GM (GM) Better Than Expected
General Motors (GM) delivered 284,300 vehicles in September. Sales were down 16% from the same month last year. Car sales fell 10% to just over 118,000. Light trucks were off 19%. Cadillac did poorly with…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
GE Raises Liquidity With Buffett & Public Offering (GE, BRK-A, GS)
General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) is coming out swinging to halt the offensive rumors and credit concerns that have been hindering its stock. The company made two key announcements to fight this. GE will…
Possible Digital Cinema Financing Winners (BX, JPM, AIXD)
Despite the realm of uncertainties we all face, there is one sector which has survived through the good times and bad times of the last century: movies. Movies haven’t even been killed by the…
HP’s Virtualization Expansion (HPQ, VMW, MSFT, CTXS)
Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) is acquiring LeftHand Networks Inc., a move that takes the company further into hardware for virtualization. LeftHand provides storage virtualization and iSCSI storage area network solutions to enable mid-size companies and…
Ford (F) September Sales: It Couldn’t Get Much Worse
Ford (F) has an atrocious September. The car company reported total sales of 116,734, down 34 percent versus a year ago. Volvo sales were off over 50%. Overall Ford brand SUV sales dropped 57%…
Despite Turbulent Times, Disk & Storage Drives A Cheap Port O’ Call (WDC, STX)
This last weekend we began screening for technology stocks with extremely low P/E multiples which are still showing growth. The two giant independent disk drive and hard drive data storage stocks of Western Digital…
Will GE (GE) Revise Guidance?
GE (GE) recently revised its guidance. For the the third quarter it moved its estimates to a range of $.43 to $.48 per share from the previous figures of $.50 to $.54 For the…
New Major Gas Pipeline From Fayetteville Heads North (KMP, ETP, SWN, CHK, BP)
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (NYSE:KMP) and Energy Transfer Partners (NYSE:ETP) are teaming up again, this time on a joint venture to move up to 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day from…
Boston Scientific (BSX) Slaughters It Shareholders Again
The list of management screw-ups at Boston Scientific (BSX) is almost too long to number. It bought rival Guidant and added $7 billion in debt in the process. Some of Guidant’s products were not…
A Revival At Level 3 (LVLT)?
Level 3 Communications (LVLT) has done remarkably well this year since it is viewed as a company with only modest growth and positive cash flow prospects. The stock price is slightly down YTD at…
Bad ISM Data, Back To 2001 Post-Terror Levels
The Institute for Supply management, or ISM, has released some awful data for the manufacturing sector. It noted that while the overall economy grew for the 83rd consecutive month, the PMI indicates a…
AMEX & NYSE Finally United (NYX)
NYSE Euronext (NYSE: NYX) made an announcement that it has completed its acquisition of the American Stock Exchange. This deal has felt as though it has been on the books forever. We don’t know…
GameStop Grows EU Ops With Micromania Buyout (GME)
GameStop (NYSE: GME) has reached a deal to make another video game chain acquisition. It is in a definitive agreement to acquire Micromania. This chain is France’s leading video game retailer with 332 locations…
Farmer Mac Raises Needed Cash, At Steep Price (AGM)
Farmer Mac, or Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corp. (NYSE: AGM), has been up against the ropes and reviewing its alternatives. Things have been so bad that at a $4.10 close, that is down from a…
UBS Taking Down Hospital Stocks (CYH, THC, UHS)
UBS has decided to downgrades the hospital sector this morning. It seems that perhaps not all medical and healthcare stocks are immune from a rapidly weakening economy. We have seen downgrades on three of…
Top Pre-Market Analyst Upgrades (AMT, ES, XOM, IFF, RIMM)
These are some of the upgrades and positive analyst calls we are seeing this Wednesday morning: American Tower (AMT) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs. Energy Solutions (ES) Raised to Outperform at FBR. Exxon…
Top Pre-Market Analyst Downgrades (ACAS, BSX, CMVT, FSS, HPY, MRT, NENG, OTEX, RRI, RUTH)
These are some of the downgrades and cautious analyst calls we are seeing this Wednesday morning: American Capital (ACAS) Cut To Underweight from Neutral By JP Morgan. Boston Scientific (BSX) Cut to Underperform at…
Look For Q4 Earnings Growth To Go Negative (MSFT)(GOOG)(GM)(XOM)(PG)(MCD)
Hope dies hard. A lot of Wall St. analysts still think that earnings from the S&P 500 companies will be up in aggregate in Q4 2008 compared with the same quarter last year. There…
Home Loans Joined By Car Loans And Credit Cards
While the market was busy looking at all of those "For Sale" signs around most neighborhoods, it forgot that people also put three or four expensive cars in their driveways and bought $5,000 home…
Moving The Foul Pole: The Mark-To-Market Scandal
The rule about scandals was set a long time ago. A company or individual can create a scandal. Government rules and regulations are, by definition, scandal-proof. They are sanctioned by the high priests of…