The 52-Week Low Club 9/19/2008 (IHS)(DM)(OTTR)
Bad day for the 52-week low club. IHS (IHS) Decision to buy Global Insight for $200 million drives shares down. Bottom at $45.66 from 52-week high of $72.19. Dolan Media (DM) No news, just…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
Companies Not On SEC Short Sale Ban, But Should Be
Frankly, we think the ban on short sales is not the right way to run a free market. But it doesn’t matter what we think. These are the new rules, but they do not…
Autos Next In Government Handouts? (GM, F)
If you look at the auto stocks today, you might deduce that they are next in line for the government corporate bread lines and farm camp jobs. Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) is…
Why The Paulson Program Doesn’t Work
One senior banker described the new Paulson, Bernanke & Co. plan as "the privatization of profits and socialization of losses." There are a number of reasons why the government’s plan to pull toxic assets…
OfficeMax Destroyed On Lehman Exposure & Late Downgrade (OMX)
OfficeMax Inc. (NYSE: OMX) somehow managed to not notice the major stock market rally. Its shares plunged 29% to $9.38 on 1.5-times an entire day’s average trading volume. Friedman Billings Ramsey downgraded the stock…
Online Brokers Catch A Bid (SCHW, AMTD, ETFC, IBKR)
This is the new official 48-hour period to be known in the future as GOVERNMENT BACKSTOP DAYS. While financial stocks are a big beneficiary of this, the moves being seen in online trading firms…
Day Trader Alert: Yahoo! (YHOO)
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) is seeing what some might believe unthinkable. The number two and troubled search engine stock is trading lower this morning. Many might argue that the lower trend is normal since…
Otter Tail Secondary Comes To Roost (OTTR)
Otter Tail Corp. (NASDAQ: OTTR) is trading lower this morning after pricing its secondary offering. The proposed 5 million share offering came in at 4.5 million shares. It also priced at $30 after closing…
Financial Stocks Set To Rocket (AIG)(WM)(GS)(MS)
Shares of major financial firms from Goldman Sachs (GS) to Morgan Stanley (MS) are up 25% to 35% in the pre-market. Washington Mutual’s (WM) stock is up more than 40% and AIG’s (AIG) soared…
Top Pre-Market Analyst Upgrades (AEP, CREE, DRI, GPS, KEY, MFE, ORCL, SONC, YUM)
These are some of the upgrades and positive calls from analysts we have seen affecting shares this Friday morning: American Electric Power (AEP) Raised to Buy at Piper Jaffray. Cree (CREE) Raised to Outperform…
Top Pre-Market Analyst Downgrades (ACN, ARO, ASCA, CTSH, ROCK, INFY, ISLE, MSCC, STN, TRIN)
These are some of the downgrades and negative analyst calls we have seen affecting shares this Friday morning: Accenture (ACN) Cut to Market Perform at Wachovia. Aeropostale (ARO) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.…
Oracle (ORCL): Tech Prospers (NT)(MSFT)(GOOG)(JAVA)
Shares in some tech companies are down as far as the banks and brokerage firms. Sun (JAVA) and Nortel (NT) are in that group, but they are hardly alone. Firms which have the lead…
The Socialists Killed The Short Sellers
There was a perverse honor in being a short-seller. It was an honor among thieves, but the group usually made lots of money by taking significant risks. Short-selling was based on one of the…
Uncle Sam Wants To Own Your Bank, And Your House
The latest in a very long list of government proposals to save the world is the most radical. Congress would create a mechanism to sweep the so-called toxic assets of banks, brokers, and insurance…
Citigroup (C): Vikram Pandit’s Year Of Living Dangerously
Vikram Pandit’s job was to cut Citigroup (C) down to size. "Reverse the insanity of the empire builders who came before you", his investors said. Dump the damaged assets and maintain the solid core.…
Media Digest 9/18/2008 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg
According to Reuters, Citigroup (C) is considering buying Washington Mutual (WM). Reuters reports that US markets rallied on word of a potential plan for the government to take over the toxic assets of banks.…
Asia Markets 9/19/2008 (LFC)(HBC)
Markets in Asia were sharply higher. The Niikkei was up 3.8% to 11.921. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial ran up along with most other financial shares. The Hang Seng rose 8.2% to 19.083. China Life (LFC)…
NVIDIA Sends Workers Home… Permanently (NVDA)
NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA) has not been without its share of problems. It has just announced that it will implement a headcount reduction of approximately 360 positions worldwide. This translates to about 6.5% of…
Oracle Shows Mixed Earnings (ORCL)
Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) came out with some mixed earnings after today’s close, and without guidance this is somewhat of a pending and unresolved issue. The enterprise and CRM behemoth posted earnings of $0.29…
The 52-Week Low Club 9/18/2008 (GNW)(STT)(MS)(GS)
Genworth (GNW) Concerns that mortgage insurance company has too much exposure in housing disaster. Down to $3.51 from 52-week high of $32.33. State Street (STT) Concerns about exposure to AIG (AIG) and other portfolio…