A Chance To Gamble Away The National Debt
Pennsylvania will now allow poker, blackjack, and a number of other games of luck and skill to be played at its 14 slot machine casinos. Politicians in the state say that they are against…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
Media Digest 1/8/2010 Reuters, WSJ, NY Times FT, Bloomberg
Reuters: Oil is at $82 and will move based on US jobs data. Reuters: Reliance upped its offer for Lyondell to $13.5 billion. Reuters: An former SAC employee was caught in a probe of Blackstone (NYSE:BX).…
Asia Markets And Europe Open (1/8/2010)
Markets in Asia were modestly higher The Nikkei rose 1.1% to 10,756. The Hang Seng rose .1% to 22,297. China Mobile (NYSE:CHL) rose. The Shanghai Composite was up .1% to 3,196. At the open…
Cramer’s Technology Tsunami Picks for 2010 (GOOG, AAPL, AMT, CCI, SBAC, SWKS, ALTR, CY, XLNX, AMZN, CSCO, ERTS, QCOM, INTC)
Tonight on CNBC’s MAD MONEY, Jim Cramer continued with his stock picks for 2010 based on investment themes. We have already seen energy shortage picks, counter-terrorism and homeland security picks, and international ADR picks;…
AOL Looking At Mashable Purchase: Price Tag $18 Million
There are rumors in the media press that AOL (NYSE:AOL) will buy tech blog Mashable. What is the company worth? According to the 24/7 Wall St “Twenty-Five Most Valuable Blogs In America”, Mashable would sell…
Signs Of The Apocalypse: Fed Should Raise Rates To 4%
The Fed released the minutes from the latest FOMC meeting held on December 15th and 16th showed that some tension had developed among the members including the participating presidents of the regional federal reserve banks.…
Schwab (SCHW) Drop Trading Fees
By Paul Ausick of 24/7 Wall St. Charles Schwab Corporation (NASDAQ:SCHW) has announced that it will drop its online equity trade commissions for retail investors from $12.95/trade to $8.95/trade beginning January 19, 2010. Some…
Lampert’s Surprise For Sears Holders (SHLD)
Sears Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ: SHLD) has been a significant winner lately even though it has been a very poor retailer for most of its recent history. But Eddie Lampert’s surprises was that he not…
Lennar Saves Beazer, But Sets High Mark Tone (BZH, LEN, XHB, ITB, KBH)
Beazer Homes USA Inc. (NYSE: BZH) was weak earlier because of its proposed secondary offering that will add to dilution of shareholders. This morning the company’s secondary offering of 19,500,000 shares of its common…
Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (AET, AA, AIB, BBBY, BAC, BMRN, HUM, MSFT, MMM, VZ, WEN)
These are this Thursday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street research calls early this morning: Aetna Inc. (NYSE: AET) Cut to Sell at Collins Stewart. Alcoa, Inc. (NYSE: AA) Cut…
Today’s Best Market Rumors (1/7/2009) (AMR)(AOL)(GOOG)
Updated throughout the day. The New York Fed told AIG (NYSE:AIG) not to disclose swaps deals with companies including Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS). (Bloomberg) Ivanhoe Mines may be for sale (Reuters). AMR (NYSE:AMR) has raised its offer…
Jobless Claims Lack Catalyst for Friday’s Unemployment Data
The Labor Department posted the weekly jobless claims data this morning. The figure came to a gain of 1,000 on an adjusted basis to 433,000. Bloomberg had the consensus estimate at 450,000, although that…
Housing Supports, Jobless Benefits and Unemployment
By John Tamny of Forbest While there are varying views as to what tomorrow’s unemployment report will reveal, it’s generally assumed that the number will be too high. But what’s not spoken of…
Hershey And Cadbury: Are Private Meetings Private?
By Douglas A, McIntyre One way to fight a hostile takeover is to find a “white knight”. Cadbury (NYSE:CBY) is doing just that in clandestine meetings with Hershey (NYSE:HSY). The meetings are no longer…
Costco (COST) Numbers A Sign Of Retail Recovery
CostCo’s (NASDAQ:COST) December numbers look like a strong sign that retail sales are recovering, at least in the affluent end of the warehould sales business. CostCo reported net sales of $8.26 billion for the month…
FDIC: Bank Fees Should Rise With Risks Banks Take
The FDIC wants to increase fees to banks where executives have their pay tied to decisions that may involve high risk of capital. According to The Wall Street Journal, The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s…
Vacancy Rates Rise To 8% As Homeowners Move To Leasing
It is a paradox and one that is bad for both the residential and housing real estate markets. Reis, an industry analyst group, says that the vacancy rate in the apartment sector rose 8%,…
Album Sales Collapse As Digital Downloads Top 40% Of Market
Digital downloads accounted for 40% of all music sales in 2009, according to Nielsen SoundScan. But, that was not enough to stop an overall drop in sales which reached 13% compared to 2008. According…
The Fed Becomes Indecisive
The stock and bond markets would like to be able to easily predict what the Federal Reserve will do for several months after each Federal Open Market Committee Meeting. If they had the knowledge…
Commercial Real Estate Begins To Mirror Residential Market
The residential real estate crisis is over. Home prices are stable. The number of people who are in the market for a home is up. Tax credits and home prices, which are still historically…