More Woes for Shippers (GMR, ONAVQ, TNK, OSG, NAT, FRO)
No matter what kind of cargo a shipping company moves, that company is likely to be in some financial distress. Rates for moving containers, dry bulk, and oil are all way down as the…
All Work
Douglas A. McIntyre
Europed Stocks Crater As UK PMI Plunges
Stock indices across Europe sold off sharply as the UK said its PMI dropped the most in a decade. Markit/CIPS reported August’s Markit/CIPS survey of UK service providers indicated a steep slowdown of activity…
Asia Markets Crushed Early
Asian market slide sharply as they opened, on the tail of a US sell-off, disturbing news about American banks, and new risks that Greece may default. The Hang Seng was off over 2% at…
Bank Of America Could Cut 30,000
If it is true, it would be another sign of desperation. The Charlotte Observer reports that Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) could lay-off 30,000 people over several years. The bank has come under new…
Starbucks CEO Politics Work Against Shareholder/Customer Interests
Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) CEO and founder Howard Schultz should be ashamed of himself. He has begun a movement to reform campaign finance without consideration for his shareholders, customers, or employees. The extremely wealthy chief…
Valero Grabs Another Refinery (VLO, MUR, CVX, HFC)
Crude oil refining doesn’t get much respect. The business is cyclical to the point of fickleness and it is often a drag on the profits of integrated oil & gas companies. Maybe that’s why…
Drop in Shipping Could Mean Weak Holiday Season for Retail (DRYS, GNK, EXM, SSW, DAC, TGT, M, WMT)
One indicator of a profitable holiday season for US retailers is the flow of goods into US ports. The shipping season for holiday goods generally starts in July and August and runs through October.…
The Twitter-24/7 Wall St. Market Report (9/2/2011) Economy Adds Zero Jobs
Zerohedge: Birth Death Adds 87K To Today’s NFP Miss, 491K Jobs In Past Year Due To “Statistics” NYT: U.S. Showed No Job Growth in August; Rate Stays at 9.1% Yahoo! Finance: Employers added no…
Today’s Best Market Rumors (9/2/2011) Bank Of American Trouble
Federal authorities want a plan from Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) to cover plans if its financial situation gets much worse (WSJ) Regulators have pressed high frequency traders to reveal their holdings (Reuters) The…
Special: Labor Day Laborers
On Labor Day, Americans honor the country’s workforce and the end of summer. However, while most of us enjoy a day off, millions must continue to work to keep the country’s utilities going, its…
Tablet PC Price Wars Explode as Carnage Looms
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) may be able to hold on to the market share the iPad has in the U.S. The battle for the second, third and fourth places has become more bloody in the…
U.S. Car Sales in August Mean Nothing
Many economists said U.S. car sales were strong in August and that the improvement was a sign of a better trend in consumer spending. That was hardly true. Sales rose 7.5% to 1,072,283. But…
Icahn’s Latest Blunder as Clorox Shares Falter
Carl Icahn’s investment in Clorox (NYSE: CLX) has begun to look like one more in a long line of blunders. The share price of the company reached $74.55 when he offered to buy Clorox…
Media Digest (9/2/2011) Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg
U.S. regulators may ask high-frequency trading firms to provide details of their trades. (Reuters) The Federal Reserve tells Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) it must review its foreclosure records. (Reuters) Experts cut expectations of unemployment…
Who Are America’s Top 10 Gas Drillers?
by Nicholas Kusnetz, ProPublica, Sep. 1, 2011, 4:12 p.m. Natural gas—often touted as an abundant, comparatively clean source of domestic energy—has come under intensifying public scrutiny in recent months, with federal regulators and reporters…
The Highest Paying Jobs With The Most Time Off
The vast majority of high-paying jobs require a significant initial commitment in the form of education, training and tuition, and then hard work while on the job. Most high-paying jobs require significantly more hours…
The Twitter-24/7 Wall St. Market Report (9/1/2011) Jobless Claims Fall
Yahoo! Finance: Goldman, two firms agree on foreclosure-signing practice: report MSNBC: Jobless claims drop in sign layoffs may ease WSJ: Breaking: U.S. jobless claims fell by 12,000 to 409,000 last week. http://wsj.com CNBC: Weekly…
Today’s Best Market Rumors (9/1/2011) Bank of NYMellon CEO Fired
Updated throughout the day. Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) has agree with New York State officials to end robo-signing practices (WSJ) Bank of NY Mellon (NYSE: BK) CEO Robert Kelly was forced out by his…
Unemployment and Obama — All Joblessness Is Local
President Obama is set to unveil his new jobs packages. They are meant to bring down unemployment from above 9%, where it has been since just after the start of the recession. His probable…
Sony’s New Tablet, Stringer’s Latest Failure
It has been said and written a hundred times: Sir Howard Stringer is the wrong person to be CEO of Sony (NYSE: SNE). It is possible that no CEO could save Sony from itself,…