Largest Short Interest Positions
The short interest in the stocks with the largest positions as of August 15: Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) down 2% to 220 million shares. Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) up 8% to…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
What’s Important in the Financial World (8/27/2012)
Hurricane Isaac Poised to Strike U.S. Economy Isaac, now a Category 1 hurricane that could become a Category 2, will have some effect on the U.S. economy even if it does not make a direct hit…
Will Apple Raise the Price of iPhone 5?
Will Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) raise the price of the iPhone 5 above the level it planned before its victory over Samsung? It would not be unusual for a company to use the potential…
Confidence in Germany Continues to Slide
Those watching for just one piece of good news about economies in the European Union have been disappointed again. The Ifo Business Climate Index for industry and trade in Germany fell to 102.3 from a July reading of…
Media Digest (8/27/2012) Reuters, WSJ, NYT, FT, Bloomberg
Hurricane Isaac causes several companies, including BP PLC (NYSE: BP), to shut down drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. (Reuters) Hertz Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HTZ) will buy Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. (NYSE:…
Why Do Europe’s Stocks Stay High?
The S&P 500 has risen about 4% over the past six months. The primary index for French stocks, the CAC 40, has been flat over the same period. It is difficult to explain why…
Samsung Execs Meet About Apple Victory
Almost every comment about the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) patent victory over Samsung in U.S. District Court includes the observation that Samsung did not expect such sharp blow or the damages set by the jury at…
U.S. Arms Sales Top $66 Billion in 2011
In a new report from the Congressional Research Service, written by Richard F. Grimmett and Paul K. Kerr, the agency said that U.S. arms exports reached $66.3 billion, according to an account in The New York…
Damage Estimates For Isaac Raised To $36 Billion
Along with whatever setbacks Isaac has caused to the Republican National Convention in Tampa as it crosses the Florida Keys into the Gulf of Mexico, estimates of property damaged which could be triggered by the system have…
Chip Sales Expected to Falter This Year
The bad news about PC sales, particularly at Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) was bound to be bad news for chip markets Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) and AMD (NYSE: AMD). The extent of the…
August Expected To Be Break-Out Car Sales Month
As a challenge to wisdom that the economy has slowed to a halt, U.S. car sales are expected to reach a four-and-a-half year high when August numbers are released. According to J.D. Power, August new-vehicle…
Tropical Storm Isaac Damage May Reach $27 Billion
Leaving aside what damage and disruption Tropical Storm Isaac could cause for the Republic Convention in Tampa, research firm CoreLogic estimates residential damage could reach $27 billion as the system marches over Haiti and into the…
A Long Time Coming: Hertz May Buy Dollar Thrifty
It seems like decades since Hertz (NYSE: HTZ) began to jockey with its primary rival–Avis Budget Group (NYSE: CAR)–for the right to own Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group (NYSE: DTG) which is among the second tier…
Apple Wins Over $1 Billion In Damages In Samsung Case–Just Ahead Of iPhone 5
A number of media have reported that Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has won a key patent victory in a jury trial held in federal court. Early reports are that the jury upheld all seven of the…
Apple Gets Court Victory Over Samsung–Reports
Early reports are that the jury in an intellectual property suit heard in federal court has ruled for Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and against Samsung on certain of the charges Reuters reports that the jury agreed…
Today’s Best Market Rumors (8/24/2012) Dodd-Frank and Money Market
Updated throughout the day on the 24/7 Wall St. Wire: Federal regulators may use parts of Dodd-Frank to regulate the money market fund industry after SEC efforts failed. (NYT) The European Central Bank will…
What’s Important in the Financial World (8/24/2012)
Merkel, Hollande Press for Greek Austerity The relationship between Germany and France on the one hand and Greece on the other spins from accommodation to exasperation in an almost regular cycle. Despite support of the euro,…
Management Departures: A Brain Drain at Web IPOs
ZyngaSome of the top executives who left Web 2.0 companies recently went voluntarily, based on media reports. Others did not. Either way, several of these crippled corporations have to replace people who may be…
The Undereducated Falter Again
Most of the focus on the new Pew report, “The Lost Decade of the Middle Class,” has been around middle-class household income. What Pew calls “middle tier median income” dropped from $72,956 in 2000 to…
Even Pros Give Up on Market Fairness
TAPP Group, a financial industry research group, tried to measure the effects on professional investors of recent fiascos in the stock market. TAPP asked institutional investors about their confidence in the structure of these markets, particularly in…