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Monthly Archives: November 2009

Somali Pirates Seize Oil Tanker

Posted: November 30, 2009 at 5:52 am

Somali pirates have a new business. They hope to corner the market in crude. The Greek-owned Maran Centaurus, which is carrying oil from Saudi Arabia to the US, was hijacked in ...
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Americans Give Up The Credit Card For The Holidays

Posted: November 30, 2009 at 5:35 am

Just over one-quarter of shoppers who made purchases over the Thanksgiving weekend used credit cards. Thirty-nine percent used cash and the balance of the shoppers used debit cards which are a ...
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24/7 Wall St. TV: The Mortgage Mess: Government To Push Private Sector To Do What Government Cannot Do

Posted: November 30, 2009 at 5:06 am

Congress and the Administration put a $787 billion stimulus package into place on the assumption that its many programs will supply capital to strategically important industries.  The ultimate goal was ...
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The Vicious Competition For Peak Oil

Posted: November 30, 2009 at 4:56 am

There has been a heated argument for the last several years about when the world will start to run out of oil. The rate of oil production, after more than ...
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Media Digest 11/30/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

Posted: November 30, 2009 at 3:58 am

Reuters:   UAE shares fell on Dubai debt problem news. Reuters:   The Treasury will meet with mortgage companies to try to get them to accelerate loan modifications. Reuters:   Holiday shoppers did ...
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Asia Markets And Europe Open (11/30/2009)

Posted: November 30, 2009 at 3:28 am

Markets in Asia were sharply higher. The Nikkei rose 2.9% to 9,346. Mitsubishi UFJ (NYSE:MTU) fell. The Hang Seng rose 3.3% to 21,822. HSBC (NYSE:HBC) rose. The Shanghai Composite was ...
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Amazon (AMZN) And Apple (AAPL) Big Black Friday Online Winners

Posted: November 29, 2009 at 6:43 pm

Most people would guess that Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) would do well this holiday season--better than their respective competitors. Thanksgiving e-commerce traffic is that the online sales site and ...
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24/7 Wall St. TV: American Consumers Spent $41.2 Billion On Black Friday Weekend!

Posted: November 29, 2009 at 2:12 pm

The "official" numbers on Black Friday retail activity were mixed and the mixture did little to help analysts have a reasonable  picture of what the rest of the holidays will bring. ...
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A Mediocre Start For Retail On Black Friday

Posted: November 29, 2009 at 7:39 am

The fears about 2009 holiday sales may be coming true. Early research shows that retail activity was flat and in some regions fell sharply. ShopperTrak reports that dollar sales for ...
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Bernanke Attacks Dodd And Paul Proposals To Weaken Fed

Posted: November 28, 2009 at 7:39 am

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has written an opinion piece for WashingtonPost.com attacking proposals being supported by Rep Ron Paul and Sen Chris Dodd to strip the Federal Reserve of most ...
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Dubai: Who Defaults Next?

Posted: November 28, 2009 at 7:13 am

The Wall Street Journal points out that the cost of insuring sovereign debt for countries including Bulgaria and Hungary moved up sharply after Dubai announced a "standstill" on paying many ...
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Weak Dollar: As Yen Passes 85, Japanese Exporters Tremble (SNE)(TM)

Posted: November 27, 2009 at 5:57 am

The Japanese government is getting nervous, by most accounts of the financial media. The yen as hit a level where Japan's big exporters may post large earnings losses this year ...
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Media Digest 11/27/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

Posted: November 27, 2009 at 4:50 am

Reuters:   Japan raised the idea that the G7 make a statement about the dollar. Reuters:   Shoppers move into Black Friday with small budgets. Reuters:   Dubai's debt crisis raised the prospect of ...
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Asia Markets And Europe Open (11/27/2009): Undone By Dubai

Posted: November 27, 2009 at 4:30 am

Markets in Asia were sharply lower on concerns about Dubai debt. The Nikkei fell 3.2% to 9,082. Honda (NYSE:HMC) and Mitsubishi UFJ (NYSE:MTU) fell. The Hang Seng dropped 4.8% to ...
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Dubai Default: Moral Hazard For Sovereign Debt

Posted: November 26, 2009 at 12:29 pm

Dubai World, the de facto sovereign fund for the desert nation, has essentially defaulted on a large part of its debt. It has asked creditors for a "standstill" on paying back ...
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