The largest of the remaining institutions in the federal government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) re-paid its $3.5 billion loan today. Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF) has also paid US taxpayers $593 million in…
Ratings agency Fitch Ratings didn’t like what it saw on a residential mortgage backed securities bond from Credit Suisse Group (NYSE: CS) and it said so. That led the bank to drop the agency’s…
Not satisfied with being the leading global supplier of smartphones, Samsung Electronics (OTC: SSNLF) is going into the mobile ad network business. The company yesterday announced a partnership with OpenX Technologies Inc., a privately…
Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) has announced a deal with Paramount Pictures, owned by Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIAB), that will add 500 Paramount titles (including “The Godfather”) to its video rental store on YouTube. Google…
What was once considered an excellent credit score now disqualifies a borrower from obtaining a mortgage. The COO of mortgage industry services provider Ellie Mae (AMEX: ELLI) put the issue in stark terms: Last…
Williams Pipeline Partners LP (NYSE: WPZ), a pipeline master limited partnership, announced a secondary offering of 10 million common units this morning at a price of $54.56/unit. The company’s common units closed last night…
The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its weekly petroleum status report this morning. US commercial crude inventories jumped by 9 million barrels last week, bringing the total US commercial crude inventory to 362.4…
General Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: GNCMA), a wireless carrier in Alaska, has added the iPhone from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) to its roster of available phones. The interesting thing about this is that the company…
Acuity Brands Inc. (NYSE: AYI), a making of lighting fixtures, reported fiscal second-quarter results this morning, and the company’s net earnings are down about -2% from the same period a year ago. The company’s…
Seed and fertilizer maker Monsanto Co. (NYSE: MON) reported second fiscal quarter earnings this morning that set a record for the quarter. The company also boosted its EPS outlook for the full fiscal year.…
US index futures are down significantly this morning as investors continue to react negatively to yesterday’s release of FOMC minutes. No one seems to believe that the US economy can grow unless the Fed…
For the first time in seven weeks, the number of mortgage applications has risen from the previous week’s total according to the latest data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). The increase was driven…
nationsonline.orgResearch firm Markit Economics has released its composite PMI report for March, showing that the Eurozone economy continues to contract if at a slightly slower rate. The composite (manufacturing plus services) reading for March…
When the Spanish government revealed its latest budget last month, the general assumption was that Spain was pointed down the right track to revive the country’s economy. After all, €27.3 billion in cuts and…
Markets opened flat to lower this morning and stayed right around the break-even line most of the morning. The report on factory orders was weaker than expected(our coverage here), although new car sales are…
Last year at this time, cotton prices were hovering around $2.10/pound. They’re less than half that today, and growers are wondering if $0.95/pound will return. Cotton prices dropped below $1/pound in mid-November and wobble…
Research firm comScore Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is out with its report on the US mobile phone market for the rolling three-month period through February 2012. The data shows that 234 million Americans now use…
Virtually as soon as last month’s Greek debt swap deal was done, Fitch Ratings lifted their rating on Greek debt from ‘Restricted Default’ to ‘B-/Stable’. That’s still junk, but a higher class of junk.…
According to new research from LinkedIn Corp. (NYSE: LNKD), more than a third of global professionals are either frightened of or anxious about negotiating issues like salaries or business deals. The company surveyed more…
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appears to have extracted a commitment from Saudi Arabia to continue the Kingdom’s crude oil production at its current level of around 9.9 million barrels/day even if the…