Chaos Theory Takes Hold Of Corporate Earnings
If a world where corporate earnings are completely predictable is a "10" and a world where they cannot be predicted at all is a "1", most of the last several years have been in…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
The UAW Finds Out Detroit Is “Too Big To Fail”
The UAW is dragging its feet in negotiations with GM (GM). That could be risky business. The federal government reserved the right to put the car company into bankruptcy if it did not come…
The Wisdom Of Panic: Firing CEOs When The Chips Are On The Line
The Wall Street Journal has made a great deal of the fact that six big company CEOs have been sacked in the last eight days. Chief executives are fired all the time, so the…
The “Green” Revolution In Cars Dies Off
Up until now, the biggest obstacle to the sale of hybrid cars is that some Americans think the people who drive them are sissies. That may be true, but Toyota (TM) has sold more…
The Last Pillar Of The Chinese Economy Falls
The way that China was going to roll forward to become the No.1 economy in the world was relatively simple. An expanding global need for cheap goods would drive a massive export machine. An…
Media Digest 1/13/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg
According to Reuters, Detroit’s efforts to build "green" cars may come too late. Reuters reports that Obama is seeking the $350 billion still left in the TARP. Reuters writes that prosecutors will appeal a…
Asia Markets And Europe Open 1/13/2009
Most markets in Asia were sharply lower. The Nikkei fell 4.8% to 8,414, The Hang Seng was off 2% to 13,681. The Shanghai Composite fell 2% to 1,863. In Europe, at the open, the…
Short Sellers Attack America’s Largest Companies (GE)(PFE)(T)(HAL)(XOM)(INTC)(MSFT)(CSCO)(IBM)
For the latest reported period, ending December 31, short sellers did not make any notable moves in or out of tech, financials, or industrial shares. What they did do was take impressively large positions…
Palm (PALM): Stock Up, Questions Remain (AAPL)(RIMM)(VZ)(T)(S)
The excitement about Palm’s (PALM) new Pre handset has sent the company"s stock up from $3.50 to over $6. But, the shares have not moved in two days, even with several analyst upgrades. Palm…
Bill Gates Keeps Adding To Republic Services Stake (RSG)
Bill Gates is at it again. He’s bought more shares of Republic Services Inc. (NYSE: RSG). In an SEC filing after the close today,Mr. Gates disclosed he spent more than $11.6 million to buy…
Alcoa Enters the Rust Business (AA)
Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) posted earnings excludling one-time items of -$0.28 EPS on revenue of $5.69 billion. This compares with First Call estimates of -$0.11 EPS on $5.18 billion in revenues. Some of the…
NASDAQ Sees Drop In Short Selling (NDAQ)
The NASDAQ OMX Group (NASDAQ: NDAQ) is seeing a drop in short selling activity if the trends in December continue. The exchange said that as of December 31, the total short interest in 2,559…
The 52-WeeK Low Club (ZEP)(LZB)(TNC)(SINA)
Zep (ZEP) Shares downgraded. Drops to $13.17 from 52-week high of $21.80. La-Z-Boy (LZB) Shares in industry downgraded. $1.82 from 52-week high of $11.76. Tennant (TNC) Still falling due to accounting concerns. Guidance cut.…
Medtronic Adjusts Long-Term Goals (MDT)
Medical devices was supposed to be recession-proof, or at least was supposed to be recession-resistant. But we have seen over and over how this notion has not been the case. Medtronic Inc. (NYSE: MDT)…
S&P Takes BorgWarner Closer to Junk (BWA)
BorgWarner Inc. (NYSE: BWA) has been a troubled company in a troubled sector. It seems that after completing its debt rating review, Standard & Poor’s has decided it doesn’t like the auto parts business. …
A Vicious Market Turns Against Citigroup (C), Again
Usually when there are rumors that management is being changed at a company, its shares go up. There are stories flying around Wall St. that the Citgroup (C) chairman Win Bischoff will be pushed…
Seagate & Storage Sector: More Pain, More Change (STX, WDC, EMC)
You know times are more than tough when an industry’s leader is caught like a roach on its back. That is the position that Seagate Technology (NYSE: STX) finds itself in at the onset…
The Retailers That Will Dominate Store Closings (SHLD)(M)(JWN)(TIF)(WMT)(BBY)(GPS)(M)
Several estimates from retail analysts predict the tens of thousands of retail outlets will close this year. Some put the number as high as 70,000 in the first half of 2009. Wall St. is…
Stuff Gets Out Of Hand At Level 3 (LVLT)
Level 3 (LVLT), the troubled telecom company is trading off nearly 25% today to $1.13 with no news. The firm carries a lot of debt at $6.4 billion and has modest operating income. It…
Closing Down a Coal Mine (PCX, BTU)
Last Friday, Patriot Coal Corporation (NYSE:PCX) announced that it would close its Jupiter mine in March. The company had said in September that it planned to close the West Virginia mine, so the announcement…