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Posts related to ‘Economy’

Mortgage Delinquencies Rise Slightly in April

Posted: May 25, 2012 at 12:28 pm

The monthly mortgage report for April was released today by Freddie Mac. The report notes a rise of just 0.01% in delinquent mortgage payments for single-family homes and a rise ...
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Consumer Sentiment Rises on Jobs Outlook, Lower Gasoline Prices

Posted: May 25, 2012 at 12:07 pm

The Reuters/University of Michigan consumer survey for May is out and the index of consumer sentiment rose to 79.3, up from 76.4 in April and 74.3 in May 2011. Economists ...
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Memorial Day as a Litmus Test for the Econony

Posted: May 25, 2012 at 6:15 am

The AAA issues a forecast of Memorial Day driving each year. It believes the rise will be 1.2% this weekend, helped in part by lower gas prices and an improved ...
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Fed’s Dudley Downplays Inflation Risk

Posted: May 24, 2012 at 2:01 pm

New York Federal Reserve Bank President William Dudley said today that he believes that the 2% inflation “objective” the Fed has adopted will eventually be higher than the real inflation ...
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After the Fall: Retail Stocks Upside Potential Remains (COST, WMT, TGT, M, KSS, JCP, GPS, LTD, AEO, ANF, TJX, DG)

Posted: May 24, 2012 at 11:22 am

Retailers have fared better than many other sectors over the past year, with the majority of share prices having risen although price to book values remain negative. Thus, either the ...
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Durable Goods & Weekly Jobless Claims Act From Mixed to Spoilers

Posted: May 24, 2012 at 8:47 am

We are seeing some caution in Durable Goods for April this morning, while the weekly jobless claims held very little surprise either way. Durable Goods looks in line with estimates ...
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H-P Escapes Dell’s Executioner… But Its Workforce Doesn’t

Posted: May 23, 2012 at 4:52 pm

Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ) is managing to escape the trap of Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) after earnings.  Unfortunately, at least if you are a worker there, a decent portion of ...
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Euro Loses to US Dollar Loses to Yen

Posted: May 23, 2012 at 2:11 pm

If the euro had only advanced against some currency today, we could use the rock-paper-scissors analogy to describe what happened in the currency markets. Alas, the single currency took its ...
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After the Fall: Value and Upside in Conglomerate Stocks (GE, MMM, UTX, HON, TYC)

Posted: May 23, 2012 at 10:49 am

Searching for a value play in conglomerate stocks may resemble looking for a needle in a haystack. The companies are so large and diversified that anything short of a major ...
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After the Sell-Off: Value & Upside In Major Industrials (APD, BA, CAT, DE, DOW, DD, DHR, ITW)

Posted: May 23, 2012 at 10:25 am

Summer can often be an interesting time in the markets and so far the "Sell in May and go away!" them has worked.  What has also taken place is that ...
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Retailer Earnings Up Most in Two Years (WMT, DKS, HIBB, BBBY, WSM, BWS, FL, BBY, GME, WTSLA, GPS, ANF)

Posted: May 23, 2012 at 7:36 am

With 80% of the 120 companies it tracks having reported first quarter 2012 results, research firm Retail Metrics says that retailers who beat earnings estimates are up 5% year-over-year for ...
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Work Hard and Strike Oil

Posted: May 22, 2012 at 1:46 pm

Research firm IHS Global Insight reports new data showing that four states -- Alaska, Louisiana, North Dakota, and Texas -- have or will soon post unemployment rates equal to or ...
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Retail Sales Mostly Holding Up So Far In May

Posted: May 22, 2012 at 9:09 am

Redbook Research reports each week on the status of retail sales.  Usually these weekly reports do not really matter but this week may be an exception even if these are ...
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World’s Top Brands Led By Apple, IBM, Google

Posted: May 22, 2012 at 8:04 am

You may or may not have heard of Millward Brown, but you might not be surprised who they ranked as the world's top brand: Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) took the ...
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Manufacturers Return to the US (GE, CAT)

Posted: May 21, 2012 at 1:11 pm

Until now, the evidence that manufacturing is moving back to the US from offshore -- a process sometimes called ‘re-shoring’ -- has been largely anecdotal. Manufacturing jobs have been growing ...
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