I'm not a huge football fan, but I am from New England so I've grown up with a certain ingrained loyalty. I heard this Friday on Marketplace and thought we were doomed based on the patriots record.

It says that if a team from the old American Football League wins the Super Bowl, the market will drop. If the winner comes from the original National Football League -- like my New York Giants -- the market's in for a rally. It's actually been right 85 percent of the time.

But it looks like now we have another chance!

Our latest radio interview is now on the NPR Marketplace website.

Excerpt:
Tess Vigeland: It's time for a final 2007 update in our investment club series. All year, we've been following three clubs, one in Seattle, another in San Jose and a third in Fairfax, Virginia, as they figure out which stocks to buy, sell and hold throughout the year.

Our last visit to Seattle was back at the end of July, just as the credit crunch and mortgage mess were taking a serious toll on Wall Street. This time around was no better as club members Nathan Buggia and Sandy Phadke digested the day's rumors of potential bankruptcy at the online brokerage E*Trade....

The upcoming IACI split

This is expected in the "2nd or 3rd quarter 2008" and the 5 companies post split will be:
IAC
- Media & Advertising: Ask.com, Bloglines, Citysearch, CursorMania, IAC Advertising Solutions, Evite, Excite, InsiderPages, iWon, My Fun Cards, My Way, Popular Screensavers, Smiley Central, Webfetti and Zwinky;
- Match.com, ServiceMagic, Shoebuy.com, Entertainment Publications and ReserveAmerica;
- Emerging Businesses: Black Web Enterprises, BustedTees, CollegeHumor, GarageGames, Gifts.com, Green.com, InstantAction, Primal Ventures, Pronto, Very Short List, Vimeo and 23/6; - Current investments in: Active.com, Brightcove, FiLife, Medem, MerchantCircle, OpenTable, Points.com and SHOP Channel.

HSN
- HSN TV, hsn.com, and the Cornerstone Brands, Inc. portfolio of catalogs, web sites
- Retail locations: Alsto’s, Ballard Designs, Frontgate, Garnet Hill, GrandinRoad, Improvements, Isabella Bird, Smith+Noble, The Territory Ahead and TravelSmith

Ticketmaster
- Admission.com, Biletix, Billetnet, BillettService, Cottonblend, Echomusic, Kartenhaus.de, Lippupalvelu, LiveDaily, TicketService, Tick Tack Ticket, TicketWeb and Ticnet.se
- Current investments in Frontline and iLike

Interval International
- CondoDirect, Resort Quest Hawaii and VacationSource.com

LendingTree - RealEstate.com, Domania, GetSmart, Home Loan Center and iNest

Other News - Google is the Sponsored listing provider for the next 5 years.

IACI pre-Split Financials
Market Cap: 8.3B
Trailing P/E: 36
Fwd. P/E (Dec 2008): 16
Revenue (ttm): $6.6B
Profit Margin: 3.7%
Current Ratio: 1.9
52 Week Range: $25.08 - $40.99
Revenue Growth: 2% (2007), 7% (2008, est.)
Earnings Growth: -5% (2007), 17% (2008, est.)

Summary

- IAC, particularly Ask.com is clearly the growth company, and the main reason for the split
- Emerging Businesses are tiny
- Ticketmaster may be a good investment as well
- 11% increase in worldwide ticket sales and 2% higher average revenue per ticket. Domestic revenue increased 5% primarily due to higher average revenue per ticket and increased ticket volume. International revenue grew 36%, or 28% excluding the effects of foreign exchange.

See my full presentation below:

Check out our second NPR Marketplace interview online now.

"It's been three months since we visited Seattle investment club Meridian Pacific, and a lot has gone on in the stock market since then. Tess Vigeland catches up with the group..."

Uploaded two research reports on Reliant Energy (RRI):

DEFENSE COMPANIES & THE ANALYSTS WHO DEFEND THEM...

Perhaps in the back of your mind, you've been wondering if defense companies have done well over the past 5 years... here is the link to top defense companies on yahoo finance.

(clicking on the graph will expand it)

As you'd expect some defense companies have beaten the dow average by a hefty margin. The real question is, what is the earnings projections for these companies - and are they over valued in light of their strong performance. Also, what about the risk of lawsuits or chargebacks from the government?

RECENT HEADLINES SUGGEST STRONG GROWTH WILL CONTINUE...

	LMT		Lockheed Gets $23M Air Force Deal AP (Mon 6:05pm)
•	NOC		Northrop Gets $7.7M Navy Deal AP (Mon 5:59pm)
•	GD		General Dynamics Gets $244.5M Contract AP (Mon 5:47pm)
•	BA		Boeing CEO Sees 2006 As Turnaround Year AP (Mon 5:30pm)
•	GD		GD gets $244.5 mln of US Marines vehicle order at Reuters (Mon 5:04pm)
•	GD		General Dynamics unit gets $244.5 mln Marine work order

After a quick analysis of PDS (Precision Drilling Trust), I decided not to pursue them further at this time given their Forward PE of 10.94 vs Current PE of 6.4.

Details:
Took a look at PDS (Precision Drilling Trust). As of December 31, 2006, Precision Drilling operated a fleet of 240 drilling rigs and 237 service rigs.

They caught my attention due to their low PE of 6.4 and the 12% price gain from the last time we looked at them.

Analysts estimates for earnings show a consistent downward trend for each of the past few quarters.