10/10/08: A Rally For The Ages
There was absolutely no reason for the market to rally today. At one point the Dow was down 700 points. Investors have watched the decimation of the indexes all week as large cap stock…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
Alec Baldwin’s professional opinion of the market
Saturday Night Live’s take on the health of your portfolio and what you should do about it, circa dotcom crash, 2001
Ford’s CFO Walking The Plank (F)
In the climate of today, this may come as no real surprise. Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) has announced that CFO Don Leclair will retire November 1. He will be replaced by Lewis Booth. …
S&P: Watch Out For Chapter 11 At Ford (F) And GM (GM)
Yesterday JD Power said that the global car market could "collapse" and GM (GM) fell 31%. Today S&P is saying that "General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC may be forced into…
Transocean Taking Taxes To Switzerland From Cayman (RIG)
Transocean Inc. (NYSE:RIG), one of the world’s largest offshore drilling companies, is proposing to move its incorporation location from the Cayman Islands to Switzerland. To make the move, the company needs approval from the…
Chevron, The Economic Mess, and Tumbling Oil (CVX)
Yesterday’s interim update report from Chevron (NYSE:CVX) came out pretty much as we expected. The company projects significant improvement in downstream earnings and a drop in upstream earnings. Hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico…
Market Holidays Challenging Morgan Stanley Financing (MS, MTU)
This highly anticipated deal to fund Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) with $9 billion from Japan’s largest bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: MTU), cannot come fast enough. Both sides have come public to…
OPEC’s Chance To Kick The West While It’s Down
OPEC ministers have moved up the date of their annual Christmas meeting. This year they will be together for Thanksgiving. Odds are excellent that they may move that gathering up to next week. Brent…
Beacon Power Secures Additional Financing (BCON)
Beacon Power Corporation (NASDAQ: BCON) has received an investment commitment to fund ongoing operations and for further development. This will help to assist in the completion of manufacturing of flywheel systems for commercial deployment…
IBM Shows Credit Markets Aren’t Entirely Closed (IBM)
IBM (NYSE: IBM) is showing that some companies can still raise cash in these troubled times. Big Blue is selling $4 billion in debt in a multiple maturity offering. The company is showing that…
Top Pre-Market Analyst Downgrades (EYE, CRL, LLY, ESLR, INTC, SPWRA)
These are some of the top pre-market analyst downgrades we are seeing this Friday morning: Advanced Medical Optics (EYE) Cut to Underperform at Jefferies. Charles River (CRL) Cut to Market Perform at William Blair.…
Top Pre-Market Analyst Upgrades (BXP, DWA, DUK, MET, MTB, PRXL, POR, PFG, PSA, UDR)
These are some of the top pre-market analyst calls we are seeing this Friday morning: Boston Properties (BXP) Raised to Outperform at FBR. DreamWorks Animation (DWA) Raised to Buy at Jefferies. Duke Energy (DUK)…
Hard Times, But GE Looks Like a Safe Harbor (GE)
General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) has posted its awaited earnings report and the giant conglomerate posted earnings of $0.45 and revenue of $47.2 billion. First Call had earnings of $0.45 and $47.34 billion in…
Dow 7,000 May Make Sense
While no one would have imagined several weeks ago that the Dow could drop to 7,000, it may make sense and could build a base from which the markets might recover. The last time…
Merrill Lynch (MER), Wachovia (WB), And Morgan Stanley (MS) Deals Could Fail
A few days ago, it would have been nearly impossible to believe that the deals for Bank of America (BAC) to buy Merrill Lynch (MER), for Mitsubishi UFJ to buy 20% of Morgan Stanley…
Borrowing By Banks And AIG (AIG) Hits Extraordinary Levels
AIG (AIG) moved rapidly to sell assets and borrowed heavily from it US government loan. According to The Wall Street Journal, "The insurer has now borrowed $70.3 billion from the government in three weeks."…
Government May Back US Bank Debt And Deposits: Too Little, Too Late
In a move which may end up trying to save the US banking system, the Treasury is considering backing all bank deposits and guaranteeing billions of dollars in bank debt. The backing of deposits…
Media Digest 10/10/2008 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg
According to Reuters, the US is looking at guaranteeing billions of dollars of bank debt and temporarily insuring all bank deposits. Reuters reports that Citigroup (C) has ended talks about taking over Wachovia (WB),…
Asia Markets 10/10/2008 Indexes Collapse
Asia markets were very sharply lower. The Nikkei was off 9.6% to 8,276. The Hang Seng was down 7.3% to 14,694. The Shanghai Composite dropped 3.5% to 2,001. The German DAX fell 10%. The…
Carlos Slim Adds to Saks Stake (SKS)
Saks Inc. (NYSE: SKS) may have gotten a better endorsement than if Warren Buffett or Bill Gates bought into the retailer. Mexican billionaire and the second richest man in the world Carlos Sliim has…