Icahn Dumps Yahoo! (YHOO) Shares
Carl Icahn, who took a large stake in Yahoo! (YHOO) along with board seats, has started to sell his shares. He seems to have come to the same conclusion that Wall St. has. The…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
eBay (EBAY) Sells Skype
eBay (EBAY), which had planned offer shares in its VoIP business Skype though an IPO, has sold it to private equity interests instead. Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen, Index Ventures, and Silver Lake Partners are…
One Hundred Billion Searches: Does Google (GOOG) Make Us Smarter?
comScore, the internet research firm, announced that more than 113 billion searches were made worldwide in July. That number is significant but even more astonishing is the 41% rise that the figure represents over…
Media Digest 9/1/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg
Reuters: Ebay (EBAY) will sell Skype to private investors. Reuters: China’s manufacturing index gained. Reuters: A late Labor Day will hurt August retail sales. Reuters: A US judge ruled against AIG (AIG) in a…
Asia Markets And Europe Open 9/1/2009
Markets in Asia were slightly higher. The Nikkie rose .4% to 10,530. Honda (HMC) and Toyota (TM) both rose. The Hang Seng was up .8% to 10,892. The Shanghai Composite was up 8% to…
Boeing’s (BA) CEO Finds A Scapegoat
The launch of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner has been delayed so often that it would be comical except that the aerospace firm’s shareholders and customers are not laughing. Boeing trades at $50, down from more…
GAIN, or FOREX.COM, Files For IPO
GAIN Capital Holdings, Inc., and online provider of retail foreign exchange trading and related services with the FOREX.COM portal, has just filed to come public via an initial public offering. The IPO terms and…
How the Legacy Airlines Lost So Much Altitude Since 9/11
By Robert Herbst After losing over $5 billion last year, the airline industry is now on course to lose a similar amount for 2009. This projected loss comes after the airlines will spend over…
Whitman & Third Avenue Launch Focus Credit Fund (TFCVX, TFCIX, TAVFX)
If you do not know M.J. Whitman or the Third Avenue Management Inc. family of mutual funds, then you are probably not a value investor. Whitman and his team have been perhaps some of…
Chicago Purchasing Managers Showing Some Growth
The reading for Chicago Purchasing Managers for August is now back in positive territory. The adjusted August figure is 50.0 vs. 43.4 in July. A reading above 50.0 is growth, a reading under 50…
Top Day Trader Alerts (AIG, BJS, BHI, GENZ, FNM, FRE, HGSI, MVL, DIS)
These are Monday’s top day trader and active trader alert stocks. We have links through to each with more detailed price/volume analysis over at VSinvestor.com: American International Group (NYSE: AIG) is giving back some…
When Banks and Brokers Downgrade Each Other (BAC, MS)
It is usually a wonder when you see bank and brokerage firms analyst upgrades or downgrades on competitors in the bank and brokerage sector… Are they really downgrading themselves? That is the question regarding…
Top Analyst Upgrades (APSG, BWA, CBI, ETH, GME, PIR, TD, WSM)
These are some of the top pre-market analyst upgrades and positive research calls that we have seen from Wall Street firms early this Monday morning: Applied Signal (APSG) Raised to Buy at Colliins-Stewart. Borg…
Top Analyst Downgrades (AGO, CP, KOF, GENZ, SHAW)
These are some of the top early-bird analyst downgrades and cautious research calls we have seen from Wall Street analysts early this Monday morning: Assured Guaranty (AGO) Cut to Neutral at UBS. Canadian Pacific…
Audits Of The Fed May Begin Soon
Barney Frank and other Congressmen are anxious to pass a law that would allow the government to audit the Fed including what its assets are, how they are lent, who they are lent to,…
For AT&T (T), The Apple (AAPL) iPhone Is A Bust
There are two ways to look at the economic relationship between Apple (AAPL) and AT&T (T) and both may be accurate. AT&T says it has signed up 10 million subscribers to buy the iPhone…
Economists Make Their Case For Inflation
The latest poll by The National Association of Business Economists shows that 41% believe that the Fed’s actions will cause inflation during the next two years. The top reasons cited for concern were “lagged…
The Fed’s $14 Billion Paper Profit
The Fed has made so many bank loans, most of them short term, over the last several quarters that it would bound to lose money. But, it hasn’t so far. The agency has made money on…
Tax Avoidance And The 2011 GDP Dip
UK investment banks are preparing to pay many of their big earners at the beginning of 2010 to avoid an income tax on April 5. The Times points out that this may reinforce notions…
Lockerbie And Crude Ethics
The Times of London claims that people within the British government turned over convicted Lockerbie bombing participant Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi to Libya as part of an attempt to secure a major oil deal.…