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Posted
Sep 17 2009, 03:14 PM
by
Anthony Mirhaydari
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
With the major indices trading near new highs, there is evidence that the most recent phase of the advance was fueled by the lowest quality stocks. And it looks like the tide could be turning.
Some of this has been caused by a scramble into the riskiest holdings out on fear of missing out on the rally and a desire to maximize exposure to the broad market. Short covering has played a role too as many of the best performers are among the most heavily shorted names. While this doesn't preclude additional gains, it does call into question the longevity of the rally.
According to Matthew Rothman of Barclays Capital, the end may be upon us. In his words: "Quality continues to underperform sharply, turning in one of the longest losing streaks in the index's nearly sixty year history. Wednesday saw the streak end."
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Posted
Mar 11 2009, 01:12 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
 There's no recession in the salt business. Or so it seems, with six bidders going after Morton Salt.
Dow Chemical (DOW) is selling the company as part of its $16.5 billion buyout of Rohm & Haas (ROH), which currently owns Morton Salt, the Chicago Tribune reports. Dow expects to get $1.5 billion from the Morton sale. The salt industry has been on a tear, driven mostly by the need for road salt, the Tribune reports. Sales at Morton have risen nearly 50% in two years, and operating earnings nearly tripled in that period.
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Posted
Jan 27 2009, 12:11 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Dow Chemical's (DOW) dividend is as reliable as it gets. The company has paid it consecutively since 1912, and the dividend has never decreased. It's a tradition that Dow vowed not to break just last month. "Not on my watch," said CEO Andrew Liveris. But with layoffs and plant closures underway, could Dow really expect to keep up the payment? Last year, the company shelled out $1.5 billion in dividends.
Liveris has since changed his mind. Now, he says, a dividend cut is possibile. "The world has changed in the last 30 to 45 days," Liveris said Tuesday. "The world is telling me that my dividend is too high."
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Posted
Jan 07 2009, 08:18 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
It would be hard to miss the headline that Alcoa (AA) is firing 15,000 people. The actions of big companies are probably a much better indicator for what is ahead for the economy than forecasts from business professors.
The fascinating and troubling aspect of the Alcoa cuts is that the company made $470 million in the last reported quarter and Wall Street estimates have it making a very modest amount of money this year. Dow Chemical (DOW), which recently let thousands of people go, also is a money maker. One of the most successful corporations in the U.S., IBM (IBM) is rumored to be a week away from cutting more than 10,000 people. IBM may have as good a balance sheet and earnings stream as any American public company.
Challenger, Gray reports that big companies had 166,348 layoffs in December, up 275% from a year earlier. A look at their reports for the first 11 months of the year shows
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Posted
Dec 29 2008, 03:18 AM
by
Bernhard Warner and Matthew Yeomans
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner site The Big Money.
Kuwait has pulled out of a multibillion-dollar deal with Dow Chemical, a move that the Wall Street Journal calls "the latest sign of how roller-coaster energy prices are whipsawing the global economy." The planned joint venture had been announced a year ago and was set to close on Thursday. Under its terms, a state-owned petroleum company was to pay Dow Chemical $7.5 billion for a 50 percent stake in various chemical companies used to make plastics. It would have been the largest outside deal ever for the Kuwaiti government, which like many of its neighbors was trying to cash in on the oil-price spikes of the last several years.
But over the weekend, Kuwait got cold feet, citing the perilous global economy and the recent plummet in the price of oil. Bloomberg reports that the jilted Dow may be entitled to a couple of billion dollars in a breakup fee. Still, the question on investors' minds is whether Dow will now have enough capital to finance its planned takeover of Philadelphia-based Rohm & Haas. The company insists that it is going forward with the takeover, but in morning trading on the German market, Rohm & Haas shares fell as much as 6.3 percent, according to Bloomberg.
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Posted
Jul 10 2008, 06:18 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Dow Chemical recently raised prices on a number of its products by 20%. It said that the price of the core commodities it used in manufacturing was simply up too much. Wall Street wasn't willing to buy in to the theory that Dow could keep the volume of its sales up while passing significant price increases on to its customers. Consequently, Dow sits near its 52-week low, trading at $33.96, down from a period high of $47.96.
But Dow has decided to double down on inflation in a manner which seems almost reckless. It will take over Rohm and Haas, paying $78 per share in cash. Berkshire Hathaway will put up $3 billion toward the $18.8 billion purchase price, but that doesn't make the move any safer.
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Posted
Jun 30 2008, 04:50 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Investors chase high dividend stocks with stable earnings when they are concerned about where to put their money. Which dividends appear safest?
We looked for stocks with dividend yields north of 4.5% (above 10-year T-Note) as the cut-off and those who are expected to see earnings remain ample to maintain the numbers. We had to eliminate everything tied to financial stocks in this climate as many dividends there are trimmed. We also had to eliminate anything tied to high volatility and anything tied to auto's. We screened many others, but here are seven stocks with dividends that we think will either stay the same or grow in the coming year.
24/7 Wall St. created a list of defensive stocks for 2008, and this is an update:
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