Last Call: Money in Meatballs? What's Ikea Worth?

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Ikea

Question: What does Ikea mean in Swedish?

Answer below, where you also learn what the usually secretive Ikea says its brand is worth.

Market Musings With CNBC Market Guru Robert Hum

• Recap: Dow -10.45 (-0.08%) at 13165.19, S&P +0.58 (+0.04%) at 1402.80, Nasdaq +7.39 (+0.25%) at 3018.64
• Another indecisive day on Wall Street as stocks end mixed
• S&P 500 up 5 straight days for the first time in 5 months
• Dow sees narrowest trading range in over 3 months
• CBOE Volatility Index closes at 4.5-month low
• Major averages headed for 5th straight week of gains

Bonus Musing (with CNBC market guru Peter Schacknow):

If the S&P 500 closes up on Friday, it will be up every day this week. The last time the S&P 500 rose each day in a normal 5-day week was 11 months ago (September 12-16, 2011).

The Word on the Street Tonight

Manchester United Prices US IPO at $14 a Share, Below Range/CNBC – Brian A. Shactman: “It's official. Manchester United will trade on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday. But not at the price the team wanted. Late Thursday, the iconic soccer club priced its initial public offering (explain this) at $14 a share, below the $16-20 price range. The pricing of 16.7 million shares will raise $233 million and value the company at $2.3 billion. Half of the proceeds will pay down some of the team's $680 million debt, while the other half will go to the owners — Malcolm Glazer and his family."

Yahoo's $4 Billion Reversal? Alibaba Cash May Stay Put/WSJ – Amir Efrati: “Yahoo Inc. said Thursday it could reverse its May decision to return more than $4 billion to shareholders from selling part of its stake in a Chinese Internet company, a signal that new Chief Executive Marissa Mayer may want to use the cash for other purposes. Yahoo's statement, contained in a regulatory filing signed by Chief Financial Officer Tim Morse, sent the Sunnyvale, Calif., company's shares down 3.5% in after-hours trading to $16.17.”

US Video Game Sales Drop for 8th Straight Month/AP: “U.S. retail sales of video game hardware, software and accessories fell for the eighth straight month in July as the industry continued to look ahead toward the release of new equipment to cure the industry woes. Overall sales fell 20 percent to $548.4 million, according to research firm NPD Group. Sales of consoles and portable software — the video games themselves — fell 23 percent from a year earlier to $278 million. Sales of hardware fell 32 percent to $151 million. Accessories sales rose 8 percent to $137 million.”

Nordstrom raises forecasts, speeds up Rack buildout/Reuters: “Upscale department store chain Nordstrom Inc on Thursday raised its profit and sales outlook for the year, helped by sales at its popular lower-priced Rack chain which it plans expand dramatically in the next four years. Nordstrom now expects same-store sales to rise 6 percent to 7 percent for the fiscal year ending in January, up from an earlier forecast for a rise of 4-6 percent. That includes a high single-digit percentage this quarter.”

Oregon launches 'QuackCave,' a social media command center to connect with fans/Oregon Live – Adam Jude: “Oregon has introduced a social media command center, called "QuackCave," which the UO is billing as the first digital media hub in college athletics. The goal, according to a UO press release, is to increase Oregon's interaction with fans across several popular social media platforms.”

Question: What does Ikea mean in Swedish?

Answer: How the #$#$ do I put this together?*

*That’s made up. Last Call doesn’t speak Swedish.

IKEA Discloses an $11 Billion Secret/WSJ – Suzanne Vranica & Jens Hansegard: “Closely held IKEA is famously secretive about its business. That secrecy made it all the more noticeable when a tantalizing tidbit seeped out Thursday about the Swedish furniture giant. The company said it estimated the value of its brand—a blue and yellow consumer icon — at €9 billion, or just over $11 billion.”

Economic Data

830 Jul Import Prices

1400 Jul Federal Budget

Earnings

Before the Bell:

JC Penney

KEY GUESTS

Gareth Lewis-Davies, BNP Paribas, Senior Oil Strategist (4am)

Dana Cimiluca, WSJ Reporter (5:45am)

Craig Donaldson, Molly Maids, CEO (6:40am)

Zack Miller, Tradestreaming, Founder (6:40am)

Doug Dachille, First Principals Capital Management, CEO & CIO (7am)

John Hofmeister, Citizens for Affordable Energy, Founder & CEO (7:15 am)

Barry Habib, RPM Mortgage, Chief Strategy Officer (7:30am)

Ash Williams, FL St. Board of Admin, Ex Director & CIO (8am)

Richard Lutton, Apple's former Patent Chief (8:15am)

Duncan Greatwood, Topsy Labs, CEO (8:40am)

Mat Honan, Wired Magazine, Contributing Editor (8:40am)

Hamdi Ulukaya, Chobani, Founder & CEO (10am)

JJ Kinahan, TD Ameritrade, Chief Derivative Strategist (10:30am)

Joe Einhorn, TheFancy.com, Founder & CEO (10:45am)

Howard Dean, Fmr DNC Chairman, (11am)

Spencer Hewett , Thiel Fellow (1150a)

Rep Eliot Engel, (D) NY, House Energy and Commerce Committee (1:05pm)

Jan Kniffen, J Rogers Kniffen, CEO (2pm)

Dinesh Paliwal, Harman International Industries, CEO (2:10pm)

David Darst, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Chief Investment Strategist (3:30pm)

Michael Ryan, UBS, Chief Investment Strategist (4pm)

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