While Greece negotiates terms for private holders of its debt to exchange current paper for bonds with face values of about 70% lower, eurozone finance ministers may dictate what those bonds can pay in…
Europe’s banks will not loan money to one another. That is a likely sign that they are too worried to make loans to businesses outside their industry. This has caused a gridlock in available…
The Bank of Spain announced depressing news. It says that the nation’s GDP will drop 1.5% this year, and rise a fraction next. The country already suffers from a 20% or better unemployment rates.…
If low gas prices are a key to the recovery, the recovery has problems. The Lundberg Survey showed that gas prices rose 3.48 cents last week to $3.3944 a gallon. As oil prices remain…
After a series of management mistakes that cost Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) its lead in the global smartphone business, and over 80% of its market value, the firm’s long-time co-CEOs were pushed out in favor…
While private holders of Greek debt may agree to take new bonds with a face value 50% below those currently in force, there is still no agreement on the yield on the new paper.…
According to MarketWatch Grain, cotton and sugar imports surged last month on a wave of opportunistic purchases and year-end contract fulfilments, with corn shipments rising nearly 400 times on year to the highest…
S&P affirmed its AAA rating of the EU, a week after it cut the ratings of several of the alliance’s nations. According to Bloomberg in our opinion, the supranational entity known as the EU…
Shares of Sears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD) rose 13% on Friday to $49. There may have been several causes. The first is that all or part of troubled retailer will be sold. The next is…
Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), it share price cleaved to about a third of its peak because of an increase of what it charges customer, hundreds of thousands of cancellations from subscribers because of the move,…
China’s imports from Iran, a country locked in many disputes with the West and a series of sanctions rose 30% to 27.76 metric tons, according to China’s General Administration of Customs. Total imports rose…
The hopes of a deal between Greece and private creditor which own some of its sovereign paper faded again today. According to several accounts, representatives of the creditors left the country in the last…
Bloomberg reports that US Airways (NYSE: LCC) may make a merger bid for bankrupt AMR, parent of American Airlines. The action would make sense for several reasons. The first of these is that AMR and…
The National Association of Realtors announced that existing home sales rose 5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.61 million. This was only slightly better than the 4.45 million in 2010. In other words,…
It was no accident that Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) earnings were good and Google’s bad (NASDAQ: GOOG). The assumption that search is one of the best businesses in the world has proved inaccurate. The notion…
Volkswagen came close to having bragging rights. Its global sales made it the second largest car and light truck manufacturer worldwide. That placed it ahead of Toyota (NYSE: TM) and behind General Motors (NYSE:…
The closely watched HSBC (NYSE: HBC) PMI estimate for China read 48.8 for January, barely better than the 48.7 in December. Any number below 50 represents contraction. The factory activity of the People’s Republic…
Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) shares stumbled after it released fourth-quarter earnings. Revenue rose 25%, but net income barely rose to $2.7 billion. The markets were puzzled about why Google now has 32,467 full-time workers, a peak.…
Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) misses earnings expectations, which pushes shares down as much as 10%. (Reuters) IKEA posts a profit and grows in most regions of the world. (Reuters) Greece and private creditors move closer…
flickr/Harald GrovenGE (NYSE: GE) proved once again that it cannot fire on all of its cylinders as the performance of its aviation and healthcare businesses faltered. GE missed analyst estimates which were $.38 for the fourth…