Archives: February 2009

Financial Advisers: Who Can You Trust?

Posted by: Lauren Young on February 27

If you haven't done so already, check out BusinessWeek's special report on financial advisers. In it, we highlight 50 of the most trusted and experienced financial advisers based on research...

CUTTING S&P 2009 DIVIDEND RATE

Posted by: Howard Silverblatt on February 27

CHANGING 2009 S&P 500 ESTIMATED DIVIDEND PAYMENT TO $21.97; 2008 was $28.39; INDICATED RATE AT $22.90 22.6% decline worse since -36.3% in 1938; Potentially more downside from issues 'preserving cash'...

Citi, BofA Get a Reprieve

Posted by: Ben Levisohn on February 20

With the Dow Jones industrial average off nearly 300 points over fears of bank nationalization, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, like his counterparts in the FDIC, rushed in on a Friday...

With no direction home, like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone

Posted by: Howard Silverblatt on February 20

Dividend reductions within the S&P 500 last quarter (Q4,'08) set a record at $15.9 Billion. Now, 50 days into the quarter, the record has already been broken, with 26 issues...

The Analyst Exodus: Whitney and Bove Move On

Posted by: Ben Levisohn on February 18

The Wall Street analyst exodus continues, with Oppenheimer's Meredith Whitney and Ladenburg Thalmann's Dick Bove bailing on their firms today. And neither is jumping to large investment banks. Whitney, who...

A Run of Money Fund Redemptions

Posted by: Tara Kalwarski on February 18

Retail money fund assets dropped for the sixth consecutive week, to $1.35 trillion, as of Feb. 12, according to the Investment Company Institute. Treasury and municipal money market funds felt...

A New Sign That The Government Bailout Isn't Working

Posted by: Emily Thornton on February 17

Here's an interesting new way to measure how much the government's bailout is, or perhaps in this case isn't, working: The Ethisphere Institute, a non-partisan research think tank, has just...

Stocks: Waking the Slumbering Bull

Posted by: Ben Levisohn on February 13

Despite some attention getting jumps and slumps – like a 300 point drop following Treasury Secretary Geithner’s disclosure of the bank rescue plan on Feb. 10 -- the stock market...

Emerging Markets or "Submerging" Markets?

Posted by: Ben Steverman on February 13

Finance ministers from G7 countries, including Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, meet today in an effort to steer the world economy toward stability and recovery. But data from around the globe...

More Markdowns for Retail Stocks?

Posted by: Ben Steverman on February 12

Ask a portfolio manager what stocks you should buy and there's a very good chance he or she will warn you away from retail stocks. The consumer is scared and...

Private Equity Triage: If you don't like what a private equity firm did to your company, buy it back.

Posted by: Emily Thornton on February 12

Here's one of the more radical ways to deal with a private equity deal that has gone bad: The sons of the founder of defunct retailer Mervyns, Mervin Morris, have...

GOOD DIVIDEND, BAD DIVIDEND

Posted by: Howard Silverblatt on February 11

Dividends are expected to have their worst year since 1942, with the S&P 500 payment declining 13.3%, and that’s my optimistic estimate clich here. And while companies that can’t afford...

A Bad Day for Death

Posted by: Ben Steverman on February 09

From the stock market to the political world, this past year has demonstrated the folly of plenty of old maxims. Still, credit crisis or not, there's nothing more reliable than...

California's Ratings Downgrade Sparks Municipality Madness

Posted by: Lauren Young on February 09

Think of it as a muni Mardi Gras: California's debt is now rated lower than Louisiana. Thanks to a budget crisis, Standard & Poor’s (which like BusinessWeek, is owned by...

Traders Hope Jobs Report Hurries Stimulus

Posted by: Ben Steverman on February 06

This stock market demonstrates, over and over again, the degree to which bureaucrats and legislators in Washington are influencing trading lately as much (and maybe more than) earnings figures and...

Good News and Bad News

Posted by: Ben Steverman on February 04

Pieces of good news do come along every once in a while to lift investors' spirits. But these items are often shadowed by bad news. Consider the following from the...