The Worst Holidays Since the Great Depression
Retail sales this holiday season are expected to rise 3.8% to a record of $469.1 billion, according to the National Retail Federation. While the increase is less than last year, it is a significant…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
Best Buy Spoils Christmas For Customers, CEO Dunn Must Go
The list of reasons that Best Buy’s (NASDAQ: BBY) board should fire CEO Brian Dunn just got longer. A number of orders made by customers from bestbuy.com will not be delivered by Christmas. And,…
4G Service Falters as 3G Did Before It
Verizon Wireless’s 4G superfast wireless network has been down intermittently. That could drive off customers. And the network is at the heart of Verizon’s (NYSE: VZ) campaign to gain customers from AT&T Wireless and Sprint-Nextel…
People in U.S. Dissatisfied With Nation’s Direction
The reaction to recent economic data may be a false positive. Americans largely are dissatisfied with the way that things are going in the U.S. This is despite an apparent upturn in consumer spending and…
Toyota (TM) Expects a Record Year — Maybe
It is amazing how large multinational car companies can see into the future and predict their sales with certainty. Toyota (NYSE: TM) says it will sell 8.48 million cars and light trucks next year.…
What’s Important in the Financial World (12/22/2011) Nokia Europe Sales, Toyota Record Prediction
Toyota (NYSE: TM) forecasts that it will sell 8.48 million cars and light trucks worldwide next year — up 20% from 2011. The prediction is based on two factors. The first is that the Japanese…
Media Digest (12/22/2011) Reuters, WSJ, NYT, FT, Bloomberg
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets/hub.1324331373.html Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) is working on a deal with Alibaba to sell part of its stake in the Chinese company. (Reuters) Toyota (NYSE: TM) expects record sales next year of 8.48 million, up…
Markets In Asia And Europe Waver Ahead Of Holidays
A lack of clarity about eurozone and large drawdowns of ECB loans by area banks made markets uneasy. In Asia, the Nikkei 225 dropped .75% to 8,397. The Hang Seng was down .21% to 18,378.…
Boeing Thrashed In Global Airplane Market Battle.
Airbus should deliver 1,600 plans this year, according to Reuters. This would push Boeing’s (NYSE: BA) market share to near a recent low. Airbus’s A320 model has sold particularly well. Boeing has not been…
Toyota (TM) Expected Record Sales
Toyota (NYSE: TM) expects record sales of 8.48 cars and light vehicles next year, 20% higher than this. The company believes its drive higher will be helped by the ability to get its production from…
Yahoo! (YHOO) May Set Deal To Sell Asia Assets
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets/hub.1324331373.html Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) may set a deal to sell part of its Asia assets in a deal worth $18 billion. The transaction would involve a drop in its ownership of Alibaba from nearly…
Today’s Best Market Rumors (12/21/2011) RIM Takeover, China Hacks Chamber Of Commerce
Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) may have an interest in buying Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) (WSJ) Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) may have an interest in buying RIM (Reuters) China hackers were able…
Media Digest (12/21/2011) Reuters, WSJ, FT, Bloomberg
Prosecutors raid Olympus to gain data in a probe of the accounting scandal at the company. (Reuters) Bank of Japan says it will hold to current policies as the economy in the Asian nation…
Evidence of Huge Holiday Sales
Gallup data confirms what Comscore and National Retail Federation research have already hinted. Holiday sales in 2011 may rise to levels that were hardly dreamed of just months ago. This will encourage economists to…
Are Oracle’s Earnings a Fluke?
Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) earnings missed almost all Wall St. estimates and its shares fell 8%. The company has been among the most successful in the tech sector for years. Was the report a sign…
What’s New in the Financial World (12/21/2011) DT to Buy Sprint?
Italy’s GDP dropped o.2% from the second quarter to the third. This will undermine hopes that expansion coupled with austerity will quickly bring Italy’s deficit lower. That, in turn, should bring down the nation’s…
UK Budget Deficit Better Than Expected
Austerity combined with an improvement in tax revenue helped the UK show a better budget deficit than expected Bloomberg reports that Britain’s budget deficit narrowed more than economists forecast in November as tax revenue…
Italy’s Future Prospects Disintegrate as GDP Stumbles
The one hope that financially weak eurozone nations have to offset the effects of austerity on their economies is to show GDP growth. That not likely because austerity robs economies of stimulus money. New…
Honda Will Shift More Manufacturing From Japan
Honda (NYSE: HMC), which has been dogged by the value of the yen and loss of production due to the March earthquake will move more production to North America, one of its largest markets,…
The Federal Reserve May Cap US Bank Risk
The Federal Reserve will try to set rules on risks taken by US banks. The central bank announced The Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday proposed steps to strengthen regulation and supervision of large bank…