Jobless Claims Drifting To More Acceptable Levels
The weekly jobless claims data is out and we have a second week of coming below that 600,000 mark. The new figure is down 47,000 to a level of 522,000. The reading of 565,000…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
Top Day Trader Alerts (MOS, POT, CIT, NOK, JPM, CTAS, XLNX, PLCM, SLT)
These are some of the top stocks to watch this morning for active trading today based on pre-market and after-hours volume activity. There are links through to each with more detailed coverage and volume…
Las Vegas As a Lesson In Basic Economics
By John Tamny Though Las Vegas is perhaps best known as a tacky City of Sin where what happens within its limits stays there, its fortunes and misfortunes provide us with broad lessons about…
Top Analyst Upgrades (AXP, KMX, CNQ, COF, CERN, CVD, ENOC, QLGC, QCOM, DIS)
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…
Top Analyst Downgrades (ARQL, ASML, CSCO, MEDX, MSFT)
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): A Homer For Q2
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…
Some Sunshine For Nokia (NOK)
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…
Foreclosures Take The Economy By Storm, Again
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…
A Stimulus Package That Works: China’s 7.9% GDP Growth
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…
Banking In Secret: Citigroup (C) And Bank Of America (BAC) Behind Closed Doors
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) Gets Greener By The Day
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,…
FOMC Minutes Don’t Add Up
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…
Media Digest 6/16/2009
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…
Asia Markets Europe Open 7/16/2009
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…
A Good Chance CIT (CIT) Will Go Bankrupt
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…
Mass. Inquiry on Leveraged ETF’s (FAS, FAZ, UYG, SKF, SDS, SSO)
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. …
FOMC Minutes Hint At Exit Strategy
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…
Oil Inventories Show Mixed Demand (USO, OIL)
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 Sets Low Bar For Airline Sector Earnings (AMR, CAL, LUV)
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…
Key Analyst Upgrades in Technology (ADBE, ALU, BBBB, CSCO, JNPR, INTC)
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.…