S&P May Downgrade Greece
Global capital markets investors are bound to once again take a dim view of the future stability of the eurozone. S&P has warned that is may downgrade the sovereign debt of Greece. “Standard &…
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Douglas A. McIntyre
Pending Home Sales Up, A Mixed Message On Real Estate Market
Pending home sales rose in October, according to the National Association of Realtors. The news comes just a day after S&P/Case-Shiller data showed a drop in home sales. Perhaps there are more homes for…
Costco Same-Store Sales Up 9%
Costco (NASDAQ: COST) same-stores sales rose 9% in November. For the four weeks which ended November 28, international same-store activity was up 13%. The huge big box retailer said it had revenue of $6.78 billion…
The Car Industry Can’t Even Build Bumpers Right
There were two pieces of important information about the US car industry yesterday. The first is that domestic sales rose 17% in November. The second is that the car industry does not know how…
Riding The Wave Of The Foreclosure Business
One out of four residential homes sold in the third quarter of this year was a foreclosed property, RealtyTrac reports. That makes the sales of such residences big business for realtors and the banks…
What Is “Net Neutrality”?
The document called the FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION CHAIRMAN JULIUS GENACHOWSKI REMARKS ON PRESERVING INTERNET FREEDOM AND OPENNESS was released recently. Perhaps the most unexpected part of the chairman’s comments was some support for “usage…
Media Digest 12/2/2010 Reuters, WSJ, FT, NYT, Bloomberg
The European Central Bank has been strongly pressures to help with the region’s financial crisis (Reuters) Geithner has started to work with Congress on the fate of the Bush tax cuts (Reuters) Regulators and…
The US Can’t Feed Europe To The Wolves
The U.S. contributed $13 billion to rebuild Europe after World War II. More than 60 years later, Uncle Sam may ride to the continent’s rescue again. Financial markets reacted Wednesday to a report that…
Fed Details Huge Support For US Banks
The Federal Reserve has been forced to disclose its aid to American financial firms during the credit crisis. Ben Bernanke probably wanted to avoid these disclosures, but under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer…
Top Active Trader Alert Stocks (APWR, CHRS, MIGP, OVTI, SODA, TICC)
Active traders and day traders have many stocks to choose from this Thursday morning. We are tracking news and moves in shares of in A-power Energy Generation Systems, Ltd. (NASDAQ: APWR), Charming Shoppes, Inc. (NASDAQ: CHRS), Mercer…
Cyber Monday Sales Surge Nearly 20%
Cyber Monday sales rose 19.4% from the same day last year according to Coremetrics, which should create a great deal of hope that retail activity this holiday season will be better than expected, especially…
As China Purchasing Moves Up Who Buys The Goods?
China’s logistics office said that purchasing manufacturing rose once again in November. The index moved up from 54.7 in October to 55.2. Analysts say that the improvement is a good sign for the economy…
The Ten States With The Most Unemployed Losing Benefits (And Seven That Will Lose None)
More than 2 million people receiving unemployment will lose coverage in December if Congress does not extend their benefits. In a report published in November, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) concluded…
Media Digest (12/1/2010) Reuters, WSJ, FT, NYT, Bloomberg
The Federal Reserve will disclose which banks got crisis loans in the 2007 to 2009 period. (Reuters) Factories in China and India increased production last month. (Reuters) US regulators intend to press banks on…
The Taxman Will Come To The Web
The one group of people who were almost as happy as the retailers by the unexpectedly strong Black Friday sales were tax collectors whose appetite for taxing online sales grows stronger every year. It’s…
Apple iPad Sinks Amazon.com Kindle In E-Reader War
It was always Amazon.com’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) dream that its Kindle could hold off the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPad’s incursion into the e-reader market. The problem is that the Kindle does one thing. The iPad, on…
Why Car Sales May Not Improve In 2011
Car sales are expected to be moderately good for November. Most car companies will have results which are an improvement over October, but comparisons with last November are quite likely to be down between…
Americans: Cut Government Spending, Don’t Touch Taxes
Americans believe that the pain of reducing the deficit should be based on government cuts and not changes in the tax code. They do not, however, expect their own taxes to drop as a…
Housing Crushed Horribly
The S&P/ Case-Shiller Home Prices Indices could not have been worse for September. They showed a near collapse in house prices. Earlier this month, an S&P analyst opined that home prices could drop another…
Top Active Trader Alert Stocks (ASML, AXG, CBAK, DECK, MCOX, RIMM, SODA, STX)
Active traders and day traders have many stocks to choose from this Tuesday morning. We are tracking news and moves in shares of ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ: ASML), Aixtron AG (NASDAQ: AXG), China BAK Battery Inc. (NASDAQ:…