October 8, 2013: U.S. markets opened virtually flat Tuesday morning but that quickly switched to another sell-off. The lack of a solution to the federal government shutdown and the approaching federal debt limit continue…
ThinkstockAt the week-long metals conference known as LME week, CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CME) on Tuesday said it will launch an aluminum contract on an as-yet undetermined date. The contract will challenge the London…
ThinkstockThe Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is the federal agency responsible both for regulating the commodities markets and publishing weekly data on the state of those markets. The weekly Commitment of Traders report which…
ThinkstockThe impacts of the federal government are spread unevenly throughout the 50 states and the District of Columbia. States like Virginia with a lot of federal employees are among the hardest hit on that…
Americans’ confidence in the economy last week fell the most since the week of September 15, 2008, when Lehman Brothers collapsed and set off the global economic crisis. The Gallup economic confidence index plunged…
ThinkstockIn the month of August, 48,000 U.S. home foreclosures were completed, up 1.3% from a revised total of 47,000 in July and down 34% from 72,000 in August 2012, according to research firm CoreLogic…
thinkstockFor the month of September, J.C. Penney Co. Inc. (NYSE: JCP) reported that same-store sales improved by 5.8%, compared with the decline in same-store sales posted in August. Said clearly, same-store sales fell 9.8%…
ThinkstockThe National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Tuesday morning reported that its small business optimism index for September came in at 93.9, down slightly from August’s revised reading of 94.1. In May the index…
ThinkstockAfter markets closed on Monday night, activist investor Carl Icahn disclosed that he had accumulated a stake of nearly 6% in Canadian independent oil and gas exploration and production company Talisman Energy Inc. (NYSE:…
ThinkstockThe market for telecommunications equipment is among the most competitive in the world, and one of its biggest players is trying to get itself into fighting trim. Alcatel-Lucent S.A.(NYSE: ALU) announced Tuesday morning that…
October 7, 2013: U.S. markets opened lower Monday morning as prospects for a settlement of the government shutdown wane and a further fight over the federal debt ceiling wax. Investors could be looking for…
ThinkstockAt the annual London Metals Exchange (LME) Week, which began Monday, no one expects major changes to the way the exchange manages its warehousing system for aluminum, copper and other base metals. The LME…
ThinkstockAs a group, oil and gas stocks are lower in early afternoon trading Monday, but there are a few exceptions. A few major companies are getting a boost from the relatively short and uneventful…
ThinkstockMortgage lending services provider Lender Processing Services Inc. (NYSE: LPS) issued its monthly Mortgage Monitor for September Monday morning with data through the end of August. Delinquencies and foreclosures continue falling, and there is…
ThinkstockAfter posting a five-year high in July, consumer spending pulled back in September, according to the latest Gallup self-reporting survey on Americans’ spending habits. The August daily average of $95 fell to $84 in…
Courtesy Lockheed Martin Corp.Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT), the world’s largest defense contractor, had said on Friday that it would furlough some 3,000 employees as a result of the federal government shutdown. By Monday…
ThinkstockU.S. Appellate Court Judge Richard Posner weighs in Monday morning with a blog post on the approaching crisis over raising the federal debt ceiling. Posner, long associated with conservative and neo-conservative economic positions, has…
courtesy of Apple Inc.Japan’s largest wireless carrier, NTT DoCoMo, did not sell an Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone until just last month with the release of the iPhone 5s and 5c. Competitors Softbank and…
October 4, 2013: U.S. markets opened slightly higher Friday following a lack of a report this morning on non-farm payrolls and unemployment. Markets rose nicely in mid-morning and have held on to decent gains…
ThinkstockThe agricultural commodities markets face a double-edged sword as the federal government shutdown drags on. Traders are moving to the sidelines as the flow of data regarding market movements slows to a trickle, and…