Troubled Banks Jump Almost 50%… In One Quarter
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has released its list of troubled banking institutions. As you would have guessed, it is far from pretty. The FDIC has said that as of the end of Q4…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
Dell Preview: Crouching Tech, Hidden Investor (DELL)
Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) is set to report earnings after the close of trading today. The troubled PC giant is expected to post $0.26 EPS on $14.18 billion in revenue. There are many other…
Public Relations Battle: Green Energy Vs. Hydrocarbon
Since President Obama’s pseudo-state of the union speech earlier this week, green industry players have been singing hallelujahs. For example, a coalition of investors named Ceres (ceres.org) yesterday released a letter it sent to…
Yahoo! CFO Out (YHOO)
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) submitted a filing with the SEC that may raise some eyebrows, saying that Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen has resigned. Yahoo! is searching for a new CFO. Jorgensen will remain…
Williams Issues Private Debt (WMB, STT, GS)
The Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB) announced this morning that it was “initiating a private debt issuance to certain institutional investors.” The notes have not been registered with the SEC and will not be available…
Short Sellers Back Off Buffett & Berkshire Holdings (BRK-A, AXP, BNI, KO, COP, GE, KFT, PG, USB, JNJ, GS, MCO, WFC, WMT)
Everyone wants to know what the Oracle of Omaha is up to. The great Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) stock has proven to be far from immune to the woes of the market and…
Fed’s Bank Stress Test Doesn’t Account For “Black Swan”
Today, the Federal Reserve answered some questions on the bank “stress test”, which they say is being conducted, “to determine if the largest U.S. banking organizations have sufficient capital buffers to withstand the impact…
Jobs & Durables So Bad, A Possible Inflection Point?
If you were hoping for any remotely positive economic data this morning, the news is not just a disappointment. It is really awful. The data on weekly jobless claims is above recently normal levels. …
Cisco Layoffs & Executive Change (CSCO)
Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) has laid off several hundred workers and named a new Executive Vice President of its Worldwide Operations.
Aiding the Bottom 10%: A Recipe for Economic Decline
By John Tamny RealClearMarkets It’s a rule-of-thumb among many well run U.S. companies that they must routinely make redundant the 5 to 10 percent of their least productive employees. One obvious reason for doing…
Short Sellers Active In Green Energy Stocks (CSIQ, CPST, CLNE, ENER, ESLR, FSLR, FCEL, SOLR, JASO, LDK, SFUN, SPWRA, STP)
There were some really large increases in the short interest from alternative energy companies such as Energy Conversion Devices (NASDAQ: ENER), JA Solar Holdings (NASDAQ: JASO), and LDK Solar Co. Inc. (NYSE: LDK). What…
GM (GM): The Silver Lining Is Global Market Share
GM (GM) posted a loss of $9.65 a share for Q4 2008 compared to analyst forecasts of a $7.40 loss. Under most circumstances, that would be terribly bad news. For the full year, revenue…
Early Bird Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (CBY, CNP, DLTR, PHG, SFD, AGU, AIB, AAUK, IRE, CETV)
These are the early bird analyst calls with upgrades and downgrades from Wall Street this morning with about two and a half hours until the market opens: Cadbury (CBY) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.…
Cheering Otherwise Bad News At Sears (SHLD)
Sears Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ: SHLD) beat earnings on the surface, but this is before huge charges. The retail giant of Sears and KMart posted $2.94 EPS vs. $2.68 estimates, but revenues were down 11.9%…
Warning People About Prescription Drugs
For years, Americans have assumed that the FDA was set up to test drugs. If a treatment was not effective or was too dangerous for patients, it never made it to market. If drugs that were…
Letting The Government Own More Of AIG (AIG)
It seems like a devilishly clever plan. The US government already owns 80% of AIG (AIG). Why not break the company into pieces and let taxpayers own larger chunks of the parts? The plan assumes…
RBS (RBS) Loses $34 Billion: Banks Still Have Capacity To Surprise
As the US government goes though the process of stress testing banks, it may want to be instructed by the lesson of RBS (RBS) which managed to loss $34 billion last year. The UK…
Requiem For The Rich
Most tax plans start with increasing the portion that the very wealthy pay as a percent of their income. That is not just true in America. It is a global way of raising money…
Setting Up War Games For the Banking System
The latest way for the government to decide what it should do with troubled banks is to put them though what it calls a “stress test”. The criteria that will be used, among others,…
Short Sellings Move Back Into Financials, Target Industrials, Tech, And Media
Short sellers think financial stocks believe that financial stocks still have further to fall. Based on data as of February 15, short sellers kept a big bet on Citigroup (C). Share short in AIG…