As if some miracle had saved the financial system and averted a recession, shares in bank and brokerage companies moved irrationally higher last week. A case in point, Wells Fargo (WFC) moved up over…
2008 is turning out to be a wacky year. If you are new to trading and investing this is far from the norm. Statistics vary depending on what day of the week it is…
Are we in a Bear Market? If we aren’t it sure feels like one. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, or the DJIA, is down some 7.9% to date in 2008 after a December-end close…
Funds backed by Qatar may take a $3 billion stake in Credit Suisse (CS), another step toward sovereign funds owning a piece of almost every large financial institution in the US and Europe. Due…
Up to 10 European hedge funds have suspended redemptions after investors clamoured for their cash when the managers made severe losses according to The Times of London. The paper reports that "experts warned that…
Once Eliot Spitzer left his office as prosecutor to become governor of New York State many feared that there would be no one left to devil large corporations and Wall St. firms. The fears…
One of Argentina’s largest oil companies has found huge new reserves in the Patagonian province of Chubut. "An oil reserve has been discovered in the Escalante basin that’s twice as big as what Chubut…
Only a week ago, George Bush was on hand and knee begging the King of Saudi Arabia to send the US more oil. The gesture may get him some lucrative speaking engagements in the…
Hugo Chavez, the mentally unstable head of Venezuela, has suggested that Latin American countries take that money out of US banks. ”We should start to bring our reserves here,” Chavez said. ”Why does that…
Barry Diller planned to break his IACI (IACI) into several pieces. The company is a collection of cats and dogs so the move makes sense. TicketMaster can operate on its own. So can Home…
Nasdaq short interest on January 15 shows that investors were willing to make big bets against tech share prices. The numbers are compared to statistics on December 31. Short interest in Level 3 (LVLT)…
The big news of the week came when Ben Bernanke announced a 75 basis point cut in the U.S. Federal Funds rate, nearly two weeks before the scheduled FOMC meeting. Markets rallied in a…
Sears (SHLD) has begun to hire some heavy hitters to run its online operations. Since the company does not do a very good job of selling merchandise in its stores, perhaps it will have…
No one knows for certain how much money is in the big sovereign funds controlled by governments from Beijing to Kuwait. Most estimates are $2 trillion to $3 trillion. With oil money flowing into…
If you thought this week was a rough or busy week in earnings season, you have not seen anything yet. Next week we literally will have around 150 companies or more post earnings on…