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Our view: Speculative buy

Share price: 11p (+1.51p)

Is there something to Yell about at last for yet another business struggling to cope with the impact of the internet revolution? To be sure, investors in the company have had a torrid time in recent years. The publisher of the Yellow Pages once counted itself a member of the corporate aristocracy, holding a place in the FTSE 100.

But with interest in its printed offering waning, combined with vicious competition in the online arena, its decline has been rapid and brutal, so much that it has is now a small cap.

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Tags: Yell, Yell Verge

Many new entrepreneurs believe their service or product will have wide market appeal. As a result they overestimate their market opportunity and accordingly their company’s potential for growth. So you need to ask yourself: what’s my market opportunity really!?

It’s important to keep in mind that your business can’t be all things to all people. No matter how broad you consider the appeal of your product or service, not everyone will be interested in it. That’s why you should be able to identify the appropriate niche for your business—your “sweet spot.” In others words, who is your ideal customer? Defining your n

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Tags: Market, Market Opportunity

While the news for small businesses has seen the market at its most uncertain since 2008-2009, more employees seem to be satisfied with their job, according to the Glassdoor Employment Confidence Survey.

The survey talked to 2,203 American adults ages 18 and up, with about 30 percent saying they are more satisfied with their job than they were one year ago compared to 26 percent in 2010.

High satisfaction may come from fewer employer cutbacks, the survey says, as 41 percent of workers reported their employer making changes to compensation and other perks compared to 54 percent in 2010.

Even though more are satisfied in their job, more are also concerned about layoffs.

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Tags: Market, Satisfaction Market

Marston’s was among the few stocks that managed to book gains as the wider London stock market veered south last night.

The pubs group rose by 1.3 per cent or 1.4p to 106.4p, compared with a bruising 1.6 per cent decline for the mid-cap index as a whole, after Credit Suisse analysts switched their stance on the stock to “outperform” from “neutral”, with a revised 131p target price, compared with 116p previously.

Against the backdrop of “resilient” like-for-like sales in the managed pub sector, the broker said the Marston’s new-build programme had continued to “outperform expectations”. Adding to that, Credit Suisse said that, in the group’s tenanted estate, it saw “further profit upside to Marston’s new franchise-style retail agreements”.

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Tags: Market, Market Report

Savings Accounts and Money Market Rates provided by 30 June 2011 U.S. banks have been in an uproar for months over one provision of last year’s Dodd-Frank financial reforms limiting the fees imposed on debit card transactions. Their arguments won a major victory yesterday, as Reuters reports that the Federal Reserve decided to reduce the limitations in its final proposal.

The Durbin amendment to the Dodd-Frank bill called for the Fed to research fees on swipe fees and establish a set of fair limitations. In January, the Fed proposed setting the limit at 12 cents per transaction, instead of the standard formula that usually charged around 1.14 percent of the purchase, averaging around 44 cents, according to The New York Times. Full Post…

Tags: Fees