Discount retailer Big Lots Inc. (NYSE: BIG) reported fourth quarter and full year results for its fiscal 2011 ending in January 2012. The company reported quarterly EPS of $1.75, beating the consensus estimate of…
Norway’s national oil company, Statoil ASA (NYSE: STO) is planning to build two new drilling rigs that the company claims will increase oil recovery at lower cost in the mature fields of the Norwegian…
The nation’s largest auto retailer, AutoNation Inc. (NYSE: AN) reported a year-over-year sales jump of 17% for the month of February. The company sold 19,994 cars last month. Here’s the breakdown: 6,179 for Domestic,…
Specialty drug maker SciClone Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: SCLN) announced this morning that the company will “discontinue development” of its SCV-07 oral mucositis drug because the drug failed to “meet the pre-specified efficacy endpoints” of…
The three major US equities indexes opened higher this morning after another (small) drop in new unemployment benefits claims and a good, but smaller-than-expected, rise in personal income and spending data (our coverage here).…
The Dow Jones Transportation Average has risen just 7.7% in the past five years, and barely 3% in the past 12 months. Not exciting, that’s for sure, except for the ride to get here.…
In yet another sign that the US economic recovery is, indeed, happening, the US Census Bureau reported today that construction spending in the US was up 7.1% in January when compared with January of…
At about noon today, all three major US stock indexes have managed to post gains, with the DJIA down nearly 43 points at about 12,995, the Nasdaq down more than 19 points at 2,986,…
Retailers have been posting same-store sales figures for February this morning, and most are posting better-than-expected numbers — in some cases, much better than expected. We have reports from 15 companies: Costco Wholesale Corp.…
The US Energy Information Administration today reported the US natural gas stocks fell by a total of 82 billion cubic feet, lower than the drawdown of 90-94 billion cubic feet that analysts had expected.…
The three major US equities indexes opened higher this morning after another (small) drop in new unemployment benefits claims and a good, but smaller-than-expected, rise in personal income and spending data (our coverage here).…
A subcommittee of The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) has ruled that the debt swap deal agreed to by Greece and the EU did not represent credit default events and, therefore, would not…
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) today announced a 9% increase in its annual dividend, from $1.46/share to $1.59/share. The increase is effective with the company’s first fiscal quarter of 2013, which ends in April.…
Saudi Arabia had 49 drilling rigs in place during the month of January according to a report at Bloomberg News. That compares to just 23 rigs in January of 2011. The increased rig count…
US index futures are higher this morning as investors await still more data on the US economy. Yesterday’s report on GDP growth will be followed today by the ISM manufacturing data and a report…
When activist investor Carl Icahn launched his $2.6 billion hostile takeover of CVR Energy Inc. (NYSE: CVI) a couple of weeks ago, it was pretty clear that CVR would fight back. The company, a…
The proposed 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline will not make the US more energy independent nor will it lower gasoline prices. If anything, the pipeline from western Canada’s oil sands to the US Gulf Coast…
The three major US stock indexes opened higher this morning on the better-than-expected news on US GDP growth (our coverage here). The buying mood turning sour as the Nasdaq neared the 3,000 mark, a…
Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) has acquired server maker SeaMicro Inc. for an undisclosed amount, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. SeaMicro makes a low-power servers based on the…
This morning’s report from the US Energy Information Administration (our coverage here) showed that commercial crude oil inventories in the US rose by 4.2 million barrels last week. At the same time, inventories of…