Even Good News Does Not Lift GE (GE) Shares
Just a few months ago, a relatively large number of investors and analysts thought that GE’s (G) earnings would be crushed by losses at it financial unit. That did not happen and first quarter…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
Questionable Confidence Among Builders (XHB, ITB)
The confidence among home builders looked like it was creeping higher, but the most recent data from the National Association of Home Builders showed a decrease in June. This drop put the index down…
Iran and the Myth of Geopolitical Risk in Oil (USO, OIL)
Last week, there was more continued media coverage of the death of David Carradine about the weekend elections in Iran. Yet, here we sit on Monday and there have been riots in the streets…
Arbitrage Risk/Reward Inverted on Data Domain (DDUP, NTAP, EMC)
The long battle over Data Domain Inc. (NASDAQ: DDUP) may soon be coming to an end. NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP) appears to be coming out ahead of EMC Corp. (NYSE: EMC) as Data Domain…
Fox Business Still Taking On Water
Fox Business, launched in October 2007, was supposed to air content substantially different enough from rival CNBC to take some of the larger channel’s viewers or, at least, build a viewership of its own. In early…
Bove’s Bank of America Call Confusing To Bulls & Bears (BAC)
Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) is having a hard time finding its footing this morning. Rochdale Securities’ Dick Bove has a research note that is leaving investors and traders scratching their heads. Bove,…
Advanced Battery Raises More Cash (ABAT)
Advanced Battery Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: ABAT) recently raised $10 million in a private placement. It has agreed to sell additional $7 million worth of convertible preferred stock and warrants to three of the institutional…
NY Fed Manufacturing Data Heads Wrong Way
The New York Fed’s Empire manufacturing data came in a bit weaker than expected. Business conditions for the month of June fell to -9.41 versus a reading of -4.55 in May. The Bloomberg consensus…
Goldman Sachs Boots Wal-Mart Off Conviction Buy List (WMT)
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) is acting like a broken stock, and this morning’s big downgrade is not helping matters at the world’s largest retailer. Goldman Sachs has removed the stock from its Conviction…
The Flipside of Failure
John Tamny of RealClearMarkets Amid the broad decline in economic activity over the past year, there have unsurprisingly been a lot of stories revealing the individual hurt wrought by recession. From shuttered storefronts to…
Top 10 Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (AMG, AG, IRE, CAG, GPN, JASO, LEA, NTGR, ODFL, YHOO)
These are ten of the top analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiation calls we have seen from Wall Street early this Monday morning with about two hours until the market opens: Affiliated Managers Group (AMG)…
The Postal System Becomes An Anachronism
The US Postal System, which has been dying for years due to the advent of the fax, e-mail, and overnight delivery, may finally be close to its last act. The agency lost nearly $2…
Even Google (GOOG) Pays Attention To Microsoft’s (MSFT) Bing
There are a growing number of reports that Microsoft’s (MSFT) new Bing search engine is causing a little perspiration to break out on the foreheads of the people who run Google (GOOG). Early industry…
A New And Improved XBox, Microsoft’s (MSFT) Electronics Ace
All the evidence points to the sales of the Nintendo Wii slowing. That would make sense. More than 20 million have been sold in the US. The market gets saturated at some point. The…
Another Vote For A Vicious “Double Dip”
After several weeks of conviction on the part of most economists that the current recession is a “single” dip which will end later this year, the advocates of a “double dip” recession are out…
G8 Summit Wishful Thinking
The financial ministers of the G8 nations spent the better part of three days and weeks of preparation to reach a point where most of the members believe that it is time to curtail…
Remaking Financial Regulation One Brick At A Time
The Administration is about to release its new plans and programs to regulate financial firms and the trading markets so the the catastrophe of 2008 can never happen again. The core of the policies…
Oil Prices And The Illusion Of New Inflation
It has become commonplace among analysts and oil traders to fear that crude prices are up so much that inflation will have to return the market. A recent piece from Reuters reinforces that sentiment.…
Media Digest 6/15/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg
Reuters: The heads of the emerging markets, the so-called BRICs, held their first global summit. Reuters: Obama will be tested this week on financial reforms. Reuters: Rich nations are working on an exit from…
Asia Markets And Europe Open 6/15/2009
Markets in Asia were mixed. The Nikkei was down 1% to 10,040. The Hang Seng dropped 1.1% to 18,878. The Shanghai Composite was up 1.7% to 2,790. At the open in Europe, the FTSE…