A deal for UK insurance company Prudential to buy AIG’s (AIG) large Asia insurance firm for $35.5 billion will be announced today. That should be a relief for US taxpayers who have invested $182 billion in the…
China’s manufacturing sector slowed more than expected in February. The nation’s Purchasing Managers’ Index dropped to 52 in February from 55.8 in January. The culprit of the slowdown was a tightening of credit in…
Twenty-six percent of Americans now get news via their cellphones, according to a Pew Research poll of 2,259 people taken between December 28 and January 19. The study shows that 43% of people under…
The 24/7 Wall Street Corporate Power Rankings of the thirty-two most important companies in America are determined by earnings, analyst rankings, important corporate news, trends in each firm’s industry, product introductions, management strength and changes,…
Reuters: Some senators want hearings on the Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) bailouts. Reuters: Toyota (TM) is at work in China on damage control. Reuters: Asia factory output expanded by China slowed…
Markets in Asia were higher. The Nikkei rose .5% to 10,172. Toyota (TM) fell. The Hang Seng was up 2.2% to 21,057. HSBC (HBC) moved higher. The Shanghai Composite was up 1.2% to 3,088.…
American companies have been criticized for years for outsourcing work, particularly to China and India. Much manufacturing work actually went to other nations, such as Vietnam and Mexico, but China has been a convenient…
All of the news about housing that was so good in the fourth quarter became bad in the first two months of the new year. Foreclosure rates are still up and some analysts expect…
This coming week we have many key issues coming front and center in our list of “Unusual Suspects.” Some are ongoing issues with mergers and the waves of earnings reports seem to be quieting…
Apple (AAPL) found that three of the companies that provide it with components to build its products employ underage workers. Apple’s 2010 Supplier Responsibility reports says that “Apple discovered three facilities that had previously…
The United States may be Toyota’s largest market, but the largest car market in the world is China. After a grilling by Congress and meeting with the Transportation Secretary and employees meant to save as…
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.…