RSS Updates
Email Updates
As if Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) had any real strength to its ratings, Moody’s has downgraded Citigroup’s senior debt. Interestingly, Moody’s says that this downgrade was moderated by the expecation that Citigroup will probably get support from the U.S. government. It is surprising that the Moody’s debt ratings were this high throughout this credit mess and horrible economy.
Daily Archives: December 18, 2008
Moody’s Kicking Citi & Pandit (C, MCO)
RIM (RIMM) Earnings: Santa Loves Blackberry
RIMM had already told Wall St. what to expect for the quarter. Two weeks ago the company forecast $.81 to $.83 per share, excluding one-time items, on sales of $2.75 billion to $2.78 billion for the period just past.
What investors wanted to know is what the next quarter and 2009 would look like.
Traders expected bad news, selling RIMM shares down by over 5% today to $38.44, near their 52-week low and down from the period high of $148.13.
RIMM refused to succumb to the forces of the recession and posted a set of numbers that lightened the days for the financially depressed. The stock immediately jumped to $41.40 after hours.
Oracle Earnings, A Currency Story (ORCL)
Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) posted non-GAAP earnings of $0.34 EPS and $5.7 billion in revenue compared with First Call estimates of $0.34 EPS and $5.84 billion in sales. There is more data that impacted earnings, and this is still incomplete at this point.
The 52-Week Low Club: (MNI)(SGY)(NT)(TTWO)
McClatchy Newspapers (MNI) Drops to $.98 as shareholder panic. The 52-week high is $13.31.
Stone Energy (SGY) Cuts production view for quarter. Drops to $8.47 from 52-week high of $73.96.
Nortel Networks (NT) falls to $.24 on concerns about bankruptcy against 52-week high of $16.07.
Take-Two Interactive (TTWO) Remarkably poor earnings and awful forecast. Sells down to $8.65 from 52-week high of $27.95.
Douglas A. McIntyre
S&P Fires A Shot Across GE’s Bow (GE)
Standard & Poor’s issued a report that is being taken a "downgrade-light" by many traders. S&P has revised its outlook on General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) and units including GE Capital Corp. to negative from stable. Be advised that it is still maintaining its "AAA" long-term and "A-1+" short-term counterparty ratings on GE. While this is about GE and its GECC ratings, S&P has essentially noted a one-in-three chance that GE could lose its "AAA" rating.
Panic Selling Drives Down Newspaper Stock McClatchy (MNI)
What appears to be a wave of panic-driven selling is taking shares in newspaper chain McClatchy (MNI) down 26% to a new multi-year low of $1.10. The stock has a 52-week high of $13.31.
On Monday, McClatchy announced that November advertising revenue dropped 19.4% which means that the company is facing having an operating deficit for Q4.
McClatchy has $2.4 billion in debt and it is not clear how it can possibly repay that.
Douglas A. McIntyre
Electric Utilities Make News on Expectations, Merger Plans (LNT, EXC, NRG)
Alliant Energy Corp. (NYSE:LNT) this morning released financial guidance for 2009. The company also noted that it has reached an agreement with the state of Wisconsin on a rate case settlement that will keep natural gas prices to consumers flat, resulting in revenue decrease of about $4 million. Alliant apparently decided that trying to raise consumer rates now was a loser.
Oracle Expectations Differ From Analysts & Ellison (ORCL)
After the close of trading today, Larry Ellison & Co. is set to report earnings for Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL). Thomson Reuters (First Call) has earnings estimates of $0.34 EPS on $5.84 billion in revenues. Be advised that this number is actually under where the company put its own targets and is down from $0.35 EPS estimates just two months ago.
Bracing for R-I-M Earnings (RIMM, AAPL)
Research in Motion Ltd. (NASDAQ: RIMM) is set to report earnings at the close today. The Blackberry smartphone maker is expected to post earnings (from First Call, Thomson Reuters) at $0.83 EPS and $2.82 billion in revenues. The guidance is going to continue to be more important than the actual earnings.
S&P Cuts GM (GM): Too Late As Bush Talks Chapter 11
Credit rating agencies and stock analysts have the habit of stating the obvious after the obvious is obvious to everyone else.
S&P cut its price target on GM (GM) today. A bit later, the Bush administration said an "orderly bankruptcy" might be the best way to solve the Detroit crisis.
New Technology Could Help Oil Sands Producers (SU)
SRI Consulting published a new report on producing crude oil from western Canada’s oil sands deposits. The report concludes that "with rational engineering and prudent business decision making, grass roots tar sands projects should be economically viable at benchmark crude oil prices below US$60 a barrel." This brings about good news and bad news for the Canadian Oil Sands sector.
This is a pretty big deal, especially with benchmark crude prices inthe low $40/barrel range. For example, in the 2008 third quarter,Suncor Energy Inc. (NYSE:SU) reported that its projected operatingcosts per barrel had increased to $36.50/barrel.
MEMC Lowers Guidance, Blames Lack of Credit (WFR)
Citing unavailability of credit to "some solar customers," MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc. (NYSE:WFR) lowered its fourth quarter 2008 revenue guidance from $500 million to $400-$425 million. The company also projects that gross margins will fall about 2 percentage points, from 48% to around 46%.
SIRIUS Outlines Growth Targets To 2013… Can It Make It? (SIRI)
SIRIUS XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) has its annual meeting of stockholders today, and the company is out with some updated information which will be as important as ever to its burned stockholders. We have seen the presentation and have pooled some of the new data and the outlook being issued by Mel Karmazin. The guidance is being given out to 2013 and it outlined the company’s expected debt maturities to 2014.While the company is discussing long-term growth plans, there are still questions on whether it can survive between now and then.
Goldman Sachs Outlines 2009 Financial & Credit Expectations (GS)
Goldman Sachs has come out with a new financial sector outlook for 2009, and much of how you receive it will depend whether you see things as"half empty" or "half full." It is not a good outlook, but you can at least start to get an idea of what is left to come. Overall, Goldman Sachs expects that the fundamentals of the financial sector and economy will remain poor in 2009.
Charter Comm (CHTR) Bull Turns Negative, As Massive Debt Strangles The Company
One of the few Charter Communications Inc.(CHTR) bulls is turning as the company looks headed for bankruptcy. Analysts at Pali Research downgraded the stock today from Buy to Neutral, citing the massive debt load.
The firm said, while growth has remained at the top end of the cable industry, the weight of its $21 bn of debt (9.1x leverage) is becoming too much for the company to bear.
Making Content Sites Profitable
A new report from ContentNext, which is available at its site, PaidContent.org, reviews the financial prospects of political and news sites.
The first conclusion of the report is that being big is good. Sites with 200 million pageviews a month have a reasonable shot at getting major advertisers. Having pageviews of over 800 million a month puts news and political sites into the marketing big time.
Richard Bove Sounding More Like Meredith Whitney on Citi (C, GS, MS)
Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) is getting a more "in-line" view from analyst and fan Dick Bove of Ladenburg Thalmann. Bove is capitulating at least a bit with the admission that the quarter may look worse than he previously thought. Bove even noted this one as "No good news for Citigroup," despite his official recommendation remaining a "buy."
Auxilium Scores on Pfizer Pact (AUXL, PFE)
Auxilium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AUXL) is responding well in pre-market trading after the company signed an overseas commercialization agreement with Pfizer, Inc. (NYSE: PFE). The pact covers Auxilium’s Xiaflex, a treatment for hand and urological disorders related to hardening collagen.
Book Review: Russell Roberts’s ‘The Price of Everything’
By John Tamny RealClearMarkets
Take a look at the computer screen your eyes are presently (hopefully) fixated on, not to mention the computer mouse you used in order to click on this posting. Did you ever consider how both were made? Could you make either yourself, and if so, how and where would you acquire the various raw materials and parts in order to create them?
If the above questions vex you, then George Mason economics professor Russell Roberts’s excellent new novel, The Price of Everything, is for you. Importantly, Roberts does not explain how things are made in this tale as much as he teaches us through a very interesting dialogue between a professor and student that the "whole system we call a market economy works as well as it does precisely because of how little we have to know.
Top Analyst Upgrade/Positive Calls (AACC, CYN, LLL, LTC, NTRS, PAR, TRMK, UHS)
These are some of the top analyst upgrades and positive calls we are seeing from Wall Street early this Thursday morning with more than two hours to the open:
- Asset Acceptance Capital (NASDAQ: AACC) Raised to Market Perform at KBW.
- City National (NYSE: CYN) Raised to Outperform at KBW.
- L-3 Communications (NYSE: LLL) Started as Outperform at Morgan Keegan.
- LTC Properties (NYSE: LTC) Started as Buy at KeyBanc.
- Northern Trust (NASDAQ: NTRS) Raised to Outperform at KBW.
- 3PAR (NYSE: PAR) Started as Outperform at Morgan Keegan.
- Terremark Worldwide (NASDAQ: TRMK) Started as Buy at Stanford.
- Universal Health (NYSE: UHS) Started as Overweight at JPMorgan.
Jon C. Ogg
December 18, 2008
-
Today’s top tickerspy Indexes Home Furnishing R... +14.1% Ethanol and Biofu... +5.1% Electronics Retai... +2.1% Diabetes Stocks +2.0% Memory Chip Stock... +2.0% 
-
-
- CORRECT: Regulators Propose OK Of PG&E Space-Based Solar Deal
- Edison International Unit Wins Approval For Calif Transmission Line
- UPDATE: FDA Reviewing Safety Of Weight-Loss Drug Meridia
- BOE: Credit, Asset Prices Could Guide Macroprudential Rules
- FDA Reviewing Safety Of Weight-Loss Drug Meridia
- Siemens Turns Sights On Latin America For Wind Turbines
-
-
- paidContent - Nielsen Biz Selling Print, Online But Not Until December; Lachlan Murdoch Considering Investing
- paidContent - ESPN.com's Bill Simmons Gets A Twitter Time Out, Sort Of
- paidContent - Finally, MySpace Music Licenses 'Fifth Label' Merlin; Reins in Fiercest Critic
- paidContent - Why Sony's Planned Music Store Won't Start Out As A Serious iTunes Challenger
- paidContent - paidContent Quick Hits 11.20.09
- paidContent - SEC Watch: New DirecTV CEO Could Make $35.5 Million (And Then Some)
-
©2009 24/7 Wall St.
Powered by WordPress.com VIP
Designed by SlipFire
