ThinkstockLennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN) reported fiscal fourth-quarter and full-year 2012 results before markets opened this morning. The homebuilder reported quarterly diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.56 on revenues of $1.35 billion. In the…
courtesy U.S. Federal ReserveFed Chairman Ben Bernanke appeared this afternoon at an event at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy that was billed as a “conversation.” He is expected to answer…
U.S. equity markets opened mixed this morning, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite both getting pushed lower on a report that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has cut iPhone component orders on its…
ThinkstockOn of the country’s largest coal miners, Consol Energy Inc. (NYSE: CNX) has outlined its investment plans for 2013, and the company expects to spend more on natural gas than it does on coal…
courtesy of The Coca-Cola CompanyIn the run-up to this year’s Super Bowl, soft drink maker Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) will run advertising highlighting the company’s low-calorie beverages and pointing out that consuming too many…
ThinkstockRetail behemoth Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) is exploring the possibility of offering health insurance to small-business owners by setting up a health insurance exchange. The exchanges, which were created under the provisions of…
courtesy of Toyota Motor Corp.Although the company has not yet finished counting sales for 2012, Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) claims to have sold more than 9.7 million units in 2012, allowing the company…
ThinkstockMortgage industry technology and services company Lender Processing Services Inc. (NYSE: LPS) reported today that mortgage delinquencies rose to 7.12% in November 2012, up from 7.03% in October, but down from 7.83% in November…
ThinkstockConsumer electronics retailer hhgregg inc. (NYSE: HGG) announced preliminary results for its fiscal third quarter this morning, and the results were not pretty. The company expects quarterly sales to be down 3.6% from the…
ThinkstockHarry Winston Diamond Corp. (NYSE: HWD) announced this morning that it has agreed to sell its luxury brand diamond jewelry and watch division, Harry Winston Inc., to Swiss-based The Swatch Group Ltd. for $750…
ThinkstockIn a filing this morning with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG) reported that activist investor Carl Icahn now owns a stake amounting to 1.56% of Transocean’s issued shares. Icahn also…
courtesy of Apple Inc.A reduction in orders for display screens could mean that sales of the iPhone 5 from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) are not going to meet the heady projections many analysts and…
U.S. equity markets opened slightly lower this morning as data from Europe and Asia combined with a larger than expected U.S. trade deficit to pour cool, if not cold, water on the opening. In…
ThinkstockThe U.S. federal budget nearly broke even last month. Compared with deficits of $120 billion in October and $172 billion in November, December’s $260 million is very low. For the 2013 fiscal year to…
ThinkstockThe number of U.S. households paying for TV service is expected to fall slightly in 2012, from 100.9 million in 2011 to 100.8 million. While not a big dive in itself, if the forecast…
ThinkstockToday the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inaugurated its new practice of releasing the monthly crop reports at noon ET. January saw a decline in the forecast for the Florida orange crop, down 2.7%…
ThinkstockCrude oil transportation on the Seaway pipeline resumed today at the pipeline’s full capacity of 400,000 barrels a day now available to shippers wanting to move crude from the storage point at Cushing, Oklahoma,…
ThinkstockThis morning’s report on a wider than expected U.S. trade deficit is leading many economists to revise downward their forecasts for fourth quarter U.S. GDP growth. The November deficit totaled $48.7 billion, up from…
ThinkstockCharles Plosser, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, told an audience in New Jersey this morning that while he sees no near-term or medium-term risk of inflation, in the longer term the…
ThinkstockIn mid-December, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved a proposal by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) to create an exchange traded fund backed by physical copper. Copper users and traders had…