ATP: Buybacks, Sales & The Future (ATPG, APC)
ATP Oil & Gas (NASDAQ:ATPG) is a small-cap E&P company that is desperately trying to improveits share price. It is trading today about 85% lower than its 52-week high.That stinks and the company knows…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
Cliffs Winning Strategy: Shutter Mines (CLF, ANR)
Newly-named Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. (NYSE:CLF) is slowing production at two of its Minnesota iron ore mines in order "to bring production in line with demand." Three furnaces capable of producing 300,000 tons of…
Low Oil Prices, Yet High Oil Profits (OXY, BP, VLO, COP)
This has been a very sketchy earnings season, and the crazy stock markets have offered very little help in being able to evaluate many companies. But despite the massive drop in oil prices from…
High Volume Stock Tankers (GS, MS, DWT, CRDN, ACF, PRXL)
We are seeing many high volume price drops in actively traded shares today. In most cases, the earnings are to blame, but there are other issues affecting some stocks as well. Goldman Sachs Group…
OPEC Ready To Cut Production ASAP
OPEC is not an organization that likes to leave money on the table. And, it has done so for far too long, at least according to a number of its members. Recently, banks in…
Fahrenheit 451 & The Internet (GOOG, MHP, PSO, JW-A, CBS)
We are seeing a historic event, and one which may outline the future of books. Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) has reached a settlement over its dispute with The Authors Guild and the Association of American…
Consumers, Hell, and No Handbasket
The Conference Board has released a dismal reading of Consumer Confidence. In fact, this looks like a record low. Consumer confidence in October was given an index reading of 38.0. Economists were looking for…
Huntman & Hexion Vs. Bankers, Trouble Merger-Land? (HUN)
Huntsman Corporation (NYSE: HUN) is now indicated down after a rise yesterday. Apparently, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse have said they do not want to fund the Apollo-led merger with the Hexion merger financing.
TEPPCO Piping Earnings (TPP)
TEPPCO Partners (NYSE:TPP), a pipeline master limited partnership, reported third quarter earnings of $0.40/common unit on revenues of $4.2 billion. Analysts were expecting $0.43/common unit and revenues of $3.36 billion. Net income totaled $47…
Smith International, Good Enough (SII)
Oil field services company Smith International (NYSE:SII) reported third quarter earnings before the market opened this morning. EPS reached $1.00 on revenues of $2.85 billion. Analysts were expecting EPS of $0.97 and revenues of…
Martha Comes Up Short (MSO)
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. (NYSE: MSO) posted a net loss at -$0.07 EPS and said that excluding certain restructuring corporate expenses it would have seen a loss of -$0.01 EPS. First Call was…
Valero Set To Win In New Pricing Environment (VLO)
Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE: VLO) looks set to surge after the refinery giant posted earnings. The company posted $1.86 EPS from continuing operations, which may have some questionable numbers because some other operations from…
Early Bird Analyst Upgrades & Downgrades (CHA, CHH, CMCSA, GOOG, ID, PAS, ACF, ERIC, NCC, NWS, NOK, PCTI, RAH, SHW)
These are some of the top pre-market analyst upgrades and downgrades we are seeing from Wall Street firms this Tuesday morning with more than two hours to the open: China Telecom (CHA) Raised to…
VW: Largest Market Cap In The World (TM)(F)(GM)(XOM)
In a sign that the car industry is alive and well, the market cap of VW passed Exxon (XOM) to move it into first place worldwide. According to Bloomberg, the stock rose when "Porsche…
UBS Ditches Solar Stocks (ENER, ESLR, SOLR, SPWRA)
UBS is issuing a downgrade on many of the solar stocks this morning. While this call may be late, it does echo some of the issues brought up recently which signals that some of…
Is Goldman Sachs As Smart As Everyone Thinks? (GS, C, MS, NTRS, STI, USB)
Sometimes there is just lunacy written about financial companies, and sometimes there is lunacy inside of financial companies. Forget about the argument that there are usually both for a minute. Yesterday we covered an…
Financial Crisis Cost Moves Toward $25 Trillion
No one with an abacus, a calculator, or a mainframe will ever know what the global credit crisis has cost in real money. Lost jobs means lost tax revenue. Lost bank capital means a…
Google (GOOG) Burns More Money To Save The World
Leaving aside its huge and immensely profitable search business, Google (GOOG) has managed to lose money in almost every other business it has started or bought. YouTube is probably at the top of that…
Government Puts More Capital Into Banks: More Failure Of Tickle Down Theory
The large money center banks never planned to take the money they are getting from the government to make loans. The equity investments will be used to shore up capital, which is now old…
Boeing (BA) Settles With Unions: All That Wasted Time
Moving into the pit of a recession, Boeing (BA) executives managed to prolong a strike with the company’s machinists for seven weeks before reaching an four-year accord. Management almost certainly knew their tipping point…