: iStockAnalyst.com Symbols Feed

Quality Large-Cap Retail Is Best Portfolio Stocking Stuffer

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 20:30:24 GMT

Christmas is coming, and that means two sets of flurries are on the horizon – snow and retail news. Now that the aftershocks of the 2008 financial collapse have had time to set in, this year will be a test to see how resilient consumers are in spending for the holidays. Retailers, for their part, have been preparing by slimming down; most are carrying record low levels of inventories to avoid the need for post-rush markdowns.[More...]

Measuring The Fiscal Costs Of Not Fixing The Financial System

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 14:26:39 GMT

This post is a slightly edited version of remarks prepared for delivery at Unwinding Public Interventions in the Financial Sector: Preconditions and Practical Considerations, IMF High-Level Conference, Thursday, December 3, 2009, Washington D.C. I participated in Session 2: Managing Fiscal Risks—Public Finance Aspects of Unwinding.[More...]

Two Trade Setups: One Long, One Short

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:04:51 GMT

Here's an article that I wrote for the Slope of Hope today as a guest blogger. Great website if you haven't yet checked it out! Today I want to provide y'all with a couple of trade setups that I thought depending on your trading strategy and market bias, could fit nicely into your portfolio. The first is a short setup in Goldman Sachs (GS). For many of us, the opportunity to short GS goes well beyond a normal trade - there a sense of satisfaction seeing such a corrupt company depreciate in price, no doubt.[More...]

The Deep, Inner Meaning Of Bank of America's (BAC) TARP Repayment

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:19:07 GMT

As expected, Bank of America (BAC) will repurchase its $45 billion TARP preferreds, funded in part by an additional $18.8 billion in "common stock equivalents", $4.0 billion in asset sales, and $1.7 billion in restricted stock issued to employees in lieu of cash bonuses.[More...]

Forget Yesterday, It's All About Jobs

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 13:21:30 GMT

Good morning. Stocks tanked in the last half-hour on Thursday and while the major news outlets attributed the decline to either profit taking or some trepidation in front of this morning's big Jobs report, we'd like to offer a little more substantial reason for the 85 point dive on an otherwise subdued day of trading.[More...]

Fed Balance Sheet Declines By $15 Billion After Improbable Reduction In MBS, Excess Reserves, Monetary Base Hit Record

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 04:14:41 GMT

The Federal Reserve's balance sheet declined by $15 billion to $2,183 billion from the prior week, after the Fed presumably offloaded $2.7 billion in MBS: this is the first time since QE started that MBS holdings have declined. If anyone can tell us just who the idiots are who bought MBS from the Fed (and at what price), and who the even greater idiots are who are supposed to believe this, please send us an email.[More...]

Jim Bunning Does Not ? Ben Bernanke

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:00:09 GMT

With a groundswell of public opinion against the Federal Reserve in general and Ben Bernanke in particular, Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) takes something of a victory lap for having been the only committee member to oppose Bernanke's nomination four years ago.[More...]

Biggest European IPO In Two Years Cancelled After Major Valuation Disconnect

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 23:50:15 GMT

Farewell IPO window. European construction company Hochtief was forced to cancel the IPO of its concessions business once investors became unwilling to pay more than €20 for the new shares, with the bottom of the range at €24 previously. Furthermore, according to market participants, the company was able to only fill half a book, after management disclosed during a roadshow lunch that the Dubai jitters made finding investors complicated. Watch for some material downside to the stock when it opens in Europe tomorrow.[More...]

Revealed: How The System Favors The Wealthy

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 21:07:08 GMT

"The U.S. tax code is the most political law in the world." -- Jonathan Blattmacher, tax lawyer to the super-wealthy "Taxes are what we pay for civilized society." -- Oliver Wendell Holmes[More...]

Real estate expert sees good and bad going forward

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 18:49:00 GMT

Dec. 5--If you're shopping for a home under $500,000 in Southern California, "now is the time to buy."
Real-estate consultant Al Gobar's confidence in the housing market is surrounded by a cloud of uneasiness over the economy because of the federal government's massive intervention to prop things up -- namely the hundreds of millions of dollars injected into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The owner of Anaheim-based Alfred Gobar Associates, a real-estate and economics consulting firm, sees Southern California real-estate prices flattening between now and the end of 2010, or possibly into 2011, before starting a very slow rise.

: iStockAnalyst.com Symbols Feed

Quality Large-Cap Retail Is Best Portfolio Stocking Stuffer

Measuring The Fiscal Costs Of Not Fixing The Financial System

Two Trade Setups: One Long, One Short

The Deep, Inner Meaning Of Bank of America's (BAC) TARP Repayment

Forget Yesterday, It's All About Jobs

Fed Balance Sheet Declines By $15 Billion After Improbable Reduction In MBS, Excess Reserves, Monetary Base Hit Record

Jim Bunning Does Not ? Ben Bernanke

Biggest European IPO In Two Years Cancelled After Major Valuation Disconnect

Revealed: How The System Favors The Wealthy

Real estate expert sees good and bad going forward

AP: Manufacturing areas lead surprise job comeback

AP: Manufacturing areas lead surprise job comeback

Dubai, Kuwait recovery 'to lag behind'

AP source: Apple in talks to buy Lala.com

AP source: Apple in talks to buy Lala.com

Microturbine adds juice to clean-energy car

UPI NewsTrack Business

Microsoft ironing out Bing glitch

Sector Snap: Information technology shares gain

ADDING MULTIMEDIA Comcast and GE to Create Leading Entertainment Company

TD AMERITRADE CEO to Speak at Goldman Sachs US Financial Services Conference 2009

Forest Conservation Can Supply 25% of Climate Solutions Through 2020, Saving $40 Billion

Comcast and GE to Create Leading Entertainment Company

Elite Portfolio Management Team Launches Boutique Investment Firm

Goldman Sachs Electronic Trading Releases REDIPlus®Version 9.1

Dynegy Announces Completion of Transaction With LS Power

Green Plains Renewable Energy, Inc. Announces Appointment of Chief Operating Officer

The Big Money Facebook 50 Unveiled Today

Health Discovery Corporation Appoints Tom Gallagher, Former Wall Street Attorney& a Vice President at Goldman, Sachs & Co., to Head the Company's Global Intellectual Property Strategies

Form 4 Google Inc. For: Dec 02 Filed by: Rosenberg Jonathan J (10K)

Form 4 Google Inc. For: Dec 02 Filed by: HENNESSY JOHN L (10K)

Form 4 Google Inc. For: Dec 01 Filed by: Brown Shona L (10K)

Form 4 Google Inc. For: Dec 01 Filed by: Rosenberg Jonathan J (10K)

Form 4 Google Inc. For: Dec 01 Filed by: HENNESSY JOHN L (10K)

Form 4 Google Inc. For: Dec 01 Filed by: Drummond David C (10K)

Form 4 Google Inc. For: Nov 27 Filed by: Arora Nikesh (10K)

Form 4 AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL For: Nov 25 Filed by: BENMOSCHE ROBERT H (10K)

Form 4 Google Inc. For: Nov 25 Filed by: MATHER ANN (10K)

Form 4 GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INC For: Nov 25 Filed by: EVANS J. MICHAEL (10K)