As we are entering earnings season, we are also starting to get "confession season" where companies begin issuing updates ahead of their formal earnings. Some of these will make some obvious sense, and others…
According to The Wall Street Journal, "Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group closed a $9 billion investment in Morgan Stanley that gives MUFG a 21% interest. Under revised terms, MUFG has acquired $7.8 billion of convertible…
The long-rumored Time Warner (TWX) deal to merge AOL into Yahoo! (YHOO) is nearly done, according to Time Warner insiders. The deal should be difficult to do, but TWX CEO Jeff Bewkes may feel…
These are some of the many research upgrades we have seen from Wall Street analysts this Monday morning with more than two hours to the open: Ann Taylor (ANN) Raised to Neutral at Goldman…
These are some of the top pre-market downgrades we are seeing this Monday morning with more than two hours to the open: Allstate (ALL) Cut to Sell from Hold at S&P Equity Research Diamond…
In a perhaps late research call in the oilpatch, Goldman Sachs has downgraded the exploration & production sector to Neutral from attractive and downgraded the oil services sector to Neutral from Attractive. Interestingly enough.…
A big up day in the market, say 4% or 5%, is not a rally, at least not any more. The DJIA has proved that it can move 1,000 points from bottom to top…
The UK government is about to become the de facto largest shareholder in two of the country’s largest banks, HBOS and The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). Given the number of times that England…
The great fraud perpetrated by the criminal manipulators at the top of the US financial system was that almost every American could move up a level in the US caste system, an entity whose…
Sony Corp. (SNE) has elected not to mark down the price of its PlayStation 3 system for the holidays. The most basic version of the console, which was released in November 2006, is currently…
The turnaround at Starbucks (SBUX) has been tough since Howard Schultz returned as CEO in January. The stock is down nearly 50% year-to-date as the company returns it focus to coffee, rearranges it scheduling…
According to Reuters, world markets are waiting to see how the bailout of banks in Europe and the US will work. Reuters reports that Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group is looking for more favorable…
A sort of shadow economy has been forming. The sherriff in Cook Country, Illinois has stopped enforcing evictions on may foreclosed homes. According to The Chicago Tribune, Sherriff Tom Dart cited the growing number…
State and municipal governments have failed to put tens of billions of dollars into health plans for their retired workers. The Governmental Accounting Standards Board was set up to monitor the use of GAAP…
The IMF said that the world banking system faces of meltdown if governments does not take immediate action to support that largest banks. Based on comments from Paulson, the US may be moving a…
It turns out the cowpie of the PC chip world, built and marketed by Nvidia (NVDA), may have ended up in some Apple (AAPL) laptops. That would make the Mac buyers miffed. The semiconductor…
The people who run the International Monetary Fund probably don’t have any money in the stock market. They as the bond-owner, conservative sorts. Their risk aversion has not taken away their pessimism, and it…
According to The Wall Street Journal, GM (GM) and Chrylser had merger talks. How do that work if both are already broke? MarktetWatch reports that Paulson will begin to buy equity in banks. Bank…
It has long been thought that Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) was going to escape this credit crisis mostly unscathed and that the firm would never have capital issues. The good news is…
If there has been one manager that has made serious cash on his investments in his own company’s stock, it is Aubrey McClendon of Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE: CHK). But "has" is just what…