In 2011, global shipments of 4G LTE smartphones totaled 6.8 million units. In 2012, that number is expected to grow to 67 million smartphones according to research firm Strategy Analytics. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL),…
Home builder KB Home (NYSE: KBH) was not expected to post a profit in its fourth quarter — and it didn’t. The company reported a fourth-quarter EPS loss of -$0.59, more than twice as…
US index futures are basically flat this morning as investors wait for the latest report on new home sales in the US. Expectations call for an increase from January’s 321,000 to 330,000. Existing home…
Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE: BBY) sold nearly as many iPhones from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) in the past three months as Apple itself did. In a report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners cited…
There are more than 200 ethanol refineries in the US with a total nameplate production capacity of nearly 15 million gallons/year. One of the largest producers, privately-held Cargill, plans to add a third plant…
Markets opened sharply this morning and remained in negative territory all day. Purchasing managers’ indexes in the eurozone and in China came in lower than expected this morning, weighing European and Asian shares. The…
Today’s auction of $13 billion in US 10-year Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) went off at a yield of -0.89%, just the second time that yields have turned negative. Demand for the securities came in…
Gallup is out with a new survey today indicating that 42% of Americans consider the “energy situation” to be “very serious.” Presumably the “situation” is whether or not there’s enough, not how much it…
Today in Cushing, Oklahoma, President Obama said that his administration would get moving right now on the southern portion of the Keystone XL pipeline from Cushing to the Gulf Coast: We’re making this new…
The number of US households that can claim a net worth of $1 million or more has risen to 8.6 million in 2011, up from 6.7 million households in 2008, but lower than the…
Auto industry research firm J.D. Power & Associates is forecasting retail new-car sales of 1.085 million units in March, a two-and-a-half year high. The company also projects that seasonally adjusted annual sales will reach…
The US Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported today that US house prices were unchanged between December 2011 and January 2012. The December change was reduced from a gain of 0.7% to a gain…
The US Energy Information Administration today reported the US natural gas stocks rose by a total of 11 billion cubic feet, at the high end of the 7-11 billion cubic feet increase that analysts…
Regional bank holding company Banc Trust Financial Group Inc. (NASDAQ: BTFG) has terminated its efforts independently to recapitalize the firm. As a result, the bank is making some very ugly changes to its fourth-quarter…
Firearms maker Sturm, Ruger & Co. (NYSE: RGR) announced this morning that it would stop taking new orders for its products until the end of May 2012. The company’s shares hit a new high…
The federal government’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) has recovered all but about $11 billion in the funds it distributed to US financial institutions in 2008 and 2009. Last week Regions Financial…
Cable network Discovery Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: DISCA) could lose $143 million in 2012 on its $312 million investment in the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). That’s in addition to the $92 million that Discovery reported…
Solar thermal generation provider BrightSource Energy Inc. has filed an amended Form S-1 with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for an IPO of 6.9 million shares at a price of $21-$23/share. The company’s…
US index futures are down this morning on a pile of discouraging news from Europe and Asia. This week’s report on new US unemployment benefits claims might pick up the mood if the numbers…
Discount retailer Dollar General Corp. (NYSE: DG) reported fourth-quarter and full-year earnings this morning and beat consensus estimates on both EPS and revenues for the quarter and the 2011 fiscal year. For the quarter,…