Portfolio Challenge Trivia Answers

Video: $2,000 Bonus Bucks
The FDA-approved drug Provenge is used to fight what disease?
Prostate cancer

News: $1,000 Bonus Bucks
How many new stores did Home Depot open in the U.S. in 2006?
86

CNBC Bonus Bucks Answers

Video: $2,000 Bonus Bucks
Citrus farmers are having a comeback year. Which is the largest grapefruit shipper in Florida?
Riverfront Packing Company

News: $1,000 Bonus Bucks
Starbucks is teaming up with AmRest restaurant group to expand into what country?
Poland

Portfolio Challenge Bonus Bucks Answers

Video: $2,000 Bonus Bucks
Which luxury retailer plans to expand into the Middle East?
Saks Fifth Avenue

News: $1,000 Bonus Bucks
Which of the following is NOT a new feature of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Elite?
HD DVD player

Portfolio Challenge Bonus Bucks Answers

Video: $2,000 Bonus Bucks
Which Asian stock market had its 5th record-breaking day Tuesday?
Shanghai Composite

News: $1,000 Bonus Bucks
Which telecom company signed an aggreement with Wachovia to offer "mobile banking" through cell phones?
AT&T

CNBC Portfolio Answers

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Which company announced plans to move high-level operations to China for the first time?
Intel

News: $1,000 Bonus Bucks
Barron's announced its list of top CEOs for 2006. Who was #1?
Steven Jobs, Apple

CNBC Investing Trivia Answers

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CD sales have the music industry singing the blues. From a year ago, how much have sales dropped for the first 3 months of the year?
20%

News: $1,000 Bonus Bucks
According to Phil Lebeau's blog, what will Hyundai's new luxury car be called?
The BH

CNBC Trivia Answers

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The Bank of China reported a jump in 2006 earnings. How much did they earn?
$5.5 Billion

News: $1,000 Bonus Bucks
When did the Federal Open Market Committee last raise the Federal Funds rate?
June 29, 2006

New Investing Challenge from Cramer

As Four Aces pointed out in the chat area, it looks like Cramer is launching his own game on April 2nd. The grand prize is $50,000 and a trip to NYC to meet the Mad Money King himself. To find out more, visit the link temporarily removed

CNBC Bonus Bucks Answers

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Darden restaurants earned $0.72 a share beating expectations by how much?
$0.02

News: $1,000 Bonus Bucks
Morgan Stanley reported better than expected results. How much did they earn per share?
$2.40

Portfolio Challenge Trivia Questions

Sorry guys, the login for my blog wasn't working all morning....

Video: $2,000 Bonus Bucks
Which company has the largest number of employees serving in the military?
Wal-Mart

News: $1,000 Bonus Bucks
The Bank of Japan kept interest rates unchanged this morning. What is the current rate?
.50%

Your Portfolios

I have to say, I'm quite impressed with the portfolio values that you all posted. Now that Nancy B is out of sight and mind for awhile, it looks like many of you have a legitimate chance at being a weekly winner or overall winner and getting into the finals. For those of you that do place in one of these top positions, make sure you set aside a few minutes to give me an interview ;)

Kyle
Toledo
15
Top 1%
$1,716906.61

Brian
New York
268
Top 1%
$1,303,180.10

Jeff
Michigan
1006
Top 1%
$1,303,708.01

Kevin
Chicago
1,255
Top 1%
$1,265,752.51

Joe
New York
1342
Top 1%
$1,257,860

Nicholas
Wyoming
1,708
Top 1%
$1,225,763

tk
NJ
6986
3%
$1,117,723.41

trevor
california
7890
Top 3%
$1,107,324.57

frank
Dallas
9858
Top 3%
$1,094,669.02

Stocks to Watch on Tuesday

Here are 7 stocks for traders for Tuesday:

Commercial Metals [CMC | charts | news | PowerRating] announces earnings on Tuesday before the bell, with analysts looking for $0.61 EPS.

FactSet [FDS | charts | news | PowerRating] reports quarterly earnings Tuesday morning; watch for $0.48 EPS.

When Progress Software [PRGS | charts | news | PowerRating] reports earnings Tuesday morning before the market opens, analysts will be watching for $0.35 EPS.

Superior Industries [SUP | charts | news | PowerRating] is looking to announce -$0.06 EPS on Tuesday before the bell.

Adobe Systems [ADBE | charts | news | PowerRating], Cintas [CTAS | charts | news | PowerRating] and Oracle [ORCL | charts | news | PowerRating] all report earnings after the close on Tuesday, so watch for heightened volume and price action ahead of the bell.

John Lee
Associate Editor
johnl@tradingmarkets.com

Post Your Portfolio

OK guys, if you want to post your portfolio, this is the place to do it. Please post it in the following format:

Name or Nickname
Location (Optional)
Rank
Rank %
Total Portfolio Value

CNBC Investing Bonus Bucks Answers

Video: $2,000 Bonus Bucks
Abbot Group reported this morning that it will raise its dividend. By how much?
10%

News: $1,000 Bonus Bucks
China's central bank raised interest rates this weekend. How much was the hike?
0.27%

Portfolio Challenge Chat Additions

First of all, thanks to everyone that participated in the first week of the Portfolio Challenge Chat. Thanks to all of you, we had 188 posts in the chat area in only seven days! Due to this huge volume and a great suggestion by FourAces, I have decided to create a new chat area each week. You will still be able to access the old chat areas, but I think having a fresh place to chat each week will make it easier to follow the comments and discussions.

Additionally, in an attempt to make any discussions flow as smoothly as possible, I have decided to turn off comment moderation. This means that as soon as you leave a comment in the Portfolio Challenge Chat Area, it will be visible to others. However, I can still delete comments and will if the comment contains:

1) A self-promotional URL. I'm not an idiot, and I know what comment spam looks like. This is not a place to promote a web site that is copying my idea (since I've been giving the daily answers since last year). Feel free to provide an on-topic link in your comment to CNBC or any major source of financial news, just not your own blog or web site ;)

2) Any comment that threatens or harasses another member of the chat area. You can talk about how much CNBC's tech support sucks all day long, but let's be nice to each other.

Finally, after I post tomorrow's Bonus Bucks answers, I will also be creating a place for everyone to post their portfolio values. Make sure you stop by and posts yours! Once everyone has had a chance to post theirs, I'll put them in order and post them here.

Market Cap Update

In case you missed this email from CNBC:

Dear Valued Player:

In the rules for the Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge it is stated that any stock with a market cap below $500,000,000 after the market close on 3/2 would not be eligible for trading in the contest. Because of an error in processing, ten companies were considered eligible for the contest despite being slightly below this market cap floor.

These stocks will continue to be considered eligible for trading throughout the contest. Please note that any companies whose market cap started at or above $500,000,000 but has subsequently dropped below that threshold will still remain eligible for trading as well.

AZK 493.7548

COGO 485.6233

AFCE 472.5821

NETL 481.9531

BQI 493.8183

GIFI 375.158

IMH 453.4606

SPTN 479.1107

WNC 491.0532

AFFY 486.6919

Stock Picking Advice that Will Make You Laugh

Since it's Friday and the week's coming to an end, I decided it would be a good time to post this video that I found. I think it's hilarious how hard the reporter is trying to make this Playmate sound intelligent and credible...

Friday's Stock Trivia Answers

Video: $2,000 Bonus Bucks
China's parliament passed a corporate income tax law in which all companies will pay a unified tax rate. What is the new tax rate?
25%

News: $1,000 Bonus Bucks
Ameriprise Financial said it plans to buy back stock & increase it's dividend. Up to how much in stock does it plan to buy back?
$1 Billion

Portfolio Challenge Finale Clarification

From the Official CNBC Blog:

Thomas H. in Houston wrote on a related issue:
I can only hope that for the finals you will allow ONLY ONE portfolio per contestant. Otherwise it will not be about stock picking, but how many permutations a person can cover. You really have made a PR nightmare for yourselves with this one. I can't be too mad at that person for exploiting the rules, but I am sure you are aware of how badly CNBC's image has been tarnished over this.

Thomas, we can only hope you will continue with the contest. As for the finals, you are right--contestants will be allowed ONLY ONE portfolio each in the competition.

Portfolio Challenge Trivia Answers

Sorry, my internet access was down this morning...

Video: $2,000 Bonus Bucks
Representative Ed Markey introduced legislation this week that would increase fuel standards by how much each year?
4.0%

News: $1,000 Bonus Bucks
Lehman Brothers said robust trading and overseas expansion drove up first-quarter profit. How much did Q1 profit rise?
5.6%

Thursday's Seven Stocks

Here are 7 stocks for traders for Thursday:

Hibbett Sporting Goods [HIBB | charts | news | PowerRating] beat earnings after the close Wednesday, with $0.39 EPS over a consensus of $0.38 EPS.

Zumiez [ZUMZ | charts | news | PowerRating] beat earnings Wednesday after the close, announcing $0.39 EPS over an expected $0.36 EPS.

Bear Stearns [BSC | charts | news | PowerRating] announces earnings Thursday before the bell, with investors watching for $3.80 EPS.

Biovail [BVF | charts | news | PowerRating] reports quarterly earnings before the bell on Thursday; look for $0.77 EPS.

Analysts are looking for Winnebago Industries [WGO | charts | news | PowerRating] to report $0.23 EPS Thursday morning.

Aeropostale [ARO | charts | news | PowerRating] and Tektronix [TEK | charts | news | PowerRating] report earnings after the bell tomorrow, so watch for heightened price action and volume ahead of the close.

John Lee
Associate Editor
johnl@tradingmarkets.com

Today's Bonus Bucks Answers

Video: $2,000 Bonus Bucks
Average earnings rose more than expected in the U.K. How much did they rise?
4.2%

News: $1,000 Bonus Bucks
General Motors reported its first quarterly profit in two years. What was GM's Q4 profit?
$950 Million

Enjoy Your Free $2,000

What a day! Even though it got off to a rough start, it seems to have ended quite well. After realizing their mistake, CNBC made this post on their official blog:

Update: Today's Video Trivia And The "Right" Answer

We have some good news for those who answered today's video trivia question. As some of you found out, the answer to the "correct" video trivia question was entered incorrectly into the system today--meaning people who did actually guess the right answer were told they did not get it correct. Our Bad!

As a fix, we will be adding 2,000 Bonus Bucks to those of you who answered the question--whether you got a reply of "correct," or "incorrect."

The trivia question credit will run after 6:30 am, tomorrow (Wednesday) morning in coordination with the rules allowing people to respond to trivia up until 6 am the following day. Once again, all users who attempted to answer this video question will receive credit for it--and the Bonus Bucks.

Thanks and our apologies for any inconvenience. Now don't forget to spend those Bucks when they come in!

Wednesday's Stock Watch

Here are seven stocks that Trading Markets thinks you should keep an eye on for Wednesday:

Gymboree [GYMB | charts | news | PowerRating] beat earnings Tuesday afternoon, announcing $0.75 EPS over an expected $0.73 EPS.

J. Crew [JCG | charts | news | PowerRating] beat earnings Tuesday, with $0.33 EPS over an expected $0.28 EPS.

General Motors [GM | charts | news | PowerRating] reports earnings on Wednesday before the bell; look for $1.20 EPS.

Lehman Brothers [LEH | charts | news | PowerRating] announces quarterly earnings Wednesday morning, with analysts watching for $1.95 EPS.

Stage Stores [SSI | charts | news | PowerRating] is looking to report $0.87 EPS on Wednesday before the market opens.

Pep Boys [PBY | charts | news | PowerRating] and Hibbett Sporting Goods [HIBB | charts | news | PowerRating] both report earnings after the bell, so watch for heightened price action and volume ahead of the close.

Feel free to post your own watchlist in the Portfolio Challenge Chat area

CNBC.com Bonus Bucks Answer Throws Everyone Off

Looks like everyone was a little mislead by CNBC.com's Bonus Bucks answer today (keep in mind that the correct answer is now 6 Days):

CNBC Doesn't Know the Answers to their own Trivia Question

I just got back to my computer, and I want to apologize to everyone that missed the Video Bonus Question today. Here's the recap of what happened:

-When I originally researched the question, I found this:



The Index did not post a gain until the 6th. This means the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 12th (5 days)
-When I submitted 5 days, CNBC said it was the correct answer
-When I got home and moderated the comments, I noticed a lot of people saying they had missed the question. When I logged into my portfolio, it said I hadn't even answered today's question! I submitted 6 this time, and it told me it was correct.
-I'm guessing that CNBC updated the question when the Index posted another gain today. However, as usual, they decided to not give anyone credit that had actually gotten the question right earlier in the day.


Once again, I apologize for not elaborating on why I posted 5 as the correct answer in my first post. Instead of giving people credit for a correct answer, CNBC.com would rather cover it up and make the contestants feel like it was their fault!

CNBC.com Portfolio Challenge Trivia Answers

Video: $2,000 Bonus Bucks
The Shanghai Index closed 0.3% higher today. For how many days has the index posted gains?
6 Days

News: $1,000 Bonus Bucks
Citigroup raised its offer for Nikko Cordial this morning. How much is the new offer?
$13.4 Billion

CNBC.com is sending traffic to the "Unofficial" Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge Blog

Has anyone noticed a link on CNBC.com to this blog? They're sending me traffic, but I don't know exactly where on their site it's coming from. I doubt they're linking to Portfolio Challenge Trivia Question Answers, so it would be interesting to know what caught their attention...

CNBC.com Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge Rant: Celeb Traders

Why does CNBC.com think we care about celeb traders? It seems that they're trying to divert all the attention to these traders, when they can't even get the real Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge under control!

Hello Scott Wrynn and David Topham

Move over Nancy Beaumont from California, Scott Wrynn and David Topham from Kansas are the current Portfolio Challenge Top Dogs.

Nancy's Stealing CNBC's Money and They Don't Care

Nancy B has officially pwned CNBC. Even if she doesn't win the million, now that everyone knows you can register multiple accounts, everyone is going to do the same thing. This contest was unrealistic from the beginning, but now it's just ridiculous. Here's what CNBC had to say on their blog, with a little commentary from me (which, big surprise, doesn't allow you to leave a comment):

This Week's Top Leader And Why She's There

Well--the first week of the Million Dollar Portfolio challenge is over--so let's see where we stand. Nancy Beaumont sits on top of the leader board (talk about an understatement! at this point, she is the leaderboard) with a portfolio value of $1,645,296.56 or a weekly gain of 64.5%. Nancy has mutltiple portfolios registered for the contest (because our legal department is full of idiots), and she holds the top 3 spots in our list, with a total of 10 portfolios within the top 25 (and 600-800 more that aren't on the board, yet!), and they are markedly similar.

Of interest is that Nancy's top 3 portfolios are currently all in cash. She had no pending buy orders as of Friday and she always max's out on bonus bucks, and not all leaders have.

A look back shows the first two leaders from Tuesday and Wednesday, both employed similar strategies, they went all-in on a stock that was forecast to have positive earnings, or looked to bottom fish and catch the bump.

The leader after the close on Wednesday- Jack Bell of Kansas--made the same first trade as Monday's leader--Paula Ann Day going all-in on Sykes Enterprises (248 people bought Sykes and the majority went for broke by pouring their $1M into that one security.

All in all a pretty good week for the contest. The theme seems to be mostly short term buys and big ones at that. We’ll see how that strategy plays over the next week. By the way--there are now 264,000 registered contestants (yeah, more like 250,000 unique contestants).

We want to hear from you. Send your comments to millions@cnbc.com. (I hope their inbox gets spammed to death)

Answers for Monday's Portfolio Challenge Trivia Questions

Video: $2,000 Bonus Bucks
Japan's economy expanded faster than expected October through December. How much did GDP grow by?
1.3%

News: $1,000 Bonus Bucks
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is acquiring discount retailer Dollar General.According to Dollar General, how much is the offer worth?
$7.3 Billion

The Launch of the Portfolio Challenge Chat area

Since CNBC is not providing an area to discuss the challenge this year, I decided to kick off the second week of the contest with a new feature called the Portfolio Challenge Chat. You can use the Portfolio Challenge Chat (which is located at the top of the left column) to:

-Complain, gripe, moan or whine about CNBC's technical difficulties (I know it's frustrating, so feel free to let it out)
-Discuss your progress with other contestants
-Give tips for the next day's investments
-Talk about any topic that is related to the economy or stock market

Due to the overwhelming amount of spam that this blog has to deal with, all comments are moderated. This means that when you submit a comment, it won't display immediately, but you should see it appear within a couple of hours (at most). You can leave anonymous comments, just make sure they're not spam ;)

So, head over to the Portfolio Challenge Chat and introduce yourself to your fellow contestants!

CNBC is "Listening to You"

After last week, I know we're all a little fed up with CNBC after last week. Instead of taking responsibility for all of their problems, all they did was make this blog post (looks like they've been reading their emails, just not the ones that matter):

We Asked. You Answered. How Would You Invest $1 Million?

In this market, how would you invest a million dollars? That’s what CNBC.com wanted to know, and here are some of your answers:

“Under my mattress. Seriously!” -- Tom L., Michigan

"I would wait for the market to bottom and invest in emerging markets." -- Edwin T, NY

"This would have to be diversified. Blue chip stocks with dividends. Also, I would invest in some real estate via REITS or actual real estate, municipal bonds and some diversified bond funds and commodities, such as a gold ETF. I would probably have at least 4% in cash invested in a good money market split evenly between a tax-free money market and a regular money market. I don't know that much about foreign markets, but would use a little cash to invest in a foreign ETF such as India or Taiwan." -- Steve W., Illinois

"I believe that real estate is where I would invest a million dollars right now. I think in the long run, it is the only sure and safe bet in this market and global conditions." -- Andy M., North Carolina

"I would invest in precious metals. Gold has pulled back in the last week and now should begin its run towards $800 an ounce. Lots of money to be made in the next year or two." -- Ted T., New Hampshire

You can find the rest of the answers to this question here.

Portfolio Trivia for Friday

Video: $2,000 Bonus Bucks
Losses at Airbus saw profit at parent company EADS cut by nearly how much?
90%

News: $1,000 Bonus Bucks
According to Forbe's Billionaire List, who is the world's richest person?
Bill Gates

CNBC Stock Trivia

Video: $2,000 Bonus Bucks
Wal-Mart reported lower than expected February sales today. In what two areas did they see continued weakness?
Home and Apparel

News: $1,000 Bonus Bucks
Ray-Ban sunglasses is celebrating an anniversary this month. How old it the brand?
70 years

The Ups and Downs

Stock Picking Leaders

Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge Answers

Video: $2,000 Bonus Bucks
According the NBC/WSJ poll, what percentage of investors expect the stock market to increase in the next year?
46%

News: $1,000 Bonus Bucks
Mortgage applications were up last week. By how much?
7.3%

The Portfolio Challenge Leaders as of Tuesday

Too bad you can't actually see the value of each portfolio:

CNBC Trivia Answers

Tuesday's Million Dollar Portfolio Answers are:

Video: $2,000 Bonus Bucks
General Motors' February sales rose by how much?
3.7%

News: $1,000 Bonus Bucks
What's the value of Citigroup's takeover bid for Nikko Cordial?
$10.75 Billion

CNBC Leaderboard

Active Stocks in the Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge

Here were Monday's ten most active stocks in the CNBC Challenge:

GS
FNSR
SYKE
AUY
VZ
CPNO
NOV
NEW
ABM
HNZ

Monday's Stock Trivia Questions and Answers

Video: $2,000 Bonus Bucks
The Asian markets were deep in the red this morning. How much did the Hang Seng fall this morning?
4%

News: $1,000 Bonus Bucks
Private equity firm Blackstone Group is looking to buy which troubled automaker's U.S. division?
Daimler Chrysler

Sorry for the delay in getting today's answers up, I'll have them up earlier tomorrow

Start Picking Stocks in Less than 48 Hours!

The CNBC Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge officially kicks off on Monday! In case you haven't seen it, here's an overview of this exciting stock picking contest: