Natural gas prices in the US rose to more than $4.80/thousand cubic feet (tcf) in June, and have trailed off to under $3.20/tcf today. In late 2005, natural gas spot prices topped $15/tcf and…
Stock-index futures are up this morning as US markets prepare for a veritable blizzard of economic data scheduled for release today. First-time unemployment claims, GDP revisions, consumer confidence rating, housing prices, and leading economic…
The US Department of Justice has given the go-ahead to the merger of Exelon Corp. (NYSE: EXC) and Constellation Energy Group Inc. (NYSE: CEG). The combined company is being required to divest three power…
The US Department of Justice and Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) have reached settlement related to discrimination allegations lodged against Countrywide Financial Corp. before Countrywide was acquired by BofA. The bank will pay…
Markets opened lower this morning on mixed reaction to the $641 billion borrowing spree from the European Central Bank. Technology stocks were weighed down by poor earnings report and uninspired guidance from one of…
In September 2010, BP plc (NYSE: BP) fired 320 workers at its solar panel-making operation in Maryland because it could not compete with manufacturers like First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR), SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWR),…
There was some good news and some bad news in the latest report on third-quarter 2011 home loans. The good news is that 88% of 32.4 million US first-lien mortgages are current. Things get…
When AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) killed the $39 billion deal for T-Mobile USA it had agreed to with Deutsche Telekom AG (OTC: DTEGY), the $4 billion break-up fee going to DT is not likely…
This morning’s weekly petroleum status report from the US Energy Information Administration noted a particularly steep — and unexpected — drawdown in oil stocks. Crude inventory fell by 10.6 million barrels, far more than…
China has passed the US and Japan to take the top spot in the world ranking of patent filers. A report from Reuters cites data from 2010 indicating that China filed 314,000 patents. No…
There are several stocks trading more heavily than usual this morning, and also experiencing large gains or drops in share prices. These include Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL), Teradata Corp. (NYSE: TDC), Commercefirst Bancorp Inc.…
Earlier this month Verizon Wireless, the joint venture between Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) and Vodafone plc (NASDAQ: VOD), paid $3.6 billion for spectrum licenses belonging to SpectrumCo LLC, a joint venture of Comcast…
Japanese rating agency Research & Information Inc. has lowered the country’s sovereign debt rating from ‘AAA’ to ‘AA+’. The agency had this to say about Japan’s economy: Prospects for economic revitalization are also uncertain.…
The big story this morning is the euro489 billion ($641 billion) that Europe’s central banks took from the first of two long-term refinance operations (LTRO) offered by the European Central Bank. The stronger-than-expected demand…
The European Central Bank this morning got its long-term refinancing operation (LTRO) off the blocks with a bang. Eurozone banks took €489 billion ($641 billion) of the 1%, three-year loans, surpassing even the highest estimates…
US equity markets opened sharply higher this morning and have been able to sustain and even add to those gains throughout the day. Business and consumer confidence indexes in Europe were higher, giving an…
The US Federal Reserve has issued proposed regulations that would put additional requirements on large US banks. The banks sure to be affected by the new rules include Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS),…
Food producers have been battling rising commodity costs, higher fuel costs, and higher packaging costs by raising their prices. That appears to be working decently for ConAgra Foods Inc. (NYSE: CAG) and not so…
A small leak in a line feeding drilling fluid to a well owned and operated by Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-A) and using a rig owned by Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG) has spilled less…
Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca plc (NYSE: AZN) is looking for another big winner to replace its Nexium heartburn drug and its Seroquel schizophrenia treatment. Unfortunately two drugs the company had in trials both failed late-stage…