Today’s Best Market Rumors (8/26/2010)
Updated throughout the day. Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) will show new iPods on September 1. The bankrupt Tribune Company may offer its chairman’s job to former Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) CEO Michael Eisner. Douglas…
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Douglas A. McIntyre
The Twitter-24/7 Wall St. Market Report (8/26/2010) Dell Ups Offer, Jobless Claims
Twitter has, by most estimates, 100 million members, which makes it one of the largest social networks in the world. All major media companies are on Twitter and some have more than one million…
The Cost Of Phone Calls Is Headed Toward Zero
Skype, which offers free voice calls from PC-to-PC and cheap calls from phones has about 400 million subscribers. More than 25 million of them use the service at any one time. The Skype product…
S&P To Rise To 1,500?
Many of Wall St’s most well-regarded analysts still believe that the S&P 500 will rise from its current level of 1,055 between now and the end of the year. Some forecasts have been cut…
The SEC’s Meaningless Plan To Offer Shareholders More Power
The way that board members get elected at public companies is simple. The nominating committee of the board, often friends of the CEO, put the name of current directors or new ones they might…
A New Round Of Corporate Layoffs?
Defense contractor Northrop Grumman cut 642 people from its ship building operation yesterday. That follows another 300 cuts from the same operation last month. The reason given was that the Navy has slashed orders…
Media Digest (8/26/2010) Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg
Reuters: BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP) will take its case to Potash (NYSE: POT) shareholders. Reuters: Google In.c (NASDAQ: GOOG) will allow phone calls from Gmail accounts. Reuters: The Bank of Japan may begin to…
What About Those Job Loses From The Drilling Moratorium?
In early June, an irate Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal fired off a letter to the White House warning that as many as 20,000 jobs would be lost over the next 12 to 18 months…
Labor Day Travel Increases, Airlines Remain Disappointed
Holiday travel for this Labor Day weekend is expected to make a recovery from last year’s decline, AAA reports. The increase in late-summer vacations, which is expected to be 9.9% greater than 2009’s numbers,…
BHP Fiscal Year Profit Doubles and Bid for Potash on the Front Burner
Australian mining giant BHP Billiton plc (NYSE:BHP) reported full fiscal year 2010 earnings today of $12.72 billion, more than double the $5.9 billion the company earned in 2009. BHP also reduced its net debt…
The Real Labor Shortage: Skilled Blue-Collar Workers
As the global economy recovers and businesses around the world begin to expand their workforces again, labor shortages are bound to become a mounting issue for the developed world – despite current unemployment figures.…
Assault on Big Pharma Grows
The assault on Big Pharma shows no signs of letting up. AARP today released a survey showing that retail prices of brand name drugs rose an astounding 8 percent in 2009. Another report presented…
Toyota Has Plenty Of Friends In Mississippi But Few Elsewhere
Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM), whose already bruised reputation suffered another blow yesterday following yet another media report about a government safety investigation, does have plenty of friends in Mississippi. That’s where the Japanese…
New Home Sales Fall Out Of Sight
New home sales cratered, according to the Commerce Department. The news comes one day after similar news on existing home sales “Sales of new single-family houses in July 2010 were at a seasonally adjusted…
Apple iPad Will Dominate Tablet Space
The research firm iSuppli says that the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPad will dominate the tablet market for at least two more years. “The iPad will account for an overwhelming 74.1 percent of global tablet…
The Twitter-24/7 Wall St. Market Report (8/25/2010)
Twitter has, by most estimates, 100 million members, which makes it one of the largest social networks in the world. All major media companies are on Twitter and some have more than one million…
Durable Goods Collapse
Durable goods orders dropped 3.8% when transportation goods were backed out. Total new orders for manufactured goods rose .3%, less than expected, to $193 billion, according to the Commerce Department. Inventories of manufactured durable…
Dell Starts At The Back Of The Line With New Smartphone
Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) is late to the smartphone market. Very late. It has begun to sell its new Aero handset with AT&T (NYSE: T). The Aero costs $99.99 with a two-year subscription plan. Without…
Credit Card Debt Hits Eight-Year Low
Credit research company TransUnion said that credit card debt hit an eight-year low in the second quarter of 2010. It is likely to go lower. The average combined debt of those individuals fell to…
Yahoo! Search Finally Intergrates With Bing, Challenges Overseas May Be Too Great
Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) says it has finally integrated its search function with Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Bing, part of the deal that the two companies set over a year ago. The two search engines will…