Weak Dollar, More Layoffs (TM)(SNE)
The head of Toyota (NYSE:TM) recently said that a recall of four million cars with floor mat problems would not hurt company profits anywhere near as much as a surging yen and falling dollar.…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
China Blames Investment Banks For Derivatives Losses
Caveat emptor. Caveat emptor. Chinese official are blaming US banks for selling some of the country’s state-owned companies complex derivatives on which they lost money. The FT and other media report that “A senior Chinese official…
Goldman Sachs (GS) May Buckle To Pay Package Pressure
The argument that Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) will pay its employees too much this year has always been a weak one. Some shareholders believe that more money should be going to them, perhaps in the form of…
Survey: Holiday Spending Ticks Up And Soars At Amazon (AMZN)
A new survey from ChangeWave shows that holiday spending has improved in 2009 compared with 2008 and purchasing activity at Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) is soaring. The study of 2,954 consumers was completed on November 10.
Bernanke Will Get His Second Term
Several Senators cuffed Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke around during hearings today. Chris Dodd, who runs the Senate Banking Committee in whose presence Bernanke appeared, gave the world assurances that the Fed chief would be…
Media Digest 12/4/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg
Reuters: Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) may make bonus payments in stock. Reuters: China is worried about sticking to dollar deposits. Reuters: A well-known economist says housing will continue to fall. Reuters: Bank of America (NYSE:BAC)…
Asia Markets And Europe Open (12/4/2009)
Markets in Asia were mixed. The Nikkei was up .4% to 10,023. Honda (NYSE:HMC) and Sony (NYSE:SNE) rose but Toyota (NYSE:TM) dropped. The Hang Seng fell .3% to 22,495. Sinopec (NYSE:SNP) fell. The Shanghai…
Washington Post… The Last Stable Paper Company (WPO, BRK-A)
Washington Post Co. (NYSE: WPO) has to be thankful that it is not just a newspaper company as most tend to think of it. Today, came an analyst rating action that was actually in…
Take-Two’s (TTWO) Well-Paid Management, Awful Earnings
It is time for the board of Take-Two (NASDAQ:TTWO) to see if it can renegotiate its contract with Zelnick Media, which runs the video game company. The current arrangement calls for Zelnick to get…
Did Obama Warn on Friday’s Unemployment Data?
There have been at least two occasions where President Obama referred to the direction of the unemployment and non-farm payrolls data before the key report due Friday. Once was just a month ago, but…
24/7 Wall St. TV: Viacom + Time Warner = Next Big Media Merger
No one would be surprised to see Sumner Redstone, the 86-year-old head of Viacom (NYSE:VIA), and Jeff Bewkes, CEO of Time Warner (NYSE:TWX), wearing disguises to their private meetings in coffee shops around Manhattan. The…
SunTrust ‘Sell’ From Meredith Whitney (STI, BRK-A)
SunTrust Banks, Inc. (NYSE: STI) is getting hit this morning, although perhaps not as harshly as the call might sound. Meredith Whitney put on her banker Scrooge hat and issued a SELL rating on…
ISM Data: Service Sector Back in Hell
The Institute of Supply Management has released its November data for the services sector this morning. The ISM non-Manufacturing data had gotten back to growth briefly in October and September. The November figure came…
Top Day Trader Alerts (GERN, STEM, OPXA, HGSI, DRYS, ABK, MBI, TRGT)
These are this morning’s top day trader and active trader alert stocks, with more details and analysis over at VSInvestor.com with a link to each story: Geron Corporation (NASDAQ: GERN), StemCells Inc. (NASDAQ: STEM),…
Today’s Best Market Rumors (12/3/2009) (S)(HUN)(GE)(AAPL)(F)(TWX)
Updated throughout the day. Updated 1.17 PM EST: Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) may sign up Sprint (NYSE:S) and T-Mobile to market the iPhone in the US (Barron’s) Updated 11.29 PM EST: Huntsman (NYSE:HUN) may be a…
Amazon.com: As Cramer and Others Get Too Bullish (AMZN, WMT, BBY)
It is impossible to argue against the success of Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) as a company, and it is also impossible to say that the stock is not on fire. After all, 52-week highs…
Jobless Data Staying in Right Direction
The Labor Department is out with the newest weekly jobless claims data. The figure came in at 457,000 versus the estimates from Bloomberg of 485,000. The preliminary unrevised figure a week ago was 466,000,…
Top 10 Analyst Upgrades, Downgrades, and Initiations (AMZN, AAPL, AGO, BAC, CELG, CBST, DRYS, EBAY, POT, RIG)
These are this Thursday morning’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen from Wall Street research calls: Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) Started as Market Perform at JMP Securities. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) Started as…
FDIC: A Quarter Of Americans Have Little Or No Bank Access
The FDIC reports that millions of Americans have no access to a bank. The agency report “reveals that more than one quarter (25.6 percent) of all households in the United States are unbanked or…
Why Hasn’t Citigroup (C) Repaid TARP Funds
The program Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) has announced to repay the TARP funds it received is a modest vindication for its retiring CEO Ken Lewis. He has proved that his firm, which has rolled…