The following headlines courtesy of Seeking Alpha, the largest (and growing) source of free financial information aggregated from top stock market bloggers from around the world.
Governments Forced to Get Creative
Michael Panzner submits: While the U.S. is not quite there (yet), a growing number of countries have reached the point where their ability to pay for the fallout from the financial crisis and past policy mistakes with loans and funny money is a challenge. So, as the New York Times notes in "Struggling Governments Get Creative to Raise Income," they …
Media Investigation Leads to Mortgage Fraud Indictments
Edward Harrison submits:Mortgage fraud was rampant during the housing boom. Regulators were asleep at the wheel during all of this. But now we are getting some indictments as WFAA News 8 in Dallas reports (hat tip Housing Wire). This television station did the dirty work for regulators and uncovered massive amounts of mortgage fraud.Byron Harris reports:Complete Story »
No Signs of Inflation – For Now
Hard Assets Investor submits: Mike Norman, anchor, HardAssetsInvestor.com (Norman): Hello everybody, and welcome to HardAssetsInvestor.com. I’m Mike Norman, your host. Today my guest is Philip Silverman. He’s the managing partner of Kingsview Management; very familiar to the hard assets space commodities. Philip, thanks very much for joining us on the show. I appreciate it. Philip Silverman, managing partner, Kingsview Management …
Why Now Is the Time for Corn
Matthew Bradbard submits: Complete Story »
Germany Finally Says: 'We're Not Touching Greece' – Well, Sort of
Reggie Middleton submits:From Bloomberg: Germany Seeks IMF Role for Greece in Reversal, CDU Lawmaker Meister Says March 17 (Bloomberg) — Greece should turn to the International Monetary Fund if it needs aid, the chief finance spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party said, in a reversal that signals a rift with European leadersJean-Claude Trichet, Jean-Claude Juncker and Nicolas Sarkozy. “We …
Bank of Japan Policies Makes Yen Attractive to the Carry Trade
Ralph Shell submits: On Monday it was reported that the Japanese output gap stood at a -6.4%, worse than the preliminary reading of -6.1%. This output gap is designed to measure how much the domestic product deviates from the potential gross domestic product. A negative number suggests that demand is lagging behind supplies, leading to deflationary pressure. Considering the demography …
China, Iran and Fair Trade
Markos Kaminis (Wall St. Greek) submits: China looks to be the next hurdle on President Obama's busy schedule.Concerns about China started the market lower this week, before the Fed relief rally eventually stymied the decline Tuesday. The China threat is no surprise to "The Greek," though, as we have been warning about this pending trouble for some time now. Earlier …
A Closer Look at ATP Oil and Gas Corp.'s Q4
Devon Shire submits:I’ve been asked by a few people to provide a recap of ATP Oil and Gas Corp.'s (ATPG) Friday conference call to discuss Q4 earnings. There really wasn’t much new in the call (which is good as that means everything is on track) but the information that I found interesting is below.Titan Monetization – ATP left the time …
Up-to-Date Primer on Gold, Part 2
<< Return to Part 1The Incredible Shrinking Dollar As the world’s reserve currency, the US dollar is a proxy for the rest of the world’s currencies. The dollar’s decline is a direct reflection of America’s deepening financial troubles, exacerbated by a ravaged banking system that, by 2010, may see over one thousand banks insolvent. In 2009, the US incurred a budget deficit of $1.4 trillion, and its debt rose by $1.9 trillion due to off-budget expenditures. These off-budget expenditures alone were more than the 2008 budget deficit. At the end of 2009, America’s total debt was over 100 percent of GDP.Complete Story » >
Up-to-Date Primer on Gold, Part 1
Gold Is Money Unlike the world’s currencies, gold retains its value. In a speech I recently gave at The Empire Club of Toronto , I referred to gold as the "anti-currency." Gold is not and never has been a currency. Gold is something entirely different and far more valuable, it is money.Complete Story »
The War of the Yuan: What Investors Should Expect
Jim Trippon submits: The political temperature is rising sharply in Beijing and Washington in a war of words over the value of the yuan. This is a battle that has been brewing since 2003, with U.S. lawmakers arguing that China has gained an unfair trade advantage by artificially depressing the value of the yuan. The war of words escalated sharply …
Is It Time to Play GameStop?
MoneyMasters submits: Sometimes, I look at a stock’s valuations and think, “This is too good to be true.”At $19.50 a share, GameStop (GME) is trading at 8.6 times fiscal 2010 earnings and around 7.5 times fiscal 2011 expected earnings. According to Ford Equity Research, GME’s normal P/E ratio is around 10.8, which is less than half of its own five …
Nokia: What If Its Operating Margins Keep Falling?
Trefis submits: Nokia’s (NOK) operating margins have declined in recent years as a result of competition with Apple (AAPL), Research in Motion (RIMM), Samsung (SSNLF.PK) and LG (LGERF.PK). The company’s mobile phone operating margins decreased from about 20% in 2007 to around 13% in 2009. Although we expect a rebound in Nokia’s operating margins, there could be a downside of …
Wait, I Thought the Greece Issue Was Settled
Karl Denninger submits: Weren't we told Greece was "bailed out," "backstopped," or whatever word you care to use? That's all I've heard all week on ToutTV. So what's this about?Complete Story »
Profits on the (Nu) Horizons
Saj Karsan submits:Nu Horizons (NUHC) is a distributor of hi-tech electronic components. The stock dropped 25% in one day last week when a key supplier, Xilinx (XLNX), cut Nu Horizons as a distributor in order to streamline Xilinx's distribution network. Xilinx's products accounted for over 30% of Nu Horizons' sales over the last three quarters, so this will have a …
Inside the Peak Oil Demand Model
Paul Kedrosky submits: There is a strongly critical paper out from two economists writing on the subject of peak oil demand. Far from seeing demand peak in the near term in developed countries, the authors argue that demand will grow in developed countries, while growing even more quickly in developing countries, thus leading to increased per capita oil demand worldwide.(Click …
Debt Reduction Propels Temple-Inland
Ockham Research submits: Temple-Inland, Inc. (TIN), which makes paper, packaging and building products, was put on credit rating watch with a positive outlook by Standard & Poor’s. The stock is up nearly 10% on the news Wednesday and it is also giving a boost to some of Temple-Inland’s competitors’ stocks. S&P credits the company will reducing its debt load by …
ETF Spotlight: SPDR S&P Retail
Tom Lydon (ETF Trends) submits: ETF Spotlight on SPDR S&P Retail (XRT), part of a weekly series. Assets: $322 millionComplete Story »
Increasing Dividend Yield Part III: About Preferred Stock
Dividends4Life submits: This is the third installment in a multi-part series that looks at various options used by income investors to boost their yield while waiting for dividend growth to lift their portfolio’s overall yield-on-cost. Last week we looked at REITs. This week we are looking at Preferred Stock.Complete Story »
Sara Lee: Earnings Scorecard
Zacks.com submits: Last month, Sara Lee Corp. (SLE) reported strong results for the second quarter of fiscal 2010. Earnings for the quarter were $0.36 compared to $0.20 during the same period of fiscal 2009. Earnings were well above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.23. Further, the company reported strong operating income growth for the second quarter of fiscal 2010. The …
PayPal Beefs Up Asia Pacific Operations
Larry Dignan (ZDNet) submits: EBay’s PayPal said it will double the number of employees in Asia Pacific to 2,000 by the end of the year as it chases more growth in the region. PayPal said it would ad jobs in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan. PayPal’s international headquarters will be in Suntec City, Singapore and focus …
PulseCheck: Kraft Tasting Sweeter After Cadbury Acquisition
Research Recap submits: Analysts are more bullish on Kraft Foods (KFT) since its acquisition of Cadbury. Morgan Stanley resumed coverage of Kraft Foods Inc. with an overweight rating on Mar. 15 Analyst Vincent Andrews said the firm had a $32 price target on the shares. (Business Week)Complete Story »
The Top 10 Most Actively Traded ETFs
Tom Lydon (ETF Trends) submits: It’s often been said that the top 10 exchange traded funds make up more than 50% of all ETF trading volume. Here are the 10 most actively traded long-only ETFs trading right now. SDPR S&P 500 (SPY). SPY is one of the go-to ETFs for exposure to the broader market. No wonder: the S&P 500 …
Balanced Budget? California's Dreaming
Greg Feirman submits: We want to stay as far away as possible from bonds that depend on the politicians and general funds of financially shaky states and smaller issuers unless the price is right. You ask California Treasurer Bill Lockyer, one of the greatest bond salesman ever, about the state’s pension situation and all you get back is a thousand-yard …
Corn: MB Wealth’s Biggest Position
Matthew Bradbard submits: MB Wealth Corp. is not responsible and does not endorse anything out side of the content of this article authored by Matthew Bradbard; President of MB WealthComplete Story »
Playing the Big Mac Index With Currency ETFs
Tom Schumacher submits: Source: The EconomistThe Economist is out with an update to its famous Big Mac index. For those of you unfamiliar with the index, it is based on PPP (purchasing-power parity), suggesting that foreign exchange rates should equalize the price of a basket of goods across different countries. The Economist tracks the price of a Big Mac in …
What Would a Goldman Lobbyist Hate About the Financial Reform Bill?
Rortybomb submits: Ok, so a crowd-sourcing request. There’s a lot of coverage on the new Chris Dodd financial reform bill, and most of it is trying to find good things to say about the bill. Trying very hard in fact, with varying degrees of success. I want to approach it from a different angle: What would an investment bank hate …
Stock Streak Still Going
Brooks McFeely submits:4:18 PM, Mar 17, 2010 — NYSE up 47 (0.6%) to 7,474.02.DJIA up 47.6 (0.45%) to 10,734.S&P 500 up 6.75 (0.58%) to 1,166.Nasdaq up 11.1 (0.5%) to 2,389.GLOBAL SENTIMENT Complete Story »
Today in Commodities: Luck of the Irish
Matthew Bradbard submits: I have found that the harder I work and the more research I do, the luckier I am. Crude is back near the recent highs, having gained nearly $4 off yesterday's lows. The previous two attempts above $83 in the last week have failed – will three times be a charm? We continue to advise clients to …
Does the IMF Have a Role in Europe After All?
Marc Chandler submits:News wires are reporting what could be a shift in the German position vis a vis Greece and the IMF. Until now, Germany had seemed to agree with other European officials– including ECB's Trichet, Eurogroup's Junker and France's Sarkozy–that the IMF can provide technical advice, but this is a problem that the eurozone needs to resolve.A financial spokesperson …
