Dell Earnings Drop 5%, Shares Drop 3%
Earnings for Dell’s (DELL) fiscal fourth quarter which ended January 29 fell 5% to $334 million. EPS dropped 6% to 17%. The company reported that sales rose 11% to $14.9 billion. Dell posted improvements…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
Meredith Whitney Still Bank-Cautious (JPM, BAC, C, BLK)
Esteemed banking analyst Meredith Whitney just gave a CNBC interview a year after starting that she was starting Meredith Whitney Advisory Group. She is still very cautious on the banking sector and the prospects…
More Heated Google Search Competition Coming (GOOG, MSFT, YHOO)
The search pact between Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) has been approved. Finally. The companies announced that the search pact was okayed by the Department of Justice and the European…
Today’s Best Market Rumors (2/18/2010)
Updated throughout the day. Apple (AAPL) may have a deal with book publishers to sell e-books for $9.99. (NYTimes) Greece may issue a 10-year bond next week with a value of $6.8 billion (WSJ).…
What Buffett Didn’t Tell You in Latest Holdings (BRK-B, BRK-A, COP, XOM, BDX, JNJ, GCI, MCO, WMT, PG, UNH, WLP, WFC, STI, IRM, RSG, NSC, UNP, NRG)
We already gave a full run-down position by position in the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B, BRK-A) holdings as of December 31, 2009. What is interesting is that this round of 13F holdings had…
Top 10 Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (ACOR, AGCO, AEO, AU, ANDE, CTXS, DE, ITRI, NTAP, VMW)
These are this Thursday’s top ten analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations we have seen from Wall Street research calls this Thursday morning: Acorda Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ACOR) Cut to Market Perform at Leerink Swann. AGCO…
The Naive Conceit of Banking Regulations
By John Tamny of Forbes Past troubles within the U.S. financial system continue to generate a great deal of feverish commentary from allegedly wise minds in the economic commentariat about how to fix…
Walmart Earnings: Still The Best
Some analysts thought that Walmart’s (WMT) earnings and outlook were a bit disappointing. They were actually excellent given the harsh retail environment in which the company operates. The fact that Walmart’s revenue went up…
Government Moves Toward Regulation Of Systemic Risk
It is easier said than done. The US government wants to oversee the bank system in a way that would check for the kind of systemic problems that froze the credit markets in late…
Good News For Amazon: Apple May Offer Best-Sellers For $9.99
Amazon’s (AMZN) e-reader business which fuels sales of its Kindle e-reader is supposed to be in trouble. The e-commerce operation has charged $9.99 for many of the e-books it sells, which has helped the company keep…
IMF To Dump 191 Tons Of Gold
The International Monetary Fund says it will sell 191 tons of gold. The agency claims it needs the cash for lending. It may be that the IMF suspects that gold price will fall from their…
Public Pensions Face $1 Trillion Shortfall
US states face a $1 trillion shortfall in the funding of their pensions, and the figure could grow substantially in the near future. The Pew Center On The States reports that “the gap at the…
Media Digest 2/18/2010 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg
Reuters: US regulators are looking at steering problems on the Toyota (TM) Corolla. Reuters: Greece says it is not seeking EU taxpayers’ money. Reuters: Gold fell on an IMF sale. Reuters: US state pension funds…
Asia Markets And Europe Open (2/18/2010)
Markets in Asia were mixed and Shanghai was closed The Nikkei was up .3% to 10,336. Toyota (NYSE:TM) slipped on recall news. The Hang Seng was down .6% to 20,407. At the open, in…
National Employee Morale Day At Humana
Humana (NYSE:HUM) will cut 2,500 jobs in one of its business units but add back enough workers in other areas so that the net cut in employees will be 1,400. Humana reported a sharp increase…
From The Omniscient Idiot Files: Amazon E-Book Share To Drop By Two-Thirds
Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) share of the e-book market will go from 90% to 35% over the next five years. At least that is what Credit Suisse analyst Spencer Wang claims, according to The Wall Street…
Media Content’s $64,000 Question–How To Get Paid
The key to a media business model is the size of the market and the demographic of the consumer. eMarketer is forecasting the number of monthly Internet users in the US will increase from…
The Size Of Toyota’s Problem Moves Toward $10 Billion
The odds that one car company could have three unrelated large recalls of three different sets of vehicles within a month are probably 1,000-to-1. But, that is what will happen Toyota (TM) if ABC News…
Hewlett-Packard Proves Bull Case For Tech
By some measures, Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) is the largest technology company in the world, with annual sales well over $100 billion. The breadth of its business, which include software, PCs, printers, servers and consulting, make it…
FOMC Minutes Imply Beginning of Fed Exit Strategy
The minutes of January’s FOMC meeting show no expectation that rates or inflation are soon to explode higher. But what is becoming more evident is that this near-zero rate policy is starting to have…