Markets in Asia were slightly higher
The Nikkei rose .6% to 9,871. Mitsubishi UFJ NYSE:MTU) rose.
The Hang Seng was up .3% to 22,269.
The Shanghai Composite rose .1% to 3,178.
At the open in Europe, the FTSE rose .2% to 5,246. Vodafone (NYSE:VOD) and HSBC (NYSE:HBC) both reported earnings. The Dax was up .1% to 5,626. The CAC 40 rose a fraction to 3,785.
Data from Reuters and MarketWatch
Douglas A. McIntyre
T-Mobile, the Deutsche Telekom-owned cellular carrier in America, is a failure and an abject one at that. The firm lost 77,000 subscribers in the third quarter. Most analysts blame the attrition on a poor line-up of handset products and tremendous competition from Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ)(NYSE:VOD) and AT&T (NYSE:T). Each of the two larger companies added over one million customers in the quarter ending September 30.
T-Mobile has 33.4 million customers in the US and its chances of doing well as the No.4 firm in its sector are fading to nothing. Read More
The T-Mobile US division of German telecom giant Deutsche Telekom (NYSE:DT) has run a distant fourth in cellular subscribers in America well behind AT&T (NYSE:T), Sprint (NYSE:S), and Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ)(NYSE:VOD).
T-Mobile means to close some of that gap between itself and its rivals, but it may start a price war in the process. Read More
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and T-Mobile (NYSE:DT), who have managed to lose the personal data of thousands and thousands of customers who have the carrier’s SideKick product because of failures of Microsoft server software, are offering the people who lost their information a $100 gift card. That seems to be little better than adding insult to injury. Read More
Deutsche Telekom’s US cellular carrier T-Mobile only has 33 million subscribers. That puts its a distant fourth in the market behind Sprint (S) Verizon Wireless (VOD)(VZ) and AT&T (T). It means that T-Mobile has only 12% of the American market which makes keeping up with the competition in terms of the size of its network and marketing costs extremely difficult.
Deutsche Telekom may remedy its trouble in the US by buying Sprint, which has about 50 million subscribers. The purchase would make its subscriber base much closer to Verizon’s and AT&T’s. Read More
Motorola (MOT), one the world’s No.2 handset company and now nearly out of business, introduced its new flagship product called Cliq. The phone runs the new Google (GOOG) Android mobile operating system. It will launch on the T-Mobile network in the last quarter of the year. Read More
Facebook, which has over 200 million users, is becoming nearly as widely available on handsets as it is on PCs. Its members cannot get enough of sharing their experiences and profiles with their Facebook “friends.” Social networking is becoming a larger business by the day. A new comScore study shows that one of every five online display ads runs on one of the social networks. Read More
There are two ways to look at the economic relationship between Apple (AAPL) and AT&T (T) and both may be accurate. AT&T says it has signed up 10 million subscribers to buy the iPhone and take its long-term cellular calling plans. Many of those customers have come from other cellular provides. AT&T is thus adding new, and perhaps, profitable business.
On the other hand, AT&T pays Apple an estimated $400 a phone. AT&T probably has to hold onto its iPhone customers for the full two years of their subscription plan to make a lot of money. Read More
Several companies run annual brand valuations. It is a good business for advertising and marketing firms to be viewed as experts on brands. Brand values are based on the cash flow they create, and there are a number of ways to measure that. The mathematical parts of the formulas are relatively easy. The part that is hard, because it requires skilled forecasting, is what the reputation and value of a brand is likely to be three or four years from the date the values are set. It would have been hard half a decade ago to predict that AIG (AIG), the brand of the world’s largest insurance company, would be virtually worthless today, or that Facebook would be an extremely valuable brand. There is both art and science to determining the future of brands. Read More
Reuters: Microsoft’s (MSFT) results and forecast were weak.
Reuters: CIT (CIT) may sell its aviation finance business.
Reuters: Fatigue at the Fed is leading to questions about its expanded role.
Reuters: Twitter will pitch add-on tools to businesses.
Reuters: Vodafone (VOD) stuck to its full-year forecast.
Reuters: Amex (AXP) and Capital One (COP) had large cars losses. Read More
Markets in Asia were mostly higher.
The Nikkei rose 1.6% to 9,945.
The Hang Seng was up .5% to 19,913. PetroChina (PTR) moved up with th eprice of oil.
The Shanghai Composite was up 1.3% to 3,372.
At the open in Europe, the FTSE was down .3% to 4,546. BHP Billiton (BHP) was down and Vodafone (VOD) rose on results. The Dax fell .4% to 5,226. The CAC 40 was down .6% to 3,355.
Data from MarketWatch and Reuters.
Douglas A. McIntyre
Wall St. analysts expect Apple’s earnings to do better than estimates. This is not surprising. Apple (AAPL) has a history of setting low expectations about its figures and then beating them handily. It has become a game of chess between the company and experts who follow it. Some of the analysts that track the company go so far as to send people to Apple stores and other retailers to count how its products are selling. Others check with companies that supply components to Apple for its products like the iPhone and Mac to see what the demand is for these parts. Read More
These are some of the cautious analyst calls and analyst downgrades we have seen from Wall Street firms with more than two hours until the market opens this Tuesday morning:
Burger King (BKC) Cut to Neutral at BofA/Merrill.
IPC The Hospitalist Co. (IPCM) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.
Masco (MAS) Cut to Underweight at JP Morgan.
Potash Corp. (POT) Target cut to $100 at UBS.
Vodafone (VOD) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
JON C. OGG
Markets in Asia were higher
The Nikkei rose 2.3% to 9,262.
The Hang Seng was up 2.8% to 17,744. HSBC (HBC) was up 5%.
The Shanghai Composite rose 2.1% to 3,145.
At the open in Europe, the FTSE rose .1% to 4,208. Rio Tinto (RTP) traded higher. Vodafone (VOD) traded down The Dax was flat at 4,722. Deutsche Bank (BD) rose. The CAC 40 was down .1% to 3,049.
Data from MarketWatch and Reuters.
Cellular providers including Sprint (S), AT&T (T), and Verizon Wireless (VZ)(VOD) have had the broadband wireless market all to themselves. WiFi offered some modest competition, but its service only works within a few hundred feet of a base station. The 3G broadband wireless systems created by the telephone companies cover entire cities and most major roadways.
Comcast (CMCSA), the nation’s largest cable company, means to break the hegemony of the phone companies. Read More
Reuters: GM will accept product liability on cars it has built in the past.
Reuters: Obama could consider a second stimulus if necessary.
Reuters: Rising office availability in NYC is slowing.
Reuters: VW says it has not issued an ultimatum to Porsche on a tie-up.
Reuters: Tata launched Jaguar and Rover in India. Read More
Reuters: Toyota’s (TM) new management has a rocky road.
Reuters: A poll shows confidence in Obama’s economic plans drops.
Reuters: Apple’s (AAPL) Jobs was at work.
Reuters: Ford (F) and Nissan will get special factory upgrade loans Read More
Yahoo! (YHOO) and Google (GOOG) actually have something to worry about, if Steve Ballmer is not bluffing. The Microsoft (MSFT) CEO says that he company is prepared to spend 5% to 10% of its operating income on search engine initiatives over the next five years. Microsoft’s annual operating income is about $22.2 billion. 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
Palm (PALM) may not have had much of a choice in terms of which cellular company was going to market its new Pre. AT&T (T) and Verizon Wireless (VZ)(VOD) were probably not interested. Palm’s marriage with Sprint (S) may hurt the handset firm’s chances at a turnaround. Sprint’s customer service still gets remarkably poor ratings. Read More
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