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If you love Adidas' clothing and footwear then I have some good news for you. Adidas is eying to open about 2,300 new stores in China by 2010, lifting its total number to 6,300. The company's decision came as a result of strong demand from China even in times when we might expect to see some downturns.

Frederic Seiller, a vice president in charge of retail operations for Greater China, stated that the the global economic slowdown had no impact on Adidas's sales in China. In addition, the company is optimistic about its further gains, and forecast a nice demand from the local sportswear market. From this point of view, total sales in China are expected to come to 1 billion euros by 2010.

As well as getting growth in revenue, by opening its biggest store in the world in central Beijing Adidas aims to beat rival Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE). Back in 2007, China became Nike's second-largest market, and its Chinese sales reached $1 billion in 2008.

I'll admit the headline is a bit deceptive. On one hand McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) has seen a resurgence in its business and frankly, the shares have done very well. In fact since McDonald's went through its own set of problems five years ago, the stock has since tripled in value.

The parallels between Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) and McDonald's are very eerie. Starbucks has hit the proverbial wall after a successful ride from 1992 to 2007 as one of the premier GameChanger stocks around. Starbucks, like McDonald's over-expanded its store base in the United States and began to cannibalize its own revenues. Starbucks, like McDonald's, lost its principle focus and did not tend to 'what got them there".

In late 2002 McDonald's stock had just finished a 4 year run of losing 70% of its value. The company was becoming a hodgepodge of different menu items, culminating with the disastrous release of the McLean Deluxe, which was not even all beef! Advertising and marketing programs were a mish-mash of geographical themes yielding no consistency whatsoever. McDonald's even posted, for the first time in its illustrious history, an operating loss in 2002, and experienced negative same store sales for the first time, as well.

Then CEO Jim Cantalupo said enough was enough. McDonald's closed 700 unproductive stores (sound familiar?) and re-focused its menu and advertising campaign.

Billboard reported Thursday that MasterCard Inc. (NYSE: MA) has launched a new campaign titled "Roots of Rock" that offers free downloads for cardholders from Universal Music Group. Apparently the free aspect of the campaign is limited and after 100,000 songs have been downloaded, MasterCard will begin to charge $0.80 per track. Even after the credit card company begins charging for downloads, pricing for tracks is still lower than Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN)'s MP3 Store ($0.89) or Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s iTunes Store ($0.99).

Cardholders who also make a purchase by August 31 will be "entered into a sweepstakes with a grand prize of having a meet and greet with Jon Bon Jovi, Eric Clapton or Kenny Chesney." MasterCard executive Amy Fuller told Billboard with the new campaign, the company has "created unparalleled music experiences with three of the world's most popular artists, providing consumers with an intimate perspective on these icons that few fans will ever have." But those fans will have to win the sweepstakes.

MasterCard's campaign to offer free downloads is like numerous other programs that are linked with music companies, but it offers to take the digital market to a larger consumer base. Lowered prices (eventually) for the campaign mean that Universal Music Group will continue to hold on to the lead in music sales, if only because the music company is the only one on board with MasterCard. Consumers that might not have ever downloaded a track may be enticed to try out the campaign and the sweepstakes. This type of growth is what the music industry will need if digital sales are ever going to replace physical sales successfully and completely.

The lubricant with thousands of uses, WD-40 is found in just about every toolbox in the nation. WD-40 Company (NASDAQ: WDFC) released 3Q 2008 results that show solid sales figure increases in all divisions around the globe. Net sales for the quarter increased 5.8% to $82 million. Net income was up by the same amount to $8 million. EPS increased 10% to $0.49. The story is much the same for YTD figures. WD-40 posted these numbers despite a tremendous run-up in the prices of raw materials. Senior management is being conservative and has, therefore, reduced FY2008 guidance. The company now expects net sales to increase 4-8% to $320-$332 million. Net income will be in the $30 to $31 million range and EPS in the $1.78-$1.85 range.

The company is rolling out its Smart Straw initiative globally. No more looking for the stupid little red straw that always got separated from the spray can. Now all aerosol cans of WD-40 have a built-in applicator. What a relief.

WD-40 also owns 3-in1 oil, Lava soap, X-14 and Carpet Fresh. None of these products are environmentally friendly by any stretch of the imagination. To counteract the perception that its products are not environmentally sensitive, WD-40 has launched a new product line, Spot Shot, comprised of an environmentally safe carpet stain remover and pet odor remover.

The stock is trading at just over $27, near its 52-week low of $26.50, and pays $0.25 in quarterly dividend.

General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM) investors, as well as auto industry trackers, will want to read Jonathan Rauch's "Electro-Shock Therapy" in the July 2008 issue of Atlantic Magazine. Mr. Rauch was given unprecedented access to all personnel involved in GM's company-wide commitment to have a market-ready electric car by late 2010. GM personnel note the Chevy VOLT, as the car is named, will not be a hybrid per se, but will be the first mass market electric car with a range of 40 miles per charge, enough to cover the daily commute of 75% of American workers. The car's small gasoline engine will be used to recharge the battery, while only electricity will be used to power the wheels. GM is trying to wow consumers by manufacturing an affordable electric car that will sever the connection between driving and the gas pump.

GM lost the engineering and publicity wars on electric cars to Toyota's Prius years ago. Toyota has been eating GM's lunch ever sense. According to GM's VP Bob Lutz, it's payback time. Using the same rhetoric President Kennedy used to launch the Apollo space program and race to land on the moon, GM has sectioned off the Volt division and given it complete decision-making and spending authority to reinvent not only the electric automobile, but also the company itself. In one Volt engineer's words: "Go big or go home."

Yes, there are problems with the weight to power ratio in the battery. And yes, production of both the battery and the car body are being rushed towards production without the normal period of evaluation. But GM has staked its future on the Volt, and unlike my colleague Michael Rainey who isn't that positive on the Volt, there's reason for at least cautious optimism, a quality currently in short supply coming out of Detroit.

The weak market conditions have caused many stock prices to fall under $10. Not only smaller -- and perhaps lesser known -- stocks trade under $10 these days, but also some big and famous names such as Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F), Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT), Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S), Washington Mutual Inc. (NYSE: WM) and Del Monte Foods (NYSE: DLM), as well as many airline companies like Northwest Airlines (NYSE: NWA) and JetBlue (NASDAQ: JBLU).

While those names could sound tempting for investors who may think they are cheap, BusinessWeek's Karyn McCormack reminds us that not everything that is cheap is a good bargain, and there are some risks that need to be taken into account.

One common problem for most of these stocks is that they trade under $10 for a reason. That reason is usually hardly any earnings growth, if any at all. And with a weak economy, these companies would have an even harder time to stimulate growth. Add to the mix the fact that institutional investors don't like to touch stocks under $10 and the potential for recovery is not good.

It probably should come as no surprise, but June was a tough month for automakers, and all signs are pointing to more troubles out on the horizon.

All but one major automaker saw their sales drop last month, with Honda Motor (NYSE: HMC) being the sole exception. For the month, Honda actually had a 1% year-over-year sales growth, which given the current market place was an exceptional feat.

So just how bad was June for the automakers? Pretty bad. During the month, combined auto sales fell to 1.19 million vehicles sold, a 266,000 decline from the same period last year. This just continues the trend that we have been seeing all year, amounting to roughly a 10% sales decline during the first half of the year.

U.S. gasoline consumption has declined for more than two months on a year-over-year basis, U.S. Energy Information Administration data indicates,

From a consumer standpoint, that's not only a good thing, it may be the only thing keeping already sky-high, $4 per gallon gasoline prices from moving even higher, says energy trader Jim Dietz.

"Lower demand is preventing gasoline sellers from raising prices even more. That's bad news for them, but it is helping consumers a little by keeping prices lower than what they would be, given the jump in oil prices," Dietz said.

Oil, which traded at $142.80 per barrel, up $1.83 on Wednesday at mid-day, is up about 100% in the past year. Meanwhile, the average price for a gallon of unleaded gasoline in the U.S. is about $4.09 per gallon, up about 45% during the same period, according to the EIA.

"Historically, a gallon of gasoline cost two times to three times as much as a gallon of crude oil. Now that price ratio is about 1.3-to-1," Dietz said. "If the old ratio applied, gasoline would easily be 40-60 cents higher, probably more." Dietz added that he is presently flat, or has no energy trading positions open ahead of the 4th of July weekend.

I hemmed and hawed when I saw Jennifer Openshaw's piece on MarketWatch a few weeks ago; her opinion was that Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) would recover much of its lost value in these past several months of sluggish sales, rising milk costs and slipping coolness, no matter what the naysayers, say. Her argument: that Starbucks was great because of its atmosphere and general quality standards in coffee. While I certainly agree that Starbucks is still an attractive "third place" and would pick Pike Place brew every time over McDonald's or Dunkin Donuts coffee, I hesitated. Had management already made too many mis-steps? Had hubris got the best of the 'Bucks?

The latest news; that Starbucks management has plans to close 600 stores in the U.S. this year; could be an indication of positive things in the company's stock price. It certainly had traders in after-hours activity eagerly snapping up shares, sending 72 cents, or 4.6%, to $16.34 around 2 a.m. I'm always leery, though, of a huge strategy reversal such as this. In my analysis of Starbucks' financial statements, the company spends about $300,000 to start a new store, and this is largely funded through cash. Management regularly offers old furniture and equipment to its high-ranking employees when upgrading or shutting down a store, so it's unlikely that much of the cost will be recouped. Doug McIntyre noted further that Starbucks will continue to pay more millions in lease costs; the company is known for locking up prime real estate with serious long-term lease agreements. Sure, the loss won't affect the cash balance much, and the charge will be "one-time," so the financial picture will still look rosy in a year when the charge has dropped into "historical financial statements." Investors don't look back.

But by acknowledging that some $180 million in costs, not to mention the hundreds of millions probably spent to train and employ staff at these locations, was a big waste of money, Starbucks management is owning up to a future of slow growth.

Reuters reports today that Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) has signed up Warner Music Group Corp. (NYSE: WMG) to its "Comes with Music" phone service and music store. Nokia is the world's top phone manufacturer and will be making a direct challenge to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s iTunes Store, according to numerous reports. The "Comes with Music" service is the first from a phone manufacturer to "push heavily into content" and "differs from other packages on the market as users can keep all the music they have downloaded" while in yearly contracts with Nokia.

WMG executives allowed the music company to join up with Nokia since the service "is the first global initiative to fundamentally align the interests of music companies with telecommunications companies." Nokia already secured the support of fellow music companies Universal Music Group and Sony BMG Music Entertainment in April, and "Comes with Music" launches later this year. Reuters speculates that the agreements with three of the top four music companies (EMI Group has not signed up yet) will "help Nokia attract smaller music companies and challenge the dominant pay-per-track sales model for digital music." Last year, download sales totaled $2.9 billion; if the 146 million Nokia phones had featured "Comes with Music", those sales would have surpassed the digital market.

Record labels have consistently looked for new methods to challenge Apple's grip on the music industry, and subscription models like "Comes with Music" may finally provide that challenge. Subscription models give the music industry more shares per download since users typically are not allowed to keep tracks downloaded during the subscription. "Comes with Music" is betting against that model since users will be allowed to keep music downloaded, and Nokia and the record companies are no doubt hoping that dynamic will keep those consumers renewing contracts with the service. Reportedly, the subscription for "Comes with Music" will only cost $20 per phone, which on a yearly basis would not be too expensive for unlimited downloads.

Ford (NYSE:F) is going through its worst sales period in over 20 years. Its flagship during most of that period has been its F-Series pick-up. The truck has sold like mad and it is highly profitable for the car company.

The F-Series trucks are heavy and eat a lot of gas. According to The Wall Street Journal, "Ford has started searching for answers to a question it never used to pay much attention to: exactly who drives big pickups and why."

Ford figures some of the people who buy the pick-up don't need it to haul things or tow things. They are people who want to look tough and have that working man image. The car company is trying to find a way to keep these people even though they could drop down to more fuel-efficient vehicles.

If gas hits $5, and it may, the probability that people will buy pick-ups to be "cool" goes away very quickly and Ford will almost certainly lose a lot more of its F-Series customers.

Of course, if gas hit $5, Ford has much bigger problems.

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

Billboard reported Monday that MTV Games, a division of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA), will release the second installment of the popular Rock Band game this September. Rock Band first came out late last year in direct competition with Activision Inc.'s (NASDAQ: ATVI) Guitar Hero franchise, but where Guitar Hero only offers guitar simulated play, Rock Band offers a wide range of instruments and vocal game play. Rock Band also features an online store where users can download additional tracks for the game.

Rock Band 2 will be released at a time when a number of other music-related games, and according to MTV Games the game will feature "new and 'improved' drum and guitar controllers, a larger soundtrack, and new online modes and customization options." Additionally, all previous controllers and downloaded songs will also be compatible with the new game, so players will not lose those features or be required to buy new input devices. The game will initially only be available on Microsoft Corporation's (NASDAQ: MSFT) Xbox 360 platform but will expand to other systems by the end of the year.

Rock Band and Guitar Hero alike have revolutionized many listeners' interface with the music they love, simply because it expands the "play-ability" of many users who may not have ever picked up or tried to play actual instruments. Those listeners aren't lazy by any means, but these two game franchises expand the experience of playing music in a way that has never been possible before.

Drug companies have never liked the FDA. Why should a government agency tell them whether their drugs are safe or effective? The FDA approval process can be a long one, and often new treatments are turned down.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the head of Schering-Plough (NYSE:SGP) believes that an "intensifying focus on safety and a diminished tolerance for side effects at the Food and Drug Administration have dramatically lowered the odds that the drugs would make it to market -- at least not without a lot of extra time and money."

Perhaps if pharmaceutical companies had a better track record for safety, the process would not to be so long. It is not that long ago that the FDA discovered that anti-depressants could lead to suicidal thoughts. More recently the agency warned that anemia treatments including Aranesp, Epogen and Procrit increased the risk of strokes and heart attacks.

Drug company earnings may be hurt by a long FDA approval process, but, without the current system there would likely be an increase in deceased patients.

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

Despite being on the verge of the best first six months of a year in the past 35 years, there are some concerns we may see a reversal in commodities over the next six months. This would come as a result of higher oil, copper and other raw materials prices that could put pressure on consumer spending and lead to a growth in supply.

The negative effects have already started to become visible as gasoline demand has slipped in the U.S. due to high costs, while gold purchases in India saw a plunge of 50% year-over-year. "I've probably been positive for seven years and this is the first time I think there could be really a dramatic secular reversal, that it's not just a pullback" Michael Aronstein, president of Marketfield Asset Management in New York, stated.

The impact will not pass unobserved for airline companies, who will face a decline in the number of travelers over the Fourth of July holiday, following soaring jet-fuel expenses. Copper and gold demand are also facing weak levels after the price for copper reached $4.2605 a pound May 5, the highest ever, while the price for gold reached a record $1,033.90 an ounce March 17, and is expected to average $850 this year and $750 next year.

Things are not working out so well for those at the Fed who deny that inflation exists. After all, its job is to keep the currency strong by putting out brush fires of inflationary expectations before they can become a firestorm of price spike fears. And if current consumers' expectations of inflation are any measure, the Fed is not doing its job.

That's according to the Associated Press, which reports that 90% of those it polled expect ballooning costs to squeeze them financially over the next half-year. Consumers have less money than they used to -- the median income is down since 2000 from $61,000 to $60,500. And prices have risen -- food has tripled in many cases and gasoline prices are up to around $4.20 a gallon. But the Fed does not see this -- it measures inflation excluding food and fuel -- and has kept rates at 2%.

And with housing in the tank and lenders in trouble, they can't borrow their way to balancing their budgets. Since the Fed is not controlling inflation, people are coping by cutting back. They are driving less, easing off the air conditioning and heating at home and cutting corners elsewhere. Half are curtailing vacation plans; nearly as many are considering buying cars that burn less gas.