Genetech Merger Holdouts Face Dimming Hope (DNA)
The hope for a higher Genentech Inc. (NYSE: DNA) buyout price is getting smaller and smaller. After the companies agreed to a $95.00 per share merger, this was already assumed as the nearly certain…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
Inergy Raising Cash (NRGY)
Inergy, L.P. (NASDAQ: NRGY) has announced an underwritten public offering of 4,000,000 common units. As a reminder, these are L.P. units rather than shares. The partnership intends to use the net proceeds to repay…
Sears Clipped By Moody’s (SHLD)
Moody’s Investors Service has had a pretty active day for downgrades, with Sears Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ: SHLD) being the latest of the active companies to get a credit or debt rating downgrade. The corporate…
Goldman Sachs (GS) May Take Chinese Money To Pay Back TARP Money
Chinese capital usually makes it way to the US Treasury when the communist central government buys American debt. It is the most direct route, but clearly not the only one. According to The Wall…
Moody’s Joins S&P In G.E. Downgrade (GE)
Moody’s Investor Services has decided to join in on the downgrade of General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE). This downgrade takes the unsecured debt ratings of GE itself and General Electric Capital Corp (“GECC”), and…
The ‘Safety Premium’ In Water Investing (AWK, WTR, AWR, CWT)
We have been investigating several of the “safe sectors” for investing to identify which ones may have seen the worst or which ones could continue to have issues regardless of whether or not recent…
Reader’s Indigestion
Reader’s Digest and friends are in serious pain. Will their prescription work? By Dave Jamieson and Jeff Horwitz, The Big Money Even in Pleasantville, the news gets bleaker by the quarter. Back in the…
Existing Housing Data Could Bring New Waves of Selling
It seems that there is at least a little more good news in the housing sector. February showed a 5.1% gain year-over-year in sales of existing homes to a rate of 4.72 million annualized. …
Magazine Advertising May Be En Route To Worst Year Ever (WPO)(TWX)(MGP)
The drop in magazine advertising pages is continuing as the first quarter ends, and it looks like Q2 will not be better. According to MIN, which tracks advertising pages for major US publications, Fortune,…
Green News: Carbon Credit Auction Nets $117 Million
The ten northeastern states that comprise the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) raised more than $117 million in its third auction of carbon emission allowances for the 2009-2012 time period. More than 31.5 million…
Fertilizer Makers Won’t Dance (CF, AGU, TRA)
For the second time in as many weeks, CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CF) has rejected an offer from Agrium Inc. (NYSE:AGU), saying that “Agrium’s offer is grossly inadequate, substantially undervalues CF Industries and is…
Citi Upgrades Corning (GLW) to Buy; Finally Time to Get Positive
Citi upgrades Corning Incorporated (NYSE: GLW) from Hold to Buy and raises its price target from $11.25 to $16, saying LCD glass production/sales have bottomed & should move sequentially higher. Citi analyst says, “Our…
Fitch Ratings Looks at Refiners (VLO, FTO, TSO)
Fitch Ratings published a short report on the effect of the compression in crude oil spreads on refiners. We looked at this phenomenon about a month ago. Fitch concludes that the “relative cost advantage…
Treasury’s Toxic Asset Plan Still Leaves Many Questions
Timothy Geithner’s plan from the Treasury to get rid of toxic assets from banks and financial institutions’ balance sheets is out. What is certain here in the plan is that there are still many…
Tax Deductions Compromise the Tax Debate
John Tamny of RealClearMarkets In a 1924 speech before the National Republican Club, President Calvin Coolidge observed “that when the taxation of large incomes is excessive, they tend to disappear.” Coolidge found that in…
Oil Sands Universe Just Got Simpler (SU, PCZ, TOT, ENY)
Two of the largest players in the Canadian oil sands, Suncor Energy Inc. (NYSE: SU) and Petro-Canada (NYSE:PCZ) announced that Suncor will acquire Petro-Canada in a deal valued at $15.5 billion. Shareholders of Petro-Canada…
Analysts Start Mead Johnson Coverage (MJN
Mead Johnson Nutrition Company (NYSE: MJN) has reached the end of its analyst quiet period where the firms who underwrote the deal can now begin their ratings coverage. This was the Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.…
Top Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (A, CRA, CNQR, GLW, AZO, BHP, CERN, GOL, ORLY)
These are the top pre-market analyst upgrades and downgrades we have seen with just about two hours until the market opens this Monday morning: Agilent (A) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse. Celera (CRA)…
Some Hope For Ford (F) As Abu Dhabi Puts Cash In Daimler
Ford (F) is in the best financial health of The Big Three. Its position could improve more, at least temporarily, if its deals to cut debt and reset its contract with the UAW work…
Finding A Job Trumps MySpace
In a world where thousands of US workers lose their jobs everyday, chatting and sharing personal feelings with friends is getting run over by the need to find employment. According to online research firm…