Analysis Topic: Companies Analysis
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Thursday, August 21, 2008
Competition Forces Ebay to Cut Fees By 70% Whilst Insiders Exercise Options / Companies / Tech Stocks
Competition for customers between eBay (EBAY) and Amazon (AMZN) is heating up. In an attempt to win market share EBay Cuts Fixed-Price Fees More Than 70% , Maintains Forecast.
EBay Inc., the world's largest Internet auctioneer, lowered fees for listing fixed-cost items by more than 70 percent to attract additional sellers and compete with Amazon.com. EBay said the changes won't affect its annual earnings projection.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, August 18, 2008
Bradford & Bingley Rights Issue, Citigroup, UBS left Holding the Bag / Companies / Credit Crisis 2008
The International Herald Tribune is reporting Investors shun rights offer by British lender .Bradford & Bingley, the biggest buy-to-let mortgage lender in Britain, revealed Monday that its bankers have been left with more than 70 percent of its £400 million rights issue, confirming expectations of a poor take-up by investors.
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Another Geo-strategic Gain for the Chinese Manufacturing Dragon / Companies / China Stocks
Martin Hutchinson writes: There's more bad news for those of you who are worrying about the United States' global geo-strategic position. According to a recent report, starting next year, Chinese manufacturing output will exceed that of the United States .
In concrete figures, of the world's $11.8 trillion of manufacturing value added output expected to be produced in 2009, China will account for 17%, while the United States will account for 16%.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Distressed Bank's Capital Destructive Debt Issuance / Companies / Credit Crisis 2008
Minyan Peter was back posting on Minyanville today after a 3 week hiatus. Peter is a former treasurer for a large Midwest bank and one of the brightest minds you can find anywhere. From Peter: I am finally back from three weeks away from the markets and would offer two quick thoughts from Europe.Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
China's Olympic Gold Medal Tech Economy / Companies / China Stocks
About 840 million people from around the globe tuned in to watch the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics, making it the most watched sporting event in history.
I hope you were one of them because it was an amazing $300 million spectacle that condensed 5,000 years of Chinese history into the most spectacular visual imagery I have ever seen.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Fannie, Freddie Common Stock Now Valued as a Call Option / Companies / Credit Crisis 2008
John Hussman had some interesting comments on Fannie Mae's last earnings statement in Nervous Bunny .With regard to Fannie Mae's report, the most interesting figure wasn't the reported $2.3 billion loss, but rather the much larger deterioration in the reported fair value of Fannie's balance sheet. We can observe what's going on by comparing Table 32 of Fannie Mae's Q2 2008 10Q filing with the same table in Fannie Mae's Q1 2008 10Q filing.
Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, August 10, 2008
RBS Record Loss as Systemic Banking Crisis Deepens / Companies / Credit Crisis 2008
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Lost a record £691mln during the first six months of 2008 set against a profit of £5 billion for the same period last year, as the bank continued to write down the value of assets in the face of mounting bad debts as a consequences of exposure to the US subprime housing market. The loss was lower than analysts estimates that had varied to as high as 1.6 billion, following its most recent write down of £6 billion.Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
BAC's Threatened Default on Countrywide Bonds Triggers Law Suits / Companies / Corporate Bonds
The marriage between Bank of America (BAC) and Countrywide Financial (CFC) was supposed to stave off bankruptcy of Countrywide. It might not work out that way. Let's put together some pieces starting with the Bloomberg report BNY Mellon, Citigroup, JPMorgan, Ambac in Court News .Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Investing in Solar Power Energy Technology / Companies / Renewable Energy
Sean Brodrick writes: As an energy crisis threatens to derail the U.S. economy, it really bugs me that there is a 170-billion-megawatt fusion reactor we are not taking advantage of.
I'm talking about the sun, which, when you get down to it, is a big ol' fusion reactor — nuclear energy on steroids. Enough sunlight falls on the Earth's surface every hour to meet world energy demand for an entire year .
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Investing in Booming Chinese Food Stocks / Companies / Agricultural Commodities
Tony Sagami writes: As a teenager, I couldn't wait to get off the family vegetable farm. While the rest of my friends were joyriding around town, swimming, and otherwise having tons of fun, I was always working.
But attitudes sure do change over time. Now I live in Montana to recapture that rural lifestyle that I hated so much as a teenager.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
S&P500 Corporations Board and Executive Compensation Payments / Companies / Corporate News
Executive compensation and board largess with high paid executives is a hot topic recently. That spurred us to look comprehensively at some factual comparative data on the total cost of boards of directors and top executive teams among the S&P 500 companies (proxy SPY or IVV).
For that purpose, we utilized the corporate governance database provided by The Corporate Library ( www.TheCorporateLibrary.com ) which tracks corporate actions, including executive compensation, and ranks public companies on several dimensions of corporate governance.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Northern Rock Turns Into a Pebble on Huge Loss / Companies / UK Banking
The government propaganda machine were in full swing today emphasing Northern Rock's repayment of £9.7 billion of the approx £27 billion borrowed, whilst at the same time announcing losses of £585 million over the past 6 months, against a profit of £296 for the same period last year, prompting the government to make an equity injection of £3.4billion, which basically means that loans have been replaced by a high risk equity investment the value of which is subject to market pricing, which given that Northern rock is making an annualised loss of over £1 billion equates to virtually zero.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Citigroup Posts Loss on Credit Cards and Fantasy Balance Sheets / Companies / Credit Crisis 2008
In what is likely to be the shape of things to come across the board, Citigroup Posts Loss on Credit-Card Securitizations .Aug. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc. reported its first loss since at least 2005 on credit-card securitizations, signaling that risks may be growing in a business that generated $3.5 billion of revenue in the past three years.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
SEC Selective Short Selling Protection Ensures Survival of the Unfittest / Companies / Government Intervention
It is indeed a very interesting time in which to live, especially watching the financial markets. The disconnect among authorities, regulators, companies and investors is almost too much to comprehend. There are no precedents for the turmoil we are in. This week we read an essay by a name familiar to readers of Outside Box, Michael Lewitt of Hegemony Capital Management ( www.hegcap.com ). As usual he offers us some very cogent comments on the continuing efforts by those in authority to bail out the system, along with insights on the deal by Merrill and the woes at GM. It is a very interesting letter, so I will stand aside and let Michael jump in.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, August 04, 2008
Derivatives Deleveraging Forcing Lehman's to Sell Assets at a Big Loss / Companies / Credit Crisis 2008
Reuters is reporting Lehman may have to raise capital if sells assets .Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc is expected to follow in Merrill Lynch & Co Inc's footsteps and sell a lot of risky assets at a loss. But shedding the assets may create another headache for Lehman -- the need to raise large amounts of new capital, including common equity.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, August 04, 2008
Get Ready for the Corporate Earnings Meltdown / Companies / Corporate Earnings
I'm not talking about the banks or even the retailers. We all know they will continue to slide. I'm talking about everything else. With no real median wage growth since 1999, and soaring inflation for gas, food and healthcare, it's obvious consumers have had much less to spend. Not only has that hurt savings rates (including retirement contributions) but it's also affected consumer spending. But don't expect things to get better by Fall. In fact, I'm expecting the earnings meltdown to begin for much of the remaining sectors in the S&P 500.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Credit Crunch Reaches Downward Spiral Critical Mass / Companies / Credit Crisis 2008
Some might not recognize it, but Yes Virginia, There Is A Credit Crunch. Let's look at a few examples of the credit crunch in action.Bloomberg is reporting MGM, Dubai Fall Behind on $3.5 Billion Loan for Las Vegas Plan .
MGM Mirage and Dubai World are late in raising as much as $3.5 billion for their $11.2 billion CityCenter project in Las Vegas because banks saddled with debt to casinos and hotels are wary of making new loans.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Banking Stocks Buying Opportunity of a Lifetime or Capital Destroyers? / Companies / Banking Stocks
Banks are a bundles of questions these days. We wrote on July 15 , just before the second quarter reports, that the next week would be a big week, and it certainly was.
Are the banks the buying opportunity of a lifetime, or a treacherous value trap that will destroy your capital?
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Bennigan's Restaurant Chain Is Bankrupt, Faces Chapter7 Liquidation / Companies / Corporate News
The Wall Street Journal is reporting Bennigan's, Steak & Ale Close, File for Bankruptcy Protection .National restaurant chains Bennigan's and Steak & Ale have closed their doors and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, shuttering more than 300 locations and letting go of thousands of employees.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Dark Investment Pools May Render Traditional Market Analysis Ineffective / Companies / Market Manipulation
Keith Fitz-Gerald writes:"Why don't my traditional analytics work as well anymore?"
It's a question I get a lot. But chances are, it's not your analytics that have broken down. It's your execution that's not keeping up.
Read full article... Read full article...