Monthly Archives: December 2011

What’s New in the Financial World (12/15/2011) Retail Sales Rise, Nokia Launches Lumia

Posted: December 15, 2011 at 6:37 am

The National Retail Federation increased its forecast for holiday sales to 3.8%, which would mean a total of $469 billion for November and December. That is up from its earlier 2.8% ...
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200 Billion Videos Watched, and Not a Dime in Sight

Posted: December 15, 2011 at 6:36 am

In October, 200 billion videos were watched online worldwide. The number is immensely impressive until the question is asked whether the online video business makes any money. Research firm comScore released ...
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Media Digest (12/15/2011) Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT

Posted: December 15, 2011 at 4:35 am

Olympus may hire its former CEO, Michael Woodford, in the midst of an accounting scandal. (Reuters) Foreign investment in China drops for the first time in 28 months. (Reuters) Holiday ...
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24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell (GE, YHOO, YUM, MO, AVP, GRPN, JOY, SYNO, ADBE, DFS, FDX, FSLR, AVP, EONC, SGI, SPWR, RVSN)

Posted: December 14, 2011 at 4:09 pm

Equity markets started the day down and stayed there all day. Traders were mirroring the action on European and Asian markets, which all settled down before the US markets opened ...
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Freddie Mac 2012 Outlook Seems Too Rosy

Posted: December 14, 2011 at 1:37 pm

Freddie Mac has released its full "U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook" for December, which is actually the government sponsored entity's 2012 outlook for the housing market and the economy ...
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Gold Challenges Silver for “The Devil’s Metal” Name (GLD, SLV)

Posted: December 14, 2011 at 12:40 pm

Gold continues to take it on the chin. It all depends upon what you want to blame. Dennis Gartman, the 50-day moving average test, or the rising U.S. Dollar against ...
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First Solar Lowers Outlook, Cuts Jobs (FSLR, TSL, YGE, LDK, JASO)

Posted: December 14, 2011 at 11:18 am

Thin-film solar panel maker First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) has conceded the inevitable. The company this morning lowered its sales and profit outlook for this year, announced it would cut ...
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Forming a New Analyst Consensus in Groupon (GRPN)

Posted: December 14, 2011 at 11:08 am

Groupon, Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) is now finally off of its post-IPO quiet period and the analyst community, whether a part of the underwriting syndicate or not, is now free to ...
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Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (MO, AVP, CE, LFC, EL, FITB, GE, MIND, VRTX, YHOO, YUM, GRPN)

Posted: December 14, 2011 at 9:05 am

These are some of the top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street research calls this Wednesday morning. Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO) Cut to Hold at Stifel ...
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Today’s Best Market Rumors (12/14/2011) Goldman Partners Exit, MF Global Survival Plan

Posted: December 14, 2011 at 8:35 am

Updated throughout the day. MF Global created a survival plan just before it failed (Reuters) Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) has lost an extraordinarily high 37 partners this year (Bloomberg) Douglas ...
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Today’s Major Analyst Calls (12/14/2011) (RES, GRPN, AMRC)

Posted: December 14, 2011 at 8:26 am

Ameresco (NASDAQ: AMRC) upped to "buy" with $15 price target at Canaccord RPC (NYSE: RES) upped to "buy" with $24 at Canaccord Groupon (NASDAQ: GRPN) started at "neutral" act Citi and "overweight" ...
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Cars So Hot They Are Out of Stock

Posted: December 14, 2011 at 6:26 am

This year is expected to be the best for domestic new car sales since 2006, the year before the recession began. The increase in buyer activity has been large enough ...
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How Did Andrea Jung Stay So Long as Avon CEO?

Posted: December 14, 2011 at 6:26 am

Andrea Jung has been chairman and CEO of Avon Products (NYSE: AVP) since November 1999. She has done an atrocious job as chief executive over the past several years. Her tenure ...
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Best Buy’s Dunn Should Be Next CEO Fired

Posted: December 14, 2011 at 6:25 am

Andrea Jung was forced out as CEO of Avon Products (NYSE: AVP) after years of poor financial performance at the company. The CEO of Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), Brian Dunn, should ...
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OPEC to Hold the Line