Which Central Banks Are Still Buying Up Gold?
ThinkstockWhen we look at the most recent findings from the World Gold Council (WGC), the most obvious take is that ETFs and India keep gold demand higher in the third quarter of 2012. But…
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Jon C. Ogg
YY Gaps Up After Low-End Pricing… Very Strange Day for an IPO
ThinkstockYY Inc. (Nasdaq: YY) picked an interesting day to come public, but maybe it is because the company is Chinese. The social platform provider priced its initial public offering of 7.8 million American depositary…
Consumer Sentiment and Leading Indicators Show Different Takes
ThinkstockThe University of Michigan consumer sentiment reading for the end of November, a revised number from earlier in the month, came out at 82.7, versus a prior reading of 84.9. That prior reading seemed…
November Flash PMI Hits Five-Month High
ThinkstockMarkit is out with its November Flash PMI reading, which came in at 52.4, up from 51.0 in October. Bloomberg had a consensus expectation of 51.0, and the range of estimates was 50.5 to…
Weekly Jobless Claims Again Impacted by Post-Hurricane Data
ThinkstockThe Labor Department released its weekly jobless claims a day earlier than normal due to the Thanksgiving holiday being on Thursday. Last week was a very large surprise gain, but it appeared to be…
Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (AMX, COH, EV, HTWR, HP, HPQ, LNCO, MPC, MDT, NYX, OSK, PMT, WY, YUM)
Jon OggThese are some of the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen in Wall St. research calls this Wednesday. With tomorrow being one of America’s top holidays, there will be no analyst calls…
Why Does Baidu Need $1.5 Billion in New Capital?
ThinkstockBaidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) may not seem like your traditional company that would need to raise debt. A filing with the SEC shows that it has priced its public offering of $1.5 billion in…
The Other 10 Worst Big Mergers of the Past 10 Years
Are big mergers really worth it? After this week’s merger implosion news by Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ), 24/7 Wall St. wanted to review and analyze many of the really bad mergers of recent years,…
Is “The Gun Trade” Coming to an End?
Gun stores are still very busy, but the great move for investors chasing the gains in shares of the public firearms makers appears to have mostly run its course. More gains are of course possible and…
Teavana Defends Itself and Merger Against Short Seller Report
It was just yesterday that we talked about huge put option buying seen in shares of Teavana Inc. (NYSE: TEA). As this was right on the heels of the Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) merger announcement,…
Former HP CEO Leo Apotheker Takes CYA Strategy
Leo Apotheker has made a statement today regarding this disaster of a situation at Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ). This sort of matters since Apotheker was the CEO who pushed for the acquisition of Autonomy.…
Bernanke Warns of Dire Fiscal Cliff Fallout & Unsustainable Deficits
Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is speaking at the New York Economic Club today in New York City. While Bernanke is promising to keep rates and policy easy for quite some time, Bernanke is…
Can New Green Mountain CEO Get the Company Acquired?
courtesy Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc.Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (NASDAQ: GMCR) is trading up handily on word that the company has named Brian Kelley to replace Lawrence Blanford as CEO. Kelley is 51…
Why the Moody’s Downgrade of France Doesn’t Matter
This graphic was drawn by SKopp., via Wikimedia CommonsThe big news might have read “MOODY’S DOWNGRADES FRANCE” had it not been for the Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) debacle this morning. The reality is that the downgrade…
Alon USA Partners Sees IPO Premium
ThinkstockAlon USA Energy Inc. (NYSE: ALJ) is enjoying a gain for its Alon USA Partners L.P. (NYSE: ALDW) initial public offering. The limited partnership was priced with 10,000,000 common units at $16 per unit.…
Lacker Speaks Against QE at Shadow Open Market Committee Symposium
ThinkstockRichmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker is speaking this morning at the Shadow Open Market Committee Symposium in New York ahead of Ben Bernanke’s speech. While we are operating under the belief that the new…
Morgan Stanley Sees Euro Recession in 2013
ThinkstockEurope is proving to be the mess that cannot be cleaned up at least as rapidly as investors (and Europeans) had hoped. A macro research call from Morgan Stanley is now looking for the…
Housing Starts at Four-Year High in October
ThinkstockToday brought another report from the housing sector and the news is good. Housing Starts rose by 3.6% to 894,000 in October, and September was revised slightly higher to 15.1% from 15.0%. Bloomberg was…
Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (AKS, AMAT, ADM, ARMH, BWP, CLF, COH, INTC, JOY, PBR, RLGY, RIMM, TDC, TSN, WFC, WFM)
Jon OggThese are some of the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen in Wall St. research calls this Tuesday. AK Steel Corp. (NYSE: AKS) raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs. Applied Materials Inc.…
HP Earnings and Guidance OK, Autonomy Acquisition Crushes Its Books
courtesy of Hewlett-PackardHewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) seems to be drafting its own obituary, based on the reaction to its earnings report. Actually, the real issue is its old acquisition of Autonomy. The PC and…