Search results for investing
-
Posted
Sep 13 2007, 11:31 AM
by
allant
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Our new topStocks blog is your guide to what's happening in the stock markets each day. Take a look at some of the first posts:
Kim Peterson examines Research in Motion's blockbuster earnings report.
Matt Koppenheffer wonders whether the doom and gloom about Garmin is overdone.
Robert Walberg asks if management at Starbucks has lost its way.
Check back often for analysis from journalists, money managers and investors -- some of the best content from around the MSN Money site and the rest of the Web.
 Read More...
-
Posted
Oct 08 2007, 11:38 AM
by
Matt Koppenheffer
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
In the ongoing fessing-up process on Wall Street, Bank of America and JPMorgan are expected to join the parade of firms disclosing write-downs on mortgage and leveraged loans. At an estimated $2 billion-plus for JPMorgan and $1 billion for Bank of America, the losses are certainly not insignificant. However, for a $230 billion company like Bank of America the losses are relatively small, particularly when we look at some of the other firms that have been reporting.
I am still stuck on the losses reported at Merrill Lynch. Well in excess of $5 billion, these losses are quite significant for a $64 billion company. As I mentioned previously, the market seemed to digest these huge losses in part because it had been preparing itself for them for a while now.
Could losses like these really come out of the blue for Merrill? Well, the market didn't seem to doubt they were on the way -- Merrill's stock price dropped 19% between the firm's second quarter earnings release and early August despite the fact that Merrill beat analysts' second quarter earnings estimates. So how was Merrill itself out of the loop here?
Read More...
-
Posted
Oct 12 2007, 11:22 AM
by
Matt Koppenheffer
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Many investors were likely grinding their teeth yesterday, as the markets shed early gains to drop firmly into the red. Like Danny Bonaduce tossing Jonny Fairplay over his head, the indices took a turn for the ugly and didn't look back.
But not everyone was wincing. In the CAPS community today, CAPS player EPS100Momentum writes "thank god for yesterday's correction," adding that the drop presented good opportunities to pick up stocks that had gotten a little too hot.
He specifically points out China Finance Online, which fell 11% yesterday. China Finance may be a questionable example, though, since the stock carries a lousy one-star rating on CAPS. Many of CAPS' top players have been solidly negative on the stock -- including chk999, who thinks that it's part of a bubble in its native country
Read More...
-
Posted
Oct 23 2007, 12:15 PM
by
Matt Koppenheffer
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Though the baseball/investing analogy has gotten a lot of mileage, it's always been one of my favorites. And in the spirit of the World Series, I thought I'd take a look at my favorite piece of that analogy: swing hard at fat pitches.
In baseball, if you swing at anything that comes in your direction you have a pretty good chance of striking out a heck of a lot. Even if you do happen to make contact here and there, your chances aren't all that good of getting the sweet spot of the bat on the ball.
In investing it’s a similar deal -- if you buy stocks indiscriminately, there's a good chance you'll be unhappy with the results. However, if you hold out for stocks that are great businesses selling at great prices, you will likely goose the ol' investing slugging percentage.
Read More...
-
Posted
Oct 26 2007, 02:26 AM
by
Jon Markman
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
One of the more fascinating stories to come out of the Southern California inferno is the fact that some wealthy homeowners actually have contracted with private fire fighters to protect their homes. These independent fire militias are a unit of the big insurer American International Group (AIG). According to a Bloomberg story, AIG expanded its Wildfire Protection Unit to 150 zip codes in California this year, up from 14 in 2005.
Apparently the AIG firefighters run around in six trucks outfitted to spray Phos-Chek, which is a fire retardant used by the U.S. Forest Service. The stuff is sprayed before fire season as a precaution, and then the trucks appear when a fire comes within three miles of your home and spray all nearby combustible material. Bloomberg said the service is only available to customers of AIG Private Client Group who spend at least $19,000 a year for it.
Read More...
-
Posted
Oct 31 2007, 10:17 AM
by
Jon Markman
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Any doubts about the idea that Apple could produce another blow-out quarter this winter were put to rest this weekend when the company released its latest operating system, called Leopard. The company reports that it sold a staggering 2 million copies through its retail stores, resellers and online from Friday through Monday.
Just to give you some perspective on that number: When Apple released its Jaguar operating system in 2002, it sold 100,000 in the first weekend. Two years ago, when it released the Tiger operating system, it took seven weeks to sell 2 million copies. So 2 million in three days has to blow you away. Regardless of the credit crunch, foreclosure crisis and rumors of consumer spending slowdown, Apple stores were packed this weekend.
Read More...
-
Posted
Oct 31 2007, 02:23 PM
by
allant
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Here's MSN Money Columnist Jim Jubak's take on the Fed's move:
If you were looking for the Federal Reserve to set a clear direction for Wall Street and the economy, think again.
Wall Street got the Fed rate cut it wanted and then couldn't decide if it was really happy about it. The stock market got exactly the quarter percentage point cut in short-term interest rates from the Federal Reserve that it had been hoping for. The argument on Wall Street was that the Fed had to cut because the U.S. economy was slowing and needed a rate cut to prevent it from slipping into recession. The Fed bought into that logic by stressing that the housing market correction was still intensifying and that financial markets were still in disarray. Another cut would help insure that the damage wouldn't take down the entire economy.
Read More...
-
Posted
Oct 31 2007, 04:43 PM
by
Jon Markman
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Stocks ramped higher in the wake of the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate cut on Wednesday with the sort of vigor most often seen when short-sellers are caught flat-footed. Sellers tried to get the upper hand a few minutes after the Fed decision was announced, and managed to knock the Dow Jones Industrials down for about 15 minutes. But soon after they were completely overrun by bulls -- and the rout was on.
Now it’s always interesting to me to see which stocks don’t go up on a day like Wednesday when breadth runs more than 5:1 in favor of buyers. Stocks that don’t feel the love on a day when the sun is shining usually do even worse -- or actually, to be honest, much worse -- when the clouds return.
Read More...
-
Posted
Nov 02 2007, 02:06 AM
by
Jon Markman
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Even though this site is published by Microsoft, there's no reason we can't mention its stellar earnings report last week. I've been urging subscribers to my Strategic Advantage newsletter service to buy the stock since June in anticipation of a strong third and fourth quarter, and we have not been disappointed as fundamentals have improved dramatically and shares are up 25%.
The key point: Mainstream investors of all stripes simply underestimated the impact of the new Xbox game Halo 3, rising PC sales in developing nations and the slow but steady purchase of the new Windows Vista operating system. Results were actually staggering, especially for an iconic firm which until recently seemed asleep at the wheel. Revenue soared 27% to nearly $14 billion, beating the consensus estimate by more than $1 billion. Earnings roared 23% higher, to $4.3 billion or 45 cents per share. For a company of this size, putting up growth in the 20%-plus range is no easy feat.
Read More...
-
Posted
Nov 06 2007, 04:53 AM
by
Jon Markman
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
When you think about the surprising success of the Nasdaq 100 index this year, the first things that naturally come to mind are tech powerhouses like Google, Apple and Microsoft. But you’ve got a leave a little room for the love of biotech too, and my favorite name there is Gilead Sciences.
The immunology specialist has really proven immune to selling for most of its life in the public arena, as it is one of the most successful stocks of any type of the past 10 years, with 2,075% capital appreciation stemming from steadfast invention and marketing of biotech therapies.
Pushing shares to a new high in the past week, though, were positive vibes at the 58th Annual Meeting of the American Society for the Study of Liver Disease currently taking place in Boston. Just in case you couldn’t attend, or haven’t checked out the abstracts, let me be the first to inform you that folks got pretty excited about a previously little-known compound being tested by Gilead with the exotic name GS-9190. It's a polymerase inhibitor therapy for hepatitis C that suddenly shows a lot of promise.
Read More...
More Posts Next page »
|
