The Verizon Wireless Gleam may not be smart, but it’s entertaining with a “living wallpaper” feature and customizable for access to news, sports, and weather.
«www.informationweek.com»

Verizon Wireless and Samsung on Friday introduced a thin clamshell cell phone called Gleam that’s designed to keep mobile users entertained.

The Gleam is capable of receiving music and video from Verizon Wireless’ V Cast service. Music can be downloaded wirelessly from V Cast or a personal collection can be transferred to the phone’s music player using microSD memory cards. The Gleam has a microSD card slot and offers up to 4 Gbytes of expandable memory.

It’s considered a feature phone as opposed to a «www.informationweek.com», which is defined by its mobile operating system and computer-like functionality. But like many recent feature phones, the Gleam offers more advanced capabilities.

For example, the phone is Mobile Web 2.0-capable, which means Verizon Wireless subscribers can access different content like news and weather, as well as read and send e-mail. With the service, subscribers get headline updates throughout the day and a toolbar for easier Web search, among other features. The handset also links Bluetooth wireless technology for certain profiles including Object Push Profile for vCard.

Another cool feature is the phone’s “living wallpaper,” which displays a picture of a city or country that changes with the time of day.

The Gleam costs $150 after a $50 mail-in rebate and two-year subscription to Verizon Wireless.

Verizon has been slowly rolling out its holiday lineup. Earlier this week, «www.informationweek.com» four other new phones for the 2007 holiday season. Among them is LG Electronics’ Voyager, which has a similar form factor to Apple’s iPhone. Those phones are expected to be available before Thanksgiving.

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More financial woes and fear that the worst is yet to come helped push banks and the overall market sharply lower Friday.

Global losses from mortgage and other credit problems will likely top $600 billion, UBS said. That’s four times higher than the $150 billion or so that financial companies have marked down since the subprime debacle unfolded.

A separate study presented at a University of Chicago event forecast losses will hit $400 billion.

Meanwhile, American International Group () sold off after the insurance giant suffered an unexpected loss and a big write-down while predicting tough times.

Also, the latest economic data showed consumer spending stalling and a key factory gauge signaling contraction.

“Right now we’re at the vortex of negative news,” said Brian Bethune, economist at Global Insight. “There’s a lot of downward pressure on the economy coming from problems in the housing market and credit conditions.”

The Dow fell 2.5% and the S&P 500 lost 2.7%, erasing gains from earlier in the week. The Nasdaq fell 2.6% to a 17-month closing low. The SPDR Financial ETF fell 3.3%.

The market’s roller coaster ride won’t let up until investors believe housing’s bottom and bank write-offs from subprime mortgage crisis are within sight, say observers.

“The market is obviously getting into some pretty serious up-and-down, schizophrenic kind of motion,” Bethune said.

Uncertainty over losses for banks, insurers and other financial outfits slimed by subprime have kept Wall Street on edge, says Stephen Stanley, chief economist at RBS Greenwich Capital.

“The markets are very skittish right now about credit losses,” he said. “People have ratcheted up their fears about financial market instability, the trajectory of credit losses as well as the economy.”

Stormy Waters

AIG said Friday that the subprime housing debacle had thrown it into “uncharted waters” that were likely to remain choppy through 2008.

The insurance giant lost a surprise $5.29 billion in the fourth quarter, AIG said late Thursday. It also wrote down $11.1 billion worth of credit swaps.

AIG shares fell 7% Friday.

Huge losses from home loan finance giants Fannie Mae () and Freddie Mac () earlier in the week added to concerns, says Stanley.

“There’s a sense that until we can reliably or at least have some glimmer of hope that home prices are going to stabilize, there’s no way financial players can start to draw a floor under where the aggregate losses are going to be,” he said. “Right now it’s just an environment of fear and retrenchment. People just want to avoid getting caught up in a bad situation.”

Fannie Mae on Wednesday said it lost $3.55 billion in the fourth quarter, far worse than expected. Freddie Mac on Thursday reported a wider-than-expected, fourth-quarter loss of $2.5 billion.

Fannie and Freddie both cut their housing outlooks. Freddie expects a loss of $2.2 billion in 2008 and $2.9 billion next year.

Ross To The Rescue

Stocks have swooned and soared several times this year on fears of a bond insurer meltdown and hopes for relief.

Rescue plans have been floated for MBIA () and Ambac Financial () amid fears they’ll be unable to pay claims on subprime-related debt.

If MBIA and Ambac lose their top-notch credit ratings, the value of bonds and securities they insure would fall, increasing losses of banks and other firms.

Billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, who specializes in distressed sectors, said Friday he’ll pony up to $1 billion in a smaller, more stable bond insurer, Assured Guaranty. () Assured’s shares rose 13% to 25.65.

That makes it less likely Ross will shore up Ambac or MBIA.

“He’s probably not getting involved with some of the other big names that are desperately seeking capital right now to preserve their credit ratings,” Stanley said.

Ambac fell 6% on reports that bailout talks had stalled. Moody’s said it had nearly raised enough cash to save its credit rating. Late Friday, the monoline slashed its dividend.

MBIA lost 8% after forecasting more write-downs.

Until the housing mess clears up, the economy appears in trouble.

“It is difficult to imagine economic and financial improvement until a bottom in housing comes into view,” wrote Peter Kretzmer, a Bank of America economist, in a research note Friday.

If you bought a carton of eggs recently, you may have been bowled over by sticker shock.

The consumer price index for eggs is up 34.7% from a year ago, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In January, a dozen Grade A large eggs cost $2.18, up from $1.55 in 2007.

The average retail price of eggs in 2007 climbed 28.3% to $1.68 a dozen, from $1.31 in 2006.

All food prices are up, thanks to higher commodity prices and increased energy costs. But eggs rose more than any other food category last year because they’re more closely tied to farm and wholesale prices, says Ephraim Leibtag, an economist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service.

The wholesale price of eggs also has soared amid strong demand. In 2007, the average wholesale price of eggs jumped 58.3% to 93 cents a dozen. That’s been good for business at Cal-Maine Foods, () the nation’s largest producer and distributor of fresh shell eggs.

Lots Of Eggs

In the 2007 fiscal year ended last June, Cal-Maine sold about 685 million dozen eggs, or about 15.5% of domestic shell egg production. Its eggs are distributed in 29 states.

As a commodity player, Cal-Maine’s fortunes are tied to supply and demand. When egg prices rise, much of the increase flows to Cal-Maine’s bottom line. Cal-Maine produces about 80% of the eggs it sells.

Executives weren’t available. But in the fiscal 2008 second quarter ended Dec. 1, Cal-Maine’s net average selling price rose 54.6% from a year ago, to $1.183. Earnings during the quarter jumped 526% year over year, to $1.69. Sales rose 62% to $223.7 million.

“These results reflect the favorable market conditions with egg prices reaching record levels during the quarter,” Cal-Maine Chief Executive Fred Adams said in a written statement.

The industry has gotten a lift from positive reports from the medical and nutritional communities. Eggs represent a good value compared with other foods, Adams said. As a result, demand was strong from the retail and food-service markets as well as for liquid, frozen and dried eggs. The export markets also has been strong.

No analysts follow Cal-Maine. But Don Hodges, co-manager of the Hodges Fund, sees it as a good investment. He started buying the stock for the fund on Dec. 6, 2007. On Feb. 22, the Hodges Fund owned 260,000 shares of Cal-Maine.

Why Cal-Maine? In the small-cap portion of the fund, Hodges looks for companies that are under the radar screen with good earnings and good fundamentals. Cal-Maine fit the bill: “This company is somewhat obscure and not well known, and over the years they’ve increased their share of the egg business from around 7% to about 15%. And that’s a lot of eggs.”

The egg market is highly cyclical. Cal-Maine, for one, has been hurt during down cycles. Most recently, in fiscal 2006, it posted a loss of 4 cents a share amid soft market conditions. That year, egg supply was greater than demand most of the time, resulting in low egg prices.

Now, Cal-Maine is reaping the benefits of the sizzling egg market.

“There’s almost a perfect storm emerging,” said Cindy McGarrigle, vice president for industry programs at the American Egg Board.

On the supply side, there’s been a gradual increase in cage space for hens as part of an effort to assure that hens are treated humanely. Allocating more cage space has reduced the overall flock size, McGarrigle says. Fewer hens have led to fewer eggs, which has placed downward pressure on supply.

That’s been a plus for egg producers.

“The key drivers of profit are industry supply growth and its constraints,” said Michael Swanson, an agricultural economist at Wells Fargo Bank. “The recent restrictions on hens per cage and permitting of new facilities are positives.”

McGarrigle says there is a worldwide shortage of eggs, with an increased demand for exports that has put pressure on the egg supply here.

Another plus: Even with the higher prices, eggs are still cheaper than other protein products, which have also seen prices rise, says Leibtag. Eggs are a good, inexpensive source of protein.

Another factor that influences the price of eggs is the cost of feed corn and soybean meal. The prices of the key crops, corn and soybeans, are near all-time highs.

Market prices for corn remain higher, in part because of increasing demand from ethanol producers, says a Cal-Maine report.

Market prices for soybean meal remain higher as a result of farmers switching acres from soybeans to corn.

As the cost for producing eggs has gone up, farmers have increased the price of eggs to cover the costs, says Argus Research senior analyst Bill Selesky, who follows seed and chemical companies.

“That’s why we’re seeing prices of end products like eggs, milk and butter going higher,” he said. “Farmers tend to pass prices on to consumers as long as demand is strong.”

At Cal-Maine, feed costs average about 60% of its farm production costs. In the second quarter, the cost of sales rose 30.9% from a year ago due to the higher cost of feed ingredients and the cost of shell eggs purchased from outside producers.

Chicken Feed

Increases in the price of shell eggs offset the increase in the costs of feed ingredients and resulted in a net increase in gross profit, to 34% in the fiscal 2008 second quarter from 18.1% of net sales in the prior year.

Still, watchers are cautious. High profits will push producers to get more eggs into the market, Swanson says.

“There’s a lag between the time people start producing eggs and when eggs are rolled out to consumers,” he said. “Eventually they bring in too much capacity as they did in 2005 and 2006.”

Also rising energy and feed costs could take their toll on margins.

The other factor is the possible impact of a recession on consumer demand, Swanson adds.

“Every food gets hit,” he said. “Some get hit harder, and eggs might have less negative. But it’s still there.”

If there’s a recession, the farmers would have a tough time passing on the high costs, Selesky says.

“But here at Argus, we don’t forecast a recession,” he said.

Having already fired the chief executive after seeing takeover talks collapse, SCi is cutting costs by 14m.

It is cancelling 14 projects the board thinks are either unlikely to make money or ‘are not of appropriate quality’.

The production arm is moving to Montreal from London as part of the restructuring.

The shares have sunk lately, leaving SCi valued at just 45m.

New boss Phil Rogers said the moves are a ‘clear action plan’ that will allow the ‘world-class people’ within the group to thrive.

SCi admitted last month it needed 30m in cash to stay in business.

Today it upped that to between 45m and 55m, on top of a 20m overdraft facility. Rogers hopes to raise the cash by issuing new equity, but indicated that he is open to offers for the business.

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The Toronto Zoo chose leap day to raise awareness about an unprecedented crisis threatening amphibians around the world.

Cute gimmicks aside, zoo workers and local politicians gathered in front of frogs, toads and reporters today to speak about the global amphibian crisis and what they are trying to do about it.

This is an extinction crisis that is unprecedented in the history of the world, said Bill Peters, national director of the Canadian Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Frogs and their ilk have managed just fine for the past 360 million years, but now as many as half of the 6,000 known amphibian species on earth face dying out within the next few decades.

Pollution, loss of natural habitats and over-harvesting continue to be problems, but the big killer around the world is actually an infection called chytrid fungus.

That fungus attacks the skin of the frogs. It can no longer take in oxygen or water and they die, said Bob Johnson, curator of reptiles and amphibians at the Toronto Zoo.

About 120 species have already gone extinct and many others are threatened around the world, largely due to the disease, which originated in South Africa about a decade ago.

The disease is especially difficult to deal with because it attacks the animals even when they live in natural conservation areas.

There are no safe places, Johnson said. We know we have our national parks and protected areas, but when we have a disease organism like a fungus that spreads throughout the planet, its certainly frightening, because the spaces we once thought were safe for all wildlife are no longer so.

The zoo declared 2008 the year of the frog to celebrate the opening of its amphibian breeding centre to the public.

The zoo launched a captive breeding program for Puerto Rican crested toads in 1986 and has since released 52,000 of the animals, once thought to be extinct, back into the wild.

Today the zoo opened up one of its breeding rooms so that visitors could watch the program in action through a glass window in the exhibition space.

The zoo will also open a frog rescue centre this summer that will increase the number of animals they will be able to quarantine.

Were holding them here until the issue of the fungus can be removed from the wild, if it ever can, and then the animals can hopefully go back, Johnson said. There is a worldwide effort of scientists trying to fix the problems in the wild and were holding the animals here in trust so that they can go back hopefully in the near future.

Donna Cansfield, the Ontario minister of natural resources, was there today to promote what the provincial government is doing to help species at risk.

She said the government is ironing out the details of endangered species legislations that will come into effect this June for 128 species at risk and almost another 200 that are threatened.