ThinkstockWhat are the biggest fears of the consumer with airlines? Outside of safety and crash issues, those fears are likely to be the price of tickets to fly and the cost of services. If you…
ThinkstockYou have heard about underfunded pension plans and pension news during bankruptcies for years now. It turns out that pension plans in corporate America are likely to keep shrinking. After 2012 was called a…
Jon OggThese are some of this Wednesday’s top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen from Wall St. research calls. Avon Products Inc. (NYSE: AVP) raised to Neutral at UBS. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A.…
ThinkstockAs Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pressed the nation’s largest companies to raise the minimum wage, one reaction summed up the resistance likely to face a similar proposal by President Obama. Tadashi Okamura, chairman of…
ThinkstockAs Fat Tuesday quickly turns into Ash Wednesday, Lent will take place from Wednesday, February 13 to Saturday, March 30 in 2013. It may not seem like much on the surface, but this puts…
courtesy Dell Inc.Michael Dell and some of his associates own 16% of Dell Inc.’s (NASDAQ: DELL) shares. This block has set a planned leveraged buyout (LBO). Southeastern Asset Management and T. Rowe Price, which together own…
ThinkstockMobile Phone Sales The growth of mobile phone sales, so hot for so long, has cooled. Research firm Gartner reports that sales of these devices fell 1.7% to 1.75 billion in 2012. Maybe the…
courtesy of AOL, IncComcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) will buy the portion of NBCUniversal that it does not already own from General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) for $16.7 billion. (Reuters) The S&P 500 almost reaches a…
courtesy Tiffany & Co.Valentine’s Day spending is expected to reach $18.6 billion this year. On average, Americans are expected to spend $130.97 this holiday, up only slightly from $126.03 last year, according to the National…
U.S. equity markets opened about flat this morning on another day devoid of significant data releases. In Asia, markets in China and Hong Kong remain closed for the holiday, but Japan’s Nikkei closed higher.…
ThinkstockOnce again investors are faced with the fact that the politicians in Washington D.C. cannot get anything done. With the president’s State of the Union address tonight, the focus turns again to the politics…
Short sellers have had their challenges due to rising share prices since the start of 2013. They have gone on to make some serious changes in the high dividend stocks now that the dividend…
ThinkstockThe Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) has given its approval to the $15.1 billion acquisition of Nexen Inc. (NYSE: NXY) by China’s Cnooc Ltd. (NYSE: CEO). The Canadian government approved the…
Frank Golhen, via Wikimedia CommonsBank of America/Merrill Lynch has its monthly RIC Report out, and the aim is a map ahead, now that shares have surged and the interest in risk assets has surged…
ThinkstockS&P 500 dividend growth continues to outpace earnings growth, a trend that likely will continue for a few more years. Low yields on fixed income alternatives and historically low dividend payout ratios provide both…