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Email UpdatesBy Douglas McIntyre for DailyFinance
Oracle (ORCL) did two things yesterday: It beat Wall Street earnings forecasts, and it set its first dividend. The second action may be more important than the first. The pay-out will be 5 cents a share.
Daily Archives: March 19, 2009
Buyout for More Efficient Solar Panels from National Semi (NSM)
National Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE: NSM) is making a push into solar via an acquisition. The company has acquired Act Solar, Inc. to expand its portfolio of power optimization technologies along with the acquisition of new diagnostics and panel monitoring capabilities for solar arrays.
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Palm Sees Revenue Slap (PALM)
Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) posted its third quarter results and disclosed that it had a net loss of $98 million or -$0.89 EPS after items. The loss on a non-GAAP basis was -$94.7 million or -$0.86 EPS on revenue of $90.6 million. Estimates were -$0.59 EPS on more than $108 million in revenue. Shareholders better hope it is right about being on the verge of entering a new era, because the metrics of today are just awful.
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Microsoft’s (MSFT) Ballmer Waits For Yahoo! (YHOO) To Lose Money, Then Move In For The Kill
Microsoft’s (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer is making a good show of trying to get Yahoo! (YHOO) to discuss selling its search business. The combination could give MSFT 30% of the US market to Google’s (GOOG) 60%.
Ballmer once again said that he would like to sit down with Yahoo!’s new CEO Carol Bartz. But, that statement hides the fact that Yahoo! may well lose money this quarter, and Ballmer has no reason to talk until then. All he needs to do is send the message that he is open. Read More
Barrick Raises Cash (ABX)
If you thought the corporate bond market spreads were going to keep issuers away, there has been a record amount of new issuances. Today, Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE: ABX) announced plans to sell some $750 million in notes.
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Toll CEO Unloads Even More Stock (TOL, XHB)
Toll Brothers Inc. (NYSE: TOL) has submitted two different filings showing that CEO Robert Toll unloaded 1 million shares this week.
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The Reflation Trade Emerges, Again (USO, OIL, GLD, GDX, DBA)
Some good news in the markets today and the massive influx of future money from the Fed and Treasury has led to a substantial increase in both crude oil and gold prices. NYMEX crude futures are up more than $3/barrel, and London gold is above $950/ounce after falling below $890/ounce yesterday. Yesterday, it was the exit of fear driving the markets, now the notion of “inflation coming around the corner” is back.
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Snapping up Volkswagen could be the smartest move in the car business
By Matthew DeBord from The Big Money
The auto industry generates nothing these days that even remotely resembles good news. General Motors is teetering on the edge of official (as opposed to undeclared) bankruptcy. Chrysler is apparently being run by the Italians. The Detroit car business itself is conducting a dog and pony show for Washington’s auto task force against a background of Motown homes selling for a buck (which is just slightly less than Ford’s current share price). Even former stalwart profit machines like Toyota and BMW are struggling with declining sales and collapsed leasing offers.
Leading Indicators Actually Lagging
The Conference Board has just released the “Leading Economic Indicators” for the month of February. While these arguably don’t really lead, there was another drop to -0.4% for February. Both components, the “coincident” and “lagging” indicators, came in at the same -0.4% reading. Estimates from Bloomberg were for a reading of -0.6%. This data follows a slight increase in January, although that was revised slightly lower.
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Is The Corning (GLW) News A ‘Green Shoot’?
Is today’s Corning (NYSE: GLW) news one of the “green shoots” Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke was talking about?
Corning said it now believes total glass volume for the first quarter could be flat to down 5% sequentially, versus its original guidance of down 20% to 25%. Corning now believes it will have positive net income, excluding special items, in the first quarter.
Schumpeter, and the Slow March Toward Socialism?
By John Tamny RealClearMarkets
In his 1942 book, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, Joseph Schumpeter asked the essential question: “Can capitalism survive?” His unsettling answer was, “No. I do not think it can.” Schumpeter’s words were in no way meant to denigrate capitalism, instead he felt “its very success undermines the social institutions which protect it.”
History in many ways proved his views prophetic. The success of capitalism means that many are allowed to do things that have nothing to do with productivity. And from government and academic elites that frequently seek to undermine the very system that enabled their cushy jobs, to foundations created by capitalist profits that often dismiss same, the commercial success wrought by the pursuit of profit has created an unproductive elite that lives off the very business profits that it regularly casts a skeptical eye on.
Chinese Expand Oil Drilling (CEO, COP)
Chinese oil giant CNOOC Ltd. (NYSE:CEO) has begun production at a new field in Bohai Bay, off China’s northeast coast. The new field is relatively small, producing just 4,000 barrels/day, but production is expected to reach 25,000 barrels/day by 2011. This is the first of five CNOOC projects expected to come online in Bohai Bay in 2009.
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Cisco Acquisition.. What The Flip? (CSCO)
Cisco Systems, Inc.(NASDAQ: CSCO) has made an announcement in acquisitions that may seem like a move further outside of its core operations. It is actually just one more move into the mobile consumer arena. The company is acquiring privately held Pure Digital Technologies, and this is the maker of the popular Flip Video™ cameras.
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DryShips Scores Petrobras Award (DRYS, PBR, RDS-A)
DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ: DRYS) has just announced a new contract order that is sending shares soaring. The company’s Ocean Rig ASA subsidiary has received a ‘letter of award’ from Petrobras (NYSE: PBR) for a 3-year period employment contract for exploration drilling in the Black Sea. The size of the award is significant on the surface.
Celebrating a Less-Bad Jobs Number
There was actually a drop in the jobless claims numbers this week. The new weekly data from the Labor Department came in at 646,000, down 12,000 fro the week before. The prior week’s jobless claims were revised to 658,000 from 654,000. We had consensus estimates at roughly 655,000 as of yesterday. There was also a jump again in continuing jobless claims from 5.29 million up to 5.47 million in the last week.
The unemployed are now arguably the largest city in America. And somehow this is supposed to be good news. And if you are one of the newly unemployed, how much of a lagging indicator does it feel like as the economists keep saying?
JON C. OGG
Bracing For Outrage Over Citi Executive Offices (C)
If you thought that lavish spending was over on Wall Street, there is going to be a new point of outrage this morning for all the whiners. Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) is spending roughly $10 million for executive offices in New York. Despite the note that this may actually be a trade-down from existing space, Vikram Pandit’s fate may have just taken a turn for the worse.
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Citi Plans Reverse Split & Share Conversions (C)
If you thought things were going to get quiet at Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C) after the 200% run up of late, they aren’t if this morning’s news comes to fruition. The company has issued a share exchange offer for outstanding convertible and non-convertible preferred and trust preferred securities and it is going to seek a reverse stock split.
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Top Analyst Downgrades (ARMH, CHU, ERIC, EXPE, GGG, MTB, SNE, TEX)
These are the top downgrades and negative research calls we have seen so far from Wall Street analysts this Thursday morning:
Arm Holdings (ARMH) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
China Unicom Hong Kong (CHU) Cut to Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.
Ericsson (ERIC) Cut to Market Perform at Bernstein.
Expedia (EXPE) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Graco Inc. (GGG) Cut to Underperform at Baird.
M&T Bank (MTB) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
Sanofi-Aventis (SNE) Reiterated as Underperform at Jefferies.
Terex (TEX) Cut to Masrket Perform at Wachovia.
JON C. OGG
Top Analyst Upgrades (AA, WTR, BEC, CWT, CHRT, CHA, GAS, NOK, PNY, WW)
These are the top upgrades and positive research calls we have seen from Wall Street analysts so far early this Thursday morning:
Alcoa (AA) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
Aqua America (WTR) Raised to Outperform at Baird.
Beckman Coulter (BEC) Raised to Overweight at Barclays.
California Water (CWT) Raised to Outperform at Baird.
Chartered Semiconductor (CHRT) Raised to Neutral at HSBC.
China Telecom (CHA) Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Nicor (GAS) Raised to Outperform at Baird.
Nokia (NOK) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Piedmont Natural Gas (PNY) Raised to Outperform at Baird.
Watson Wyatt Worldwide (WW) Started as Buy at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.
-JON C. OGG
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Today’s top tickerspy Indexes Domestic Telecom ... +2.6% Stem Cell Stocks +2.3% Pain Management S... +2.1% Ethanol and Biofu... +1.9% Savings and Loan ... +1.8% 
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