Morning Market Roundup (12/7/2011)

In collaboration with Challenger Grey & Christmas 24/7 Wall St. has identified the biggest corporate layoffs in modern history.  Companies expand during boom times and layoff workers during times of economic uncertainty. The largest corporate layoffs all followed market collapse or recessions.  These are the biggest American layoffs of all time and why they happened.

As always, here are the top major media headline summaries from WSJ, FT, Bloomberg, and more. Today’s top analyst upgrades and downgrades were in shares of ALL, AMZN, BX, CTL, CB, DRI, FSL, GEOI, GOOG, JDSU, LNKD, BTU, PEG, DGX, TLB, TRV, UIS, UNH, URBN and WSH.  The most important financial developments that will affect the day ahead (Citigroup job cuts, China’s economy slows).

Don’t be surprised when European banks and financial institutions get another warning or an outright downgrade from S&P in the coming days after the “CreditWatch Negative” call on the E.U. AAA-rated nations.

Bank of America says its prospects have improved. Few are likely to believe that.

Chicos says it has a new brand that will turnaround sales. It won’t say how well that brand is doing.

Unemployment improvement has stalled.

Increases in home prices have occurred in several states which have no relationship to one another in demography or size. That makes the recovery of real estate hard to predict.

Have a great day!

JON C. OGG