Out Fox The $treet

Most investors know that one of the best investments can be a retail store that goes from a regional concept to a national powerhouse. Investors reading the local papers and frequenting a regional concept can have an advantage over the major investment funds stuck in New York. Michael Kors Holdings Limited (KORS) is such a company that has gone through a rapid expansion plan going from 177 stores to 253 over the last 12 months as of June 2012. The company is a global luxury lifestyle brand with a multi-channel strategy established in 1981. The flip side of a buying a regional to national play is identifying a company that has maxed out the expansion possibilities by reaching a majority of states. Typically, this occurs when over 40 states have been reached while already populating California, Florida, New York and Texas with a large amount of stores. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: No positions mentioned. Please review the disclaimer page for more details....

The WSJ reported around noon on Friday that Liz Claiborne (LIZ) has been in talks with private equity firms over a potential deal around $20 a share. Currently, it doesn't appear that any of the firms, such as KKR & Co (KKR) , Permira or Warburg Pincus LLC, find that price appealing. Not to mention that the Liz management has denied any interest in selling the company. The news was enough to send the stock soaring. It closed at $13.36, up nearly 13% at a new 52-week high. At $20, Liz would have a value around $2B. Is that an appealing price for long investors? First, lets look back to the recent transformation of the company. Back in October, I wrote an article about the transformation of the company. Just prior to that article, an investor could've bought Liz's stock in the $4s. Now the stock has tripled and a deal around $20 would've given an investor a 300% gain in less than six months. Read the full article at Seeking Alpha. Disclosure: Long LIZ. Please r...

Not only were materials weak, but anything to do with global growth such as infrastructure hit a wall today even with the market up .5%. Oddly utilities and consumer discretionary had a strong day. FirstEnergy (FE) in the Net Payout Yields (NPY) model closed right at the 52 week highs hit in mid May. Amazon (AMZN) soared 5.5% after closing at a new 52 week high yesterday. It has now bounced from below $180 in mid August to nearly $240 now. Global growth stocks such as materials, infrastructure, and emerging market stocks were very weak today.  Coal, copper, and crane stocks were smashed even with global markets up. What is this telling us? Maybe that global destruction is off the table, but global growth is still a concern. Investors appear headed for high dividend paying stocks as the NPY model was up nearly 1% while the Opportunistic model stocks were relatively flat. Have treasuries finally hit bottom now that a Lehman type collapse for Greece appears off the table? Sure b...