Unemployment Remains Above 15% in Several Cities
ThinkstockThe Bureau of Labor Statistics announced good news on the jobs front in major cities as measured in November: Unemployment rates were lower in November than a year earlier in 322 of the 372…
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Douglas A. McIntyre
Media Digest (1/9/2012) Reuters, WSJ, NYT, FT, Bloomberg
courtesy of NetflixThe Bank of Japan may ease its monetary policy again as the country’s economy slows. (Reuters) The CEO of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) makes his second visit to China in the past…
Do Ad Slogans Sell Cars? No
courtesy of General MotorsSales of General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) Chevrolet cars have not been robust lately. GM and many analysts blame this on an aging model line, which will be updated soon. GM…
The 10 Most Hated Companies in America
courtesy J.C. Penney Co. Inc.Why are some companies hated? The answer often depends on who is asking. Corporations can anger their customers, fail their shareholders, and mistreat their employees. 24/7 Wall St. analyzed each…
Boeing Should Ground the Dreamliner Before Someone Gets Hurt
courtesy Boeing Co.First, the Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) 787 Dreamliner was years late against delivery targets that roiled airlines worldwide as their fleet plans had to be scuttled. Now, the Dreamliner may well be…
Samsung Continues to Profit From Apple
courtesy of SamsungSamsung Electronics’ most recent quarterly results offered yet more proof that the South Korean company is the only viable smartphone company other than Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), and also that it has continued…
Eurozone Jobs Numbers Continue to Deteriorate
ThinkstockThe jobs numbers coming out of the eurozone continue to be relentlessly worse by the month, and there is not one sign of a turnaround. Eurostat released data for the euro area, and by nation,…
Sony Introduces Waterproof Smartphone
ThinkstockSony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) has had almost no success in the handset and smartphone sector since it bought out joint venture partner Ericsson. Based on the products it showed at the Consumer Electronics Show,…
What’s Important in the Financial World (1/8/2013)
ThinkstockSamsung Profits from Apple Samsung’s most recent quarterly results offered proof that the South Korean company is the only viable smartphone company other than Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and that it has continued to advance…
In China, Old Media Leads Censorship Battle
ThinkstockThe beginning of the end of information censorship in China was supposed to come as micro-blogging gained popularity and as sites like Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and CNN could no longer be effectively blocked by sophisticated methods used by the central…
Lampert, the Man Who Ruined Sears, Takes Over
ThinkstockThe man who created Sears Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: SHLD) in 2005, largely through the combination of Sears and Kmart, and then ruined the new public company, will take over as CEO of the firm…
Federal Debt and February 15: No More Money, but Some More Games
thinkstockThe Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) put out a nifty little analysis of when the United States should reach its debt ceiling. Sometime between February 15 and March 1, America will have no reasonable way to…
Yum! Brands Learns About China the Hard Way
courtesy of KFCYum! Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM) filed an 8-K with the SEC that drove down its share price. Problems with the Chinese government have hurt its sales: Due to adverse publicity associated with…
Media Digest (1/8/2013) Reuters, WSJ, NYT, FT, Bloomberg
courtesy of AOL, IncSamsung’s profits reach $8.3 billion, much of it due to the success of its Galaxy product line. (Reuters) Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) launches a series of low-powered chips for thin PCs…
Hostess Brands Go on the Auction Block
courtesy of Hostess Brands Inc.Hostess may be dead, but its popular brands are not. Several other food companies believe they can make money on the Hostess asset base, and the auction process to sell…
Nvidia Announces New Gaming Platform
courtesy of NvidiaThe game console and portable device business just became more crowded. Chip company Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) will release its own game product, which has been given the code name of “Project…
Disney Cost Cutting to Include Layoffs
courtesy of DisneyWalt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) may be considered by Wall St. to be among the best-run media giants in the world. That status will not protect some significant number of the company’s…
What’s Important in the Financial World (1/7/2013)
ThinkstockHostess Brands for Sale Hostess may be dead, but its popular brands are not. Several other food companies believe they can make money on the Hostess asset base, and the auction process to sell…
HTC Financial Results: Apple and Samsung Kill Another Company
courtesy of SamsungTaiwan smartphone company HTC released its fourth-quarter earnings, which were awful. They show how rapidly the company is losing ground to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Samsung. With each progressive quarter of poor results,…
Cadillac, Lincoln Lose in Car Brand Measure
courtesy of General MotorsIf car buyer brand performance is any measure of the success of a nameplate, Cadillac and Lincoln still have a long uphill battle against foreign competition. Brand weakness is yet another hurdle each has to…