Growth Again… In Jobless Claims
The Labor Department released the weekly jobless claims data this morning, and whatever policies are being presented just are not helping on the hiring and firing front in the nation. The weekly jobless claims…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
Today’s Best Market Rumors (2/4/2010)
Today’s best market rumors. Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) will buy a touchscreen company, Touchco. (NYTimes) Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) will defer or cut some bonuses in London (NYPost) The US may have underestimated job losses since the…
Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (AOL, AAPL, BLK, CAL, COCO, CREE, BEN, MWW, PNRA, SYNA, LCC, VZ, V, WU)
These are this Thursday’s top analyst calls with upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street research calls: AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) Raised to Neutral at Merriman Curhan Ford. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) Raised…
Signs Of Intelligent Life At Sony: Earnings Helped By Financial Unit
After five quarters of losses, Sony (SNE) has finally turned a profit. The news is not terribly impressive since it is the conglomerate’s financial and insurance divisions that pushed the company into the black.…
An Unprecedented Public-Private Partnership as Google and NSA Team on Cyberattacks
Google will not have to go it alone as it attempts to unravel cyber attacks on its service in China that have raised the question about how vulnerable the search company's servers are in…
Government Healthcare Programs To Pass Private Sector In Size
The largest single problem with the budget deficits as the next few years unfold is not the low government receipts due to a poor economy. It is not defence spending or discretionary programs. The really…
More Than Half Of Adult Americans Use Internet For Healthcare Info
More than half of adult Americans used the internet to look up healthcare information in the last year, according to a CDC study conducted in the first six months of last year. The study does not…
US Recession Job Loss May Have Been Undercounted By 824,000
In a blow that could come down on the Obama administration and U.S. economy like Thor’s Hammer, the US may have lost 824,000 more jobs than the government said it did between April 2008 and March…
Texting May Ruin Twitter Growth
Texting, a simple method to send messages from wireless handset to handset, may be the largest single roadblock to Twitter’s growth. A survey by Pew shows that among internet users between 8 and 17…
Toyota (TM) Makes Profit, Raises Forecast, Projects $2 Billion Costs For Recall
Toyota (NYSE:TM) posted a profit of $1.7 billion in the quarter that ended December 31 due to cost cuts and improved sales in Asia and the US. Sales rose 10%. Toyota also raised its…
Media Digest 2/4/2010 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg
Reuters: Toyota (NYSE:TM) said it would have charges of $2 billion for recalls, but posted a profit last quarter and improved its forecasts. Reuters: Shell’s (RDS.A) profits fell sharply. Reuters: Sony (NYSE:SNE) posted its…
Asia Markets And Europe Open (2/4/2010)
Markets in Asia fell. The Nikkei was off .5% to 10,356. Toyota (NYSE:TM) fell and Honda (NYSE:SNE) gained. Sony (NYSE:SNE) announced a profit. The Hang Seng was off 1.8% to 20,342. The Shanghai Composite…
24/7 Wall St. Toyota 2010 Forecast: 500,000 Lost Sales, CEO Resignation, 40,000 Layoffs
The bad news is just beginning for Toyota (TM). The eight million vehicles the company has recalled, the shut down production of eight of its most popular cars, and potential brake defects with its…
Cisco Rocks Numbers, One Caveat Seen (CSCO)
Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) had a bullish bias going into earnings as far as the options traders were concerned. The networking giant has posted earnings of $0.40 EPS on an 8% revenue gain…
The Great Wal-Mart Battery Trade-Out (XIDE, JCI, WMT)
Exide Technologies (NASDAQ: XIDE) is getting crushed today after news that the company was notified by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) that the retailer will stop selling the company’s auto batteries in WalMart stores. …
Anonymous Source Story Of The Week: Huge Layoffs At Take-Two (TTWO)
MCV, the games business site, reports that Take-Two Interactive (NASDAQ:TTWO) will lay-off 400 people, or 20% of its work force. The company’s VP of Corporate Affairs, Alan Lewis, denied the rumor but said a corporate…
Are Old People Bankrupting America?
From The Atlantic Wire, By Max Fisher As health care costs balloon, swelling the budget and the deficit, elderly Americans are consistently the biggest consumers. This isn’t their fault. They simply require more–and more…
DOE Inventory Data Highlights Ongoing Refinery Woes (OIH, USO, UCO, VLO)
The Department of Energy has released some mixed data on weekly oil inventory data, and the take for refining is looking just as bad still or actually worse in February compared to the Q4-earnings…
Challenger Gray Layoffs Dominated By Ten Firms (VZ)(WMT)(M)(XRX)(LMT)
Challenger, Gray & Christmas announced that layoffs disclosed by major US firms last month hit 71,482 in January up from 49,094 in December. Downsizing at ten companies made up a third of the total:
Top Day Trader Alerts (APKT, ANX, ALVR, AUXL, CTRP, SOLR, HDIX, DDSS, MYGN, NETL, NWS, VRSN, WU)
These are this morning’s top day trader and active trader alerts with a brief explanation of the news behind the moves: Acme Packet, Inc. (NASDAQ: APKT) up 14% at $12.21 on 28,000 shares after…