Stocks opened lower this morning and have trended down all day. There was no major news today, although major European exchanges closed the year with losses: Germany’s DAX was down -15% on the year,…
US automaker Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) will sell more than 2 million vehicles in the US in 2011, the first time since 2007 that any car maker has sold that many units. Ford…
Swiss crude oil refiner Petroplus has temporarily halted operations at three of its five European refineries after the company’s banks refused to extend the $1 billion credit facility Petroplus uses to buy crude oil.…
US appliance maker Whirlpool Corp. (NYSE: WHR) has filed complaints with the US Commerce Department and the US International Trade Commission related to dumping of clothes washers made in Korea and Mexico on the…
The average day rate in 2012 for a capesize ore carrier — the largest in the world’s fleet — is expected to be about $15,000. That’s down from an average of about $15,640 in…
There are several stocks trading more heavily than usual this morning, and also experiencing large gains or drops in share prices. These include AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR), MoSys Inc. (NASDAQ: MOSY), Tegal Corp. (NASDAQ:…
After nearly 13 years of effort, BP plc (NYSE: BP) has decided to walk away from its joint venture with Russia’s OAO Rosneft to develop the Sakhalin-5 project. The company said that the economics…
Breaking through another psychological barrier, US natural gas prices fell to $2.99/thousand cubic feet in futures trading this morning. That’s the lowest price in more than two years and light years away from highs…
Low prices for phosphate fertilizer products have forced The Mosaic Co. (NYSE: MOS) to cut production by up to 250,000 tons in the first quarter of 2012. Fertilizer makers Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (NYSE:…
After 30 years of payments to farmers and blenders, the federal subsidy on corn-based ethanol expired when Congress adjourned last week without taking any action to renew the payments. A cynic might say that…
US stock-index futures are slightly higher this morning following the lead of Asia’s markets which closed the last trading day of the year in positive territory. For the full year, though, Asian equities finished…
Stocks opened higher this morning and settled in around noon with positive readings on all three major indexes. The Chicago PMI report was down slightly from a month ago, but better than expected. The…
New contracts to purchase homes rose by 7.3% in November to an index level of 100.1, the highest reading since the 111.5 level posted in April 2010. The index measures signed contracts for home…
For the week ending last Friday, US inventories of crude oil rose 3.9 million barrels compared with the previous week and remain at the upper limit of the five-year average. Natural gas inventories fell…
Shares in semiconductor stocks have gained and lost value in about equal number during 2011. The run-up in share prices may be over for some and sustainable for others. For stocks that lost value…
There are several stocks trading more heavily than usual this morning, and also experiencing large gains or drops in share prices. These include LiveDeal Inc. (NASDAQ: LIVE), Cell Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: CTIC), American DG…
Homebuilder PulteGroup Inc. (NYSE: PHM) has sold a 1,700 acre parcel of land originally set to be a master planned community of about 1,500 homes near Denver. The land was sold in an all-cash…
US wheat prices are down this morning on news that Algeria has just purchased as much as 300,000 metric tons of the commodity from a non-US source. After eight straight days of gains, from…
As part of its efforts to raise cash and pay down debt, Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) has sold its Appalachia Midstream Services subsidiary to Chesapeake Midstream Partners L.P. (NYSE: CHKM) for total consideration…
The latest portable game player from Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE), the PlayStation Vita, sold more thn 300,000 units in its first two days on sale earlier this month. During the week before Christmas, the…