Oil Aiming at $100 a Barrel
The price for U.S.-traded WTI crude is inching its way back to $100 a barrel today as traders respond to the civil unrest in North Africa and the Middle East following last week’s killing…
All Work
Paul Ausick
U.S. Unemployment Pointed Toward New Low — Gallup
The most recent Gallup unemployment survey reported that the unadjusted U.S. unemployment rate in mid-September fell from 8.1% in August to 7.9%. The polling firm’s seasonally adjusted rate remained flat at 8.1%. If the…
Lowe’s Drops Bid for Canadian Retailer Rona (LOW, HD, USHS)
Home improvement chain Lowe’s Companies Inc. (NYSE: LOW) this morning announced that it had dropped its hostile attempt to acquire Canadian home improvement retailer Rona Inc. Lowe’s had offered CDN$14.50 per share for Rona…
More Bad News at LDK Solar (LDK, STP, JASO, TSL)
Solar panel maker LDK Solar Co. Ltd. (NYSE: LDK) this morning reported a second-quarter net loss of $2.00 per American depository share (ADS) on revenue of $235.4 million. In the same period a year…
Germans Don’t Love the Euro
In a recent poll by Germany’s Bertelsmann Foundation, some 65% of German believe they would be better off if the country had not adopted the euro. The same poll revealed that just 36% of…
Shell Halts Offshore Drilling in Alaska
It was just one week ago today that Royal Dutch Shell PLC (NYSE: RDS-A) (NYSE: RDS-B) began drilling a well in the Chukchi Sea off the north coast of Alaska. The company ran into…
Government Does Too Much — Gallup
One of the questions Gallup asks in its annual governance survey is whether people think that government is taking on tasks that are best left to individuals and businesses or it they think the…
Fiscal Cliff “Deeply Destructive” to U.S. — Obama
If Congress does not act to counter the impact of the looming fiscal cliff — the $110 billion spending cuts that will go into effect on January 2, 2013 — will have severe effects…
24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell — September 14, 2012: Markets Cooler, But Still Rising (MMM, CME, PIR, CRUS, LVLT, KUTV, OPTT, LDK, FB, ANR, BIOF, VIRC, AAPL)
The three major U.S. stock indexes opened higher this morning following solid gains in global markets following yesterday’s FOMC decision. The Fed’s plan to pump $40 billion a month into mortgage-backed securities until it…
Another Sign that PCs are Losing Ground
Shipments of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips to the PC industry have fallen below 50% for the first time since the 1980s according to new data from IHS iSuppli released today. In the second…
Apple Wins German Court Ruling over Google
A court in Munich has ruled that a patent on the so-called “rubber band” smartphone feature belongs to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL). The feature allows iPhone users to scroll past the end of a…
U.S. Sticks its Nose in Chinese-Canadian Energy Deal
The $15.1 billion offer from China’s state-controlled Cnooc Ltd. (NYSE: CEO) for Canadian-based Nexen Inc. (NYSE: NXY) is currently being reviewed by the Canadian government, with a decision expected by November. Cnooc said last…
Rise in Coal Stocks Leads Energy Sector (JRCC, ANR, WLT, ACI, BTU, CNX, CLD, KOL)
Yesterday’s FOMC decision to provide more stimulus for the U.S. economy pushed stocks higher in every sector. The energy sector has done better than most as investors believe that economic growth will increase the…
Foreign Investment in India’s Retail, Airlines Sectors Gets OK (WMT)
CIA World FactbookThe government of India today approved two long-discussed moves to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) to the country. In the more important of the two actions, India has approved a proposal to…
Japan to Shut Down Nukes by 2040 (RDS-A, CVX, COP, KYO, FSLR, SPWR)
Wikimedia commons / Stefan KühnFollowing last year’s disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, Germany said it would abandon nuclear power generation in the country by 2022. Early today, Japan announced that it…
U.S. Retail Sales Better than Expected (M, GPS, AMZN, WMT, TGT, BBY, RSH)
According to today’s report from the U.S. Census Bureau, retail and food services sales in August rose 0.9% month-over-month and 4.7% compared with August 2011. Economists had been expecting an increase of 0.8% from…
OfficeMax Settles Lehman Claim
When Lehman Bros. filed for bankruptcy in September 2008, among the many claimants was office supply retailer OfficeMax Inc. (NYSE: OMX). The retailer had acquired a Lehman-backed note for $817.5 million in connection with…
Avon Dodges SEC Bullet
Cosmetics maker Avon Products Inc. (NYSE: AVP) filed a notice with the Securities and Exchange Commission last night: On September 11, 2012, Avon Products, Inc. (the “Company”) was advised by the staff of the…
Dept. of Ho-hum: Apple Closes at All-Time High
AppleShares of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) put up a new, all-time, intra-day high today of $685.50 and closed at $682.98, another all-time high for the Cupertino company. In the 30 trading days since August…
24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell — September 13, 2012: Markets Get Behind FOMC (ANF, MSFT, INTC, AAPL, AGN, PLL, LRN, PIR, KUTV, OPTT, BAC, ANR, BIOF, PSTI)
The three major U.S. stock indexes opened flat this morning as world markets didn’t want to jump the gun on today’s announcement from the FOMC. The report on new claims for unemployment benefits came…