Daily Archives: April 15, 2009

Twelve Major Brands That Will Disappear

A number of well-known brands disappeared in the last year in large part due to economic forces. Many of them were in the retail industry, led by Circuit City. ATA and Aloha airlines are gone. Gateway Computers has effectively disappeared after being bought by Acer. It still has a website, but the brand is no longer marketed.

As the recession deepens and stretches out quarter after quarter, more companies will close or will shut divisions. More brands will disappear because their parents firms fold or can no longer afford to support them. Other brands will be obliterated by mergers.

24/7 Wall St. examined 100 large brands that are facing troubled futures. The analysis included records for those brands that are public companies or part of public companies. We considered sales information, information from industry experts, and brand histories. We also looked at the level of competition in each brand’s market and the extent to which that competition is growing. We examined the likelihood that a brand could be sold or spun off in cases where parent companies are in financial trouble.

We have compiled a list of 12 brands that will we believe will not survive until the end of next year. Each brand and the major reasons for its demise are listed along with some of the public information 24/7 Wall St. examined. Read More »

Posted on: April 15, 2009 – 8:39 pm in Airlines, Apparel, Media, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Duke Realty Joins Wave Of REITs Raising Cash (DRE)

money-stack-image33Duke Realty Corporation (NYSE: DRE) has joined in with other REIT operations in announcing the sale of common stock in order to pay down debt.  The company plans to sell 64 million shares of common stock, or 73.6 million shares if the underwriters exercise their overallotment option.  The company also has guidance and a dividend update out after the close (updated 4:28 PM EST).

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Posted on: April 15, 2009 – 3:19 pm in Dividend, Earnings, REIT, Secondary Offering,

Game-Changer For Premier Exhibitions (PRXI)

money-stack-image32Shares of Premier Exhibitions Inc. (NASDAQ: PRXI) have been higher all day on word that G. Michael Harris’ company WLM, Inc. has made two offers that total $40 million on a combined basis of $40 million to the company.  This does not look like an outright acquisition according to the press release, but it looks like a severe valuation game-change to what its exhibits would be worth.

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Posted on: April 15, 2009 – 2:15 pm in Cult Stock, Entertainment, Insider Activity, Mergers and Buy Outs, Small Cap Stocks,

Some Relief In Homebuilder Data (XHB)

The National Association of Home Builders monthly index for this month took a huge leap from 9 to 14 to get the index out of single digit territory and at a 6-month high.  The bad news is that the reading for “equilibrium” between growth and contraction is 50.  So this is far from good news.  There are still many issues and many issues have created this “bounce” data.  The SPDR S&P Homebuilders (NYSE: XHB) ETF is up 5% at $12.15 today, but be advised that this has actually come off of highs from right before the NAHB data was released.

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Posted on: April 15, 2009 – 12:22 pm in ETF, Economy, Housing,

Does GM Have A Real Buyer For Saturn? (GM)

General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM) may have an answer as to what could happen with that Saturn unit.  Just be sure you stress the “may” in this thought.  A press release came out mid-day noting that an investor group “emerges to acquire Saturn.”  There may be more caveats and questions than there are answers, so for now we are only considering this as hearsay.  The group includes private equity firm Black Oak Partners, LLC.  This group is unknown to us.  Here is a link to the full press release.

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Posted on: April 15, 2009 – 11:45 am in Autos, Mergers and Buy Outs, Rumors, Transports,

Who Deserves Your Tax Dollars?

By Gabriel Beltrone  of The Big Money

In honor of tax day and in keeping with the spirit of the times, The Big Money is offering you a chance to choose which government-backed private enterprise you want to win the take from your 1040. We figure if members of Congress get to cherry-pick targets for line-item funding, so should you.

Go to the poll:

Posted on: April 15, 2009 – 11:07 am in Uncategorized

Heads & Tails Review For Bridgepoint IPO (BPI)

money-stack-image31Bridgepoint Education (NYSE: BPI) was a quasi-stealth initial public offering when you consider how few IPO’s we have seen over the last 8-month period.  As it was publicized less and received less attention than other IPO’s, it is also seeing some very mixed performance.  The company is in the hot field of being a provider of online and campus universities.

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Posted on: April 15, 2009 – 10:12 am in Entertainment, IPOs,

Dropping Oil Inventories Knocking ETF’s (USO, OIH)

oil-well-imageWe have just seen another build in crude oil inventories according to the Department of Energy data.  The build is not in finished products, but the increase in crude oil inventories was +5.6 million barrels to 366.7 million in the U.S.   Gasoline levels fell by -0.9 million barrels to 216.5 million barrels and distillates fell by -1.2 million barrels to 139.6 million barrels.  This is putting the heat on the United States Oil (USO) and Oil Services HOLDRs (OIH) funds.

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Posted on: April 15, 2009 – 9:51 am in Commodities, ETF, Oil & Gas, ,

Fertilizer Merger Wars Heating Up (TRA, CF, AGU, MOO)

money-stack-image30The president and CEO of Terra Industries Inc. (NYSE:TRA) has apparently purchased 100 shares of stock in CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CF) and requested CF to provide him with a list of all CF shareholders so that he can get in touch with them. CF’s CEO is not amused. In his reply, he asked why Terra’s chief appears to be more interested in communicating with stockholders than in negotiating a merger agreement with the company.

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Posted on: April 15, 2009 – 9:23 am in Agriculture, ETF, Insider Activity, Mergers and Buy Outs, , , ,

Rio Tinto Talking Down 2009 (RTP)

burning-money-pic15The slumping global economy has cut demand for steel, and lower demand for steel has cut demand for iron ore. The CEO of Rio Tinto plc (NYSE:RTP) put some numbers on that today. Rio’s iron ore production for the first quarter of 2009 was down 15% compared with the first quarter of 2008. Production was “in line” sequentially.  The company is bracing for lower production throughout 2009.

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Posted on: April 15, 2009 – 8:56 am in ADR, Commodities, Metals,

Finnish Trade Backs Royal Caribbean Cruiseliner Loan (RCL)

cruise-ship-imageIf you think it is hard to get a personal unsecured loan right now, imagine the difficulty in getting a loan for a giant cruise liner in the midst of a recession.  This morning we saw an announcement from Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE: RCL) that the cruise operator had arranged unsecured financing for $1.05 billion or 80% of the contract price of the company’s OASIS OF THE SEAS ship.

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Posted on: April 15, 2009 – 8:50 am in Entertainment, Transports,

First Solar Shines Brighter in Nevada (FSLR, SRE)

solar-panel-pic3First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ:FSLR) has signed a deal with a division of Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE) to build a 48-megawatt photovoltaic power plant that expands an existing 10-megawatt plant near Boulder City, Nevada. Construction is expected to begin this year and be completed in 2010. When the plant is completed it will be the largest photovoltaic power plant in North America. No monetary value for the deal was provided.

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Posted on: April 15, 2009 – 8:38 am in Alternative Energy, Green Biz, Utilities, ,

Starbucks Gets Unwanted Sell Rating (SBUX, MCD)

sbux-logoStarbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) has performed rather well in the most recent 5-week stock market rally.  After all, shares hit a low of $7.06 last November and challenged the $8.00 mark just last month.  By the end of March we had seen the stock go back over $12.00 before petering out.  Now we are seeing more pressure after Deutsche Bank issued a SELL rating in a downgrade this morning.  There is even a McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) angle here.

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Posted on: April 15, 2009 – 8:22 am in Analyst Calls, Food, Retail, ,

Peabody Tanking Coal (BTU, KOL)

coal-image1For the first quarter of 2009, Peabody Energy Corp. (NYSE:BTU) has reported EPS of $0.63 on revenue of $1.46 billion from 59.6 million tons of coal sold. Analysts estimates averaged an EPS of $0.93 on $1.62 billion in revenue.  The reaction here is enough that it is affecting the Market Vectors Coal ETF (NYSE: KOL).

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Posted on: April 15, 2009 – 8:05 am in Commodities, Earnings, ,

CPI: Businesses Not Passing Savings Down To Consumers?

burning-money-pic14The reading on inflation from the Labor Department on Consumer Price Index is out.  The CPI for March came out at -0.1% for nominal CPI and +0.2% on the core CPI measurement of ex-food and ex-energy.  Despite a much lower PPI reading yesterday, Bloomberg had the consensus estimates listed as +0.2% on both the nominal and core CPI.

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Posted on: April 15, 2009 – 7:36 am in Consumer Goods, Economy

Fidelity National Financial Ups The Offering Ante (FNF)

money-stack-image29Fidelity National Financial, Inc. (NYSE: FNF) has priced its secondary offering this morning, and the result is that it ended up selling more stock than what it had originally planned.  The title insurance, specialty insurance, claims management services and information services provider sold some 15.8 million shares of its common stock at $19.00 per share.

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Posted on: April 15, 2009 – 7:24 am in Banking, Financial Stocks, Secondary Offering,

Top 10 Analyst Calls (CMG, FTO, GS, NTAP, OSG, SBUX, SYY, TK, WRI, YUM)

These are the top 10 analyst calls we have seen early this Wednesday morning from Wall Street:

Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) Raised to Outperform at William Blair.
Frontier Oil (FTO) Cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.
Goldman Sachs (GS) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Network Appliance (NTAP) Raised to Buy at Merriman Curhan Ford.
Overseas Shuipholding (OSG) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Starbucks (SBUX) Cut to Sell at Deutsche Bank.
Sysco (SYY) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Teekay (TK) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Weingarten Realty (WRI) Raised to Market Perform at Wachovia.
YUM Brands (YUM) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
JON C. OGG

Posted on: April 15, 2009 – 6:58 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

Big Banks Work To Crater US Housing Market (JPM)(WFC)

bank23After all of the assistance that the government has given large banks, the least that the firms can do is extend liberal terms to homeowners to support the housing market.

According to The Wall Street Journal, “Some of the nation’s largest mortgage companies are stepping up foreclosures on delinquent homeowners. That will likely lead to more Americans losing their homes just as the Obama administration’s housing-rescue plan gets into gear.” Read More »

Posted on: April 15, 2009 – 5:05 am in Housing

A New Chance For Apple (AAPL) To Gouge AT&T (T)

winter10The deal under which AT&T (T) is the exclusive cellular carrier with rights to sell the Apple (AAPL) iPhones in the US will expire soon. The phone company believes that the partnership is essential to giving it an edge in its competition with Verizon Wireless (VOD)(VZ) and Sprint (S). So, it wants to extend its exclusivity arrangement with the PC and consumer electronics company. Read More »

Posted on: April 15, 2009 – 4:48 am in Consumer Electronics, Telecom, Wireless, , , , ,

Disclosing Bank “Stress Test” Numbers: Good Way To Cause Panic

bank22The government is close to having the results of its “stress tests” of large US banks. It has taken the financial firms’ balance sheets and set up models for what will happen if the economy worsens. Any bank that looks weak under the circumstance of the trials will be asked to raise capital. In the current credit environment, that many be nearly impossible to do.

The Administration has been asking banks not to divulge data on the testing when they put out their first quarter numbers. That stance undercuts normal disclosure rules for public companies which requires them to give out “material” information about their businesses. How each firm performed in the government trials would certainly qualify. Read More »

Posted on: April 15, 2009 – 4:35 am in Banking