Tracking The Value Of The World’s Major Brands
Several companies run annual brand valuations. It is a good business for advertising and marketing firms to be viewed as experts on brands. Brand values are based on the cash flow they create, and…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
Bernanke & FOMC Redux
The announcement from the FOMC on the decision on interest rates is out. As most suspected, it was not the rate decision that mattered as much. It was the language around the potential exit…
Wal-Mart At Critical Chart Levels Into Earnings (WMT, RTH)
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) was supposed to be the big winner of the Great Recession as the giant trade-down retail play for America. Interestingly enough, the peak of the stock was almost 9-months…
Solar Stock Earnings Still Rough (JASO, SOL, FSLR, LDK)
With all the stimulus money in the U.S. supposedly heading toward alternative energy…. with all the boost from Chinese credits for solar…. with all the greenhouse gases and carbon emission regulation coming…. and with…
24/7 Wall St. TV: What If Twitter Disappears?
The Twitter outage introduces the concept of whether anyone would really miss the service if it went away. Financial experts have argued that Twitter is not worth much even with its 30 million or…
Emdeon IPO: Healthcare Reform Beneficiary (EM)
Emdeon Inc. (NYSE: EM) is today’s ‘other’ initial public offering. The company priced 23,700,000 shares of its common stock at a price of $15.50 per share. Not all proceeds are going back into the…
Top Day Trader Alerts (JASO, GRMN, YRCW, JAZZ, MEDX, BMY, PETD, TOL, XHB, BRCM)
These are this morning’s top day trader alerts and most active in price and volume. We have more detailed analysis and data on price and volume with links through to each at VSInvestor.com: JA…
Trade Deficit Shows Energy Still Top Problem
The Trade Balance, a.k.a. the trade deficit, for June has just come out at $27.01 billion, from a revised $25.97 billion. This comes in versus consensus estimates from economists at $28.7 billion. The exports…
Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (CTXS, CRK, CVGI, HR, ITMN, RDS-B, SLXP, VRSN, YRCW)
It is somewhat light in analyst coverage this morning as reports are dribbling in. These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations we have seen from Wall Street early this Wednesday morning: Citrix…
IPO PRICING: Starwood Property Trust, Inc. (STWD)
Starwood Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE: STWD) has priced its initial public offering of 40,500,000 shares of common stock at a price of $20.00 per share. This is an externally managed company and the underwriting…
Apple’s (AAPL) Market Cap Passes Google’s (GOOG)
Apple’s (AAPL) market cap is now$148 billion. Google’s (GOOG) is only $143 billion. The disparity between the two numbers does not make sense. Google has been the faster-growing company, at least historically. Hardware companies…
The Death Of Oil Demand
Economic growth in China and a very modest recovery in the West will not be enough to drive up oil demand next year, according to the International Energy Agency. The world will only need…
What If Twitter Folds?
Twitter had another hacker attack yesterday. Several media outlets reported that the micro-blogging system was down periodically though the early morning and afternoon. The service had more severe problems last week. There have been…
The Pessimists Roll In As The Recovery Takes Root
It may be that some people just want to spoil a good time. As earnings, GDP, employment, and housing sales begin to show the trends that have encouraged analysts to call an end to…
Short Seller Rush Out Of Financial Stocks, Tech, And Retail
Short sellers moved out of financial shares in great numbers. As of August 11, the short interest in Citigroup (C) fell 71% to 343 million shares. Share sold short in GE (GE) fell 15%…
Media Digest 8/12/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg
Reuters: GE’s (GE) water business may be too small to help earnings. Reuters: Madoff’s CFO plead guilty. Reuters: Auto inventories are tight but interest in the “clunkers” program is falling. Reuters: China formally arrest…
Asia Market And Europe Open 8/12/2009
Markets in Asia were sharply lower. The Nikkei dropped 1.4% to 10,435. Sony (SNE) and Honda (HMC) both declisned. The Hang Seng was down 2.7% to 20,515. HSBC (HBC) and China Mobile (CHL) both…
Microsoft (MSFT) Readies “Office” Launch With Nokia (NOK)
Microsoft (MSFT) believes, almost certainly, that the future of its operating software and search business is as much if not more on wireless portable devices as it is on the PC where the market…
Applied Materials Skates Past Estimates (AMAT)
Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) has reported results for its fiscal third quarter and its net sales were $1.13 billion. The non-GAAP net loss was $2 million, or break-even per share; the GAAP net…
Chart Events Forming in Key Tech Stocks (MSFT, AMZN, RIMM, ORCL, QCOM)
It is normal to see pullbacks. The problem is that most market pullbacks in the last five months have been rare or short-lived since the near-depression levels of early March. But it has also…