What Inflation?
We have just gotten the Labor Department’s measure of retail inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index. The September reading still has inflation running tame, and many will be watching for more of the…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
Jobless Claims Taming, A Tad
The Labor Department’s report on weekly jobless claims came in at 514,000, slightly better than the estimates of 520,000 from Bloomberg. Thi was based against a prior 521,000 unrevised and based on a 524,000…
Top 10 Analyst Upgrades, Downgrades, Initiations (ACOR, IP, OPEN, PBR, SPWRA, ASML, LAZ, PETD, TRW, WDC)
These are this morning’s top 10 pre-market analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations which we have seen early from Wall Street research firms: Acorda (NASDAQ: ACOR) Raised to Buy at Merriman Curhan Ford; Raised to…
No Social Security Cost-Of-Living Increase For 2010
People collecting Social Security have been getting cost-of-living increases since the program to up payments went into effect in 1975. The inflation calculation used to set the increases was negative this year. The Administration…
Apple (AAPL) iPhone May Get FM Tuner
The devilishly clever engineers at Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) have apparently discovered another way to sell songs though the iTunes store. Apple appears to be developing an FM tuner that will run on the iPhone and…
Flu Drug Sales Take Off
Roche earnings offered hope to the scores of biotech companies working on H1N1 treatments. The big pharma firm, which makes most of its money from cancer treatments, profited from the spread of the flu. Roche…
Foreclosures Hit Quarterly Record Giving Housing Market No Hope
There may be some signs of a sharply improving economy. The FOMC notes released yesterday show that the Fed believes that GDP will start to pick up quickly next year. The housing market is…
Media Digest (10/15/2009) Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg
Reuters: Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) is having trouble justifying its huge bonuses. Reuters: Bruce Wasserstein, M&A giant and head of Lazard (NYSE:LAZ), died. Reuters: Congress will probe compensation at AIG (NYSE:AIG). Reuters: US foreclosures fell…
Asia Market And Europe Open (10/15/2009)
Markets in Asia were higher. The Nikkei rose 2.1% to 10,273. Sony (NYSE:SNE), Toyota (NYSE:TM), and Honda (NYSE:HMC) were all higher. The Hang Seng rose 1.1% to 22,125. HSBC (NYSE:HBC) was up. The Shanghai…
The FOMC Unemployment Blues
Buried deep in the Minutes of The Federal Open Market Committee for September 22 and 23 is the group’s forecast for joblessness. The committee’s conclusion is that “the unemployment rate moving down to about 9¼ percent…
Despite Marketing 101, The Rise of Captain Lou Albano
Although he did not wear an eye patch, Captain Lou Albano was the Hathaway shirt man of wresting and rock and roll. Albano was as improbable as celebrity as he was a professional wrestler. He…
The New York Times (NYT) Will Keep The Boston Globe
The newspaper industry must be looking up. Recently, Gannett (NYSE:GCI) said its last quarter was better than expected. Today, The New York Times Company (NYSE:NYT) said it would keep The Boston Globe which has…
M&A Legend Bruce Wasserstein Dies, Leaving Open Fate Of “The Deal” And “New York Magazine”
Bruce Wasserstein, one of the great M&A bankers in Wall St. history and CEO of Lazard (NYSE:LAZ) died at age 61. His passing leaves open the eventual fate of his two premier media properties…
52-Week High Club
Conseco Inc (NYSE: CNO) rallied 30% to a yearly high of $6.50 on news that Paulson & Co. had taken a large stake in the company as well as on news that the company…
Expedia Scores S&P Rating Upgrade (EXPE)
The travel sector may still be complaining about softness and a spotty recovery, but things are getting better financially at Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE). It turns out that Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services gave…
FOMC: Recovery Yes, But High Unemployment For Years
The September Minutes from the FOMC are out and the tone is getting far less cautious and far less negative, despite all the caveats. It also shows that there is some disagreement among members…
Starbucks (SBUX) Begins To Thrash McDonald’s (MCD) In Coffee Wars
McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) was supposed to crush Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) in the premium coffee business when the world’s largest restaurant chain introduced a line of premium java more than a year ago. It turns out that McDonald’s impressive…
IBM Is The Key to DJIA 10,000 (JPM, INTC, IBM, DIA)
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is literally within 20 points of the psychological DJIA 10,000 mark. We have not seen Dow-10K since October, 2008, but that month we saw 11,000 and saw under 8,000…
China’s GM Bailout
China has been critical to the attempts by the US government to pull the economy out of its downward spiral. The People’s Republic has accommodated America by continuing to fund the deficit with its…
Technician Call: Oil to $90+, But Questions Seasonality (USO, GLD, OIL, OIH)
Now that Gold has busted $1,000.00 and headed up almost every day since, the next target commodity is oil and the question is if black gold can mirror the performance of yellow gold. One…