Browse by Tags
-
Posted
May 12 2008, 07:12 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Based on the figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. unemployment was 5% in April. Those figures showed that 146.3 million Americans were employed in the civilian work-force and 7.6 million Americans were unemployed.
It should not come as a surprise to economists that the weakest parts of the economy last month were construction, manufacturing, and retail. The segments with some growth were healthcare and professional services. (For a complete list of jobs by sector visit 24/7 Wall St.)
The economy may be in a recession now. Some experts believe that growth will only slow modestly over 2008. Warren Buffett and George Soros have said that they think the downturn will be long and deep.
Read More...
-
Posted
Apr 21 2008, 01:25 AM
by
Jon Markman
Rating:
Last week’s stunning 5% advance in the stock market is likely to have one consequence that credit-starved sensitive businesses won’t like: It has eroded the likelihood of further cuts in interest rates by the Federal Reserve when its Open Market Committee meets next week.
Despite a rise in joblessness, decline in housing activity and spate of bankruptcies, the futures markets and even dovish Fed governors are now expecting the central bank to stand pat for the first time in six months.
This is something of a shocker when you consider that the odds of a cut of a half percentage point were extremely high just two weeks ago. Now traders who bet on the likelihood of cuts don’t even consider it likely that the Fed will cut by a quarter of a percentage point. If the economy really is on solid ground now, just because stocks are up, it sure will be a surprise to businesses who are seeing more dramatic sales and profit declines than they can recall in years. We’ll learn more on Tuesday and Thursday mornings when existing and new-home sales data is released, and on Thursday afternoon when continuing jobless claims for April are released, but already the news from corporate America is grim.
Read More...
-
Posted
Apr 17 2008, 03:28 PM
by
Charley Blaine
Rating:
Google shareholders had to be thrilled by the stock market's reaction to the company's first-quarter earnings report on Thursday afternoon.
And nobody could have been happier than Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Each saw the value of his stake jump about $2.2 billion in less than an hour as the stock jumped 17% to $526.50.
The stock took off after the company beat Wall Street estimates on revenue, net income and earnings per share for the first quarter and crushed just about all concerns that Google's business might be peaking.
Read More...
-
Posted
Apr 03 2008, 05:53 PM
by
Jon Markman
Rating:
Bummed that you missed the skyrocketing advance of credit card vendor Visa when it debuted as a stock last month? The 50% move higher in the shares in the first few days paid for a whole lot of shopping sprees among shareholders, you can be sure -- and they could pay with cash, not plastic.
Well fret no more, because this crazy market is giving you another shot right now with the shares of the company behind a different credit card issuer: American Express. And the author of a brilliant new book about buying super-discounted stocks says this is one idea you should definitely not leave home without.
Vitaliy Katsenelson, a Denver portfolio manager whose cagey Active Value Investing was published last year, says Amex is one of the “cleanest” financial stocks you can buy right now, not to mention one of the cheapest. Its value is down, he says, because it is mistakenly lumped in both with banks and with companies that will suffer in a recession. He says that, to the contrary, Amex is in the virtually the same business as Visa and Mastercard, whose own shares are up a stunning 406% since they debuted in mid-2006: They just take fees from merchants and earn interest on cardholders’ balances.
Read More...
-
Posted
Mar 16 2008, 07:37 PM
by
Charley Blaine
Rating:
The proposed sale of Bear Stearns on Sunday to JPMorgan Chase for $2 a share, or $236 million, will keep litigation lawyers busy for years as enraged shareholders seek to recover anything from the disaster.
The losses from Bear Stearns' demise are shocking, so shocking that Asian and Australian stocks tumbled on the news. The dollar was fallling. Crude oil jumped over $111 a barrel, and European shares were expected to open lower as was the U.S. stock market.
From a peak price of $171.52 in January 2007, Bear Stearns managed to lose 98.8% of its peak market value of $20.2 billion in less than 15 months, all because the company bet everything that the housing market and the markets for securities backed by subprime mortgages wouldn't break. It did
Read More...
-
Posted
Jan 22 2008, 11:54 AM
by
Robert Walberg
Rating:
This may seem crazy, especially with the global financial markets in the midst of the worst turmoil we've seen in nearly a decade, but the Fed's decision to slash the funds rate by another 75 basis points sent the first strong buy signal in the depressed housing sector in over a year.
One stock that stands out among the battered and beaten up homebuilders is Toll Brothers. The stock rallied nearly 5% on Tuesday on volume of 6.4 million shares -- nearly four times the daily average volume.
Truth be told, the Fed's decision to cut short-term interest rates isn't going to have a big or immediate impact on mortgage rates. Mortgage rates are tied to the long-end of the yield curve, and long-term rates are apt to remain stubbornly high due to the current anxiety in the financial markets. Nevertheless, the Fed's action is important for two reasons. First, it told the market that the Fed will do whatever it takes -- read more rate cuts -- to reduce the economic impact of the housing downturn. Second, and this is tied to the first, the rate cut changes market psychology. Instead of fearing a prolonged downturn, investors will start to look to the time when conditions improve and housing starts to firm.
Investors shouldn't underestimate the impact of the change in psychology, especially when a) builder sentiment is very near all-time lows and b) short-sellers have been betting aggressively against the sector -- and the stock. Nearly 16% of Toll's float is currently being sold short. If bears sense a change in the market's mood regarding the industry they will be forced to cover those short positions, creating a nice wave of buying. With virtually no sellers left -- face it who's still long the sector -- the path of least resistance is to the upside. As for builder sentiment, it too has only one way to go from here -- and that's up.
Read More...
|
