Markets opened lower this morning and nothing came along all day to move any of the three major indexes above the neutral line. The morning’s report on housing starts was no better than flat…
Some complaints from buyers of the new iPad from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) led Consumer Reports magazine to run a heat test on the brand new device. Customers had been complaining that the iPad…
Jeweler Tiffany & Co. (NYSE: TIF) reported fourth quarter and full year results this morning. For the quarter, EPS missed the consensus estimate of $1.42, coming in at $1.39. Revenues were inline for the…
An analyst at UBS has said that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) could sell as many as 12 million iPads this quarter if the company can sustain the daily sales rate of 750,000 units/day in…
Natural gas and crude oil pipeline partnership Williams Partners LP (NYSE: WPZ) announced late yesterday that it would acquire a natural gas gathering subsidiary of privately held Caiman Energy for $2.5 billion. The system…
Drug developer Targacept Inc. (NASDAQ: TRGT) and partner AstraZeneca plc (NYSE: AZN) today announced that they will not file for regulatory approval on an anti-depressant drug called TC-5214 following a trial in which the…
Greek-based shipping company NewLead Holdings Ltd. (NASDAQ: NEWL) yesterday cancelled a 1-for-5 reverse stock split. From the company’s news release: NewLead decided not to proceed with the 1-for-5 reverse split of its common shares…
China’s Recon Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: RCON) announced yesterday that it had successfully used a hydraulic fracturing (fracking) technique developed by Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI) to complete a fracking project at a field being…
PC shipments in the second half of 2011 grew by a less-than-robust 1.8% and the first half of 2012 is expected to see only modest growth. That should change by the second half of…
Canadian grain-handler Viterra Inc. (OTC: VTRAF.PK) has agreed to be acquired by Glencore International plc (OTC: GLCNF) for C$16.25/share, or a total of about C$6.1 billion ($6.2 billion). The all-cash offer will go to…
Beginning in 2014, Nissan Motor Co. (OTC: NSANY.PK) will begin selling cars in the emerging markets of India, Russia, and Indonesia under the ‘Datsun’ brand. Nissan stopped using the Datsun name in 1981. The…
Since it began tracking US economic confidence in 2008, Gallup has never gotten a net positive result. A reading above zero indicates that Americans are gaining confidence in the country’s economic conditions, while a…
The projected slowdown in China’s GDP growth to 7.5% in 2012 has dampened demand for steel. Steel prices are flattening out and the result is that investors are seeing a drop in demand for…
If the Internet were a country, by 2016 it would rank behind the US, China, Japan, and India in the size of its GDP — $4.2 trillion. That’s bigger even than Germany. Considering that…
The US report on February housing starts shows that the seasonally adjusted annual rate fell -1.1% from January’s revised estimate of 706,000 to 698,000. The consensus estimate for February housing starts was 706,000. Compared…
US index futures are lower this morning as investors wait to hear the data on US housing starts in February. A consensus estimate calls for an annualized adjusted figure of 706,000, up from 699,000…
For the past week, the day rates for very-large crude carriers (VLCCs) has been rising to where $40,000/day is the going rate. The reason for the spike is that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia…
Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said yesterday that the threat to the euro and the eurozone has been met for the time being and that the next battle to…
There’s a new number two among hamburger restaurant chains. The Wendy’s Co. (NASDAQ: WEN) has surpassed privately held Burger King in total sales, with $8.5 billion in 2011 sales compared with $8.4 billion for…
Markets opened slightly lower this morning as everyone seemed to be waiting for the announcement from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) regarding its $97 billion cash pile (our coverage here). Financial sector stocks pushed stocks…