Media Digest 10/20/2008
According to Reuters, a number of retailers are cutting back holiday hiring as they anticipate lower sales. Reuters reports that GM’s (GM) interest in Chrysler’s cash is helping move a merger forward. Reuters reports…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
Asia Markets And Europe Open 10/20/2008
Markets in Asia were sharply higher. The Nikkei rose 3.6% to 9,006. The Hang Seng was up 5.7% to 15,385. The Shanghai Composite was up 2.3% to 1,974. In Europe, the FTSE opened up…
As Car Industry Fails, Detroit Class Warfare Loses It Power
Founded during The Great Depression, the UAW is now more than seventy years old. Henry Ford once supposedly said that the union would organize Ford (F) workers over his dead body. Ford is gone…
A Theory That Wells Fargo (WFC) Numbers Are Bogus (C)(JPM)(BAC)
Analysts often as about "earnings quality". How accurate are quarterly numbers? Are they being "managed" to make a company’s fortunes appear better than they actually are? The question has come up in relationship to…
Cox Wants More Disclosure On Credit Default Swaps, Which He Should Have Asked For Years Ago
SEC Chairman Christopher Cox may go down in history as the worst person to ever run his agency. He has been flat-footed and tardy on almost every critical action that the SEC could have…
Ten Percent Of $700 Billion Bailout Could Go To Bonuses (GS)(C)(MS)
No matter how badly the economy is doing and what shareholders in American financial firms have lost, it would be a shame to see investment bankers go without their bonuses. According to The London…
When Will The Rest Of Ford’s (F) Board Leave?
Most corporations have bylaws about how many board members they must have. The federal government requires that boards of directors keep enough outside members to maintain independent audit and compensation committees. Ford (F) may…
Are Record Junk Bond Defaults & Outflows Growing Into Opportunities? (PHK, HIX, HYV, HYG, JNK)
The recent turmoil in the credit markets has created problems for issues of the highest quality debt all the way down to the junkiest of junk bonds which trade at ratings under "BBB" or…
The Next Stocks That Could Go Under $1 (CHTR)(SIRI)(F)(LVLT)(ABK)(AIG)(NCC)(C)
A year ago, it would have been hard to find people who would believe that Sirius XM (SIRI) or Charter Communications (CHTR) would trade below $1. Sirius had a 52-week high of $3.92. Its…
Warren Buffett’s Likely New Personal Investments (BRK-A, WFC, GE, GS, KO, KFT, NKE, BNI)
The New York Times has a new writer, at least for a day. Warren Buffett has written an op-ed piece for the paper titled "Buy American. I Am." to shore up some hope for…
Rite Aid Problems Mounting (RAD)
The problems are mounting for Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE: RAD). Yesterday, the drug store operator received a non-compliance letter from the NYSE over its shares trading under $1.00 for the last 30-day period. The…
Housing Starts Tank
According to The Wall Street Journal, "Home construction took its third tumble in a row during September, falling to the lowest level in 17 years, and a sign points to further decline in the…
Day Trader Alert: Baidu.com (BIDU, GOOG)
Baidu.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) is seeing a rather large surge in its shares this morning. The frequently analogized "Chinese Google" has no news of its own. But the real Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is…
Top 10 Pre-Market Analyst Upgrades (BWA, CSTR, ESRX, JNPR, M, MAS, NSR, SKS, SYMC, UNH)
These are ten of the top Wall Street analyst upgrades we are seeing from this Friday morning with more than two hours to the open: Borg Warner (BWA) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.…
Rumor: Yahoo! (YHOO) To Cut 3,000 Jobs
Believe what you will. Reports from Valleywag say that stories appeared in Fortune and at Google News saying that consultants from Bain, which is helping Yahoo! (YHOO) look at its business, have suggested that…
Toyota Goes To “Zero Percent” Financing As Its Sales Go To Hell
Toyota is not supposed to have to give out any incentives to sell its cars. They perform better than other vehicles in customer satisfaction tests. They get good gas mileage. Toyota virtually invented the…
Armed Robbery At The Fed: Bank Problems Are Getting Worse (C)(MER)(JPM)(UBS)
Bank earnings were hit hard this week. Even if the results at Citigroup (C), Merrill Lynch (MER), and JP Morgan (JPM) did not drive the credit system into insolvency, each company had forecasts which…
Google (GOOG) Earnings: A Perfect Proxy For Small Business
Google’s (GOOG) earnings are ancient news now. The search company did much better than expected. The economy did not bring it down like a rhino killed off in the wild. The company’s Q3 EPS…
Media Digest 10/17/2008 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg
According to Reuters, policy makers around the world are trying to deal with the fact that the economy is moving into a deep recession. Reuters writes that Google (GOOG) exceeded forecasts and its shares…
Asia Markets And Europe Open 10/17/2008
Markets in Asia were mixed. The Nikkei was up 2.8% to 8,694. NTT DoCoMo rose 7% and NTT was up 8%. The Hang Seng fell 1.4% to 15,012.. The Shanghai Composite rose 1.1% to…