Posted: November 24, 2009 at 5:30 am
By Douglas A. McIntyre
There have been a number of attempts to come up with a figure about how many U.S. home mortgages are underwater — in other words, the value of the home loan is more than the value of the house.
All estimates are bound to be wrong because no one has had the time or money to appraise every house in America and match it with the value of its mortgage plus any second mortgages. But, The Wall Street Journal has asked First American CoreLogic, a real estate research company, to give it a try. The report, which is available free online, says that that 23% of mortgages were underwater at the end of the third quarter.
Read more…
Posted: November 24, 2009 at 5:27 am
MasterCard Spending Plus, which tracks retail sales, says that consumer electronics products are moving off the shelves of stores but women’s apparel is not. A Wall Street Journal analysis of the data for the first two weeks of November shows that purchases of electronics rose 8.1%. Purchase or women’s apparel was down 3.3% and purchase of luxury goods was off 9.2%.
Retail sales were so weak last year that a number of stores were forced to close in early in 2009 and the industry made tens of thousands of layoffs. It appears that another downsizing is likely. Read Full Story »
Posted: November 24, 2009 at 5:12 am
The rich will shop early this year. The poor will shop late. The edge will probably go to the poor when the amount of national holiday sales is tallied at the end of the year.
Consumer Edge Research surveyed 2,600 people to decide their shopping habits. Reviewing the study, Reuters reported, “The highest income households, or those earning $150,000 or more, plan to get an early start on their shopping.” People with lower incomes and those who are unemployed will wait until closer to Christmas. Read Full Story »
Posted: November 24, 2009 at 4:56 am
The Fed wants the taxpayer’s money back. It has asked nine large banks, including Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), to give it a timetable for when they will repay TARP funds. All of these banks were put through the government’s stress test of bank financial health earlier this year.
According to Bloomberg, “The Fed’s request may turn up the pressure for banks accustomed to more flexibility on the timing and process of TARP repayment.”
The plan is probably a bad idea. Read Full Story »
Posted: November 24, 2009 at 4:01 am
Reuters: Hewlett-Packard’s (NYSE:HPQ) profit was up 14% and the company will triple its share buyback.
Reuters: Banks have been asked to give their TARP repayment plans to the government.
Reuters: Rich people are likely to shop early this year. Read Full Story »
Read more:
Press Digest,
AIG,
AMZN,
GOOG,
HBC,
HPQ,
HSY,
NWS,
PLA,
QCOM,
WMT
Posted: November 24, 2009 at 3:23 am
Market in Asia were broadly lowere with Shanghai B shares down 7.3%.
The Nikkei dropped 1% to 9,402. Japan Air hit a record low.
The Hang Seng was down 1.5% to 22,423. The Bank of China was down 4.4%
The Shanghai Composite fell 3.5% to 3,224.
At the open in Europe, the FTSE was off .8% to 5,311. BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP) was down. The Dax fell .9% to 5,750. The CAC 40 dropped 1.1% to 3,773.
Data from Reuters and MarketWatch.
Douglas A. McIntyre
Posted: November 23, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) had already given its guidance for today’s earnings two weeks ago when it announced the surprise acquisition of 3Com Corp. (NASDAQ: COMS). But that doesn’t keep traders from looking through the numbers. H-P posted $1.14 EPS on $30.78 billion in revenues. Thomson Reuters had estimates of $1.13 EPS and $30.36 billion in revenues.
Read Full Story »
Posted: November 23, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Telegent Systems, Inc. has just become the latest company to file to come public via an Initial Public Offering. No terms were listed, but the initial prospectus filing is for up to $250 million in common stock. Telegent will list on the NYSE under the stock ticker “TLG.” Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan are the lead underwriters, with co-managers listed as Jefferies & Co., Oppenheimer & Co., and Piper Jaffray.
Read Full Story »
Posted: November 23, 2009 at 2:40 pm
UnitedHealth Group, Inc. (NYSE: UNH) and most healthcare related insurers are trading higher today despite the coming health-insurance reform. The Senate voted over the weekend to open a debate on its version, or versions, of a healthcare reform bill. While this is aimed at getting insurance to 31 million people, even the executives of the large insurers do not exactly know what the impact will be. And if they do know, they are not saying anything to their employees and partners. The public option is still an unresolved issue. These stocks are all higher, but the real amazement is that most of these stocks are actually all trading up close to 52-week highs.
WellPoint Inc. (NYSE: WLP) is up over 4% at $54.47 (52-week high is $55.72) and CIGNA Corp. (NYSE: CI) is up almost 7% at $32.13 (52-week high is $33.00) after J.P.Morgan raised their ratings to Overweight.
Read Full Story »
Posted: November 23, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Cadbury plc (NYSE: CBY) is effectively worth almost more than ever because of the merger interest. Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE: KFT) has a cash and share bid worth roughly $16.4 billion already, and Cadbury wants more. Throwing in the Hershey Co. (NYSE: HSY) bid, which may only complicate matters. Throw in Italy’s Ferrero and Switzerland’s Nestle, and the matter only grows further. There are many issues to consider. Price and antitrust regulation are just a part.
Read Full Story »
Posted: November 23, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Klausner Technologies which owns 25 patents some part of which it claims cover the basic visual voicemail feature in which users can selectively view and listen to their voice messages via their mobile phones or computers is suing Motorola (NYSE:MOT) and RIM (NASDAQ:RIMM) for infringement.
The lawsuit is based on the recent introduction of Motorola’s new “CLIQ” mobile phone which Klausner Technologies claims violates it visual voicemail patented technology. The action against RIM is based technology used in its new 3G “BlackBerry Bold 9700″ mobile phones.
The Klausner actions look like nuisance lawsuits brought by a company that did not get the royalties that it wanted for its “technology”. Investors have shrugged off the news. Shares in RIM are up 1% to $6.25 and shares in Motorola are up 1.2% to $8.38.
Douglas A. McIntyre
Posted: November 23, 2009 at 10:54 am
Vanguard has just launched seven new bond exchange traded funds today. We are seeing very thin trading volume, and that will be the single biggest benchmark used for whether or not these become a success or whether they become just another slate of ‘me-too’ ETF offerings.
Read Full Story »
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Bonds,
ETF,
IPOs,
Mutual Funds,
VCIT,
VCLT,
VCSH,
VGIT,
VGLT,
VGSH,
VMBS
Posted: November 23, 2009 at 10:33 am
The November 2009 NABE Outlook, compiled by the National Association for Business Economics, has a new outlook for the rest of 2009 and 2010 based on data taken October 24 to November 5. The group is reaffirming that its recent call that the great recession is over. It also believes that this jobless recovery will abate within the next few months as companies begin to add jobs in 2010. There is still an expected sluggish consumer upturn but the NABE is looking for a sizable housing rebound, low inflation, and further rise in stock prices. The majority of panelists surveyed also are optimistic that the Federal Reserve’s policies will not lead to higher inflation, but they are extremely concerned about high federal deficits over the next five years.
Where this is interesting is what the NABE respondents are calling for in 2010 gains in the stock market and losses in the dollar and bond market next year. Some figures are as follows:
Read Full Story »
Posted: November 23, 2009 at 9:06 am
These are this morning’s top day trader and active trader alert stocks seen. We have more detailed analysis and data on each stock story with links over to VSInvestor.com:
Origin Agritech Limited (NASDAQ: SEED) is today’s top gainer on genetically modified phytase corn approval.
- Yongye International, Inc. (NASDAQ: YONG) and AgFeed Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ: FEED) are chasing the stock on the news.
Cephalon Inc. (NASDAQ: CEPH) is down on missing trial endpoints.
Tech Data Corp. (NASDAQ: TECD) is hitting 52-week highs after earnings.
Diedrich Coffee, Inc. (NASDAQ: DDRX) is soaring on a superior buyout offer from Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (NASDAQ: GMCR) over the old Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Inc. (NASDAQ: PEET) bid.
Late Friday afternoon we ran a “unusual stock options trading bit” which so far have not seen follow-through.
You can join our open email distribution list to hear more news on key analyst calls, top day trader alerts, mergers and acquisitions, Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.
JON C. OGG
Posted: November 23, 2009 at 8:44 am
Updated throughout the day.
Hershey (NYSE:HSY) and Nestle may enter the bidding for Cadbury (NYSE:CBY) (various)
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) may pay content companies to block their content from Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) News and use Redmond as their distribution outlet. (FT)
Colgate (NYSE:CL) may be the next consumer products takeover target. (24/7)
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) may be the next Treasury Secretary (TheStreet)
“Black Friday” retail sales may be misleading if they are strong. (Reuters)
Barclays (NYSE:BCS) may sell its private equity arm (ThisIsMoney)
A new version of the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPod touch set for spring release may include a camera. (Apple Insider)
You can join our open email distribution list to hear more news on key analyst calls, top day trader alerts, mergers and acquisitions, Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.
Douglas A. McIntyre
Posted: November 23, 2009 at 8:21 am
Many, or most, major banks do not have enough capital to comfortably maintain their current ratings. Standard & Poor’s has a report out saying that the banks are underfunded despite capital raised and despite the recovery we have seen. Standard & Poor’s introduced a new tracking for capital adequacy and even questions how useful standard market and regulatory measures are. Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) and UBS AG (NYSE: UBS) are two of the trouble spots outlined herein.
Read Full Story »
Posted: November 23, 2009 at 8:18 am
By Douglas A. McIntyre
A new 2010 Chrysler with $4,000 cash back? Large incentive programs for new cars are usually set up to help dealers dump inventory they cannot sell or clear lots of last year’s models as current model year cars and light truck come in.
Incentives like this have been one of the primary reasons that Detroit has had trouble making money. Overseas manufacturers like Honda (HMC) and Toyota (TM) are already seeing their profits hurt by a weak dollar, and if they have to match incentives from the U.S. car companies, they could lose even more money on many of their models.
Read more….
Posted: November 23, 2009 at 8:14 am
by John Tamny of Forbes
Every period of so-called economic excess invariably ends with the media and politicians discrediting the symbols of the alleged greed that characterized the era. Michael Milken and other innovative financiers from outside the clubby world of Wall Street were castrated at the end of the Reagan ’80s. The late Ken Lay–of Enron fame–saw his reputation destroyed after the ’90s Clinton boom, along with Tyco’s Dennis Kozlowski and Worldcom’s Bernie Ebbers.
This time around, after the relatively mild and certainly overrated “Bush Boom,” Wall Street will likely take the lion’s share of the blame for the uncertain economy. Popular history will say that Wall Street “overconsumed” when it came to risk and that the result was a near collapse of the world’s financial system. Yet this was not the case.
Read more…
Posted: November 23, 2009 at 7:32 am
These are this Monday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street research calls:
American Express (NYSE: AXP) Started as Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Capital One (NYSE: COF) Started as Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.
Deere (NYSE: DE) Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
D.R. Horton (NYSE: DHI) Raised to Hold at Citigroup.
Jefferies (NYSE: JEF) Cut to Sell at Goldman Sachs.
Knight Capital (NASDAQ: NITE) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
NASDAQ OMX (NASDAQ: NDAQ) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Schlumberger (NYSE: SLB) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.
Wellpoint (NYSE: WLP) Raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
You can join our open email distribution list to hear more news on key analyst calls, top day trader alerts, mergers and acquisitions, Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, and more.
JON C. OGG
Read more:
Analyst Calls,
AXP,
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DE,
DHI,
JEF,
NDAQ,
NITE,
SBUX,
SLB,
WLP
Posted: November 23, 2009 at 6:19 am
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) will not wait until the day after Thanksgiving to begin its holiday sales. It wants to take whatever early shopping business it can get from Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT), Target (NYSE:TGT), and Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) now.
Amazon today announced huge discounts on a number of popular items. Read Full Story »
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