Archives: May 2008

Two Views of the Market

Posted by: Ben Steverman on May 29

Where is the stock market going? Tough question of course. After a difficult October-through-March, stocks rallied in April. In May – with one day left – stocks have held on...

Two Views of the Market

Posted by: Ben Steverman on May 29

Where is the stock market going? Tough question of course. After a difficult October-through-March, stocks rallied in April. In May – with one day left – stocks have held on...

What The $600 Stimulus Package Gets You

Posted by: Howard Silverblatt on May 29

The stimulus bill was signed February 13, 2008, 106 days ago, when gas was $2.960 a gallon (EIA, regular). The intent was to jump start the economy with additional spending....

Private Equity Shaking off the Dust?

Posted by: Ben Steverman on May 28

Before Memorial Day, I wondered if the long weekend would produce any big new M&A deals. Maybe, I thought, the stock market would begin to see the fruit of some...

PENSIONS AND MEDICAL BENEFITS – Don’t Bet You Retirement On It and Don’t Get Sick

Posted by: Howard Silverblatt on May 25

Bottom Line: In the end, individuals, either as taxpayers or consumers, will pay the bill. The reality is just as our children may not ‘have it as good’ as we...

Weekend Reading

Posted by: Ben Steverman on May 23

Financial issues have a reputation for being dry. Maybe that's because only the very best writers know how to show investment novices how exciting this topic can be. But it's...

A Merger Tuesday?

Posted by: Ben Steverman on May 23

Big merger-and-acquisition deals are often announced on Mondays because the closed markets on Saturday and Sunday provide a quiet period to wrap up complex deals. The U.S. stock market is...

A Merger Tuesday?

Posted by: Ben Steverman on May 23

Big merger-and-acquisition deals are often announced on Mondays because the closed markets on Saturday and Sunday provide a quiet period to wrap up complex deals. The U.S. stock market is...

BUD: Is a Takeover Brewing?

Posted by: Ben Steverman on May 23

Could an American icon be gulped down like an ice-cold lager on a warm summer day? The news Friday is that InBev (INTB), the huge Belgian beer company, may be...

Auction Rate Securities Mess is Worse than You Thought

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on May 22

The auction rate securities mess has often been portrayed in the press as rich people's problem. Oh, those billionaires and their financial woes. Turns out, that's completely wrong. Thousands, tens...

The oil surge ate my tax rebate

Posted by: Ben Steverman on May 21

Americans might want to save those tax rebate checks, because they'll probably need the extra cash this summer. With the price of oil surging close to $134 per barrel, driving...

IT Again Largest Sector – But This Time They Didn’t Earn It

Posted by: Howard Silverblatt on May 21

Information Technology yesterday closed representing 16.26% of the S&P 500 market value, overtaking the Financials, which are at 16.19%, an event last seen in early 2002. Energy, at 14.89%, is...

Meredith Whitney Scares Us All -- Again

Posted by: Ben Steverman on May 20

The credit crisis made Oppenheimer (OPY) analyst Meredith Whitney a star. Today demonstrated she's still a force to be reckoned with. Last fall, as credit markets froze up and big...

A "UFO Recession"?

Posted by: Ben Steverman on May 19

Stocks hit a four-and-a-half month high today. The S&P 500 is now less than than 9% off its all-time high. As many market commentators have pointed out, this is not...

Phew, Supreme Court upholds current muni market structure

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on May 19

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a 7-2 decision this morning declining to throw the entire multi-trillion-dollar municipal bond market into chaos. Phew. Nothing to see here, move along. The longer...

GE's confusing signal on earnings season

Posted by: Ben Steverman on May 16

More than a month ago, things were looking grim. I wrote in early April about General Electric's (GE) shockingly weak earnings report. Along with bad first quarter news from Wachovia...

Q1 earnings deserves a fitting burial, and maybe even a few words of praise

Posted by: Howard Silverblatt on May 16

Before we start to focus on Q2, Q1 earnings deserves a fitting burial, and maybe even a few words of praise. Briefly the bad news that grabbed the headlines resulted...

Those tax rebate checks

Posted by: Ben Steverman on May 15

Reporting on consumer stocks in the last couple days (for this), I encountered a surprising amount of optimism about consumer spending. That was especially surprising given the recent run-up in...

More Kindle Fodder: Citi Predicts $750 Million by 2010

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on May 15

Kicked off quite a heated debate back in November when I called out Amazon's (Symbol: AMZN) ebook reader, the Kindle, as an important future revenue source. Now I'm getting some...

Oil and stocks

Posted by: Ben Steverman on May 13

Rising energy prices are stressing out U.S. commuters and businesses, and that can't help but concern Wall Street, too. But as I wrote here, the relationship between the price of...

Tough times for newspaper stocks

Posted by: Ben Steverman on May 12

Ouch. Of all the insults newspaper stocks have had to put up with in the past year or two, this might be the most cutting. The Sun-Times Media Group (SVN)...

Stocks that doubled

Posted by: Ben Steverman on May 12

In my new story and slideshow today, BusinessWeek asked fund managers and other stock market gurus to recommend stocks they think could double in the next couple years. As I...

Will Financials see red again; the race is nearing an end

Posted by: Howard Silverblatt on May 09

While there is no insurance on any charged or slimed down bets, there is a chance that the Financials could post negative earnings this quarter, which would be their second...

Crocs: Where were the analysts?

Posted by: Ben Steverman on May 08

Crocs (CROX), the maker of ugly, comfortable and wildly popular shoes, saw its share price jump 14.5% Thursday after reporting earnings. However, Crocs shares are still 84% off its Oct....

Are there male and female stocks?

Posted by: Ben Steverman on May 08

BusinessWeek colleague Peter Coy has a great story out today noting that the economic slowdown is hitting men harder than women. He points to a surprising statistic: Adult women have...

Clearwire shares falling further after Citi downgrade

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on May 08

Clearwire (Symbol: CLWR) shareholders may have been disappointed yesterday after the mega-reorganization announcement failed to get the stock moving. But today they've got to be downright peeved. Citigroup analyst Michael...

Trucks, Trains and the Economy

Posted by: Ben Steverman on May 07

Transportation stocks have done well this year -- the Dow Jones Transportation index is up almost 14% from the beginning of the year. Transport stocks are often seen as a...

Clearwire merger: IPO buyers lose, insiders win

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on May 07

Money-losing wireless broadband provider Clearwire (Symbol: CLWR) announced a convoluted deal to merge with a similar unit of Sprint Nextel (S) this morning. Although the press release (PDF)and numerous media...

NYSE, exchanges prosper despite threats

Posted by: Ben Steverman on May 06

The amount of trading going on at stock and derivatives exchanges continues to skyrocket, thanks generally to the move toward rapid electronic trading. If I was an investor in an...

Does the S&P 500 above 1,400 make sense?

Posted by: Ben Steverman on May 06

Stocks rallied in April and traders are wondering whether this is a short-term suckers’ rally or a permanent recovery from the market's January-to-March blues. I'm not sure either. But I...

The Weak Dollar and Investors

Posted by: Ben Steverman on May 05

The dollar may have hit bottom (as I wrote recently) and that has many implications for investors. If true, it means unhedged international stock holdings won't be giving U.S. investors...

Happy IDG story no salve for dying media companies

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on May 05

(Updated 5/7) There's a happy-dappy profile of tech publishing and conference giant International Data Group in today's New York Times. The story notes how IDG's publishing arm got 86% of...

You need to check your fund holdings more often

Posted by: Aaron Pressman on May 02

Investment manager Roger Nusbaum has an excellent post today reviewing what he did after reading this Bloomberg News article on Argentina's shaky finances. Bond investors seem to think the country...