Spain Expects New Recession
Luis de Guindos, the new Spain finance minister, expects a recession in the nation. GDP will fall .2% in the current quarter and .3% in Q1 of next year, according to his calculations. Spain’s…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
Toyota Launches New Hybrid
As part of the race for ultra-high mileage cars, Toyota (NYSE: TM) has launched its Aqua hybrid. The car will also be called the Prius c. Toyota will sell the car for about $22,000.…
GSM Phones May Be Hacked
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets/hub.1324331373.htmlGermany’s Security Research Labs says that GSM phones can be hacked and used for unauthorized calls. The warning is one in a string that show mobile devices have become the targets of the kind of…
Bank Of American May Sell More Assets–Reuters
Reuters reports that Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) is still short of capital requirements set by the US government and may sell more assets to comply The news is likely to pressure B of…
Wall St. Fooled by Newspaper Industry
Traders rarely make mistakes as bad as the one they made when they pushed newspaper stocks higher early in the year. Shares in companies such as the New York Times (NYSE: NYT), Gannett (NYSE: GCI)…
A Competitor for Credit Rating Agencies
China may start its own credit rating agency, according to the Financial Times. The success of this business would be nearly impossible. Troubled sovereigns already must deal with the analysts from S&P, Fitch and…
A Hard Year for Asia’s Markets
The Dow probably will end 2011 slightly up. Asia markets will not show such positive results, though. That suggests the economies in the region may be in for deep trouble next year. This is…
Retail Stocks Investors Abandoned May Be Crippled for Good
Investors walked away from several retail stocks late this year. Those companies probably will continue to falter in 2012 and 2013. Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), Gap (NYSE: GPS) and Sears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD) shares sold…
What’s Important in the Financial World (12/26/2011) Sony’s Failure, Yahoo! Drama
Sony (NYSE: SNE) continues to restructure itself, although the stock market has been skeptical of its success. The Japanese consumer products company sold its part of an LCD joint venture to partner Samsung. Sony netted…
Media Digest (12/26/2011) Reuters, WSJ, FT, Bloomberg
Sony (NYSE: SNE) will sell its LCD business to Samsung for $940 million. (Reuters) The yuan hits a high against the dollar and may gain 4% this year. (Reuters) Amazon.com’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) program to…
IMF May Revise Global Growth Forecast Lower
International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde told the media that the IMF’s planned 2012 global GDP growth forecast of 4% may be to high. The official number will be released next month. She believes that…
A Note of Pessimissim from the Car Industry
Car company stocks are down around the world, for the most part, while sales have been mostly up this year. No one has adequately explained the divergence. The head of Audi, Rupert Stadler, told Reuters…
New Home Sales Surge
Flickr, Images of MoneyIn another very modest indication that the housing market has bottomed, new home sales moved higher The Commerce Department: Sales of new single-family houses in November 2011 were at a seasonally…
Today’s Best Market Rumors (12/23/2011) Falcone Settlement, China Sovereign Fund
Updated throughout the day. Petronas is in talks with several global oil majors including Shell and Exxon Mobil to develop petrochemical plants within its $20 billion refinery complex in southern Malaysia (Reuters) China’s $410…
Americans Fret About Quality Jobs As Much As Job Quantity
Flickr - Marshall AstorAs the American jobs situation has slightly improved, people have become more concerned about the quality of the jobs that can get. That appears to mean people believe that jobs can be…
Facebook and Amazon Audience Gain as Portals Falter
Yahoo.comNew Comscore data shows the extent to which Facebook and Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) have become internet destinations while portals Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) and Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) MSN lose ground. The social network and e-commerce…
What’s Important in the Financial World (12/23/2011) Payroll Taxes, AMR Bankruptcy
Markets rallied into the Christmas weekend. Perhaps the major U.S .indices will be well up for the year. Little is likely to happen between now and the new year to dampen the mood. The…
Google Comes to Mozilla’s Aid, but That May End
Is Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) just a good citizen, or is there a reason it supports nonprofit operation Mozilla, which operates the Firefox browser? Google has a browser of its own — Chrome. And Chrome…
Media Digest (12/23/2011) Reuters, WSJ, NYT, Bloomberg
Congress makes a deal to keep payroll taxes low and unemployment benefits in place for two more months. (Reuters) The U.S. approves a Deutsche Boerse deal to merge with NYSE Euronext (NYSE: NYX). (Reuters) The International…
Housing Through Yet Another Set of Eyes
Flickr, Images of MoneyThe housing market is down — sales, prices, applications. And there is glut of research that shows how much and why. The Federal Housing Finance Agency said that in October prices fell 0.2%…