Northern Trust Corp. (NASDAQ: NTRS) has announced today that the group plans to close the Northern Exchange Traded Shares (NETS) used to track single country investments on February 20, 2009. These funds were launched…
You probably already figured that the increase in existing home sales was due to foreclosure, pre-foreclosure, and other distressed sales. Today, Ryland Group Inc. (NYSE: RYL) had an interesting SEC Filing. While many companies…
Over the past year, platinum prices have fallen from a high around $2,250/ounce to about $955/ounce. Gold has also dropped from its high of about $1,000/ounce to just below $900/ounce. That’s not good news…
Peabody Energy Corporation (NYSE:BTU) reported a huge fourth quarter this morning, and the stock is up around 12% as a result. For the full 2008 fiscal year, Peabody reported EPS of $3.63 on income…
Consumer confidence hit an all-time low this month. The Conference Board announced that The Index now stands at 37.7, down from 38.6 in December. Says Lynn Franco, Director of The Conference Board Consumer Research…
Valero Energy Corporation reported earnings this morning, and it’s not pretty. The company had a net loss of $3.3 billion, or EPS of -$6.36. The loss includes an impairment charge against goodwill of $4.1…
Home prices fell again in November. Like everything else reported about the economy recently, the drop was at a "record pace" In the case of housing, The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city housing index plunged…
Copper and gold miner Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc. (NYSE:FCX) reported a net loss of $13.9 billion for the fourth quarter of 2008, a whopping -$36.78 EPS. But wait, there’s more: the company’s net…
After taking heat yesterday, today Citigroup (NYSE: C) said it had no plans to take delivery of any new aircraft. Yesterday, news from the NY Post noted that Citi, fresh off receiving $45 billion…
CV Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CVTX) is seeing a surge in its shares this morning. It looks like CV is the next biotech merger target now that Astellas Pharma Inc. submitted a $16.00 buyout offer…
By John Tamny Real Clear Politics "Much of the secret of United States wealth lies in the fact that the inhabitants and firms of each state in the Union have been able to specialize…
Verizon (VZ) is just like any other big telecom company around the world. The death of the old home phone keeps holding it back as the firm’s fourth quarter revenue showed. The traditional "landline"…
These are some of the top analyst upgrades and positive research calls we have seen from Wall Street analysts with more than two hours until the market opens this Tuesday morning: ARM Holdings (ARMH)…
These are some of this Tuesday’s top pre-market analyst downgrades and cautious research calls from Wall Street that we have seen with more than two hours until the opens: ADTRAN (ADTN) Started as Equal-Weight…
If you thought that the chemicals and materials sector was immune from the recession, guess again. This morning DJIA component DuPont (NYSE: DD) posted a loss for the Q4-2008 period. It might not be…
It seems impossible that a handful of companies could put nearly 80,000 people out of work in a day. Caterpillar (CAT), Pfizer (PFE), Texas Instruments (TXN), Sprint (S), and Home Depot (HD) did most…
Sprint (S) is probably not a viable standalone company any more. It laid off 8,000 people yesterday and said it may outsource some of its work to cover for the drop in employees. That…
There is a new trend that has emerged in this earnings season that will have an impact in 2009 and maybe beyond: a lack of earnings and/or revenue guidance. This unravels roughly 9 years…
There is a growing body of opinion that $825 billion plus the $350 billion left in TARP funds will not be enough to pull the economy out of what has become a flat spin.…
Dow Chemical (DOW) was supposed to buy Rohm & Haas (ROH). Now, it may be the other way around. Dow can’t close the deal and Rohm is suing to get it finished. Dow has…