Warren Buffett’s new annual letter to shareholders is out. This is a far different read than a year ago. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B, BRK-A) said its annual shareholder value rose by 19.8%, a…
Chile was hit with an 8.8-magnitude quake devastating some parts of the South American country today. Officials say it is the worst earthquake to hit the country in a quarter of a century. The event occurs…
Many alternative energy stocks themselves may sometimes represent little more than highly leveraged bets on the price of oil. But there is still big business in the world of clean tech and green technology. …
Gold was supposed to keep eroding, or so its chart was indicating, earlier this week. But the weakening dollar vs. euro trade coming back and variations of rumors that China was buying that gold…
This week brought about an interesting initial public offering filing from a company called Green Dot Corporation. If you are looking for a beneficiary of hard times and a world where credit gets harder…
Earnings season has mostly wound down. We have many key business events and key economic events scheduled for next week. In asset sales and merger land, we will be paying close attention to American…
Everyone, or at least most everyone, loves dividends. While some investors love share buybacks, dividends seem to be the new way we are seeing for companies to reward shareholders. The good news is that…
This morning’s top movers for day traders and active traders are seen in the following: American International Group, Inc. (NYSE: AIG) down over 5% athenahealth, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHN) down 11% CKE Restaurants Inc. (NYSE:…
These are this Friday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street research calls early this morning: athenahealth (NASDAQ: ATHN) downgraded to market perform at JMP Securities, cut to neutral at Baird.…
AIG announced two bad pieces of news but each was framed as good. The insurance company which has benefited from a $180 billion US bailout reported a net loss attributable to AIG common shareholders…
Updated throughout the day. Toyota (TM) may miss North American output goals (Nikkei news service) GM is going back to early bidders for Hummer now that its deal with Chinese firm Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery…
EU economic inspectors and IMF officials have been in Greece to review the economic carnage. What they found was at the horrible end of a scale that ranges from good news to bad. Prime…
The number of “snow hurricanes” that have hit the mid-Atlantic states and Northeastern US must be a National Weather Service record. Much of the East Coast is under assault again and will be for most…
The US economy may have grown at a 5.7% pace in the fourth quarter of 2009, but according to a survey of experts by Thomson Reuters a figure of closer to 3% is more likely…
Toyota’s (TM) sales in the US market are supposed to fall and some of its large rivals like Ford (F) and Honda (HMC) are supposed to benefit from customers who will no longer consider buying vehicles…
There are twelve major pharmaceutical firms that dominate this industry worldwide. Their combined market value is over $1 trillion with total annual sales of over $500 billion. The firms have developed and marketed most of the…
Reuters: Akio Toyoda met with Transportation Secretary LaHood. Reuters: Lloyds posted huge loss driven by bad debts. Reuters: A job creation effort is hung up in Congress again. Reuters: Blackstone (BSX) got commitments for its fund…
Markets in Asia were mixed. The Nikkei was up .2% to 10,128. Toyota (TM) rose slightly. The Hang Seng was up 1% to 20,609. China Unicom (CHU) rose The Shanghai Composite was down .3%…
Short selling is seen for many reasons, but universally traders tend to track short selling to track the biggest changes in the short interest twice each month. Whether these are hedges, forward delivery trades,…
You have to always wonder a bit when a partial spin-out makes a deal to acquire software products from its parent company. After the close of trading came word that VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW)…