Fuqi International Inc. (NASDAQ: FUQI) got killed last night and things are not looking bright this morning. The Chinese jewelry designer found “accounting errors” which led to overstated profits for the first three quarters in 2009. And for the quarter, its revenue and earnings were short of estimates. The good news is that the range taken off earnings for the three quarters was listed as a range of $0.15 to $0.19 off of the $1.66 for that combined period. The bad news is that the bad news looks more recent than farther back: fourth quarter earnings range was put at $0.24 to $0.28 EPS versus a prior range of $0.55 to $0.60; revenue was put in a range of $175 to $180 million versus a previous range of $182 to $191 million.
This came on the same day that Movado Group Inc. (NYSE: MOV) was hit on a poor outlook and it also seemed to at least have some after-hours impact on LJ International Inc. (NASDAQ: JADE). Too bad that Zale Corporation (NYSE: ZLC) didn’t help lift any of these companies as its stock continued to recover with big additional gains yesterday.
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The government is slowly winding down its added liquidity additions via mortgage and securities purchases from banks and lenders. Sort of. Ben Bernanke’s outline of how to exit the end of free money and zero-rates only indicated that the end of the policy would ultimately come. But on Wednesday came word that Fannie Mae (NYSE: FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) would repurchase up to $200 billion in delinquent mortgage loans. Surprise, surprise. Many wanted to know why Uncle Sam hasn’t just gone from a conservatorship to just foreclosing on the GSE mortgage lenders. Simple, our government can’t absorb this as a direct balance sheet item…. It takes a little while figure out just what the $200 billion really means to the delinquent mortgage market. Expect a lot of new mortgage-backed security prepayments are coming… some at losses.
American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) has released more information on many of the troubled Maiden Lane III derivatives transactions. These are those contracts that helped to knock the company down from a financial giant to a controversial company that could not service without the Uncle Sam Bail Out. This shows the counterparties in the filing as well, with some of those being Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS), UBS AG (NYSE: UBS), Barclays plc (NYSE: BCS) and others… Wachovia, George Quay, SOCGEN, Goldman Sachs (listed as GSI and GSCM), CALYON, BGI, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, RBS, HSBC BANK USA, Rabobank, CORAL Purchasing (Ireland) Limited, Deutsche Bank, REMO FINANCE INC-Dresdner, UBS, Barclays, and BMO.
Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE: CVC) has approved the spin off of Madison Square Garden to Cablevision shareholders. Madison Square Garden is the home venue of the New York Knicks and Rangers, but is also home to concerts, boxing events, tennis, and other events. You have to be a holder of Cablevision to receive the shares, at least that is the case before the regular trading takes place. Cablevision said tonight that the share distribution will take place on February 9, 2010, and that distribution will be made to Cablevision’s shareholders of record as of the close of business on January 25, 2010 (i.e. settlement date on or before).
Some of the largest websites in the country had extraordinary swings in their audiences in 2009. Many of the most well-known web destinations lost large portions of their traffic
M&A activity picked up in the second half of 2009 as the market moved up and access to capital for big companies improved. Corporate debt offerings soared and banks began to make capital available for deals such as the proposed Kraft (NYSE:KFT) offer to buy Cadbury. Kraft has already lined up bridge loans for the potential buyout.
24/7 Wall St. has prepared its list of the ten brands that will disappear in 2010. This list is based on a review of each firm’s financial situation and other operating data, the current and ongoing value of its brand, and whether the company that controls that brand can sell its assets.











