The business of lending money to small businesses has entered a vicious cycle. The Small Business Administration says that it processed 12,393 loans in the fourth quarter of last year. That is up 9,070…
The AP claims that bankruptcies filed in the US last year totaled 1.4 million, which includes both businesses and individuals. That would be a 32% increase compared to 2008. The Wall Street Journal reports that…
The segment of the consumer electronics market that includes all the miniature or handheld PC alternatives grows by the day. Smartphones including the RIM (NASDAQ:RIMM) Blackberry and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone post sharply increased sales each quarter.…
Kraft (NYSE:KFT) made a remarkably clever move in its pursuit of Cadbury (NYSE:CBY), but it may be too little too late. The US foods company sold its North American pizza business to Nestle for $3.7 billion.…
Reuters: Kraft (NYSE:KFT) sold it pizza business to Nestle and lifted the cash portion of its deal to buy Cadbury (NYSE:CBY). Reuters: Cold weather pushed oil prices near $82. Reuters: US healthcare spending is slowing.…
Markets in Asia rose. The Nikkei was up .3% to 10,692. The Hang Seng was higher by 2.1% to 22,286. The Shanghai Composite rose 1.2% to 3,282. At the open in Europe, the FTSE fell…
Jim Cramer came out on CNBC’s MAD MONEY this evening with an interesting grouping of stock trends to invest in for 2010 and he thinks this is the year of active investing. The first…
Massey Energy Company (NYSE: MEE) rose over 5.7% to a yearly high of $44.42, riding a wave of optimism concerning coal and metal stocks following signs that U.S. and Chinese manufacturing is improving. Alcoa…
By Paul Ausick Media giants Time Warner (NYSE:TWC) and News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWS) have settled a scuffle between Time Warner Cable and News Corp.’s Fox TV. Fox stands to receive a per-subscriber payment from Time…
If today’s price action is of any indication for the full year, it seems that 2010 may be poised to be the year of the Irish banking sector. Today’s big winners were not just…
By Jon Ogg It seems that Kraft Foods (NYSE:KFT) is about to go after Cadbury plc (NYSE:CBY) in the U.K. harder than it already has. Many believe Kraft is about to make a high…
The rise of the Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android mobile operating system has happened so quickly that it has humiliated Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), which has pushed it OS for years with little success.. Android has also begun to threaten…
By Douglas A. McIntyre In his op-ed piece in The New York Times on Sunday, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman argued that if the Obama administration and Congress on the one hand and Fed…
Updated throughout the day. Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) may move some of its operations out of London to avoid high taxes on banker bonuses (London Telegraph) Kraft (NYSE:KFT) will raise its bid for Cadbury (NYSE:CBY)…
By Douglas A. McIntyre Shares in JAL, the flagship carrier of Japan, rose by over 30% Monday as the Development Bank of Japan, which is backed by the government, said it would increase its…
These are this Monday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street research calls: Aqua America (NYSE: WTR) Cut to Neutral at Macquarie. Brinker International (NYSE: EAT) Cut to Neutral at UBS.…
By Douglas A. McIntyre The digital age was supposed to destroy the movie theater business. Why drive to a multiplex and stand in line to buy four $9 tickets when it’s easier, and perhaps…
John Tamny of Forbes In a speech last month at the venerable Brookings Institution, President Barack Obama laid out a series of objectives meant to stimulate economic activity. As he put it, “Our work…
We have started taking a look at the 30 stocks comprising the Dow Jones Industrial Average to see which stocks had the most implied upside of all DJIA components. We have taken a snapshot…
Oil prices are back above $80. This time the rise is blamed on cold weather in the Northern Hemisphere. Weather forecasters predict that the winter of 2010 may be especially cold. Global warming in…