America’s Nine Newest Cities
Flickr - Marshall AstorNew cities, towns, and villages are created each year in the United States. They’re not necessarily new settlements, and are more often areas within a county that decide to incorporate. According…
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Douglas A. McIntyre
China PMI: A Landing, But Soft Or Hard?
The press had two reactions to the low China PMI figures. Each was based on the experts interviewed. One school of thought is that the numbers were low, but not terribly so. This school says China’s…
Samsung Is US Handset Leader, But Does It Make Money?
Samsung had more market share of the US handset market than any other manufacturer in the three months which ended in November. The figure was 25.6% according to Comscore, up .3% from the previous three…
Media Digest (12/30/2011) Reuters, WSJ, NYT, FT, Bloomberg
A letter regarding former Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) CEO Mark Hurd’s behavior which caused his dismissal was ordered to be released by a Delaware court (Reuters) The US sold Saudi Arabia 84 F-15 fighters for $29.4…
Sears Store Closings In High Unemployment Areas
Add to the problems of unemployment that it will be harder for the jobless to shop at Sears and KMart. A list of 79 locations that will be shuttered by Sears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD) was released yesterday. The total number will…
Oil Posts An All-Time Annual High
Brent crude prices will average over $110 a barrel in 2011. Reuters reports that will beat the 2008 record of approximately $100. It is difficult to say how to take the news. The causes of…
What’s Important In The Financial World (12/30/2011) Google+, AMR Delisted
China’s PMI, Slowing Economy The country’s PMI was below 50 again in December. A PMI above 50 is considered a mark of expansion. The China Purchasing Managers’ Index for this month was 48.7. In November, it was…
Careerbuilder Expects Better 2012 Jobs Environment
Huge online jobs site Careerbuilder expects a better jobs market next year. The forecast comes with the usual warnings. Any threat to the economy could turn sentiment negative at both large and small companies…
Verizon’s 4G Falls Apart
It is usually good to be first to market with a popular new technology. That is assuming, however, a company’s version of the new technology works. In the case of Verizon Wireless’s 4G superfast wireless…
Another Sign of Job Uptick in 2012, Less the Public Sector
Companies large and small are expected to increase hiring next year. Careerbuilder reports in its annual survey that, “Employers expect to add new jobs in the New Year, but are waiting to see how the economy…
Could Sears Be Broken Up?
What Eddie Lampert put together in 2005 could be broken into pieces again, and that might be the only realistic way to “fix” Sears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD). Lampert engineered a merger of Sears and…
Media Digest (12/29/2011) Reuters, WSJ, NYT, FT, Bloomberg
Alibaba hires a Washington lobbying firm in case it decides to bid for all of Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO). (Reuters) Italian yields may fall because of European Central Bank injections of long-term funds into the…
Italy Worries Drop Asia Stocks, Limit Europe Gains
Concerns that Italy bond yields are too high for the government to sustain sent Asia shares lower. The Nikkei 225 traded off to .31% to 8,398 . The Hang Seng was down .65% to 18,398.…
Italy 10-Year Bond Yields Stay Near 7%
Italy’s 10-year bond yields are just shy of 7%, a sign the market is worried about the long term budget cuts which are meant to slow the increase of Italy’s national debt. The news has also…
Verizon Wireless 4G Network Down?
There are more reports that the new Verizon super fast 4G wireless network is down in several large cities. If so, it would be the third outage in a month. Verizon went to market…
Alibaba Retain Lobby Group For Yahoo! Bid
Several media sources say that Alibaba has retained Duberstein Group to handle negotiations with the US government if it want to takeover Yahoo!. The government has blocked China company takeovers of American businesses before Yahoo! owns…
Analyst Sees Sharp Rise In December Car Sales (GM, F, TM, HMC)
Truecar, a research firm, expects December auto sales to be the best of any month this year. If so, it would be another confirmation that the American consumer has returned to the marketplace. Truecar…
Android Hits 3.7 Million Activations On Christmas Weekend
A Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) executive said that 3.7 million Android devices were activated on December 24 and 25, a sign the sales of smartphones which use the OS were brisk Andy Rubin tweeted UPDATE: There…
Analyst Expects Revolutionary Apple (AAPL) TV Product
Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) new television product could do more to change the industry since the dawn of color TV, if an analyst at Sterne Agee is correct. The research firm said that its analyst…
Italy Borrowing Costs Down By Half
The Bank of Italy paid about half the interest rate on six month notes that it did just last month-a sign that concerns about sovereign debt in the region have ebbed. The average yield…