Gas Prices Linger Near High
The average nationwide cost of a gallon of regular continues to sit around $3.76. It has not moved much in the last four days. Almost no one expects that to continue as crude prices stay…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
Treasury Further Exits AIG
The Treasury plans to sell $7 billion of AIG (NYSE: AIG) shares as it moves out of its investment in the insurance firm. The bailout of the company cost taxpayers over $150 billion. AIG and the Treasury plan another sale…
Final Greek Debt Swap Close At Hand
The Greek government finish its debt restructuring as it closes a transaction with private investors. The aid from its neighbors, the IMF, and indirectly, the ECB is nearly in place. Now that all other transactions are in…
Apple iPad Introduction With No Stock Move
The launch of Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPad had no effect on its shares. . Some analysts expected the stock would move higher. The iPad will almost certainly have incredibly impressive sales. It is different enough from its…
A Sign Of Consumer Confidence, Credit Rises In Jan–Fed
The Federal Reserve issued its monthly report on consumer credit for January The data show that total credit rose from $2.494 trillion in December to $2.512 trillion Non revolving credit, which includes automobile loans and…
AMR Offers Employess Relief To Freeze Pension
It has been widely assumed the AMR, parent of American Air, would try to terminate employee pension plans as part of its Chapter 11 process. The company has indicated it needs to cut costs by…
Home Prices Hammered Again In January
Case-Schiller data on the top 20 cities recently showed that home prices in these markets continue to plunge. The overall pattern nationwide was confirmed by data from January released by CoreLogic. The research firm’s new…
Chrysler And Jeep Reputations Take Another Pounding With Recall
Chryslers’s flagship brand and its Dodge, Jeep, and Ram divisions finished dead last in the new JD Power and Associates Reliability Survey. That news was barely out of the headlines when today, Chrysler recalled…
After Short Consideration, Wall St. Turns It Back On Yahoo!
Wall St. has had over two days to digest the news that Yahoo!’s (NASDAQ: YHOO) new CEO Scott Thompson will fire several thousand people. On the back of an envelope, this could save the company…
Price of Drugs for the Elderly Soars
The AARP put out a remarkably complex research paper that shows, among other things, that the costs that people over 50 paid for commonly used drugs rose 25.6% between 2005 and 2009. The data…
A Better Situation for the Impoverished?
CIA World FactbookThe World Bank issued its new data on global poverty. The most prominent part of the report, the one picked up by most of the press, was: More recent post-2008 analysis reveals…
Bloomberg’s Meaningless Billionaire Index
Bloomberg has launched an index that follows the net worth of the world’s 20 most wealthy billionaires. Each net worth figure is updated every business day at 5:30 PM EST. But its numbers could only…
What’s Important in the Financial World (3/7/2012) Nintendo Sales, China Trade
Oil traders are skittish. A little bit of news about crude supply or demand can trigger a frenzy of trades. That happened again as China said it will increase energy imports this year. It…
Media Digest (3/7/2012) Reuters, WSJ, NYT, FT
Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) talks with cable companies about adding its services to their channels. (Reuters) The Institute of International Finance pressures Greek bondholders to make trades for new sovereign paper. (Reuters) Walmart (NYSE: WMT) presses…
Lehman, Out Of Chapter 11, Will Be Shuttered
Lehman Bros., the demise of which is often blamed for the start of the credit crisis, will finally come out of Chapter 11, over three years after it went in. The process of disentangling…
Drug Firms May Be Tied To Counterfeit Avastin–WSJ
There have been a number of reports that doses of fake Avastin, a key cancer drug, have been discovered in the US. The Wall Street Journal has published the results of an investigation about…
Netflix To Set Deal With Cable Companies?–Reuters
Cable companies and Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) have been natural enemies for years. First, its DVD by mail service undercut cable firm VOD to the home. Then, Netflix streaming video over broadband internet posed another…
Nintendo Sales Improve, But Xbox 360 Threatens
Microsoft scored a hit in video game sales during 2011. According to MarketWatch, The Xbox 360 from Microsoft was the best-selling home videogame console last year in the U.S. market, moving a total of…
Greek Debt Deal Still Not Finished
The Greek debt trouble is still not settled. Some private bond holders may not agree to swap their current sovereign holdings for paper worth about 70% less. The absence of a deal could by…
China Demand Anticipation Raises Oil Price
The actions of crude traders can be unpredictable and volatile. Information and news about oil supply or demand can set off a torrent of trades. This happened once more as China said it will…