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Daily Archives: December 31, 2008

Uncle_sam

SEC’s Cox Looks Back In Anger

Posted: December 31, 2008 at 3:44 pm

No one seems to have liked that way SEC chief Christopher Cox handled his job during the financial crisis. Congress thought he should have done more to keep banks and ...
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Pipeline Partnerships Face Credit Crunch (EPB, EPD, KMP)

Posted: December 31, 2008 at 3:08 pm

We've noted before that pipeline master limited partnerships must grow if they are to attract investors. For nearly all MLPs, that means access to credit at low interest rates. Does ...
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Russia and Ukraine: Energy Battle, Round 2.5

Posted: December 31, 2008 at 3:03 pm

The dispute between Russia and Ukraine over natural gas prices is following the same path as the fracas three years ago. Ukraine paid off part of its outstanding $2 billion ...
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Piper Jaffray Said Weak Holiday eCommerce Data Supports Thesis of Slow ’09 For Amazon (AMZN)

Posted: December 31, 2008 at 9:18 am

Analysts at Piper Jaffray commented on Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) following comScore data which showed that total eCommerce sales declined 4% Y/Y QTD for Q4 and declined 37% Y/Y in the ...
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Unemply

More Bad New On Jobless Claims

Posted: December 31, 2008 at 8:44 am

Consumer confidence is at a multi-year low. Housing prices are off 18% compared to a year ago. To complete the trifecta jobless claims are at a 26-year high.First-time applications for ...
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China_2

China’s Canary In A Coal Mine: Shanghai Index Down 65%

Posted: December 31, 2008 at 6:50 am

The Shanghai Composite, which measures the combined share value of most of the large public companies in China, fell 65% this year. Among the major US indices, the sharpest drop ...
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Who Will Lead The Charge When The Market Recovers

Posted: December 31, 2008 at 6:15 am

As hard as it may be to imagine, the stock market will move back up someday. It always has.When a market recovers, there are always one or two sectors which ...
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Aig

AIG (AIG) Wants The 1,000th Change In Its Government Loan Rules

Posted: December 31, 2008 at 5:54 am

The management at AIG (AIG) is extremely clever. Every time it runs into trouble paying back the $144 billion credit facilities provided by the federal government, it asks for a ...
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R218533_855025

The Nonsense Over “Fair Value” Accounting Goes On As Banks Beg For Forgiveness

Posted: December 31, 2008 at 5:39 am

American banks are still trying to move the goal posts in their favor on the accounting football field. Current rules govern how they set the value of assets on their ...
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Fed

The Fed Wises Up, Buys Mortgage-Backed Securities (BLK)(GS)

Posted: December 31, 2008 at 5:22 am

The Fed will step into the market next year and buy mortgage-backed securities with a vengeance. It has finally dawned on the agency that cutting rates and providing banks with ...
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Batmobile512

As Gas Prices Drop, Yankees Stay Home And Buy Fewer Cars (XOM)(F)(GM)

Posted: December 31, 2008 at 5:09 am

Last summer, a gallon of gas cost over $4. Now the prices has dropped below two bucks and is still falling. The sharp drop in crude oil is to blame.Intuition ...
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Dell20logo

Dell’s (DELL) Problems No Worse Than Apple’s (AAPL)

Posted: December 31, 2008 at 4:56 am

There are rumors going around that Dell (DELL) will fire its chief of operations and its head of marketing. The PC firm's turnaround is not going so well.The answer to ...
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Newspaper

Media Digest 12/31/2008 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg (DELL)(CHTR)(F)(PEP)

Posted: December 31, 2008 at 3:59 am

According to Reuters, housing and consumer confidence both suffered record drops.Reuters reports that GMAC eased lending rules after the government provided it with $6 billion.Reuters reports that the Madoff probe ...
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China

Asia Markets And Europe Open 12/31/2008

Posted: December 31, 2008 at 3:19 am

Some markets in Asia were closed.The Hang Seng rose 1.1% to 14,387. It was down 48% for the year.The Shanghai Composite was off .7% to 1,821 and was off 65% ...
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