amazon.com Inc.

APPLE INC., $691.28, Nasdaq symbol AAPL, unveiled the latest version of its hugely popular iPhone martphone this week. The new iPhone 5 features a larger touchscreen, faster processor and a longer-lasting battery. As well, the new model is compatible with long-term evolution (LTE) wireless networks, which are roughly five times faster than current networks. As well, Apple has upgraded iOS, the software that powers its mobile devices. It has also improved some of its other products, including its iPod music players....

ALIMENTATION COUCHE-TARD, $49.95, symbol ATD.B on Toronto, reported sharply higher sales and earnings in its latest quarter. The company is the largest convenience store operator in Canada, with over 2,000 outlets. It also has nearly 3,700 U.S. stores. The Canadian stores operate under the Couche-Tard and Mac’s banners, while the U.S. stores mainly use the Circle K brand. If you exclude one-time costs related to its $2.7-billion purchase of Norway’s Statoil Fuel & Retail ASA, Couche-Tard’s earnings rose 23.8% in the three months ended July 22, 2012, to $173.0 million from $139.7 million a year earlier (all figures except share price in U.S. dollars). Earnings per share rose 26.7%, to $0.95 from $0.75, on fewer shares outstanding. Sales rose 16.1% to $6.0 billion from $5.2 billion....

DUNDEE REIT, $38.84, symbol D.UN on Toronto, has announced plans to sell its portfolio of 86 industrial properties to a new trust called Dundee Industrial REIT. These buildings contain 6.6 million square feet of leasable space. No price has yet been set for the properties. Dundee Industrial REIT will pay for the properties by selling shares to the public through an initial public offering. The trust is selling off these holdings as part of its plan to focus entirely on office buildings. However, it does plan to retain an as-yet-unspecified interest in Dundee Industrial REIT after the share sale. That will let it continue to benefit from these properties’ future growth....

WINDSTREAM CORP. $9.59 (Nasdaq symbol WIN; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 588.0 million; Market cap: $5.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.1; Dividend yield: 10.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.windstream.com) reported revenue of $1.5 billion in the quarter ended June 30, 2012, up 49.3% from $1.0 billion a year earlier. The gain is mainly due to its December 2011 purchase of PAETEC Holding Corp., which sells telecommunication services to businesses. Integration costs cut its earnings by 43.4%, to $54.7 million, or $0.09 a share, from $96.7 million, or $0.19 a share. As a result of this purchase, Windstream now gets 68% of its revenue from broadband services, up 2.5% from a year earlier. That’s helping it offset declining traditional phone revenue. The company feels that closing overlapping functions will save it $50 million in 2012 and $100 million by the end of 2014. That should let it keep paying quarterly dividends of $0.25 a share, for a 10.4% annualized yield....

EBAY INC. $47 (Nasdaq symbol EBAY; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 1.3 billion; Market cap: $61.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.5; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.ebay.com) is testing a new service called eBay Now, which provides same-day delivery of goods purchased from major retailers such as Macy’s, Best Buy and Toys R Us.

eBay Now lets users order goods using their smartphones for a small fee. A courier company then picks up the merchandise from a store and delivers it to the customer. eBay’s PayPal service processes all payments.

This new service should help eBay compete with Amazon.com, which offers two-day shipping for an extra fee. Moreover, using existing stores instead of building its own warehouses— as Amazon does— will help eBay keep its delivery costs down.

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AMAZON.COM $217.47 (Nasdaq symbol AMZN; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (206- 266-1000; www.amazon.com; Shares outstanding: 450.5 million; Market cap: $98.0 billion; No dividends paid) has reportedly agreed to buy 3-D mapping company UpNext. UpNext offers interactive, threedimensional maps. Users can “drop down” into streets and tap objects to bring up information, directions or different viewpoints. Offering its own mapping capability through UpNext will let Amazon take full advantage of rising demand for mobile ads. As well, the company may be working on a smartphone, and it could use UpNext on that device....

AMAZON.COM $217.47 (Nasdaq symbol AMZN; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (206- 266-1000; www.amazon.com; Shares outstanding: 450.5 million; Market cap: $98.0 billion; No dividends paid) has reportedly agreed to buy 3-D mapping company UpNext.

UpNext offers interactive, threedimensional maps. Users can “drop down” into streets and tap objects to bring up information, directions or different viewpoints.

Offering its own mapping capability through UpNext will let Amazon take full advantage of rising demand for mobile ads. As well, the company may be working on a smartphone, and it could use UpNext on that device.

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NEW GOLD INC., $9.95, symbol NGD on Toronto, has three operating mines: the Mesquite mine in the U.S., the Cerro San Pedro mine in Mexico and the Peak mine in Australia. It also owns 30% of the El Morro copper/gold project in Chile (Goldcorp owns the other 70%) and 100% of the Blackwater gold project in B.C. New Gold is now starting up its fourth mine. The $765-million New Afton gold mine in B.C. processed the first ore through its mill on June 28, 2012. New Gold’s target for commercial production at New Afton, defined as 30 days of operation at 60% capacity (or 6,600 tonnes per day) remains August 2012. The company expects New Afton to produce an average of 85,000 ounces of gold and 75 million pounds of copper annually over its 12-year life. There is still room to expand the mine’s reserves and increase production through exploration drilling....

POWERSHARES QQQ ETF $62.52 (Nasdaq symbol QQQQ; buy or sell through brokers; www.invescopowershares.com), formerly called Nasdaq 100 Trust Shares, holds the stocks that represent the Nasdaq 100 Index. That index is made up of the 100 largest shares on the Nasdaq exchange, based on market cap.

The Nasdaq 100 Index contains shares of companies in a number of major industries, including computer hardware and software, telecommunications, retail/wholesale trade and biotechnology. It does not contain financial companies. The fund’s expenses are about 0.20% of its assets.

The index’s highest-weighted stocks are Apple, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Google, Cisco Systems, Intel, Amazon.com, Oracle Corp., Comcast Corp. and Amgen Inc.

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GOOGLE INC., $580.07, Nasdaq symbol GOOG, will soon launch the Nexus 7, a new tablet computer that features a 7-inch touch-screen display and the latest version of the company’s Android operating system for mobile devices. The new tablet will cost $199. That should help Google complete with similar-sized tablets, including Amazon.com’s popular Kindle Fire. (Amazon.com is a recommendation of Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter that focuses on aggressive investing.) Google will also launch the Nexus Q, a ball-shaped device that lets users stream music and video from the Internet to a TV set or stereo system. This device will cost $299....