California And The Great State Bailout
Muscle man Arnold Schwarzenegger has told the California legislature that the state is out of money. California’s budget deficit is up $3.6 billion since the last estimate early this year. The deficit is now…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
Vladimir Putin: OPEC’s New Best Friend: Oil Is Going Much Higher
Vladimir Putin must be unhinged. Just a few months ago he was able to wage war on his neighbor and threaten the West by saying that he would withhold his vast supply of oil…
The Spanish Inquisition Comes For Henry Paulson
A man runs from a burning house covered with soot and with his hair and clothing aflame. A fireman stops him and asks, "What was your strategy for coming out of the front door…
Media Digest 12/11/2008 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg
According to Reuters, the House passed a $14 billion bailout bill. Reuters reports that according to Mastercard (MA) retail sales fell sharply in November. Reuters writes that Congress criticized Treasury over its use of…
Asia Markets And Europe Open 12/11/2008
Markets in Asis were mixed. The Nikkei rose .7% to 8,720. Honda (HMC) moved up on hopes of a US car company bailout. The Hang Seng dropped .3% to 15,534. The Shanghai Composite was…
California Out Of Cash
It isn’t even Michigan. At least with the car companies about to go under there would be some excuse. California says it will run out of money on Monday.
Will Auto Co. Credit Default Swaps Get Swamped? (GM)(F)
It may be old school but for every action their is an equal and opposite reaction. Take the auto bailout. It turns out that creating a car czar with special powers over The Big…
Is Another Shoe Dropping on Baidu.com? (BIDU)
Baidu.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) looks like a stock in trouble. Again. The Chinese search leader was hitting new 52-week lows before the market recovered late in the day. The exacerbated move is on the…
A 200% Buyout Premium From Private Equity (ANL)
American Land Lease Inc. (NYSE: ANL) is perhaps one of the more unusual plays seen yet in private equity acquisitions. Despite a 200% premium, the more odd part of "for how much" is the…
AIG Tries To Address ‘$10 Billion Claim’ (AIG)
American International Group, Inc. (NYSE: AIG) is trying to correct or refute the article that appeared today in The Wall Street Journal saying it still has some $10 billion in undisclosed counterparty obligations. The…
Autos: Bailout To Lock-Out? (GM, F)
Earlier reports had the $15 bailout framework as being reached as a conceptual agreement between the House of Representatives and the White House. In other words, in theory. But now fresh reports show Republican…
Short Sellers, No Direction in Biotech (AMGN, BIIB, CELG, GENZ, GILD)
It seems that short sellers have no real direction in the major NASDAQ biotech stocks from mid-November to late-November. Generally you see a pattern. This month the only pattern seems to be one of…
Short Seller Surprise, Alternative Energy Mixed Bag (CSIQ, CPST, CLNE, ENER, ESLR, FSLR, FCEL, SOLR, HOKU, JASO, SFUN, SPWRA, SPWRB)
With oil tanking, many alternative energy stocks and solar stocks have been paying for it. They were the leveraged winners when oil was running up and now they are paying the price on the…
Encore: Change Partners and Dance (EAC, ENP)
Yesterday, we reported on a deal involving a master limited partnership buying a property from the owner of its general partner. Last night, Encore Energy Partners (NYSE:ENP) announced that it bought about 1,800 producing…
Wanted: Investors in Russian Energy (XOM, RDS.A, BP)
Falling crude oil prices have hit Russia particularly hard. The country needs a crude price of about $70/b to cover production costs and to fund the government. So, what do they do when the…
Shorts Gang Up on Top NASDAQ 100 Tech Stocks (AMZN, AAPL, CSCO, DELL, GOOG, INTC, MSFT, ORCL, RIMM, YHOO)
As you will see, most of the top technology stocks from the NASDAQ 100 saw an increase in the number of shares being sold short from mid-November to late November. With the last 9…
If Bank Analyst Is Right About Bank Of America (BAC) And Wells Fargo (WFC) No One Seems To Care
A leading bank analyst is certain that Wells Fargo (WFC) and Bank of America (BAC) are going to have to raise more money. No one seems to be listening. Both stocks are flat to…
Cowen Throws In The Towel on MasterCard (MA) and Visa (V)
Analysts at Cowen & Co are throwing in the towel on the recent high-flying credit card processors MasterCard (MA) and Visa (V), downgrading both from outperform to underperform, citing deteriorating fundamentals. Cowen completely bypassed…
Eastman Kodak Proves Silver Can Rust (EK)
Eastman Kodak Co. (NYSE: EK) has been trying to turn a corner for quite some time. This morning the company turned a corner, and walked right into Thor’s Hammer. The film maker has withdrawn…
Top Pre-Market Analyst Upgrades (ALU, ASR, BMY, DD, FORR, HE, QCOM)
There are few positive calls this morning from Wall Street analysts, but these are the ones we have caught this morning: Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) Raised to Sector Perform at RBC. ASUR (ASR) Raised to Buy…