General Mills’ Fiscal Year Off to a Good Start
General Mills Inc. (NYSE: GIS) this morning reported fiscal first quarter 2013 adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.66 on revenue of $4.05 billion. In the same period a year ago, the packaged food…
All Work
Paul Ausick
BP’s Texas City Refinery on the Block (BP, MPC, MRO, VLO, TSO)
courtesy of BP plcOil supermajor BP PLC (NYSE: BP) has been seeking a buyer for its massive Texas City, Tex., refinery for nearly a year. The sale is part of the company’s effort to…
New Mortgage Applications Flat
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) released its weekly report on mortgage applications this morning, noting a decrease of 0.2% in the group’s composite index compared with last week’s total. Applications for refinancing rose 1%…
Goldman Names New CFO
After the markets closed today, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) announced that current CFO David Viniar will retire after 12 years in the position and 32 years with the firm. Goldman named Harvey…
24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell — September 18, 2012: Markets Mixed as Oil Price Drops (FDX, INTC, AA, NWSA, SLB, MDRX, AZO, CBRL, GIS, ADBE, AMD, DECK, CLWR, TWC, SHF)
The three major U.S. stock indexes opened lower this morning and have wavered around the break-even line all day. European markets got things off to a slow start with concerns about Spain’s reluctance to…
This Is the Time to Act — Chicago Fed President Evans
In remarks this morning in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Chicago Federal Reserve President Charles Evans offered a strong endorsement of last week’s FOMC decision to begin a third round of quantitative easing. Evans’s remarks are…
Ford CEO Staying Put
Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F), said today that he has no plans to leave the automaker any time soon: “My plan is to continue to serve as the CEO of…
The Greenest American Presidents
Asked to name top 10 greenest U.S. presidents, most Americans would probably come up with one name at the top of the list but might have a little trouble naming the next 9. Some…
Shuffling the Deck in Oil & Gas Exploration (EPL, MRO, CVX)
Yesterday a relatively small independent oil & gas firm, EPL Oil & Gas Inc. (NYSE: EPL) acquired three Gulf of Mexico fields from privately held HilCorp Energy GOM Holdings LLC for $550 million. EPL’s…
Holiday Hiring Season Begins (KSS, M, JCP, TGT, BBY, FDX, UPS)
In 2010, U.S. firms hired an estimated 627,000 temporary workers to help meet demand for customer service, package handling and warehousing. Of that total, about 495,000 were hired in retail stores. Last year’s total…
Coal Company Closes Eight Mines Today, More to Come (ANR)
Coal miner Alpha Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE: ANR) announced today that it was “idling” eight mines in Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania and eliminating about 400 jobs in an effort to reduce costs as…
Woeful FedEx Outlook Comes True
FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) this morning reported first fiscal quarter earnings per share (EPS) of $1.45 on revenue of $10.79 billion. In the same period a year ago, the company…
Time Warner Cable Dumps Clearwire Shares (TWC, CLWR, S, CMCSA, INTC, GOOG)
ClearwireIn a Friday filing with the SEC, Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC) said it will sell its stake of 46.4 million shares of Clearwire Corp. (NASDAQ: CLWR) either to other shareholders or, if…
CFO Leaves AMD
After markets closed today, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) announced that senior vice-president and CFO Thomas Seifert has resigned “to pursue other opportunities.” Seifert will remain at AMD until the end of the…
24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell — September 17, 2012: Markets Run Out of Steam (NFLX, TSLA, UA, WFC, X, LDK, CCL, FDX, SHOSR, IRIS, THLD, JAZZ)
The three major U.S. stock indexes opened lower this morning on the absence of any big macroeconomic data in Asia or Europe. Tensions between China and Japan over a handful of islands in the…
Oil Refiners Suffer from Double Whammy Today (VLO, PSX, MPC, HFC, TSO, WNR, UGA)
Oil refiners have been hit today with a double dose of bad news. Over the past three months, stocks in refiners are up from 26% to 78% as the companies have managed to keep…
ArcelorMittal Could Shutter Belgian Steel Plant
When India’s Mittal Steel company bought Belgian-based Arcelor in 2006, the idea was that the newly christened ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT) would tie up the high-quality western European steel business with Mittal’s extensive markets in…
Walgreens to Close Stores It Doesn’t Yet Own
In July Walgreen Co. (NYSE: WAG) acquired USA Drug and 144 of the company’s stores for approximately $438 million. At the time, Walgreens’ president/CEO said: This acquisition expands our business in an important region…
Global Auto Sales to Fall in 2013
Tepid demand in Europe and declining sales in China will stymie growth in the global auto industry in 2013, according to new report from Moody’s. Global demand growth estimates have been cut from 4.5%…
Netflix Threatened with Another Loss of Content (NFLX, DIS, CMCSA, LMCB, AMZN, TWC, DTV)
Wikimedia Creative Commons, JohnnyMrNinjaStreaming and rental video provider Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) is currently involved in a negotiation with A&E Networks for a license to distribute the network’s content. The existing license expires Friday.…