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Monthly Archives: August 2010

What’s On Deck This Thursday In The Markets

Posted: August 5, 2010 at 7:40 am

Stocks are directionless this morning ahead of jobless claims and ahead of tomorrow's payrolls data.  DJIA and S&P futures are flat this morning in early indications. In Europe, the FTSE ...
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Perhaps Walmart Should Go Private

Posted: August 5, 2010 at 6:01 am

The chance that Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) has decided to consider taking itself private has spawned a cottage industry of picking the next retailers that will make a similar ...
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A Novel Idea–Tax The Rich

Posted: August 5, 2010 at 5:32 am

Making the rich pay higher taxes is an ancient notion that budget gaps can be filled by forcing a heavy levy on the 1% or 2%  most wealthy people in ...
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China Bank Stress Test: Looking For The Next Las Vegas

Posted: August 5, 2010 at 4:54 am

The Chinese government has taken the extraordinary action of testing some of its banks for the effects of property value drops of 50% to 60% in some regions. Previous tests ...
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The Obesity Index: The Cost of Obesity by State

Posted: August 5, 2010 at 4:34 am

Health care costs for treating obesity-related illness are as high as $149 billion per year, according to a report released by the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health ...
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Media Digest 8/5/2010 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

Posted: August 5, 2010 at 4:02 am

Reuters:   Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) has objected to giving the government advanced notice of its dealings with oil companies on major projects. Reuters:   Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) will take on Facebook ...
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Why Gays’ Anger Toward Target, Best Buy Should Worry Shareholders

Posted: August 4, 2010 at 7:18 pm

Target Corp.  (NYSE: TGT) and Best Buy Co (NYSE: BBY)  tried to suck up to State Rep. Ron Emmer,  a conservative Republican who has a good chance of becoming the ...
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Buffett & Options: Laws of Unintended Consequences (BRK-A, BRK-B)

Posted: August 4, 2010 at 5:07 pm

Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B) might be one the greatest investors of all time and he may have recruited 34 billionaires to donate up to ...
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Tesla Brings First Public Earnings Report Since IPO (TSLA)

Posted: August 4, 2010 at 4:18 pm

Tesla Motors, Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) has just reported its first earnings report since its IPO.  It lost money as you might have expected.  Revenues were up 36% year-over-year at $28.4 ...
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Smartphone Prices Plunge

Posted: August 4, 2010 at 2:32 pm

The press from the new NPD survey has focused on the ascent of the Google NASDAQ: GOOG) Android operating system to first place in the April to June quarter based ...
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Special Situation Investors Flocking To Motorola (MOT, GOOG, AAPL, VZ)

Posted: August 4, 2010 at 1:58 pm

Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) may perhaps be the longest turnaround story of the modern era in technology and communications.  For about 15 years it has laid off workers, restructured operations, ...
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Goldman Sachs vs. Fin-Reg: Prop-Trading Spin Off? (GS)

Posted: August 4, 2010 at 12:45 pm

Every major brokerage firm and bank is trying to factor in just how much the recently passed Financial Regulation is going to have on their operations ahead.  Goldman Sachs Group ...
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As J&J Faces Crisis, Questions Arise About Board’s Role

Posted: August 4, 2010 at 12:10 pm

This has been a year to forget for Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ).  Unfortunately for shareholders, the company's board appears ill-equipped to handle two serious problems that may tarnish the ...
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Intel Skates By in FTC Settlement (INTC, AMD, NVDA)

Posted: August 4, 2010 at 11:24 am

Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) keeps getting around issues of its market dominance in the world of processors for PCs and servers against Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD).  The company ...
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Pulte’s Upside Turn, Incentives or Not (PHM, DHI, TOL, SPF, XHB)

Posted: August 4, 2010 at 10:36 am

Defying all the mediocre views of the US housing market, PulteGroup Inc. (NYSE:PHM) reported EPS of $0.20 on revenue of $1.3 billion. Analysts had been expecting an EPS loss of ...
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