Mortgage Applications Fell Last Week
According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, applications for mortgages declined by -0.8% last week compared with a week earlier. The refinance index rose by 1%, but the purchase index fell by -9%. Here’s the…
All Work
Paul Ausick
24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell — June 19, 2012 (AKS, INTC, VLO, CPST, MSFT, ORCL, BKS, FDX, JEF, DFS, ADBE, JBL, JKS, GAGA, WAG, PBR, AFFX)
The three major US stock indexes opened higher this morning as markets ignored a steep rise in short-term Spanish debt and focused instead on some encouraging news on new housing construction permits (our coverage…
Chesapeake Fires Handful of Staff, Stock Price Jumps
Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) today eliminated about 70 jobs at its operations in North Texas around the Barnett shale play. That’s about 8% of the company’s workforce in the area and around 0.5%…
Germany Set to Approve Bailout Fund Purchases of Sovereign Debt
In a reversal that was bound to come sooner or later, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is reportedly ready to agree to allow the Eurozone’s European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) and the European Stability Mechanism…
Corn is All the Rage Again (CF, POT, MOS, AGU, MON, SYT, IPI, CORN)
Warmer and drier weather in the US Midwest is raising concerns about the corn and soybean crops. If such weather continues, it could reduce the harvest and drive crop prices up. Corn prices fell…
Weatherford Scores Iraqi Contract (WFT, SLB, E, OXY)
Oil field services company Weatherford International Ltd. (NYSE: WFT) has won a contract worth $843 million to build six crude oil production facilities at Iraq’s Zubair field in the south of the country. Weatherford…
Uncle Sam Riding to Big Banks’ Rescue Again? (BAC, C, JPM, WFC)
Shares of Bank of American Corp. (NYSE: BAC) are up about 5% today on two bits of news. First there’s the story that the bank is negotiating a sale of its wealth management division…
Gold Added to FDIC Proposed Capital Rules (GLD, IAU, AUY, NEM, ABX)
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) yesterday issued a notice of proposed rulemaking that revises the measurement of risk-weighted assets by incorporating the latest changes to the Basel III framework and by implementing changes…
Trucking Companies Point to Stable US Economy (JBHT, LSTR, SWFT, CGI, ODFL, CNW)
As an indicator of US economic trends, the trucking industry has been a consistent leading indicator of the direction the economy is heading. No economic downturn has ever been recorded without trucking first turning…
Walgreens Going Global
The largest drug store chain in the US, Walgreen Co. (NYSE: WAG) announced today that it has agreed to take a 45% stake in Swiss-based Alliance Boots GmbH, the world’s largest pharmacy-led health and…
New Housing Permits Jump, Construction Starts Fall from Four-year High
The monthly report from the US Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development shows that new housing starts totaled a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 708,000 units in May, a drop…
FedEx Earnings Don’t Deliver (FDX, UPS)
FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) reported fourth fiscal quarter and full fiscal 2012 earnings this morning. Adjusted EPS for the quarter came in at $1.99, beating the consensus estimate of $1.92. Adjusted EPS for the…
Consumers Spending Less, Expectations Falling
Consumer spending in June has fallen as shoppers save more and pay down existing debt. According to a survey by ChangeWave, some 31% of respondents plan to spend less in the next 90 days,…
24/7 Wall St. Closing Bell — June 18, 2012 (EBAY, EOG, CELG, NOK, PAY, ADBE, BKS, FDX, JBL, JEF, TOPS, XG, AUY, IDCC, INTC, BODY)
The three major US stock indexes opened lower this morning as markets reacted to a rise in the yield of Spanish 10-year debt to more than 7% (our coverage here). The weekend elections in…
Oracle Weighs on Application Software Stocks (ORCL, MSFT, SAP, MITK, BSFT, VRSN)
Software giant Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) is trading down about -2% in the early afternoon today following a research note from JMP Securities that maintains the firm’s ‘market perform’ rating, raises Oracle’s EPS estimate…
Japan Boosts Payments for Solar Power (FSLR, SPWR, TSL, STP, YGE, SHCAY, MMM)
The solar PV industry just got a little bright. The government of Japan has approved a new feed-in tariff plan for the country that will pay developers of solar energy generation a princely $0.53/kilowatt-hour…
Exxon Kills Shale Gas Exploration in Poland (XOM, CVX, MRO, STO)
Based on early geological studies, Poland was believed to be sitting on about 187 trillion cubic feet of natural gas locked up in the same kinds of shale formations that have yielded up massive…
Steel’s Slow-Motion Recovery (AKS, X, NUE, STLD, MT, AA)
Global demand for steel remains weak even as prices for iron ore rise slightly indicating that steelmakers could be in for another tough quarter. As if on cue, AK Steel Holding Corp. (NYSE: AKS)…
Microsoft, B&N to Unveil Tablet? (MSFT, BKS, AAPL, AMZN, GOOG)
courtesy Barnes & Noble Inc.At a hastily arranged event scheduled for today at 3:30 p.m. Pacific Time, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) is expected to announce a new tablet device to be built by its…
An Acquisition in Gold Country (AUY, XG, AU, GG, PAAS, CDE)
Canadian gold miner Yamana Gold Inc. (NYSE: AUY) announced this morning that it is acquiring Canadian junior miner Extorre Gold Mines Ltd. (AMEX: XG) for a total of about $395 million. Yamana will pay…