US Mortgage Efforts Fail As Foreclosures Sky Rocket
There is absolutely no sign that the foreclosure problem in the US is even close to an end point. Data from RealtyTrac shows that there were 3,957,643 foreclosure filings last year, a record. The…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
HP Rules, Dell Thumped In Q4 US PC Sales
The news about PC sales market share in the US never seems to change. HP (HPQ) widens its lead. Dell falters. Asian manufacturers show regular improvement. David Daoud, research manager with IDC’s U.S. Quarterly PC…
Media Digest 1/14/2010 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT. Bloomberg
Reuters: China defended itself against Google’s (GOOG) censorship changes. Reuters: Regulators will face the panel looking at the credit crisis causes. Reuters: The capex outlook in Japan is weak. Reuters: US foreclosures shattered a…
Asia Markets And Europe Open (1/14/2010)
Markets in Asia were mixed. The Nikkei rose 1.6% to 10,908. The Hang Seng was off .2% to 21,717. The Shanghai Composite rose 1.4%. At the open in Europe, the FTSE was up .7%…
T. Boone Pickens Shutters Wind Project (GE, CLNE)
This has already been delayed and rumored, but it appears that oil magnate T. Boone Pickens has given up on his northern Texas Pampa Wind Farm power project. The economics do not work. The…
LaBranche Exits DMM/Specialist Ops (LAB, NYX, BCS)
LaBranche & Co. Inc. (NYSE: LAB) has been rumored to be making a serious change or sale for some time. Tonight, that was partially confirmed. The company has signed a sale agreement to sell…
January Beige Book… Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
Economists, investors, traders, and speculators have looked for each clue as to just when the FOMC is going to end this zero-rate policy on interest rates. Usually, it is a peer through the minutes…
Something Brewing at Eastman Kodak? (EK)
Eastman Kodak Co. (NYSE: EK) has been one of the greatest American brands and great American success stories…. of our parents’ lives. For the last decade this has been a perpetual turnaround story with…
Stocks of Interest In the New Short Interest Data (LCC, CHK, XRX, TWI, ACI, NUE)
The latest short interest numbers were released last night after the close. Overall, short positions dropped into the year end. However, there are still many stocks in short squeezes due to stubborn shorts pressing…
Baidu: Fundies vs. Chart vs. Short Sellers (BIDU, GOOG)
Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) is seeing perhaps the largest trading session of its sort. The notion that Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) might be out of China almost entirely represents a huge opportunity for the…
Adobe Trends: Hacks vs. Short Sellers vs. Charts (ADBE)
Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ: ADBE) has quite a lot of surrounding influences around its stock, but most importantly around its products. The company said it became aware of cyber-attacks against corporate network systems managed…
Secondary Offerings Still Coming Strong (MAIN, OEH, EPB, ENMD, TK, NDAQ, NLST, ARIA)
The end of 2009 was marked by many companies selling stock via public secondary offerings. 2010 has not seen the floodgates open wide, but the secondary offerings are coming. We have offerings sold or…
Today’s Best Market Rumors (1/13/2010)
Updated throughout the day. The Obama budget could include spending cuts (Reuters) Obama will annouce fees for 20 banks to pay back TARP and reduce the deficit (Bloomberg) Adobe’s (NASDAQ:ADBE) software may be been…
salesforce.com Ready for Acquisition Trail? (CRM, ORCL, N, MSFT, SAP)
salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) may be closer to hitting the acquisition trail. The company has sold $500 million in 0.75% convertible senior notes (unsecured, unsubordinated obligations) due in 2015 in a private placement to qualified…
Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (BIDU, BHP, CHL, CHA, GMCR, INFY, RAX, SRE, SYMC, UPS, VSAT)
These are this Wednesday morning’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen in major Wall Street research calls: Baidu, inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank; Raised to Buy at UBS. BHP…
Top Day Trader Alerts (BIDU, GOOG, NBG, MRNA, TQNT, AFFX)
These are today’s top day trader and active trader alerts seen with large price and volume moves in the pre-market. We have more details on analysis and data on a link to VSInvestor.com for…
Apple App Store Has Lost $450 Million To Piracy
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and the companies that sell software for the iPhone and iPod touch at the App Store have lost over $450 million to piracy since the store opened in July 2008 according to an…
Aluminum Foil: The Fallout From Alcoa’s Earnings
Alcoa (NYSE:AA) announced poor earnings and its stock fell more than 11% ending the session on January 12th at $15.52. Some superstitious traders believe that because Alcoa is the first large American company to…
A Double Dip In Germany?
The concern that the Japanese economy has reached a point of stagnation has grown recently as its fourth quarter GDP figures failed to show a substantial recovery. More analysts have questioned the power of Japanese…
Sovereign Debt Problem: When Governments Mislead About Numbers
Iceland and Dubai have already reneged on foreign debt obligations. There is a growing concern about similar trouble with the debt of Greece, Spain, and several Eastern European nations. Credit agencies downgraded the debt of a…