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Monthly Archives: May 2009

Winter

Sony (SNE): A Plan To Cut But Not Build

Posted: May 21, 2009 at 5:08 am

Sony's (SNE) plan to turn itself around is all about cutting costs and has nothing to do with building new products or restructuring the firm's content operations. Sony's management laid ...
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bank

Bank Of America (BAC): An Audacious Plan To Pay Back The Government

Posted: May 21, 2009 at 4:51 am

Bank of America (BAC) is hinting strongly that it plans to pay back the US government the $45 billion that it owes by the end of this year. Bank stress ...
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bear

UK Debt Trouble Moves Soveign Borrowing Problem Closer To US

Posted: May 21, 2009 at 4:32 am

No one in the US worried much when S&P downgraded the sovereign debt of The Ukraine or the Republic of Kazakhstan. Now, the trouble has moved much closer to home as ...
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bear

The Joy Of Reading The Minutes Of The Federal Open Market Committee

Posted: May 21, 2009 at 4:07 am

The FOMC minutes are like most other documents produced inside the government’s bureaucracy. The bulk of the information has been gathered long before the report reaches the public. In the ...
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bank

Who Runs The Government’s Portfolio? (C)(GM)(AIG)

Posted: May 21, 2009 at 3:58 am

The federal government will end up owning bits and pieces of businesses including banks, car companies and insurance firms as it puts money into industries weakened by the recession. The ...
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newspaper

Media Digest 5/21/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

Posted: May 21, 2009 at 3:03 am

Reuters:   Congress passed a bill to put restrictions on credit card companies. Reuters:   The Fed mulled increasing securities during its April meeting. Reuters:   Geithner said the US was making progress ...
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Sunset

Asia Markets And European Open 5/21/2009

Posted: May 21, 2009 at 2:29 am

Markets in Asia were lower. The Nikkei fell .9% to 9,284. The Hang Seng fell 1.3% to 17,248. The Shanghai Composite was down 1.5% to 2,611. At the open in ...
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At $62 Oil & $900 Gold, ETF’s Compete In Reflation Trade (DBA, GLD, SLV, JJC, USO, DBC)

Posted: May 20, 2009 at 1:42 pm

While the Fed has noted nothing about inflationary pressures, we have started seeing yet another return to the reflation trade as the economy seems to be bottoming out and all ...
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FOMC Hints At Keeping Rates Low & Still Buying Securities

Posted: May 20, 2009 at 1:11 pm

We have just gotten the minutes from the FOMC meeting that ended on April 29. 2009.  What we were looking for were comments regarding a potential exit strategy for near-zero ...
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YRC Worldwide Files To Raise Capital (YRCW)

Posted: May 20, 2009 at 12:13 pm

YRC Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ: YRCW) has not been without its  problems.  We recently saw reports about how it was trying to raise funds from the government and we have just ...
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Is the Stimulus Stimulating Jobs? We May Never Know for Sure

Posted: May 20, 2009 at 12:00 pm

by Olga Pierce, ProPublica The Obama administration has unveiled its plan for measuring how well the stimulus package works, and the bottom line is: Many questions will remain unanswered. While ...
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Second Week of Oil Inventory Declines Running ETFs (USO, OIL)

Posted: May 20, 2009 at 9:47 am

It looks like we are seeing the second week of draws in crude oil and oil products.  The Department of Energy is confirming data from the EIA last night showing ...
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bear

Social Networks Are Big, And Commercial Failures (TWX)(GOOG)(YHOO)(MSFT)

Posted: May 20, 2009 at 9:39 am

The most provocative question about huge social networks like MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube is whether they will ever make money despite the tens of millions of users that they have. ...
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Petrobras Seems The Winner in China’s $10 Billion Loan (PBR, SNP, XOM, CVX)

Posted: May 20, 2009 at 8:26 am

The $10 billion loan from the China Development Bank to Brazil's Petroleo Brasiliero SA, known as Petrobras (NYSE: PBR), has been finalized.  This deal has been in our pending file ...
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Does Palm Deserve Its Tenfold Rise? (PALM, AAPL, RIMM)

Posted: May 20, 2009 at 8:07 am

Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) has been on a tear of late.  It was just Monday that shares were hitting fresh 52-week highs and that was after being one of last ...
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