Barclays Earnings Pop
Barclays PLC’s (NYSE: BCS) strong earnings briefly masked the great obstacles the bank faces because of the Libor scandal and management and board resignations. The bank made $6.4 billion last quarter. The management said…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
Germany Turns Against ECB Bond Plan
Germany has formally rejected the plans of the European Central Bank (ECB) president, Mario Draghi, to buy sovereign paper, which could range into the tens of billions of dollars, to bring down borrowing costs…
Facebook–The Day After
Now that Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) has issued its quarterly report and its stock has fallen another 10%, investors wonder how low the shares can go. Revenue last quarter rose to $1.184 billion from $895…
Nine States Where Lenders Take Your Paycheck
Payday loans — small, short-term loans secured against a customer’s next paycheck — are highly controversial. A new study from Pew Charitable Trusts explains that opponents believe the practice “preys” on people who, because…
Samsung Rules as Global Smartphones Slow
Recently, two trends have marked the global smartphone industry. Sales increases have slowed, and Samsung Electronics Co. has moved into an incredibly dominant place. The South Korean company has become the firm to chase, and…
Americans Turn Away from Internet TV for Olympics
Consumers may live in a world where streaming video from large libraries of content has become available over the Internet. The trend has boosted the success of companies such as recently crippled Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ:…
What’s Important in the Financial World (7/27/2012)
Now that Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) has issued its quarterly report and its stock has fallen another 10%, investors wonder how low the shares can go. Revenue last quarter rose to $1.184 billion from $895…
Media Digest (7/27/2012) Reuters, WSJ, NY Times, FT
Facebook Inc.’s (NASDAQ: FB) stock is hammered by earnings letdown. (Reuters) Samsung Electronic Co.’s earnings reach $5.9 billion mostly on smartphone sales. (Reuters) Barclays PLC’s (NYSE: BCS) profits rise sharply. (Reuters) The United States…
Spain’s Unemployment Rockets Higher in Q2
Spain’s unemployment rate continues to rise without a break. The Instituto Nacional de Estadística (National Statistics Institute) reported that in the second quarter unemployment rose to just over 24.6%, up from 24.4% in the first quarter.…
Amazon Shares Crippled By Earnings
Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) shares dropped over 7% after the world’s largest e-commerce company posted poor earnings. Amazon’s earnings dropped 83% to $.01 from $.41 in the same quarter a year ago. Revenue rose to…
Sprint Loses $1.4 Billion
Sprint-Nextel (NYSE: S) lost $1.4 billion in the second quarter, as it continued to remain viable in competition with AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon Wireless. The company reported a net loss of $1.4 billion and…
China Investment In US–$8 Billion
Research firm Rhodium Group told CNNMoney that China’s direct investment in the United States may reach a record in 2012. This is despite trade and currency tensions between the world’s two largest economies, and…
Volkswagen Sales Bump Up
The Volkswagen Group posted first half earnings. Despite trouble with European sales, the figures were impressive and show that VW may top General Motors (NYSE: GM) and Toyota (NYSE: TM) in global unit sales…
Greece Exit from Euro at 90%
A senior economist at Citigroup, Willem Buiter, wrote a report in which he argues that there is a 90% chance that Greece will leave the eurozone over the next year to year-and-a-half. Among his…
What’s Important in the Financial World (7/26/2012)
A senior economist at Citigroup, Willem Buiter, wrote a report in which he argues that there is a 90% chance that Greece will leave the eurozone over the next year to year-and-a-half. Among his…
Foreclosure Activity Gets Ugly in First Half
A day after the Commerce Department said sales of new homes fell 8.4% last month from May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 350,000, real estate research firm RealtyTrac reported that first half foreclosures…
Reminder: Shareholders Do Not Own Zynga — or Facebook
ZyngaAmong the risk factors in the Zynga (NASDAQ: ZNGA) 10-K is this: The three class structure of our common stock has the effect of concentrating voting control with those stockholders who held our stock prior…
Morningstar Stumbles
Morningstar (NASDAQ: MORN) founder and CEO Joe Mansueto did more than any other person to change the equity and mutual fund research business when he founded the company in 1984 and shepherded it through a rapid period of growth.…
Media Digest (7/26/2012) Reuters, WSJ, NYT, FT, Bloomberg
The USDA reports that drought has made a large increase in food prices likely. (Reuters) The government of Changsha in China launches a $130 billion stimulus program. (Reuters) Hackers have effectively attacked Google (NASDAQ:…
What’s Important in the Financial World (7/25/2012)
The recession in the United Kingdom deepened in the second quarter. The Office of National Statistics reported: The chained volume measure of GDP decreased by 0.7 per cent in Q2 2012 compared with Q1 2012.…