The shell game of controlling gas and diesel prices in China is not terribly clever, but it has worked. The government and the oil & refinery companies which it controls buy crude and sell…
Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) has submitted an open shelf offering today for an undetermined amount. The offering includes a combination of debt securities, preferred stock, depositary shares, common stock, and warrants to be used…
Rackspace, Inc. has submitted its IPO paperwork late Friday after the close. The filing shows a maximum aggregate offering of $400 million, although this number is for filing purposes only. They have applied to…
Consumers and businesses are faced with two difficult problems as a result of major banks taking huge write-offs. The first is that, even though the Fed is chopping rates, lower interest loans are not…
When we saw the Mars acquisition of William Wrigley Jr. Co. (NYSE: WWY) in perhaps the largest food merger, the first thing that came to mind besides "what a premium" was "What does this…
Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A, BRK.B) has been on CNBC this morning discussing his Wrigley’s bid this morning. Interestingly enough this interview was more of a general discussion about the current economic…
Sycamore Networks (NASDAQ: SCMR) is showing the risks of being a small technology company with the bulk of orders coming from a few companies. The bandwidth management solutions company has issued a revenue warning…
Kirk Kerkorian, billionaire and elder statesman of takeovers, said he will make a tender offer for another 20 million shares of Ford (F). The price will be $8.50 a share. His timing is odd.…
The quiet period has ended for Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) after its IPO. The underwriters have thus initiated their coverage ratings this morning on the credit card payment processing company. Shares of Visa have…
Verizon (VZ) had a quarter which indicated that no matter what is wrong with the economy people are still subscribing to cellular service. Revenue at the phone company rose 5.5% to $23.8 billion. Operating…
These are ten of the top analyst calls we see affecting shares in pre-market indications this Monday morning: Big Lots (NYSE: BIG) Raised to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan. Cash America (NYSE: CSH) Cut…
The head of OPEC says that he can see oil hitting $200. OPEC’s President Chakib Khelil refuses to blame supply. His theory is that the price of the dollar is what will drive crude.…
The Oracle of Omaha and Mars, the big privately-held chocolate company, will buy gum concern Wrigley (WWY) for $22 billion. The price is a 27% premium over where Wrigley traded in the last session.…
According to Reuters, oil price moved toward $120 on fear for supply interruptions. Reuters writes that Chrysler is trying to sell two of its North American plants. Reuters reports that many Wall St. analysts…
Markets in Asia were mixed. The Nikkei rose .2% to 13,894. Kyorcera rose 6% to 9440. Mazda rose 7.9% to 465. The Hang Seng rose .2% to 25,679. China Life (LFC) fell 3.1% to…
Supply concerns have moved the cost of crude to just under $120 a barrel. According to Bloomberg "Crude oil rose to a record after BP Plc shut a North Sea pipeline and gunmen attacked…
The board and management of Continental Airlines (CAL) have decided that staying single is the best way of life. After long merger talks with United (UAUA), Continental has elected to go it alone. Continental…
19 to 3. That is the line-up of Wall St. analysts who think Microsoft (MSFT) will make a hostile bid for Yahoo! (YHOO) compared to those who think the companies will peacefully negotiate a…
There is nothing novel in the theory. As the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone adds features and 3G capacity, it will take market share and earnings away from RIM (NYSE: RIMM), the maker of the…
The tendency among buyers of auto stocks is to look at falling expenses at the big firms like GM (GM) and Ford (F) and to hope that unit sales in the US won’t keep…