The Watch List names lost 4.37 percent this week, worse than any of the benchmarks. Again, not surprisingly given the median market cap of Watch List members, the performance was closest to the small-cap indices and it is still slightly ahead of them since inception.

It was a busy week, with earnings warnings from Borders Group (BGP), BJ’s Wholesale (BJ) and Yankee Candle (YCC), and an earnings disappointment from Journal Register (JRC). Ceradyne made its nuclear ambitions concrete, but will have a tough time fighting an Armored competitor. Hansen Natural (HANS) got kudos from Fortune.

Other news, that was fit to print but didn’t fit, includes:

Starbucks to up noncoffee merchandise for holidays - Yahoo! News

The holiday line-up will feature a glittery snow globe on a gold-colored base, at least three kinds of Christmas ornaments, a reusable Advent calendar that turns into a miniature chest of drawers at the end of the season and a dessert plate reading “Cookies for Santa.”

NTT DoCoMo going Super 3G

NTT DoCoMo, Inc. announced that starting today it will accept proposals from suppliers for development of equipment for Super 3G base stations and handsets.DoCoMo will select one or more suppliers for each of these categories around October and aims to complete the technology with the selected suppliers before the end of 2009.

The Super 3G standard is expected to provide superfast downlink data rates of over 100Mbps and uplink data rates of over 50Mbps, low-latency data transmission, and improved spectrum efficiency.

Accenture Acquiring Advantium and Meridian Informed Purchasing, Two Companies Specializing in Profit Recovery and Analytics

The two companies use sophisticated processes and proprietary software to analyze clients’ procurement and payables data to prevent, detect and recover the lost profits, or erroneous payments, which can result from human error, system-integration issues, contract non-compliance and fraud.

Cognizant (CTSH) forms digital media center of excellence.

Statoil’s Valkyrie well disappoints.

Travelzoo continues its growth in the UK.

Brunswick sneezed and MarineMax caught a cold.

KCS Energy acquisition by Petrohawk closed.

Pinnacle (PNCL) asked to place additional aircraft lease deposits.

In September 2005, Northwest Airlines, Inc. requested that Pinnacle Airlines, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pinnacle Airlines Corp. (collectively, “Pinnacle”), pay $21,700,000 in additional aircraft sublease security deposits by March 1, 2006. Pinnacle has disputed Northwest’s right to seek additional security deposits at this time. Northwest has extended its deadline to August 14, 2006 while the parties continue ongoing discussions regarding their future business relationship.

Gabelli to Pay $130 Mln to Settle With US on Cell Licenses.

Campbell Soup to sell UK, Irish units for $845 mln. That’s a cash infusion equal to five percent of the market cap.

Disclosure: Author is long Starbucks (SBUX) at time of publication.

The Houston Chronicle reports on Watch List company Yankee Candle:

Candlemaker Yankee Candle Co. cut second-quarter and full-year guidance Wednesday, citing weak wholesale sales as well as higher promotional spending, wax costs and freight costs. The company lowered second-quarter earnings guidance to between 11 cents to 12 cents per share from prior estimates of 18 cents to 20 cents per share.

That is an astounding example of inefficiency. Weak sales despite promotional spending, topped off with higher costs. We probably should have seen the writing on the wall when we accidentally stumbled on their flagship store in Deerfield, Massachussetts (near the corporate headquarters.) Needing to make a pit stop and stretch our legs, it seemed like a welcoming enough place.

As far as pit stops go, it is highly recommended. The overwhelming scented candle aroma in the restroom is a welcome respite from the alternative. Plus, it is quite amazing to see 100,000 square feet of retail devoted almost exclusively to scented candles and Christmas decorations. It was also nice, in July, to be in a cool dark room with its own snow generating machine. With its indoor Bavarian village complete with CDs of the Von Trapp family grandchildren it was truly one of the damndest places we have ever seen. We tried to imagine pitching the idea to management: “We’ll make a huge candle store, with a Bavarian village and Christmas decorations year-round. We can make snow inside to keep people in the Holiday spirit. People will flock to it in buses! We’ll need picnic tables to handle the overflow from the restaurant!” More »