The FDA Follies And Death Drug Avandia
The FDA continued is blundering and fumbling as the protector of the American public from big pharma. On the “drugs that kill people but are approved by the FDA” front, two doctors from the…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
New GM CEO Gets $9.1 Million In Comp, Old Chief $59,000 A Month
Whatever happened to the $1 a year men? When the federal government gave Chrysler $1.5 billion to stay in operation, CEO Lee Iacocca worked for $1 until the taxpayers were received their money back.…
Tiger Woods Caused The Stock Rally, Really (DIA, SPY, QQQQ)
Wikimedia CommonsToday was very confusing for traders. You had a housing number that may have incorrectly gave a feeling that housing is about to rapidly get back on its feet and we had a…
Tiger’s Sponsors… Come From Behind Victory? (NKE, ERTS, AXP, PG, ACN)
Tiger Woods is a unique athlete that put himself in a unique situation. Today’s first round of formal apologies was effectively nothing more than a telegraph of more to come that so far raises…
Emerging Market Surprise: Turkey Upgraded by S&P (TUR, TKF, TKC)
If you have read the news about Greece, Spain, and other PIIGS nations, you might think that the EuroZone and any neighboring states would be in the tank. If you asked about Turkey without…
Two Small Alternative Energy Capital Raises, More To Come (ACPW, CPST)
We have two small capital raises seen this morning in two alternative energy players. These are also classified as cult stocks due to their small size and trading history. Active Power, Inc. (NASDAQ: ACPW)…
Today’s Best Market Rumors (2/19/2010)
Updated throughout the day. Dendreon Corp. (NASDAQ: DNDN) and Myriad Genetics Inc. (NASDAQ: MYGN) buyout rumors on options trading (3:45 PM EST). BioHealthInvestor.com says caveat emptor! Two schools in China are being tied to…
Top 10 Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (ACN, BUD, BBY, SCHW, FSLR, INFY, KNOT, LIZ, DIS, WBMD)
These are Friday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations we have seen from Wall Street research calls this morning: Accenture plc (NYSE: ACN) Cut to Sell at Kaufman Bros. Anheuser-Busch (NYSE: BUD) Cut to…
Vulture Watch: Nortel’s Patent Portfolio Up For Grabs (NRTLQ, RIMM, INTC, CSCO, MSFT, ERIC, QCOM, ALU)
Nortel Networks Corp. (NRTLQ) is just about wound down in its bankruptcy. The company’s operations have effectively all been sold off, at extreme discounts. In this bankruptcy there is one last sale or group…
The Dividend Hikes Continue (KO, CCE, TIF, PFCB, RIG, KGC, AU, MO, HNZ, DAI, HME)
The Fed has started the end of the near-zero rate cycle cycle, sort of. But yesterday’s sudden discount rate hike to 0.75% from 0.50% is almost certainly a prelude to the Fed Funds rate…
Wireless Call Quality Drops
A new study by JD Power shows that wireless call quality fell sharply during the last six months. Part of this is undoubtedly due to overloads of 3G networks which are swamped with data. But quality…
Cold And Snow Kill UK Retail–US Next
The the Office for National Statistics said that retail sales in the UK fell 1.2% in December, more than the consensus forecast of .5%. The recession was partly to blame according to some analysts.…
China Cyberattack On Google Focuses On Schools
By Douglas A. McIntyre Two Chinese schools may be the source of the cyberattacks on Google (GOOG) and a number of other U.S. corporations, and according to The New York Times these schools have…
Google: The Utility, The Conglomerate
Google (GOOG) got approved by US regulators to sell electricity, allow it to buy and sell power like a power company. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission greenlighted the search firm’s application yesterday. Google will…
The New Deficit Panel Begins A Journey To Nowhere
The President has appointed an 18-member blue ribbon panel to analyze how the US budget deficit can be reduced. The panel is then to make recommendations meant to bring the deficit down to 3%…
Media Digest 2/19/2010 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg
Reuters: The Fed will try to calm the markets after it raised the discount rate to .75%. Reuters: The head of Toyota (TM) will go to Congress to testify. Reuters: The Fed’s action helped…
Asia Markets And Europe Open (2/19/2010)
Markets in Asia fell. Shanghai was closed for a holiday. The Nikkei fell 2.1% to 10,124. The Hang Seng was down 2.6% to 19,894. At the open in Europe, the FTSE fell .6% to…
Mr. Toyoda Goes To Washington
Akio Toyoda, the head of Toyota (TM), will go to Washington to testify before the House Oversight Committee. He did not want to visit Congress, but he ended up with little choice. The committee’s chairman…
The Rate Hike Cycle Begins
Just yesterday in the FOMC meeting minutes from January, it was becoming painfully clear that the FOMC was getting closer to hiking rates. Most notable was that the discussions had revolved around whether changing…
First Solar… First Cheer, Then Dump (FSLR)
First Solar, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) is out with earnings today, and there is nothing great and nothing awful to report in here. For its fourth quarter, revenues were $641.3 million, up from $480.9 million…