U.S. equity markets opened higher this morning as they awaited results from the Italian elections. Early exit polls had the center-left party of Pier Luigi Bersani in the lead, but as returns came in,…
courtesy of General MotorsIn December 2012, new car and light truck sales in the U.S. came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of about 15.4 million units sold. According to TrueCar.com, forecast sales…
courtesy of SamsungAccording to a recent survey from Nielsen, mobile phone penetration in nine countries — five developed countries and the four BRICs — is above 80% in all nine. South Korea leads with…
ThinkstockWe noted last Friday the impact on some stocks following Nevada’s enactment of legislation permitting online gambling in the state. Now a state with just 3 million people is not likely to pile up…
courtesy of Hewlett-PackardHewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) is hitting the morning wire with a couple of big stories. Yesterday the company said that it was preparing a 7-inch tablet, called the Slate 7, that would…
Thinkstock3D printing company 3D Systems Corp. (NYSE: DDD) held its planned 3-for-2 stock split this morning, and the company’s shares are trading slightly below the split price in premarket trading. Shares closed at $56.95…
courtesy of BP plcNearly three years after the explosion and sinking of an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 workers and spilled 5 million barrels of oil, a federal judge…
ThinkstockChesapeake Energy Inc. (NYSE: CHK) parted with about $13 billion in assets last year in an effort to reduce the company’s massive debt burden. The sell-off for the new year is just getting started,…
ThinkstockLowe’s Companies Inc. (NYSE: LOW) reported fourth-quarter diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.26 and $11.05 billion in revenues before markets opened this morning. In the same period a year ago, the home improvement…
courtesy of AppleA federal court in New York ruled late today that David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital has clearly demonstrated its case against a plan from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) that would have put to…
ThinkstockAfter U.S. markets closed today, Moody’s Investors Service cut its ratings on U.K. domestic- and foreign-currency government bonds from ‘Aaa’ to ‘Aa1’. The ratings agency also lowered its rating on the country’s central bank,…
U.S. equity markets opened higher this morning following a two-day run of losses. No significant data was scheduled to be released in the U.S. today, so investors were guided by corporate earnings and lower…
ThinkstockThe governor of Nevada signed legislation yesterday legalizing online gambling in his state. New Jersey’s governor recently vetoed a similar bill but said he could sign one if properly amended. Shares of Zynga Inc.…
ThinkstockThe latest data from Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI) shows that drilling rig counts in North America rose by 10 in the week ending today and fell by 259 from the comparable period a…
ThinkstockInternet security has gotten a lot of attention in the past few weeks. President Obama mentioned it in his State of the Union speech just days after the Federal Reserve Bank and some the…
Courtesy Maersk LineThe world’s largest container shipping group, Denmark’s A.P. Moeller-Maersk, expects shipping demand on routes between Europe and Asia to be “bleak” in 2013, leading to a very small increase in overall shipping…
ThinkstockLate yesterday, Royal Dutch Shell PLC (NYSE: RDS-A) said that it plans to “reassess the development plan” for its joint venture with the U.K. division of Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) for the Fram…
ThinkstockWithout going through all the changes in the top management of the world’s largest mining companies, there is one thing that stands about virtually all of these changes: putting more focus on investors and…
thinkstockAbercrombie & Fitch Co. (NYSE: ANF) reported fourth-quarter and full-year 2012 earnings before markets opened this morning. For the quarter, the specialty retailer posted adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $2.21 on revenues…
ThinkstockNordstrom Inc. (NYSE: JWN) reported fourth quarter and full-year 2012 results after markets closed today. For the quarter, the high-end retailer diluted posted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.40 and $3.7 billion in revenues.…