These are some of the top pre-market analyst upgrades and positive initiations we have seen early this Thursday morning: American Express (AXP) Raised to Neutral from Underweight at JPMorgan. CarMax (KMX) Started as Buy…
These are the top analyst downgrades and cautious research calls we have seen from Wall Street this Thursday morning: ArQule (ARQL) Cut to Sell at UBS. ASML (ASML) Cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray.…
JP Morgan (JPM) reported second-quarter 2009 net income of $2.7 billion, an increase of 36% compared with net income of $2.0 billion in the second quarter of 2008. EPS was $.28 compared to consensus…
Nokia (NOK) posted poor earnings, but handset sales rose to 103 units, up 11% from the immediately previous quarter. Revenue dropped 25% to 9,9 billion euros. Net income was down 73% to 287 million…
The government might have expected that it could have some effect on foreclosure rates by working with banks to make money available to homeowners and by setting up programs for modifying existing mortgages to…
China’s GDP rose 7.9% in the second quarter, which is especially impressive since the figure was only 6.1% in the previous quarter. Economists will voice a number of concerns about the growth. It is…
The Wall Street Journal has two troubling reports. The first is that Bank of America (BAC) operating under an agreement with the government which the paper describes as “a secret regulatory sanction.” Part of…
Wal-Mart (WMT) decided to evaluate its suppliers based on whether they were polluters almost before it became fashionable. Going Green is a description used broadly in the business community as a badge of honor,…
The Fed released the notes of the Federal Open Market Committee and Board of the Governors of the Federal Reserve joint meeting on June 23rd and 24th. The two major conclusions from this meeting…
Reuters: CIT (CIT) may be close to bankruptcy. Reuters: China GDP rose 7.9%. Reuters: Foreclosures hit a record in the first half of 2009. Reuters: Obama pressed Congress on a healthcare bill. Reuters: Talks have…
Markets in Asia were mixed. The Nikkei was up .8% to 9,344. Toyota (TM) rose sharply. The Hang Seng was up 1.3% to 1,6487. The Shanghai Composite fell .2% to 3,184. At the open…
In a perfect example of how dangerous rumors can be for traders, CIT (CIT) has announced that its conversions with the government aimed at bailing the financial company out have failed. Most analysts believed…
There may be some misconceptions out in the market over an inquiry into the leveraged ETF universe. The Massachusetts Secretary of State has inquired into the sales, marketing, and disclosure practices of leveraged ETF’s. …
Usually FOMC minutes do not matter so much because much of the data is known or assumed, but when monetary policies are in the midst of an inflection point or soon to change they…
The Department of Energy has just released its weekly oil inventories. As this is the summer driving season, we saw a drop in crude and a build in gasoline inventories. The United States Oil…
AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR) has some pretty disappointing figures, at least until you compare them to analyst expectations. AMR posted earnings of -$1.39 on a net basis and -$1.14 EPS on a non-GAAP basis…
We have five standout analyst calls in coverage this morning’s analyst universe for technology stocks. While Intel is in here, there are actually several other more important calls on the analyst front this morning.…
Investor Mark Mobius gets placed in the pantheon of money men including Soros and Buffett. He may not be as rich, but he has been in the market for decades and has posted an…
The June reading for the Consumer Price Index, the measure for retail inflation, is a bit different than the Producer Price Index hike seen yesterday. The headline CPI came in at +0.7% and the…
Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF) has some more dismal data regarding the monthly credit card defaults and delinquencies. The defaults rose again in June, bolstered by weak economic data and higher unemployment. But…