Serwer: Ripe bananas, stale doughnuts

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- The Dow is down five days in a row, worst streak in a year. Who told you that was coming? Cupid? That's stupid (from ABC's "Poison Arrow"). We go no where for the rest of the year.....

CHIQUITA BRANDS: Okay so we got some weak numbers from this top banana. Hardy har har. Weak banana pricing in Europe. That's good for banana buyers, (i.e. consumers!). And CQB got hurt by the tainted spinach thing because they have a brand of prepacked salad and spinach called Fresh Express. (No indications they had any bad product though). For years this company out of Cincinnati, Ohio, was lead by Carl Lindner. Stock (Charts) has been down lately. Over time I like this company. The banana is the most popular food in the world. "I'm the Chiquita banana and I'm here to say..."

KRISPY KREME: The company announced that sales were off, in fact down more than 18 percent in each of the last two years. Did I ever tell you not to buy this stock? I know I know the stock's gone from $4 to $10, which is huge. BUT, that's a dead terrorist bounce (throw a terrorist off a building and he'll bounce a little bit...). What is the future of the doughnut? Of the KKD (Charts) doughnut? Not so much. And Dunkin' is gettin' bigger.

NOVELL: So they (Charts) have this new deal with the Beast of Redmond. Partnering with MSFT (Charts) in some sort of Linux/open source deal. Such a big deal? So why is Novell down in the pre-market. Because it isn't that a big a deal. I love the open source/Linux business. You "give" your customers some free software. It's impossible to use, so then you make them hire your consultants to install and service. Nice. (Question: Is Eric Schmidt behind all of this?)

Loose Change: Ace producer Paul says and I agree that the LIB-rils are likely in for a big surprise on Tuesday. Everyone says Dems going to cruise? I say no way. Expectations are too high. Plus all the talk about the LIB-rils kicking butt may energize the Elephants..... Listened to Tony Bennett singing "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" on the way in, in the cab. Beautiful thing.... A heartfelt goodbye to Supa producer Ashley Corum, (who's taking the week off...so I'll miss saying "later" to her next week.) You the best Ash! Good luck ....

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E-mail Andy Serwer at serwer@fortunemail.com and see him on CNN's "In the Money" and "American Morning."

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