From Barrons 3-5-07 This is a rare case where an acquisition is organic growth: Whole Foods Market's planned $565 million purchase of rival natural food chain Wild Oats is an important step in the popular stores' quest to more than double sales by 2010. The deal seemed to reawaken Wall Street's taste buds. Buying Oats for $18.50 a share will add 40% more square footage to Whole Foods' (ticker: WFMI) current footprint, on top of the 16% increase already expected from new-store openings.

From Barrons 3-5-07 Advance Auto's shares (ticker: AAP), now around 37, could return to the mid-40s in the coming year if management's strategy to curtail store openings, remodel existing stores, reduce expenses and boost margins jump-starts earnings. Sales at stores open at least a year easily could surpass last year's anemic 2.1% gain. After dropping 1.5% last year, to $2.18 a share, Advance Auto's earnings are expected to rebound 11% in 2007, to $256 million, or $2.43 a share. Revenue could jump 9%, to around $5 billion, from $4.6 billion in 2006, while same-store sales could rise 3%. In the longer term, sales and earnings per share are likely to grow by low-to-mid-double digits and same-store sales by 4% to 6% a year.

From Barrons 3-5-07 When bleeding stocks turn computer screens red across the globe, the smiles only grow broader -- discreetly, of course, since no one wants to rub it in -- at 20 South Wacker Drive in downtown Chicago. That's because the kind of volatility that leaves the financial world reeling often means big business for the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). As money managers lunged for financial tools to hedge their risk, trading volume surged to new records at nearly every option and futures market. And the CME is the largest of them all. Consider the difference a day makes: Before last Tuesday, February trading volume at the CME was running 5.1% below levels projected by Sandler O'Neill analyst Richard Repetto, and the futures exchange needed a hefty 22.9% uptick in March trading just to meet Repetto's quarterly target of 363 million contracts.

From Barrons 3-5-07 Across the pond, interdealer brokers like ICAP (IAP.UK) reported record electronic-trading volume. Consolidation has reduced the number of such third-party firms, and the essential service they provide in trading U.S. Treasury bonds and other instruments for investment banks, companies and merchant banks helps ensure pricing power.

From Barrons 3-5-07 Viel & Cie (VIL.France), which owns majority stakes in Lausanne-based brokerage Compagnie Financière Tradition, and the online brokerage Bourse Direct, also benefits from rising volume. By some estimates, the sum of Viel's parts should value the stock at more than 6 euros -- above the €4.95 they trade at today.

From Barrons 3-5-07 A $1.6 billion plan by Itron (ITRI) to buy the privately-held Actaris in Luxembourg, announced before trading opened last Monday, was roundly applauded by the few investors paying attention. The merger will create a global leader in next-generation meter technology. It will also be No. 1 for electric meters, No. 2 for gas, and fourth-largest for water.

From Barrons 3-5-07 The stock markets dizzying dive Tuesday stole CBS's thunder. Thirteen months after its split from Viacom (ticker: VIA-B), the nation's No. 1 television network posted fourth-quarter profits that exceeded analysts' expectations. The results compared with a year-earlier loss of $9 billion from writing down the book value of CBS's TV and radio stations. The cash-rich company also hiked its common dividend 10% and announced a $1.5 billion stock buyback.

From Barrons 3-5-07 The world's largest supplier of programmable logic chips, Xilinx (XLNX) hiked its quarterly common dividend 33% Monday, to 12 cents a share -- the third boost since payouts began in April 2004 at a nickel. Yield: 1.87%. The respective payment and record dates are May 30 and May 9. The Nasdaq-listed stock, which trades in the mid-20s, goes ex-dividend May 7. Xilinx also will buy back an additional $1.5 billion worth of its shares.