From Barron's 7-16-07: "The fiberoptic resurgence that has lit the way for new public stocks in the past nine months is real. It's also fragile, and as a result, some of those stocks are running far ahead of the rosiest outlook for their businesses. Case in point: Infinera, which had a $182 million initial public offering on June 7. Its stock popped 52% that day and, at a recent $24.99, is up 27% since then. Seven-year-old Infinera (INFN), which started life as Zepton Networks, makes equipment used by phone companies to expand their networks' bandwidth. It has a promising future, with sales hitting nearly $50 million in the most recent quarter. And it's finally generating positive cash flow, despite continued net losses. But even with a dramatic rise in sales this year and next, it would be hard to justify the company's current 20 times multiple, based on price-to-trailing 12-month sales -- a valuation that seems to assume unreasonable growth in the fiberoptic market."

From Barron's 7-16-07: "Since December, the NYSE essentially has been subsidizing specialists with direct cash "revenue-sharing" payments. The program, scheduled to last six months, was just extended through Aug. 31. The extension came as specialists were in near-revolt over what they see as a deck stacked against them; the situation even spawned rash talk of a walkout as a protest. These issues would seem to have spurred last week's announcement that LaBranche & Co. (LAB) -- one of the largest specialist firms and the biggest independent one -- would "explore strategic alternatives," presumably a search for possible acquirers...LaBranche, at a recent price of $7.28, has a market value of $449 million. Some $240 million of that can be attributed to its ownership of 2.9 million shares in NYSE parent NYSE Euronext (NYX)."

From Barron's 7-16-07: "NYSE Euronext, which went public in 2006 by merging with electronic market Archipelago, is by stated strategy agnostic about whether customers access its market via the floor or through fiberoptic cables alone. Yet on some level, management recognizes that without the floor and its promises of lower volatility, "market color" about trading dynamics and potential price improvement -- things it has trumpeted for years -- the NYSE is just a bigger Nasdaq with a fancy marble building in Lower Manhattan. To keep its lead in listing big companies, logic suggests that the New York Stock Exchange should find a way to preserve elements of a human-informed auction market as the general trading environment becomes more fragmented. No matter how these developments go, shares of NYSE Euronext look like a better bet at 83 today than they did above 90 eight months ago. If specialists can find a way to make a buck, it will be because they're making the market more efficient. If not, a more electronic NYSE would have higher margins. NYSE shares have suffered from expectations that the company, fresh off its purchase of European derivatives exchange Euronext, is hot to buy a U.S. futures mart, such as the InterContinental Exchange (ICE) or Nymex Holdings (NMX). The stock trades at 25 times forecast 2008 earnings, a sizable discount to other exchanges' shares. Lehman Brothers analyst Roger Freeman upgraded NYSE last week to a Buy, arguing that an ICE or Nymex purchase would be minimally dilutive or accretive."

From Barron's 7-16-07: "It is perhaps inevitable that Target (TGT), that temple for mass consumerism, should find itself on Bill Ackman's shopping list. Pershing Square Capital, the hedge fund Ackman manages, has accumulated Target shares and options worth nearly $6 billion and is preparing a regulatory filing detailing its stake. Target shares jumped 10% this month as first rumors and then reports pointed to the activist-investor's interest. "We hadn't considered a retailer that executes as consistently and excellently as Target to be, well, a target," says the bond-analysis firm Gimme Credit. "But naturally a company that strives to maintain a strong balance sheet and prudent credit measures could always be pressured to leverage up to return more cash to its shareholders."

From Barron's 7-16-07: "The company in question, Mueller Water Products (MWA), makes things like hydrants, valves and pipes used in water distribution and treatment. Because its two classes of common stock control similar economic interest, they have always traded in tight tandem -- until last month, when they curiously began to diverge. By Thursday, Mueller's A shares were worth about 16.41. But the super-voting B shares -- each giving eight votes to just one for the A shares -- were at 14.53. How are the two classes different? The company's own Website declares they "have identical rights in all material respects" except for the B shares' superior voting power. The A shares are slightly more liquid, but their marginally higher trading volume had existed long before the recent divergence. "Apparently, indexing has created and sustained an inefficiency we'd think would be arbitraged away in today's ultra-competitive markets," says Michael Econn, a co-manager at Bondurant Management. Going against the flow, the New York hedge fund sold the A shares it held and bought the discounted B shares, essentially counting on the gap closing once the index-related gush subsides."

From Barron's 7-16-07: "Migraines, according to the National Library of Medicine, can be triggered by bright lights, loud noises, weather changes, smoke, perfumes, alcohol, caffeine, red wine, aged cheese, smoked fish, bacon, chocolates, nuts, avocado, bananas, onions ...you get the idea. Over the past year, 18% of U.S. women and 6% of men have suffered at least one attack. So it's easy to see why shares of a little-known drug-development company, Pozen (POZN), have run up 16% since June. Pozen has developed with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) a tablet for treating migraines, and a regulatory decision regarding the remedy, known as Trexima, is expected Aug. 1. Option prices suggest that the market sees a 60% chance Trexima will be approved by the Food and Drug Administration, but Citigroup analyst Lucy Lu is more optimistic. She pegs the odds of an FDA nod at 80%, given Trexima's superior efficacy results in clinical trials and a safety profile comparable to Imitrex, currently the go-to drug with 55% of the U.S. market. Imitrex already is a winner for GlaxoSmithKline. Lu believes a yes could drive Pozen shares, trading at 18.50 recently, to between 23 and 25 and towards her 12-month target of 28. "We believe Trexima will be the new gold standard treatment of migraine headaches," she notes."