Keeping focus in a grim market, Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) is pledging to maintain its profit outlook for its next fiscal year. This is despite the increase in coffee bean prices Starbucks is facing that would normally pose some complications to SBUX stock and the bottom line.

Mining giant BHP Billiton Ltd. (NYSE: BHP) made an unsolicited offer to acquire Potash Corp. (NYSE: POT) for $130 a share that the Potash board immediately and unanimously rejected as "grossly inadequate." The offer from BHP valued Potash at approximately $38.6 billion. Not only did Potash reject the offer from BHP billiton, the company's board adopted a "poison pill" rule that prohibits any single investor from acquiring a stake greater than 20% in Potash.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B) revealed its latest quarterly holdings report, with stocks of record as of the market close on June 30. Though many positions remain unchanged, there are some notable moves where Warren Buffett boosted his companies stake in Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) and in Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT).

The recession is “officially” over according to GDP figures. Stocks are up +50% from the March 2009 bottom. Gold and silver are up dramatically, too. So what’s the only remaining asset class that’s still cheap?

After enduring two months of sluggish video game sales and releasing a number of titles from video game stocks such as Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI) and Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: ERTS) that failed to gain any significant traction, the video game industry has been on the outs. But a few video game stocks finally had a decent month this summer, according the July video game sales numbers.

Apple sent out an early version of their next Mac OS X update while preping a relaunch of their community pages in the form of a new social network. Meanwhile, Axon Logic launches an expensive but versatile new iPad competitor.

It has not been a good August for Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI). First, Activision earnings came out including lower revenue and poor guidance. Then a July video game sales report showed trouble again, with industry-wide sales down 1% on the month.

When KFC president Roger Eaton decided to ignore the Colonel’s tried and true bone-in fried chicken and instead focus on healthier fare, he managed to ruffle the feathers of many of his faithful franchise owners across the country. Now parent company Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM) is being sued by angry KFC franchise owners over the Yum corporate plan – most notably, over the push for grilled over fried chicken.

Hulu appears to be thinking of a fall 2010 IPO with a stock offering to raise $2 billion, according to reports. But industry experts speculate that the Hulu IPO plans aren’t to beef up programming or boost bandwidth. Rather, the move is to push for one of two things –the implementation of a subscription service that charges internet audience, or a push to put more ads in content to boost profits.

Beer prices have gone up regardless of inflation or deflation in the broader economy, and it looks like they're about to go up even more.

Consumers, investors, and analysts have been asking since 2007 why SCEA and Sony-Ericsson haven't produced a Playstation branded smartphone to compete with Apple (NASDAQ: APPL).

Stocks plunged on Wednesday as investors decided to dump shares of companies most closely related to cyclical economic growth. The funny thing is, they ramped up the very same shares a week ago because they were so excited about the prospects for improved growth. It's like deja vu all over again, but backwards and with a full twist.