Daily Archives: November 14, 2008

OPEC Prepares To Wage War

Tx00338coilwellgusherodessatexasposAs ironic as it may seem, the finances of OPEC members may be as bad as at any time in recent memory. They have become poor as quickly as they became rich earlier this year.

OPEC obviously expected oil prices to stay above $100 for some length of time. Government budgets in places like Iran and Venezuela depend on high crude. Now they face massive deficits and no way to handle their obligations.

In places including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait parts of the banking systems are strained and the ability of royal families to buy new Hummers and private jets has been hurt.

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Posted on: November 14, 2008 – 6:19 am in Oil & Gas

Boeing (BA) Takes Another Chance To Ruin Its Prospects

R218533_855025It seems like only yesterday that Boeing (BA) settled a six-week strike with its machinists. That took six weeks and delayed production of scores of planes which have customers panting to get delivered. The new Dreamliner, in particular, is suppose to sip fuel and save a lot of money in the process. But, Boeing cannot avoid a love of calamity.

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Posted on: November 14, 2008 – 6:02 am in Aerospace,

Zero Percent Financing For Everything

UnderThe major car companies have been offering zero percent financing on most of their models for several months now. That deal even applies to seven-year loans. It may have stimulated sales. In a bad economy, it is hard to tell.

Yesterday, Microsoft (MSFT) announced it would offer zero percent financing to medium-sized business to stimulate sales.

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Posted on: November 14, 2008 – 5:52 am in Housing, ,

Citigroup (C): Vikram Pandit’s Grand Strategy Of Cutting People

DataPerhaps it is a remarkable failure of imagination or just animal panic. A day after Citigroup (C) hit a multi-year low and spent time below $10, CEO Vikram Pandit’s answer was to buy a few crummy shares in the bank and prepare to fire another 10,000 poor souls. He also decided to raise rates on credit cards, which would seem to undermine the federal government’s programs to help consumers during a liquidity crisis.

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Posted on: November 14, 2008 – 5:32 am in Banking, , , , , ,

Media Digest 11/14/2008 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

NewspaperAccording to Reuters, concerns about the global economy are growing as the G20 nations are meeting.

Reuters says that Congress challenged banks on how they would use bailout funds.

Reuters reports that companies including Honda (HMC), Home Depot (HD), and Dow Chemical (DOW) want the Fed to buy their commercial paper.

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Posted on: November 14, 2008 – 4:03 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Asia Market And Europe Open 11/14/2008

ChinaMarkets in Asia were sharply higher.

The Nikkei rose 4% to 8,486.

The Hang Seng was up 4.4% to 13,620.

The Shanghai Composite rose 2.3% to 1,972.

At the open the FTSE was up 3.9% to 4,333.  The Dax rose 3.3% to 4,804. The CAC 40 was up 2.9% to 3,363.

Data from MarketWatch.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: November 14, 2008 – 3:21 am in International Markets