This Week's 5 Smartest Stock Moves

Rick Aristotle Munarriz, The Motley Fool
Updated

If you're feeling good about the market, you're not alone. Take my hand as we go over some of this week's more uplifting headlines.

1. C'mon baby, preorder my Fire
 Everybody knew that Amazon.com (NAS: AMZN) was rolling out an entry-level tablet on Wednesday, but no one figured that the leading online retailer could hit the market at the eye-rubbing $199 price point.

Sure, it doesn't have a camera or a microphone. The screen is also smaller than the iPad's. There's no 3G model, either. However, it dives right in with Amazon's growing ecosystem of digital books, games, videos, music, and apps. Prime subscribers paying $79 a year for free two-day shipping will also be able to stream 11,000 titles from the Kindle Fire at no additional cost.

Amazon's gadget will be a game changer. It won't be an iPad killer. In an ideal scenario, the $199 price will actually grow the tablet market.

However, it will sell briskly. The genius move of offering a paid app for free every single day will also make sure that it gets fired up regularly.

2. It's on like Reggaeton
Clear Channel (OTC: CCMO) is putting some corazon into its iHeartRadio app. The terrestrial radio giant is teaming up with Spanish-language leader Univision to offer its Latino-friendly radio stations as streams through the free iHeartRadio app.

It's a brilliant move by Clear Channel. Sirius XM Radio (NAS: SIRI) has already made it clear that a good chunk of the 25% more programming that it will be able to dish out on its upcoming Sirius XM 2.0 receivers will be devoted to Spanish-language music and content. If premium radio feels that there's a void in Spanish-language programming, Clear Channel may as well hop on those coattails with its ad-supported streams.

3. Renren streams on
China's popular social networking site wants to be a video star. Renren (NYS: RENN) is paying $80 million to acquire video-sharing site 56.com.

It's a good catch. Sure, 56.com isn't as big as some of the publicly traded video websites in China, but that only means that Renren is getting more bang for its buck -- opportunistically snapping up a popular viral video hub at a time when it would be hard for any Chinese dot-com to go public on its own.

Renren will also be able to grow 56.com's audience. There are 124.2 million registered users on Renren, and roughly a quarter of them are active users.

Expect more deals like this in the coming months, as fast-growing upstarts that were eyeing IPOs realize that it's better to be acquired by stable dot-com giants than to wait for investors to feel safe in buying freshly minted Chinese stocks again.

4. McMonopoly
The annual Monopoly promotion began at McDonald's (NYS: MCD) , encouraging repeat visits by diners collecting game pieces to win prizes.

This does make a difference. You can already see folks checking the menu to make sure that they order the right combination to maximize the number of chances to win. Game pieces are on the large fries and on the medium soft drink cups. More importantly for McDonald's barbell pricing strategy, diners have to upgrade from the low-margin Dollar Menu if they want to collect game pieces.

I'm not sure if this has a favorable impact on Hasbro (NYS: HAS) -- the toymaker behind the popular board game -- but judging by the long line of cars I saw in the drive-thru line yesterday, it's clearly working for Mickey D's.

5. Jabil brings it home
 Things are looking up for Jabil Circuit (NYS: JBL) .

The contract electronics manufacturer posted better-than-expected quarterly results, boosting its near-term guidance as well.

Jabil's revenue climbed 10% to $4.3 billion, with core profitability rising 19% to $0.62 a share. Wall Street was targeting a net income of $0.56 a share on $4.2 billion in revenue. Jabil's outlook for the current quarter is also ahead of where analysts are perched.

We can't assume that this is a good omen for the contract manufacturing industry as a whole. Jabil claims that it gained market share and added customers during the period. In other words, buying the competition may not be the best way to play this when investors can just buy Jabil itself.

If you want to see if these companies continue to do the smart thing, track them through My Watchlist.

At the time thisarticle was published Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of McDonald's, Amazon.com, and Hasbro. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz calls them as he sees them. He does not own shares in any of the stocks in this story. Rick is also part of theRule Breakersnewsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.

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