Leading oil and gas industry news source, Platts, named Brazil’s national oil company Petroleo Brasileiro (NYSE:PBR), aka Petrobras, its hydrocarbon producer of the year for 2008. Platts cited Petrobras for its “sheer across-the-board excellence”…
Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE: WMB) is getting to disclose just how fun it can be in dealing with a volatile regime in Latin America. Venezuela is front and center, and now the company plans…
Dendreon Corp. (NASDAQ: DNDN) has already been all over the news with its positive PROVENGE data for the submission of an FDA application now looking likely late in 2009 with the hopes of a…
We just got our first look at the Q1-2009 GDP. The initial report shows -6.1%, much worse than expected but not as bad as the -6.3% in Q4-2008. Bloomberg had estimates at -5.0% for…
These are most of the top early bird pre-market downgrades and negative research calls we have seen from Wall Street analysts this Wednesday morning: Arbitron (ARB) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan. Deutsche Bank (DB)…
These are some of the top pre-market analyst upgrades and positive research calls we have seen from Wall Street early this Wednesday morning: Barclays (BCS) Raised to Overweight at HSBC. Integrated Device Tech (IDTI)…
The advertising recession caught up with Time Warner (TWX) in the first quarter. Revenues declined 7% from 2008 to $6.9 billion, due mainly to decreases at the AOL, Publishing and Filmed Entertainment segments, offset…
The term “material adverse effect” was not in the business vocabulary until about two years ago when LBO deals began to fall apart. Acquirers who got cold feet, or could not get bank financing…
E*TRADE FINANCIAL Corporation (NASDAQ: ETFC) has just reported a net loss of $233 million, or -$0.41 EPS, on revenue of $497 million. E*TRADE has fewer analysts than before, but Thomson Reuters showed estimates at…
Bloomberg reports that six of the 19 banks that went through the government’s “stress test” program will need to raise more capital. That list probably includes Citigroup (C) and Bank of America (BAC). According to Reuters,…
Citigroup (C) has gone to the Treasury to beg for bonuses for some of its most important traders, people who make the banks extraordinary amounts of money. The Treasury’s reaction will probably be that…
Microsoft (MSFT) has never had much success in the businesses of creating and marketing hardware. Why should it? Microsoft is the world’s largest software company. The firm has tried to become the GE of…
When the Case-Schiller monthly data on housing is issued, economic analysts pour over the information city-by-city to look for signs of a housing recovery. The data for February did not show a rebound in…
According to Reuters, the days of the CEOs of Bank of America (BAC) and Citigroup (C) may be numbered. Reuters reports that a deal has been reached to cut Chrysler’s debt but a bankruptcy…
Markets in Asia were higher with Japan closed for a holiday. The Hang Seng rose 2.7% to 14,942. The Shanghai Composite was up 2.7% to 2,488. At the open in Europe, the FTSE was…
Stock research firm FBR has had trouble with its analysis about the banking industry before. It recently wrote that the US banking system needs at minimum $1 trillion in new tangible common equity. The…
Story UPDATED at 3:10 EST: 15:05:01 EST NASDAQ has reviewed the transactions under rule 11890 (b) on its own motion filing involving the security Dendreon Corp. (NASDAQ: DNDN) executed between 13:25:00 and 13:27:02 ET…
Dendreon Corporation (NASDAQ: DNDN) was halted today at 13:27:02 ahead of the data embargo due at 2:00 PM EST. The data for its key Phase III IMPACT study for PROVENGE as a last line…
Yesterday, there were a number of rumors in the press that Verizon Wireless (VZ) (VOD) was talking with Apple (AAPL) to get a franchise to sell the iPhone after AT&T’s (T) exclusivity runs out…
By James Ledbetter of The Big Money Last fall, I was on panel with a Portfolio writer who made a cutting remark about the vulnerability, in the age of Wall Street’s evaporation, of new…