Rig Counts and Oil Price Chasing (BHI, USO, OIL)
Baker Hughes Incorporated (NYSE:BHI) announced today that the international rig count for May 2009 and it looks like the endless slide we saw all of 2009 is being confirmed as either over or at…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
Non-Farm Payrolls Trump Unemployment for Market Blast Off
We have gotten the unemployment and jobs data for the month of May from the Labor Department, and the data is very mixed on unofficial numbers. The report came in at 9.4% unemployment and…
Top 10 Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (AMAT, CMG, HGSI, IACI, JTX, NKE, NFLX, SYNA, TIN, UAUA)
These are ten of the top research calls from Wall Street’s analyst wave of daily upgrades, downgrades, and initiations this Friday morning: Applied Materials (AMAT) Cut to Hold at Citigroup. Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG)…
Analyst Projecting 50% Upside in Dendreon (DNDN)
Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ: DNDN) was started with a Buy rating and a $36.00 target at Deutsche Bank. The call’s positive expectations are mixed near-term, but the assumption is that Provenge will become a blockbuster…
Apple’s (AAPL) Luckiest Day: Jobs’ Three Challenges
Analysts have said that Apple (AAPL) does not need Steve Jobs. Apple shares are up 60% since he took a break to work on his health with his doctors. Because the form of cancer…
As Housing Market Struggles Increase, Home Sellers Slash Prices
Analysts watching the housing market are about to see whether falling real estate prices will bring buyers back into the market. Many home shoppers believe that the value of houses will fall another 10%…
FDIC Ready To Undermine Citigroup’s (C) New Board
The Fed and the Treasury have put pressure on Citigroup (C) to create a new board of directors. Richard Parsons, the bank’s chairman, is well on his way to doing that. The hopes are…
Why The West Hates Chinese Investments
The developed countries are beginning to view China as one large vulture fund which bankrolls companies that it controls to buy up key overseas asset at prices undermined by the recession. The resulting tensions…
The Pace Of Job Creation Needs To Be Accelerated
The most significant and measurable failure of the economic stimulus package, the so-called American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, is its inability to quickly create jobs. The $787 billion set of programs, which…
Media Digest 6/5/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg
Reuters: Rio Tinto (RTP) has killed a deal with Chinalco for one with BHP (BHP). Reuters: US regulators insisted JP Morgan (JPM) and Amex (AXP) raise money to exit the TARP. Reuters: Countrywide’s Mozilo…
Asia Markets And Europe Open 6/5/2009
Markets in Asia were mixed. The Nikkei rose 1% to 9,766. The Hang Seng was up .1% to 18,516. The Shanghai Compsite fell .5% to 2,754. At the open in Europe, the FTSE was…
Even Porn Gets Self Promotion Via Apple WWDC (AAPL)
Everyone loves to follow Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), particularly ahead of its big investor and developer conferences. And if you track the top website rankings of the top 100 and top 1,000 overall websites…
Angelo Mozilo Charged With Insider Trading (BAC)
CNBC’s David Faber just reported that the SEC will be charging former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo with insider trading and disclosure violations for stock sales from 2006 and beyond. Interestingly enough, Faber noted that…
Refiners’ Second Take: Valero’s Risk of Irreparable Harm (VLO, MRO, HES, TSO, SUN, TOT, VSUNQ)
Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE: VLO) may have caused some irreparable harm to itself and to shareholders this week. Losing money is just not something that the investing public was ready to stomach. Dumping news…
Mortgage Rates At Level That Could Stall Any Housing Recovery
Freddie Mac has announced a sharp increase in the 30-year fixed-mortgage rate. Information released by the agency says that rates moved to 5.29% for the week ending today, up from 4.91% a week ago.…
Axsys Buyout Looks On The Cheap (AXYS, GD)
General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Axsys Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AXYS) in a deal that is at a high premium if you consider the recent rally. But this merger…
Unemployment Insurance Buckles After Years of Underfunding
by Olga Pierce, ProPublica Half a million Americans lost their jobs in April, meaning there are now officially 14 million unemployed workers, the highest percentage in 25 years, and the strain on the unemployment…
Palm (PALM) Pre Won’t Do Sprint (S) Much Good
Morgan Stanley does not think that the new Palm (PALM) will do much for Sprint (S). The reasoning is that the carrier will sell about 1.5 million units of the Pre in the first…
CEOs Growing More Confident
There is a growing confidence among Chief Executive Officers. A report by Chief Executive magazine noted that there is another strong resurgence in May from responses by top executives. The reading for May came…
What Is Time, Inc. Worth?
There have been rumors recently that Time, Inc., the Time Warner (TWX) publishing division and the largest magazine operation in the country, might be spun off to shareholders in much the same fashion that…