Deutsche Bank Moves To A Loss
In another sign of the fallout from EU financial problems, Germany’s flagship bank lost money in the fourth quarter. The bank lost $463 million in the final quarter of last year. It blamed a severe…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
Media Digest (2/2/2012) Reuters, WSJ, NYT, FT, Bloomberg
Glencore and Xstrata are in merger talks. (Reuters) A federal mortgage deal with banks over mortgage fraud would give states enforcement power. (Reuters) Sony (NYSE: SNE) expects a $2.9 billion loss. (Reuters) Long-term investors continue…
Eight Brands That Wasted the Most on the Super Bowl
A 30-second ad spot in this year’s Super Bowl costs an average of $3.5 million. That’s an 84% increase from 10 years ago and the highest amount advertisers have ever had to pay. While…
Facebook Lists Its Greatest Risk Factors
The most educational part of an IPO filings (S-1) is the company’s list of its own risk factors. Lawyers spend days putting these together, to protect the company from the liabilities of inadequate disclosure. Management wishes…
Gallup Confirms Employment Surge–Best Since September 2008
New data from Gallup shows that the unemployment picture is the best it has been since September 2008. This would confirm new ADP data, and may even indicate that the deceleration in job growth economists…
Bill Gross–Credit Cycle Reaches “Death Of Abundance”
Bill Gross of PIMCO, the huge bond fund, says that the deleveraging of world credit markets and the need for major goverments to sharply cut costs due to mammoth deficits will end in the “death…
President Announces Home Refinance Program In Congressional Headwinds
The President released his new home modification program with the hope it will do better than the last one called HAMP. HAMP was to modify three million mortgages to make them more affordable. The…
Ford Posts Modest January Sales–UP 7.4%
Ford’s (NYSE: F) sales continued to be mediocre compared to most of the other large car companies which market in the US. January sales were only higher by 7.4%. Ford is the only one…
Chrysler, Back From The Dead, Makes $183 Million
Chrysler, left for dead as its entered Chapter 11 in 2008, made $183 million last year as it sold 2 million vehicles. The news is a victory for the head of Fiat Sergio Marchionne. Chrysler…
New Sony CEO, No New Future
Sony’s (NYSE: SNE) revenue fell 9% in the September quarter and the company posted a loss, one of a long series. The Japanese firm also said that its P&L problems would not improve soon.…
Americans Look to Corporate Tax Breaks to Increase Jobs
The White House and some in Congress favor tax breaks for companies that bring back jobs from overseas. It appears that most Americans do as well, which sets up a tension between job creation…
China’s PMI as a False Marker of Progress
Some economists believe that China’s government-issued data are flawed. Reuters recently published an article titled “China’s Economic Data (Still) Not Credible.” In it, the author reported: There is a cottage industry that gains directly…
Another Losing Runner in the Online Content Race
Many of the companies that have entered the online content business have stumbled. Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) has a service. So does Walmart (NYSE: WMT). There are already several leaders, including crippled Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) and…
What’s Important in the Financial World (2/1/2012) China’s PMI, Facebook IPO
The proposed merger between NYSE Euronext (NYSE: NYX) and Deutsche Boerse has ended. The EC rejected the plan as anticompetitive. The announcement leaves the two operations each on its own in a world in which exchange…
Media Digest (2/1/2012) Reuters, WSJ, NYT, FT, Bloomberg
Facebook will launch an IPO to raise $5 billion. (Reuters) Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) says costs may drive it to a loss this quarter. (Reuters) Sony (NASDAQ: SNE) appoints Kazuo Hirai as CEO. (Reuters) China’s…
Walt Disney Moves Into India With Content Company Purchase
America’s largest content companies are anxious to spread beyond their home markets to the largest ones by population–India and China. These firms can either export the content they create in the US, or buy…
Prosecutors May File Bond Fraud Charges Against Credit Suisse Workers
It has been a long time since mortgage backed securities lost most of their value which helped trigger the financial crisis. Some of the value of those bonds was inflated as they were sold from the…
Facebook May Face Patent Challenges Ahead Of IPO
Why should Facebook be free from the patent wars that have rocked the tech world in recent months. Apple has sued multiple rivals, particularly Samsung. Kodak and Microsoft has made patent claims against smartphone…
China Home Prices Drop For Fifth Month
According to a survey of residential home prices in the top 100 markets in China, prices dropped again in January. The market has been super-hot for over a year, and there have been worries that…
Greek Bond Holders May Face 70% Lose
After weeks of back and forth between Greece and private investors represented by the IIF, a deal for the private investors to participate in a restructuring of the nations paper may be near. And, the results for…