GM (GM) Doubles Down
GM (GM) likes its "employee pricing" incentives so much that it is going to extend them through the end of September and make them available on more models. Good new. Bad news. Clearly GM…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
At Least CostCo (COST) Is OK
The first point most investors will make about CostCo’s (COST) August revenue is that it came in under expectation. But, that would be to miss the point. A survey of analysts by FactSet Research…
Top Pre-Market Analyst Upgrades (CBT, PCYC, THX, X, UTX)
These are some of the top analyst upgrades and positive calls we are seeing this Wednesday morning: Cabot Corp. (CBT) Raised to Buy at KeyBanc. Pharmacyclics (PCYC) Raised to Outperform at RBC. Tenet Healthcare…
Top Pre-Market Analyst Downgrades (ADLR, MDRX, CRDN, CAG, IFF, MFE, TWX, VRTX, VOD, WWWW)
These are some of the top analyst downgrades and negative calls we are seeing this Wednesday morning: Adolor (ADLR) Cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray. Allscripts (MDRX) Cut to Neutral at Piper Jaffray. Ceradyne…
Consumer Products Firms Join Banks At Screwing Customers
Banks have been taking money from the Fed for months. They can pledge dirty dishes and wall paper in exchange for real cash at low interest rates. The system has been hailed as the…
Saving The Consumer Electronics World: Apple (AAPL) Reinvents The iPod
The good thing about the Apple (AAPL) iPod is that the company has sold 160 million of them. That is the bad thing about the device as well. Apple ships about 10 million units…
Sovereign Funds Agree To Be Good, Or Not To Be Bad
After months of haggling with governments in the US and Europe along with IMF officials. the world’s largest sovereign funds have agreed that their investments in banks and corporations will not be a veiled…
Las Vegas Lock Of The Week: OPEC Will Cut Production
Almost everyone with any schooling in the matter thinks that oil demand is dropping as the global economy slows. Hurricanes might take out some production, but that would be temporary and the government says…
Wall St.’s Root Canal: Watching The Sale Of Lehman (LEH)
Drilling into the jaw bone without Novocaine. The competition to maybe buy or maybe not buy Lehman (LEH) picks up a new angle everyday. The latest is a report by Reuters that HSBC and…
Media Diges 9/3/2008 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg
According to Reuters, oil fell another $1 to $109. Reuters writes that Coca-Cola (KO) will pay $2.5 billion for Chinese juice maker Huiyuan, Reuters writes that Google (GOOG) believes the its new browser will…
The 52-Week Low Club 9/2/1008 (CDE)(NFX)(MDR)(INGN)(HERO)(FLEX)
Coeur d’Alene Mines (CDE) Bad day for commodities stocks. Drifts down to $1.62 from 52-week high of $5.18 Newfield Exploration (NFX) Crude down $6. Bad day for oil exploration stocks. Falls to $39.98 from…
War Is Hell, The Markets Turn Down Mid-Session (LEH)(MER)(INTC)(CSCO)(AAPL)(EBAY)(RIMM)
With a $6 a barrel drop in oil prices, this was supposed to be one of the best days of the year for the stock markets. The Nasdaq opened up 55 points at 2,402…
Chesapeake Drilling for Cash? (CHK, BP, PXP)
Chesapeake Energy (CHK) announced today that it will create a joint venture with the US division of BP plc (BP) that will give BP a 25% stake in Chesapeake’s Fayetteville Shale assets in exchange…
24/7 Wall St. Exclusive Interview With Sprint (S) CEO Dan Hesse
24/7 Wall St. asked Sprint (S) CEO Dan Hesse a few questions.Here are his answers. 24/7: Sprint has clearly had trouble with customer service which has shown up in studies like JD Power. You…
More Blight For Merck (MRK)
Merck (MRK) and Schering-Plough (SGP) make two of the most widely sold drugs in the world. One is cholesterol drug Zetia. Another is a related drug called Vytorin. The sales of the treatments topped…
Commerzbank And A Big American Bank Merger (JPM)(BAC)(WM)(WB)
The Commerzbank buy-out of Dresdner Bank was not a shotgun wedding. Neither institution was failing. The severe balance sheet problems facing may other global money center banks were not an important consideration. The Commerzbank…
Gustav And Oil Pricing’s New Calculus
Earlier this year, it did not take much to disrupt the price of oil and send it rocketing up. The market was inclined to believe that almost all news about crude was bad news.…
Companies That Slash R&D In Tough Times Hurt Shareholder Returns
In his latest column for The New York Times, Mark Hulbert discusses a study that shows that companies that invest aggressively in research and development tend to reward shareholders with strong returns over the…
Media Digest 9/2/2008 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg
According to Reuters, the manufacturing sector probably did not grow in August Reuters reports that it appears Gustav did little damage to oil rigs and refineries. Reuters reports that the Korea Development Bank confirmed…
Asia Markets 9/2/2008 (LFC)(CN)
Markets in Asia fell. The Nikkei was off 1.8% to 12,609. Bridgestone was up 3.5% to 1850. Canon was down 7.3% to 4670. The Hang Seng dropped 1% to 20,689. China Life (LFC) rose…