAPL) up 10%, Baidu (BIDU) up 13%, VMWare (VMW) up 13%, Google (GOOG) up 5% and Research In Motion (RIMM) up 9% all regaining some lost ground. I said very recently (Link) that Technology would be back and investors should look for strong fundamentals to find winners during the panic-stricken sub-prime selling crisis. Now by no means does today mean that all that can be forgotten and momentum will continue but it does provide a foundation for bullish sentiment.

There are several economic measures coming, including two key metrics this week; Producer Price Index - (PPI), and Consumer Price Index - (CPI), Wednesday and Thursday respectively. Now although the housing indicator released today showed a slight percentage gain, compared to the estimated percentage loss, the outlook pointed to things indeed getting worse from here on out before they get better for the home building sector.

Disclosure: Author owns GS, BAC, AAPL, GOOG

E*Trade Sinks on Liquidity worries, Risks continue to mount

Investors fled from E*Trade Financial (ETFC) this morning as rising worries or more loan loss write downs and the possibility of a liquidity crisis hit the stock. Shares fell over 50% in the early market hours on the heels of an analyst report that brought up the possibility of Bankruptcy.

No, this analyst didn't get Wheel Of Fortune re-runs mixed up with E*Trade, there are legitimate concerns here. The Citigroup analyst made the point that the possibility of bankruptcy is only 15-20% right now, but that can certainly rise if things get worse in the loan department. E*Trade's core business is their discount brokerage and if that starts to go it's lights out for the company.

Management is trying hard to reassure the Street that the company is well capitalized and can afford to take an immediate $1Billion hit. While that may be so the lingering thunder-cloud here is that E*Trade's own brokerage customer may flee and demand their cash. If this happens in droves, E*Trade is in real trouble. If things do get so bad that E*Trade will have to go into bankruptcy protection the masses of angry customers and lawsuits will keep the company tied up for years and years and make E*Trade "Uninvestable".

The sheer drop today makes for some potential day trades off of lows but until things get better -and all signs point to things getting worse first- E*Trade has to be ignored as a stock to own. There are no catalysts here for the company right now except for the general North American economy and more potential reassurances. Traders didn't seem to buy today's reassurances so future press releases from Management will have to be much more convincing of a recovery to business as usual.

Disclosure: Author holds no position in ETFC

Merger Mania props up Stocks during Wednesday's Session

North American markets got a lift from the early going Wednesday as merger speculation and deal pondering was afoot. Topping the headlines, reports that TD Ameritrade (AMTD) and E-Trade Financial (ETFC) were talking about merging, and although merger speculation from the online brokerages have seemingly been years in the making the thinking was that its for real this time.

Now TD-Ameri-E-Trade as it should obviously be called, if only for the humor, would instantly become the big player in the online brokerage space leaving Charles Schwab (SCHW) out of luck. Due to synergies involved in merging analysts speculated that the combined $10Billion and $6Billion market cap companies could be worth almost $20Billion together.

Further deal speculation surfaced in the exchanges as Nymex Holdings (NMX) revealed it has been in talks with several players about a buyout, including locally based NYSE Euronext (NYX). Shares of NMX were up 6% on the news. In the casino space MGM Mirage (MGM) shot up 8% as it announced receiving a $5Billion investment from Dubai World in the form of company shares and a stake in Las Vegas projects.

Markets overall finished up over 1% on the day with the Canadian side once again faring slightly better than the neighbours to the south. Canadian markets were fueled by easing of some credit worries with almost all sectors well positive on the day.