A Knife Fight Breaks Out Among Car Companies
GM had to recall 1.3 million cars this week, which took away much of its current marketing advantage over Toyota. The perennial No.1 domestic car company could claim that its Japanese rival had lost…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
A Questionable Patriot Bid… (PCX, MEE)
Patriot Coal Corporation (NYSE: PCX) had a stellar trading day, with a gain of more than 10% which moved the shares above $20.00 for the first time since January 20. The reason for today’s…
Novell’s Only Hope: The Long-Awaited Buyout (NOVL)
If you have followed software companies for more than a decade, you have probably grown accustomed to seeing Novell, Inc. (NASDAQ: NOVL) act as a dead money stock. The company has gone from having…
Ford Outsells GM, Toyota OK
Many experts expected that February would be a bloodbath for Toyota (TM) due to its recalls of 8.5 million cars worldwide and a large amount of negative publicity about potential cover-ups of safety data.…
Will Starbucks Start Paying Dividends? (SBUX)
2010 is becoming the year of the dividend… either raised dividends or it is new dividends. Over the weekend, we reviewed the restaurant and food service sector when we were evaluating McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:…
Google to Microsoft: Stop Being Evil
By John Hudson of The Atlantic Wire For weeks, rumors of a proxy war between Microsoft and Google have animated techies. Many of their suspicions were validated Monday by a Wall Street Journal report…
Apple (AAPL) Sues HTC As Handset Wars Intensify
Kodak (EK) sued Apple, RIMM, and Motorola (MOT) for patent infringements. Nokia sued Apple (AAPL). Nokia claims to have patents that the Apple uses in the iPhone. Now Apple (AAPL) has filed a patent suit against…
Goldman Sachs Sets Record for $100 Million Trading Days
By Douglas A. McIntyre Goldman Sachs (GS) may face bad publicity, hostile Congressmen, and campaigns by shareholders to cut compensation, but it remains a money making machine. The bank has disclosed that it had…
Terra & CF, Back in the Merger Wars (TRA, CF, MOO)
Terra Industries Inc. (NYSE: TRA) is back in the mergers and acquisitions spotlight as the target of CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CF). If this sounds familiar, it is because CF tried to do…
Today’s Best Market Rumors (2/2/2010)
Updated throughout the day Astellas Pharma may have competing bids in it effort to takeover OSI Pharmaceuticals (NYT) The FDIC will sell $1.8 billion of guaranteed asset-backed debt (IFR). Diageo could bid as much as 624…
Top 10 Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (AOL, T, DELL, KMB, MRVL, MIL, OSIP, RVBD, SNDK, GAME)
These are ten of the top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations we have seen from Wall Street research calls this Tuesday morning: AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) Started as Hold at Jefferies. AT&T Inc. (NYSE:…
News Consumption Moves To The Internet, But That May Not Make It Profitable
The internet has become a more popular way to get news than the newspaper. The is the conclusion of a new Pew study. Local TV news remains in first place. In rank order, people…
As Apple iPad Comes To Market Competitors Eye Price Cuts
E-reader marketers like Amazon (AMZN) and Barnes & Noble (BKS) have caught a break just before Apple comes to market with its iPad table computer. The iPad, with its 10.1″ screen, touchpad operation, and powerful…
The Iowa Appliance Gold Rush And The Future Of Consumer Spending
Iowa opened its “cash for appliances” program yesterday and the $2.8 million that the state had set aside to fund it was gone by mid-afternoon. All on the first day. The state announced “…all…
GM’s Turn: Company Recalls 1.3 Million Cars
Car recalls have become an epidemic with the sickest patient being Toyota (TM), which has recalled 8.5 million cars this year. GM, one of the car companies with a chance to benefit from the woes…
Media Digest 3/2/2010 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg
Reuters: GM will recall 1.3 million cars for steering problems. Reuters: China would like one price for iron ore to cut commodity speculation. Reuters: Two software services will help telcos as they offer alternatives…
Asia Market And Europe Open (3/2/2010)
Markets in Asia were mixed. The Nikkei rose .5% to 10,222. The Hang Seng was down .8% to 20,899. HSBC (NYSE:HBC) fell sharply. The Shanghai Composite dropped .5% to 3,075. At the open, the…
The 10 Worst Places For Women To Work
Women make up over 50% of the US workforce now, but the Bureau of the Census shows that women make, on average, only 77% of what men do based on measurements of annual salaries.…
CIT Late on Annual Report; Guides For Losses (CIT)
Not surprisingly, CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) filed with the SEC a form NT 10-K… That is a non-timely annual report notification. The company said it would be unable to file its annual report…
QUALCOMM Throws Cash At Falling Stock (QCOM)
This is nearly funny, or at least ironic. I had been working on a piece to post at 5:00 PM addressing the steady chart meltdown happening at QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM). It seems as…