According the Reuters, December domestic cars sales were the worst month in years. Reuters writes that Toyota (TM) will cut plants. Reuters reports that Apple’s (AAPL) Jobs tried to calm investors about his health.…
Markets iin Asia were mixed. The Nikkei rose ,4% to 9,081. The Hang Seng was down .7% to 15,450. The Shanghai Composite was up 3% to 1,937. At the open, the FTSE was up…
It is hard to imagine an industry where when sales are off 30% to 40% it is considered a good thing. Welcome, to the Detroit auto company bailout of 2009. Sales of light vehicles…
Why are advertisers who pay cheap ad rates running at premium websites like the tech section of CNN.com? Because the online advertising business is falling to pieces as the first quarter of the year…
At the beginning of the decade a number of internet and next-generation technology companies raised money through venture capitalists and IPOs. Many of these companies had little, if any, revenue. Most had relatively high…
As 2009 is kicking off, it is interesting to start seeing the many many forecasts for the US and other major economies. The NBER finally came clean last month about our own organic homegrown…
The CEO of SandRidge Energy, Inc. (NYSE: SD) sold approximately 8.90 million shares at $5.62/share in a private transaction in order to meet "debt service and tax planning needs." Tom Ward, SandRidge’s CEO, retained…
Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) has sold about $412 million worth of royalty interests in "long-lived, producing assets" in gas fields in Oklahoma and Arkansas. The buyer was a private equity firm, Argonaut Private Equity,…
Analysts already noted the increase in oil prices resulting from the fighting in Gaza. Neither the Palestinians nor the Israelis controls any oil–as the late Israeli Premier Golda Meir famously remarked: " took us…
Deutsche Bank said the biggest issue U.S. banks will face in 2009 is loan losses. The firm expects commercial bank loan losses for the industry to increase from 1.5% (3Q08) to 3% by the…
It seems that the early bird analyst calls did not capture the notion that analysts are starting 2009 with more opportunities to downgrade stocks. Here are some additional pre-market analyst downgrades from Wall Street…
Steve Jobs, and the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) board of directors, have decided to come out with a full pre-MacWorld attack to address the health of Steve Jobs and some explanations as to why…
John Tamny, RealClearMarkets "Recession Slows Migration in U.S." was a recent Wall Street Journal headline. Since new jobs are frequently the main reason people move, the story wasn’t a big surprise. Unfortunately, the lack…
It is still fairly thin in analyst upgrades and downgrades as this week marks the return of investment banking and research departments from what is nearly a two-week hiatus. Here are the few stand-out…
There may be some speculation that drug giant Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) is looking at expansion through acquisitions. The FT reported that the world’s largest pharmaceutical company is willing to acquire a large rival…
Detroit has gone to the government well and collected enough money to get it through to late March. It will present forecasts to the government based on cutting costs, keeping market share, and operating…
It seems that no matter what the market does, investors still want to see which old tech stock is the one to own for the year ahead. Everyone still remembers the massive growth of…
Spending on cars, clothing, jewelry, furnishings have moved down 20% or more over the last few months. There has been a lot of research that consumers were still willing to buy video games, PCs,…
"Fortes fortuna adiuvat"–Virgil The question comes up over and over again. How could a massive fraud, which probably went on for well over thirty years, have gone undetected by federal regulators? The answer up…
According to Reuters, Obama may seek take cuts of over $300 billion. Reuters reports that the SEC examined Madoff eight times over 16 years. Reuters reports that the Fed and European Central Bank plan…