Phase II Of The Recession Looms In 2010
The recovery seemed so certain just a month ago. The American economy would be out of the recession before the end of the year. A number of arrows have pointed in that direction. The…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
Media Digest 7/2/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg
Reuters: California declared a financial emergency. Reuters: An SEC attorney raised concern about a Madoff report in 2004. Reuters: Auto parts supplier Lear filed for bankruptcy. Reuters: NYC apartment sales are down more than…
Asia Markets And Europe Open 7/2/2009
Markets in Asia were mixed. The Nikkei fell .6% to 9,875. The Hang Seng rose .5% to 18,461. The Shanghai Composite was up 1.7% to 3,060. At the open in Europe, the FTSE was…
Does Petrobras Need More Capital? (PBR)
Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (NYSE: PBR), or Petrobras, raised $1 billion in a new note offering this morning for its Petrobras International Finance Co. Or did it? We originally had this listed as being an…
A Gross Exagerration of Future Deflation
Pimco’s Bill Gross on Wednesday released yet another self-serving, but intelligently written diatribe that suggests personal consumption may be constrained for a generation, and all asset classes other than bonds and dividend-paying stocks will…
Rite Aid’s Turnaround Looking More Likely (RAD)
Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE: RAD) may have just made the last or one of the last announcements that saved the reputation as far as it being a stock that investors would stay interested in. …
Yahoo! (YHOO) Entertertainment Site Hammers Competition, TMZ.com Should Pass
Yahoo!’s (YHOO) OMG! entertainment site was the most visited destination in the category in May, at least according to comScore, and the competition was not even close. June numbers could change considerably as TMZ, part of…
Car Sales: Ford (F) Rules June
Ford’s (F) June sales were down “only” 11% to 154,873. That means, based on drops in volume at other large manufacturers, that Ford picked up market share during the month. Ford Fusion sales were…
Karmazin Contract Extended, With Raise and Massive Options (SIRI)
SIRIUS XM Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI) has extended its contract with CEO Mel Karmazin. Today, June 30, 2009, the company entered into an amendment to the amended employment agreement, dated November 18, 2004, with…
4th of July Gift: Oshkosh Wins At Expense of Others (OSK, NAV, FRPT, GD)
Oshkosh Corp. (NYSE: OSK) shares are rising strongly today while most of its peers are falling, after the company won a massive government contract that market participants are seeing as the sole prize in…
Crude Inventories Mixed For Holiday Weekend Demand (USO, OIL)
The weekly oil inventories data came out of the U.S. Department of Energy at 10:30 AM EST this morning. Crude Oil was already much higher on worries that draw-downs were taking their toll on…
ISM, Construction, and Home Sales… Pulling In Opposition
Any time you have three economic reports hitting at once, you have a risk for confusion or for diverging data. That is the case today as the Institute for Supply Management gave the June…
Novel ETF Launch: Islamic Investment Strategy (JVS)
If you said that there are exchange-traded funds for just about everything, that statement is getting closer and closer to accurate than ever. A new ETF in America is being launched: Javelin Exchange Traded…
Day Trader Alerts (IMMR, DROOY, GOLD, AU, AUY, SPPI, AMAG, UBS, CS, OSK, FRPT, NAV, MYGN)
We have provided links through on our day trading alerts page this morning. Each stock is seeing active trading right before the open and brief explanations and analysis are offered at VSInvestor.com: Immersion Corp.…
Dividend Surprise At MFA (MFA)
MFA Financial, Inc. (NYSE: MFA) is a surprise on the dividend front this morning. The company is a REIT that invests in mortgage-backed securities, and while that sounds as though it has all the…
More Data That Microsoft (MSFT) Bing Is Gaining On Yahoo! (YHOO)
Data from web research firm StatCounter confirms what other surveys have shown–Microsoft’s (MSFT) new search engine Bing is gaining ground on Yahoo! which will undermine that portal’s turnaround effort. For June, StatCounter shows 8.23%,…
LDK Solar Chalks Up A Win In Italy (LDK)
LDK Solar Co., Ltd. (NYSE: LDK) has signed a new agreement with SAEM Srl, a primary system integrator within the PV sector, to build five one-megawatt PV plants in the Apulia region of Italy. …
ADP Fails To Cure Unemployment Fears
The ADP national employment report for June is often considered a prelude to the tone of the following day’s real unemployment report from the Labor Department. The ADP report for June is out at…
Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (AWK, BEAT, CHKP, IACI, MVL, MYGN, NVO, SYMC, WERN)
These are the top pre-market analyst upgrades and downgrades this Wednesday morning in early trading. American Water Works (AWK) Started as Buy at Brean Murray. CardioNet (BEAT) Cut to Hold at Citigroup; Cut to…
AIG’s Futile Reverse Split To Nowhere (AIG)
American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG) is under pressure. This morning is the effective date of a 1 for 20 reverse split. Our closing bell price was $1.16 yesterday, and that would imply a…