Over the last decade or more no company has been more meticulous about its earnings forecasts than GE (GE). The conglomerate even talks freely about its prospects between its quarterly conference calls and occasional…
The news about what will happen to retail spending ends at December 31. All of the analysis is focused on the period from November 1 to the end of the year. So far the…
The recession has caused so much panic among Americans that it has addled their minds. According to a new poll from The Washington Post and ABC News, most citizens do not favor a bailout…
It must be hard for Apple (AAPL) to be dragged off the top of the hill. It has been there so long. Steve Jobs has been hailed as the best CEO in America. Apple…
It is reasonable to wonder if Bernard Madoff was in his right mind. Was he ever aware that what he was doing was criminally and morally wrong? Any rational person would have known that…
According to Reuters, retail sales will probably drop further after the holidays. Reuters reports that the shock waves of the Madoff scandal are spreading around the financial world. Reuters writes that the auto bailout…
Markets in Asis were mixed. The Nikkei fell 1.1% to 8,568. The Hang Seng rose .2% to 15,079. The Shanghai Composite was up .5% to 1,975. At the open in Europe, the FTSE fell…
Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. (NYSE: BNI) does not have a new shareholder. But Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) did increase the size of the stake held in Burlington Northern. In another…
The Treasury Department and the Office of Management and Budget has now released the Fiscal Year 2008 Financial Report of the United States Government. As you’d guess, there are deficits, shortfalls, warnings, and maybe…
Huntsman (HUN) Merger deal falls apart. Drops to $2.82 from 52-week high of $25.74. Nortel Networks (NT) As company fights debt problems, Moody’s lowers earnings. Sells down to $.32 from 52-week high of $16.17.…
This is a very important week for earnings from brokerage firms (or the new bank holding companies). Tomorrow morning we have earnings from Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS) and on Wednesday morning we have…
There is a new ETF in town, or at least a vehicle that is like an ETF, and this one tracks carbon allowances. AirShares™ EU Carbon Allowances Fund (NYSE Arca: ASO) began trading on…
The news from the homebuilders isn’t looking any better. The NAHB sentiment survey in December came in matching the level of 9.0 in November. The association sees no improvement in the terms of sales…
In a bit of good news this morning for Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK), the Deutsche Bank analyst who downgraded Range Resources Corporation (NYSE:RRC), Southwestern Energy Company (NYSE:SWN), and Devon Energy Corporation (NYSE:DVN) maintained Chesapeake…
CNX Gas Corporation (NYSE:CXG) reported this morning that it is producing 6.5 million cubic feet of natural gas production from a well in the Marcellus Shale. The well represents CNX’s highest daily production rate…
Putting advertising on social network websites like Facebook or News Corp (NWS) MySpace has never made sense. They claim to have tens of millions of "members", "users", "friends". Some of those people are doing…
Schwab (SCHW) said that trades by its customers dropped 18% from October to November falling to "408.0 thousand", as the firm likes to put it. The market still seems volatile. All that moving around…
News from the energy patch just keeps getting worse. Global consumption is down, consumer prices are down, and just about every company is reducing spending on exploration and production. This morning a Deutsche Bank…
The number of hedge funds topped 10,000 earlier this year. Watch for about 3,000 of those to be gone soon. According to Bloomberg, "Almost a third of hedge funds will shut or merge after…
Biogen Idec Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) just came out with an SEC filing showing that on December 11, 2008, regulatory agencies were notified of a confirmed case of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy. In other words, it…