24/7 Wall St. TV: The Public Turns Against The Fed
A new Gallup poll shows that only 30% of those asked said the Fed was doing an “excellent or good” job. The figure was 53% when Alan Greenspan was chief in 2003. Ben Bernanke,…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
Nuclear Stocks Reacting to USEC Woes (USU, CCJ, NLR, URZ, DNN, URRE, PESI)
We have already covered the nuclear winter blow-up over at USEC Inc. (NYSE: USU) after the DOE declines to issue a guarantee for it long-pending loan application. What we wanted to see is what…
Consumer Confidence Heads The Wrong Way
The Conference Board’s reading on consumer confidence 46.6 for July, down from an unrevised figure of 49.3 in June. Bloomberg had the consensus reading pegged at 50.0, and it also noted that the lowest…
Nuclear Winter: Uncle Sam Punts USEC (USU)
It seems that all the talk about getting off of coal-power and reducing dependence on foreign energy is still just rhetoric. USEC Inc. (NYSE: USU) announced this morning that the long-standing loan process it…
Case-Shiller Price Index Gains, Sort Of
The Case-Shiller housing price data is a lower-impact housing number because of the notion that the data is older than some other reports already on the market. This morning’s data for May 2009 did…
Top Day Trader Alerts (SPSS, X, VICL, AMGN, ARIA, LCRD, DB, COH, CHKP)
The following are some of the top stocks to watch for active trading today based on pre-market and after-hours volume activity. There are links through to more detailed coverage and volume analysis at VSInvestor.com:…
Valero… Pain Today, Pain Tomorrow (VLO)
Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE: VLO) did manage to beat earnings, at least if you consider a two-penny beat versus a wide loss after a warning as a beat. The refiner’s loss came to -$0.48…
Consolidation in Pre-Paid Wireless (VM, S, LEAP)
It turns out the Virgin Mobile USA (NYSE: VM) has a solid value after all. Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE: S) has decided to acquire Virgin Mobile USA. The total equity value of the merger…
Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (AET, APD, ADSK, ENOC, LEN, ERIC, MET, PRGO, PM, VECO)
These are the top Wall Street research calls with analyst upgrades and downgrades early this Tuesday morning: Aetna (AET) Raised to Sell from Conviction Sell List at Goldman Sachs; no real upgrade. Air Products…
Movie Unit Sinks Viacom (VIA)
Viacom (VIA) had a bad quarter, which was to be expected. Media companies are suffering from drops in advertising revenue and the number of consumers who subscribe to their content services and go to…
Foreclosures Become A Bank’s Best Friend
The Washington Post has talked to some economists who have confirmed what many analysts already believed. Banks are often better off allowing homes to go into foreclosure than they are modifying loans. The Administration…
CFTC: Regulators Are Worse Than Speculators
It is impossible to get an accurate view of any trading market when the regulators who monitor it cannot keep track of how the market operates. According to a reports in The Wall Street…
The Era Of Layoffs Gets Renewed Vigor
Analysts have hoped that the rate at which Americans become unemployed will slow in the second half of 2009. There has been some evidence that the period in which the economy would lose 600,000 or…
Why The Public Hates The Fed
The idea of Fed chairman Bernanke at a town hall meeting being covered by PBS made some Washington observers shudder. Others just assumed that Bernanke wanted to take a victory lap around the country…
Media Digest 7/28/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NY Times, FT, Bloomberg
Reuters: The recession has badly hurt investments in green technologies. Reuters: Obama called for deeper China ties with the US. Reuters: BP’s (BP) profits fell sharply. Reuters: Bank of America (BAC) will cut 10%…
Asia Markets And Europe Open 7/28/2009
Markets in Asia were narrowly mixed. The Nikkei was down a fraction of a percent at 10,087. The Hang Seng was up 1% to 20,444. China Mobile (CHL) and China Unicom (CHU) both rose.…
Is Starbucks Altering Its Health Insurance Stance? (SBUX)
Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) has announced to its U.S. employees that it will make the company discretionary match to the 401(k) Savings Plan for the 2009 plan year. In December 2008, Starbucks made its 401(k)…
GAMCO, Gabelli, Files To Raise Cash (GBL)
It was not that long ago that GAMCO INVESTORS INC. saw its credit rating hurt by an S&P downgrade, sort of. S&P put the parent of Gabelli Funds credit rating outlook at Negative. And…
New Measures Against Short Sale Abuse
We are starting to get more information out of the Securities and Exchange Commission on how it plans to go after some of the abuses which have been prevalent in short selling. Keep in…
More Stocks For Buffett To Unload (BRK-A, MCO, COP, CEG, GCI, WPO, MTB, WBC)
How frequently has Warren Buffett been bashed by the media over Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s (NYSE: BRK-A) lackluster performance ? What was interesting to see is his stake being lowered in Moody’s Corp. (NYSE: MCO). …