Reuters: Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) is having trouble justifying its huge bonuses.
Reuters: Bruce Wasserstein, M&A giant and head of Lazard (NYSE:LAZ), died.
Reuters: Congress will probe compensation at AIG (NYSE:AIG).
Reuters: US foreclosures fell for a second month but stayed high. Read More
Reuters: Wal-Mart (WMT) will report results with Wall St. looking for sales growth.
Reuters: US home foreclosures set a record in July.
Reuters: Citigroup (C) hired outsiders to help with a management review.
Reuters: The former head of AIG (AIG) has offered $115 million to settle a suit. Read More
Reuters: Unemployment is causing further stress in the housing market.
Reuters: The Microsoft (MSFT) deal with Yahoo! (YHOO) may have challenges with regulators.
Reuters: Sony (SNE) lost money on weakness in its TV business.
Reuters: The Senate is looking the roles at Goldman Sachs (GS) and Deutsche Bank (DB) may have played in last year’s meltdown in mortgage markets. Read More
Reuters: California declared a financial emergency.
Reuters: An SEC attorney raised concern about a Madoff report in 2004.
Reuters: Auto parts supplier Lear filed for bankruptcy.
Reuters: NYC apartment sales are down more than 50%.
Reuters: Beijing Automotive will bid for Opel.
Reuters: GM told a judge asset sales was its only option. Read More
NYSE Euronext, Inc. (NYSE: NYX) has listed the revised circuit breaker levels for the New York Stock Exchange. These will be the new trigger levels for Q3-2009 that create trading halts if these are hit, effective Wednesday, July 1, 2009. These circuit breakers key off of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and represent the rounding levels for 10%, 20%, and 30% declines.
Read More
Reuters: The head of a Congressional watchdog committee is pushing for a consumer protection agency.
Reuters: China defended its export policies against a WTO complaint.
Reuters: Citigroup (C) intends to raise the base pay of key employees.
Reuters: Apple’s (AAPL) Jobs has an excellent prognosis after recent surgery. Read More
We have been large fans of exchange-traded funds, exchange-traded notes, and other exchange-traded instruments which are open for trade throughout the day that are allowed to be invested in just like a stock. But with all new and growing markets, there are risks that need to be kept in check. There are some leveraged ETF’s and their inverse counterparts which might need to see reverse share splits in the near future. The notion of so many low-priced shares being so active may wreak havoc as the funds managing each ETF try to keep up with appropriate derivatives and in buying and selling shares of the components that are supposed to be the underlying securities. There are even a few ETF’s which should probably just be closed down entirely and liquidated to holders. Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (NYSE: FAS) and The Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (NYSE: FAZ) are both prime examples of ETFs which skew total daily exchange trading volume numbers because of low share prices today and massive trading volume. This is not meant to pick on the fund groups because they created trading vehicles which they did not expect to see some of these moves. There are many more ETFs and ETNs to consider here.
Direxion just announced a reverse split for another ETF yesterday, but not its two financial triple-leverage ETFs. Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (NYSE: FAS) is now back down close to $8.00 per share, yet it trades 250 million shares on an average day. The Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (NYSE: FAZ) is barely above $5.00 and trades more than 200 million shares on an average day. So between the FAS and FAZ, you have an average of more than 450 million shares, and at today’s prices that is close to $3 billion worth of nominal value.
This review discusses a portion of the ETFs and ETNs and the ones under discussion today, along with underlying key companies, are Ultra Financials ProShares (NYSE: UYG), Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC), B2B Internet HOLDRs (AMEX: BHH), Ariba, Inc. (NASDAQ: ARBA), Internet Capital Group (NASDAQ: ICGE), Internet Infrastructure HOLDRs (AMEX: IIH), VeriSign Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN), Akamai Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), United States Natural Gas (NYSE: UNG), United States Oil (NYSE: USO), SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD), UltraShort S&P500 ProShares (NYSE: SDS), SPDRs (NYSE: SPY), New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: NYX) and the NASDAQ OMX Group Inc. (NASDAQ: NDAQ).
Read More
Reuters: Airlines are cutting back on first class seating.
Reuters: Xstrata wants merger talks with mining rival Anglo American.
Reuters: Employers are cutting 401 (K) plans.
Reuters: Brand loyalty is being hurt by the recession.
Reuters: The children of baby boomers may help the US housing market. Read More
Reuters: Obama proposed sweeping reform for financial industry.
Reuters: A number of large banks repaid TARP. (JPM)(GS)(BBT)(COP)(STT)(AXP)(USB)
Reuters: Consumer prices show inflation is in check.
Reuters: China could still be a big buyer of US debt.
Reuters: NYSE will create a derivatives clearing house. Read More
Reuters: The US faces a long period of economic stagnation.
Reuters: Obama will release plans for a financial market overhaul.
Reuters: The White House will not help California fix its deficit.
Reuters: Large US company bankruptcies are accelerating.
Retuers: News Corp’s (NWS) MySpace fired 30% of its staff. Read More
InsideVenture was there for the open at the NYSE Euronext (NYSE: NYX) today, and the company is trying to open up wider markets for venture-backed and late-stage companies to come public. These models look more like a quasi-public model rather than full initial public offerings being sold to the public on an exchange.
Read More
There has been an interesting trend in the globalization movement. The U.S. has seen some major brands and major companies get acquired by foreign public companies, but suddenly U.S. investors have a very hard time in investing in those companies again. The NYSE Euronext, Inc. (NYSE: NYX) and the NASDAQ OMX Group Inc. (NASDAQ: NDAQ) have an opportunity to recruit many of these foreign companies to take on full US listings (again for some of them). We also have many products and goods produced by foreign companies which we in the U.S. consume. Despite most of these companies being public, most U.S. investors cannot easily invest in many of these icons. Most brokers do not even know how to trade them. The Peter Lynch method suggests investing in what you know, yet that notion is not possible in many of these companies for most Americans. This form of globalization may feel like isolation for investors who want to own a piece of their favorite brands.
Throughout this decade, it became commonplace for large companies to stop having full listings in the U.S. One reason was over the disclosure and regulatory rules, while some reasoned that the cost of listing was of little to no benefit to the company. Some of these are at least traded OTC or on the Pink Sheets. That is good or at least a start. Unfortunately, most Americans do not know how to invest in these markets. For that matter, most brokers do not either. Here are just some of the companies which trade OTC or on the Pink Sheets:
Read More
According to Reuters, Obama vowed to overhaul the tax code.
Reuters reports that GM (GM) is working on a plan to cut dealers at an accelerated pace.
Reuters writes that China’s first quarter growth was the slowest on record.
Reuters reports that US foreclosure filings jumped as a moratorium ended.
Reuters reports that AIG (AIG) may sell its auto unit to Zurich Financial Services.
Reuters writes that Google’s (GOOG) earnings machine will be put to the test when it releases Q1 numbers. Read More
According to Reuters, AIG (AIG) will receive as much as $30 billion from the government in a deal which pieces of some of the insurance company will be owned by the Fed.
Reuters reports that HSBC (HBC) announced a $17.8 billion rights offering.
Reuters reports that the GM (GM) “culture” may be too big a problem to overcome. Read More
According to Reuters, Obama is pushing for a new health-care plan which will take ten years to fully take effect.
Reuters says Obama is pushing for quick Wall St. reform.
Reuters reports that Citigroup (C) is close to reaching a deal with the government for a new investment in the bank
Reuters writes that the US may break up AIG (AIG) Read More
These are this Thursday’s early bird analyst downgrades and negative research calls with more than two hours until the market opens:
ASML (ASML) Cut to Neutral at B of A Merrill Lynch.
GSI Commerce (GSIC) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.
Level 3 Communications (LVLT) Cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
NYSE Euronext (NYX) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
Pacer International (PACR) Cut to Underperform at Baird.
Petrobras (PBR) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
Portugal Telecom (PT) Cut to Underweight at Morgan Stanley.
Qiagen (QGEN) Cut to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
SAP (SAP) Cut to Underperform at FBR.
Textainer (TGH) Cut to Market Perform at Wachovia.
JON OGG
February 12, 2009
According to Reuters, the White House is finishing a bank rescue package , that involves investment by private equity.
Reuters reports that a poll of analysts cut Q2 earnings forecasts.
Reuters reports that Amazon (AMZN) launched a new Kindle Read More
According to Reuters, Bank of America (BAC) and Merrill Lynch did agree on a bonus package for employees before the merger. There had been questions about the approval.
Reuters reports that January could make a new low in retail sales.
Reuters writes that Citigroup (C) is considering breaking its deal with the NY Mets for stadium naming rights.
These are some of the top pre-market analyst downgrades and negative calls we have seen on Wall Street this morning:
Jon C. Ogg
February 2, 2009
These are some of the top pre-market analyst downgrades and cautious calls we are seeing this Thursday morning:
Jon C. Ogg
January 29, 2009
| Today’s top tickerspy Indexes | |
| Home Furnishing R... | +14.1% |
| Ethanol and Biofu... | +5.1% |
| Electronics Retai... | +2.1% |
| Diabetes Stocks | +2.0% |
| Memory Chip Stock... | +2.0% |
 | |
| |
RSS Updates
Email Updates
