MyFoxKansasCity reports that many people are not taking the closure of their local Starbucks (NYSE: SBUX) sitting down. If your local Starbucks is among the 600 being shuttered around the U.S., perhaps you would like to join the movement.

MyFox lists four Starbucks there that are closing. And it reports that people are already using e-mail and a Web site to fight the closing. For example, Kansas City H&R Block employees sent out e-mails arguing against the closure -- they suggest that downtown Kansas City is "just starting to grow" and that "their Starbucks has a lot of earning potential." And MyFox reports that Kansas City has set up saveourstarbucks.com where visitors can type in their location, and their comments about "why [they] just can't live without [their] favorite Starbucks location."

Will any of these efforts work? I doubt it. Starbucks probably picked the 600 stores that it's closing based on their relatively low traffic, their costs to operate, and their forecast of future revenues based on the local business and retail climate and the level of competition. It doesn't seem to me that a Save our Starbucks campaign would change any of these factors unless you could prove that you would bring, say, 10 of your friends to the location every week,.

This post is part of a series on celebrity spokespeople who ended up doing serious harm to the brands they were hired to promote, or vice versa. See how we rank the 20 top spokesperson fiascos.

In 1987, Anheuser-Busch (NYSE:BUD) was featuring renown musicians such as Stevie Winwood and Phil Collins in a "The Night Belongs to Michelob" ad campaign. I'm sure the ad hacks in charge thought they'd had a stroke of genius when they conceived of using Eric "Slowhand" Clapton, performing his hit "After Midnight", as part of the series. 1 a.m., guitar god, and Michelob; seems like a natural, right?

I can't help but think that someone should have checked on Clapton's habits before launching the ad. Having fought well-publicized heroin addiction and a taste for cocaine, Clapton revealed to Rolling Stone that at the time of the ad's release he was in a detox facility. Battling alcoholism. His nights belonged to imaginary snakes rather than dirty-dancing runway models.

My suggestion? I'd steer clear of junkies as spokespersons, unless I was selling needles, smack or size 0 dresses. The image of spokespeople puking their guts out doesn't make me yearn for a beer.

Read the entire series

Carl Icahn just got more bad news. His bid for Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) seems to be losing it momentum, and it should. Legg Mason which owns 4.4% of the portal company, will support the current board.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "We believe the current board acted with care and diligence when evaluating Microsoft's offers," Legg Mason Chairman Bill Miller said.

Other large investors may decide to back the status quo ahead of the Yahoo! Annual Meeting on August 1.
Icahn has made two significant mistakes. The first is that he overplayed his hand with Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) by saying that he had more support from Steve Ballmer for a deal to takeover Yahoo!'s search business than he actually had.

The more profound problem is the Icahn has not taken the time or the effort to show Yahoo! shareholders how he would operate the company if he cannot strike a deal with Redmond. In essence, he has not made it clear how he can make Yahoo!'s shares rise from their current level if the company has to be run as a standalone business.

Icahn will lose his proxy fight for Yahoo!. He has not offered anything beyond a break-up or M&A event. Why would anyone support something so thin?

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

This post is part of a series on celebrity spokespeople who ended up doing serious harm to the brands they were hired to promote, or vice versa. See how we rank the 20 top spokesperson fiascos.

When it rains, it pours. Back in 2005 Defamer reports that Star " I am a lawyer" Jones was booted as a spokesperson for Payless Shoe Source around the same time that she was dumped from The View. Jones was clearly of no use to the shoe chain once she was Barbaraed off of The View. So Payless used its steel-toed boot to kick her to the curb.

Defamer noted that both parties tried to put a good spin on the situation. Payless said that the terms of their contract called for it to end after three years and that it was successful. And Jones said the same thing about the contract ending -- but she suggested that Payless decided it no longer wanted celebrities to endorse its products. Jones clearly still considered herself a celebrity.

But the people who release such statements are often paid well to provide a different view of reality. Unfortunately for Jones, it has been years since she's had as good a marketing platform as The View -- from which to offer such spin.

Read the entire series

Monday, July 21

• Theravance, Inc. (NASDAQ: THRX)'s PDUFA date for Telavancin for the treatment of complicated skin infections.
• Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE: MRK) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 9:00am.
• Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 9:30am.
• Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) to report Q3 earnings; conference call at 5:00pm.
• Texas Instruments Incorporated (NYSE: TXN) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 5:30pm.

Tuesday, July22

• United Parcel Services, Inc. (NYSE: UPS) to report Q3 earnings; conference call at 8:30am.
• Halliburton Company (NYSE: HAL) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 9:00am.
• Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 11:00am.
• Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE: LMT) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 11:00am.
• Yahoo!, Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 5:00pm.

Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK) is set to report earnings Monday, July 21, ahead of the opening bell. According to First Call, analysts are looking for a profit of 83 cents on revenue of $6.05 billion, an improvement over the 82 cents per share it reported in the same quarter last year, but a decline over the $6.1 billion in sales. Last quarter, the company beat per-share earnings estimates, but disappointed in sales.

Merck has suffered some bad news this quarter:

• The biggest blow was no doubt the FDA rejection of Merck's new cholesterol drug, Cordaptive. With so many drugs coming off patent, the drug company was relying on Cordaptive to contribute as much as $2 billion a year in sales.
• Also, prescriptions for Vytorin, co-marketed with Schering-Plough (NYSE: SGP), kept falling. While this was to be expected following the January released study suggesting Vytorin and Zetia may not work well as older generic statins, the impact could be larger than expected.
  
• As for its cervical-cancer vaccine Gardasil, recently an analyst report from UBS questioned whether sales of the vaccine have met Wall Street estimates for the second quarter. UBS has proceeded to downgrade Merck to Neutral from Buy.
• Then, only Thursday, Merck announced a program to resolve and fund the $4.85 billion settlement stemming from the Vioxx 50,000 lawsuits. More than 97 percent of eligible claimants now have initiated enrollment in the program and will start receiving checks beginning late next month. In a way, though, this is a good news/bad news sort of thing. Investors like it when outstanding issues are resolved.

Today might have been one of the more boring options expiration dates. If you pretend that technology stocks weren't a part of the market, today was rather stable considering the major bounces we have seen. Oil stayed under $129.00 per barrel, which didn't give the bears much meat to chew on. We had essentially no government economic data today. Here are today's unofficial closing levels:

• DJIA 11,496.24 (+49.58)
• S&P500 1260.65 (+0.33)
• NASDAQ 2282.78 (-29.52)
• 10YR T-Note 4.081% (+0.043%)
• 52-WEEK LOWS
• Top Analyst Upgrades
• Top Analyst Downgrades

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is set report earnings after the close of trading. Read a FULL EARNINGS PREVIEW. Shares of Apple were down over 3% at $166.10 in today's final minutes of trading.

For the most part, the IPO market has been a bust this year. But there are some bright spots – such as energy deals.

To this end, there was an interesting IPO filing this week: Brand Energy.

The company is a provider of multi-craft services for the downstream infrastructure space. Some of the offerings include: insulation, corrosion protection, weatherproofing, specialty coatings and so on. What's more, there are four major focuses: refining, Canadian Sands, petrochemical and power generations.

Brand Energy certainly has a sterling customer list, which includes biggies like BP (NYSE: BP), ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM), Dow Chemical (NYSE: DOW) and Chevron (NYSE: CVX).

The Sam Zell-owned Tribune Co. is selling its prized baseball team, the Chicago Cubs, and opening bids are due today.

Reuters reports that 10 parties have been approved by Major League Baseball to make bids, and the team could fetch over $1 billion. Potential bidders include a group led by taxi tycoon Andew Murstein, including Hank Aaron and Jack Kemp, and the usual band of moguls. But if you want to see some passion restored to baseball, you have to be routing for internet billionaire Mark Cuban, the flamboyant owner of the Dallas Mavericks.

Cuban has the cash and he's the one guy who would probably be willing to commit the resources to make the company a champion for the first time since 1909.

Murstein's, who is vice chairman of Sports Properties Acquisition Corp. (AMEX: HMR) told Reuters that "We're not going to chase the deal. With us, it's not going to be an ego buy."

For disenchatned Cubs fans, a billionaire on an ego trip would be the best buyer.

Merck & Co (NYSE: MRK) shares are trading higher today after a Citi Investment Research analyst initiated coverage on the stock with a "Buy" rating, saying the company will benefit as rivals' drug patents expire in the coming year. This is despite news that came out today that Merck will soon start to send out almost $5B in Vioxx settlement checks. If you think that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on MRK.

After hitting a one-year high of $61.62 in December, the stock hit a one-year low of $34.49 in June. MRK opened this morning at $37.12. So far today the stock has hit a low of $36.60 and a high of $37.38. As of 1:05, MRK is trading at $37.38, up 42 cents(1.1%). The chart for MRK looks neutral and improving, while S&P gives the stock a neutral 3 Stars (out of 5) Hold rating.

For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider an October bull-put credit spread below the $32.50 range. A bull-put credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of put options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make a 16.3% return in just three months as long as MRK is above $32.50 at October expiration. Merck would have to fall by more than 13% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.

MRK hasn't been below $34.50 at all in the past year and has shown support around $37 recently. This trade could be risky if the company's earnings (due out 7/21) disappoint, but even if that happens, this position could be protected by the support the stock might find at its year low, which is just below $35.

Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer.

DISCLOSURE: Mr. Archer owns and/or controls diversified portfolios of long and short stock and option positions that may include holdings in companies he writes about. At publication time, Brent neither owns nor controls positions in MRK.

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) recently down $5.80 to $166.04:

AAPL is scheduled to report Q3 EPS on July 21. AAPL call option volume of 140,446 contracts compared to put volume of 143,734 contracts. AAPL August option implied volatility of 54 was above its 26-week average of 49 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement.

Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) recently down 73 cents to $71.10:

CAT iss scheduled to report Q2 on July 22. CAT August option implied volatility of 41 was above its 26-week average of 33, suggesting larger price movement.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is a juggernaut that just won't stop being successful. Although sales of its iPod digital music players have waned a bit in recent memory, the company is selling boatloads of its newer iPhone 3G, which are also iPods in case you have forgotten. But one area that just won't get as much mainstream press is the incredible success Apple is having getting more customers to buy its computers.

Apple moved into the third spot in the U.S. in PC sales recently -- overtaking Taiwan's Acer -- and now is the world's sixth-largest seller of computers in addition to the third place ranking in the U.S. For Apple to make these kinds of strides among the commodity companies that all pretty much sell the same product with Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows Vista operating system is quite the achievement. And remember, on all those new Apple machines comes Microsoft's main consumer nemesis -- the Apple Mac operating system (also enjoying leaps in market share).

If Apple CEO Steve Jobs planned on the iPod and iPhone causing so much market stir that it would actually lead to more Mac PC sales, he was right. Apple has never had the market share it has now and it's done nothing but grow for over a year now. IDC analyst Loren Loverde told CNET, "They've got great products and they are executing well ... they are benefiting from the excitement and press over their other products." That quote describes the halo effect Apple continues to have right now which is benefiting more areas of its business than just the iPod/iPhone universe. Jobs:1, Microsoft:0. For now, at least.

Rockwell Collins Incorporated (NYSE: COL) provides flight deck avionics, aircraft electronics, and aviation simulation equipment for commercial, government and regional aircraft. The company is currently flying high. Recently released 3Q earnings indicate net income increased 19% to $174 million. EPS gained 24% to $1.07, beating Wall Street estimates by $0.05. 3Q sales increased 7% to $1.2 billion, which translated into a $12 million increase in operating cash flow to $310 million.

While many economic sectors are facing a great deal of uncertainty, Rockwell Collins has locked in a number of government and commercial contracts that will translate into steady revenue growth well into the future. Defense spending increases annually and Rockwell Collins was recently awarded contracts by BOC to equip 47 new Airbus A320s, as well as another contract from Bombardier to supply avionics for its C series commercial aircraft.

Both the Commercial Systems and the Government Systems segments increased sales 7-8%. The company spent $81 million to buy back 1.4 million shares, with another quarter billion authorized for share repurchases. In view of all the contracts in the pipeline, the company has revised and improved its FY2008 guidance. FY2008 total sales are forecast at $4.75 billion, with FY EPS in the $4.05-$4.10 range. The stock is currently trading under $47, near its 52- week low of $44.53.

Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) shares are trading higher today after competitor IBM (NYSE: IBM) posted a strong second-quarter profit that beat analysts' estimates. IBM said its sales were strongest in its information technology services division, which could be a good sign for ORCL. If you think that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on ORCL.

After hitting a one-year low of $18.18 in February, the stock hit a one-year high of $23.57 in June. ORCL opened this morning at $20.89. So far today the stock has hit a low of $20.65 and a high of $21.20. As of 1:15, ORCL is trading at $21.14, up 37 cents(1.8%). The chart for ORCL looks bearish and steady, while S&P gives the stock its highest 5 Stars (out of 5) strong buy rating.

For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a September bull-put credit spread below the $18 range. A bull-put credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of put options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make a 7.1% return in just two months as long as ORCL is above $18 at September expiration. Oracle would have to fall by more than 15% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.

ORCL hasn't been below $18 at all in the past year and has shown support around $20 recently. This trade could be risky if the company's earnings (due out in mid September) come out before expiration and disappoint, but even if that happens, this position could be protected by the support the stock might find at its year low, which is just above $18.

Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer.

DISCLOSURE: Mr. Archer owns and/or controls diversified portfolios of long and short stock and option positions that may include holdings in companies he writes about. At publication time, Brent owns and controls positions in ORCL and IBM.

Mattel (NYSE: MAT) shares are trading higher today after the company posted a second-quarter profit of $11.8 million, or 3 cents per share, beating analysts' estimates of 2 cents per share. Also, last night Mattel won a copyright case against rival MGA Entertainment over the origins of MGA's Bratz dolls. Next week a jury will decide on any damages owed to MAT by MGA. If you think that the stock won't fall by too much in the coming months, then now could be a good time to look at a bullish hedged trade on MAT.

After hitting a one-year high of $26.12 last July, the stock hit a one-year low of $16.42 in January. MAT opened this morning at $20.42. So far today the stock has hit a low of $19.96 and a high of $21.18. As of 1:05, MAT is trading at $20.48, up $2.20 (12.0%). The chart for MAT looks bearish and steady, while S&P gives the stock a neutral 3 Stars (out of 5) hold rating.

For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a January bull-put credit spread below the $15 range. A bull-put credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of put options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make a 13.6% return in just six months as long as MAT is above $15 at January expiration. Mattel would have to fall by more than 26% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.

MAT hasn't been below $16.40 at all in the past year and has shown support around $17 recently. This trade could be risky if the damages turn out to be negligible, but even if that happens, this position could be protected by the support the stock might find around $16.50, where it has bottomed out twice in the past seven months.

Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer.

DISCLOSURE: Mr. Archer owns and/or controls diversified portfolios of long and short stock and option positions that may include holdings in companies he writes about. At publication time, Brent neither owns nor controls positions in MAT.