Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Solar Shines for Applied Materials AND Cocoa at 23 Year High (AMAT; BRK.A)

Two from MarketWatch:

Applied Materials gets boost from results
Solar business growing strong even as overall earnings decline

Applied Materials Inc. shares climbed as much as 7% Wednesday morning as a strong performance by the chip-equipment maker's solar energy business outweighed investors' concerns about an overall drop in the company's first-quarter earnings....MORE

Regular readers know that we have an abiding interest in chocolate:

Chocolate and bonbon prices to skyrocket

How Buffett Made a Killing in Chocolate, And Warren's Letters to Shareholders

We've probably run through as many electrons babbling about Mr. Buffett and See's candy as any bloggers out there.
Warren Buffett and the Chocolate Wars

SEC Pressed on Climate-Change Disclosures and When will Warren Buffett get on Board the Love Train?*

What will Mr. Buffett's See's Candies do about this:

Cocoa hits 23-year high
Strikes, fund investors prop up beans - the latest agricultural high-flyer

Chocolate makers, already beset by escalating dairy prices, are likely to encounter a bittersweet Valentine's Day. The culprit: a recent surge in the price of cocoa.

Raw cocoa futures for March delivery closed up $33 at $2,454 a metric ton on Wednesday, after reaching as high as $2,471 a ton. The gains on New York's IntercontinentalExchange punctuate a steep, three-week run that has pushed the near-term contract to its highest closing level since April 1985....MORE