Analysis Topic: Companies Analysis
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Banking Stocks Buying Opportunity of a Lifetime or Capital Destroyers? / Companies / Banking Stocks
By: Richard_Shaw
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?
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Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Bennigan's Restaurant Chain Is Bankrupt, Faces Chapter7 Liquidation / Companies / Corporate News
By: Mike_Shedlock
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.
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Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Dark Investment Pools May Render Traditional Market Analysis Ineffective / Companies / Market Manipulation
By: Money_Morning
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.
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Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Ratchet Provisions Soak Merrill Lynch, Will Sink WaMu / Companies / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Mike_Shedlock
It was just 5 days ago in Death Spiral Financing at WaMu, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup that I wrote about ratchet provisions and how they would bite companies that agreed to them. Here is the key snip:
The investors in the equity raise would have their investment “protected” by a provision which states that should the bank afterwards raise money at a lower price than what they paid, these investors would be compensated retroactively by having their initial investment priced at this lower price, thereby being issued new shares for free. Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, July 28, 2008
US Banks in Death Spiral- Check Your Bank NOW! / Companies / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Money_and_Markets
Martin D. Weiss writes: The truth may be unthinkable, but the reality is undeniable: Much of our nation's financial structure is collapsing, and our government's only response is phony money, bogus bailouts and a litany of false promises.
Ben Bernanke, Henry Paulson, the FDIC and the U.S. Congress say they can do it all.
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Sunday, July 27, 2008
US Banks Going Straight to Hell on $1.5trillion Eventual Loss / Companies / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Alex_Wallenwein
NAB, National Australia Bank, was just forced to write down over ninety percent of its exposure to US mortgages via so-called SIV's or conduits last Friday, to the order of $830 million dollars.
This was by no means a matter of choice for NAB. The bank had just issued and sold $850 million worth of new debt paper. Buyers of that debt are now screaming bloody murder. They are asking why this information, which surely must have been known to the bank at the time of the debt sale, was not disclosed to the market beforehand. They are now demanding their money back or some other way to back out of the deal. Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Bernanke's, Paulson's, Bair's, and Cox's Banking Crisis Next Step / Companies / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Mike_Shedlock
The Fed, the FDIC, the SEC, and the treasury department are all in panic mode. Here are the key players: Ben "Helicopter Drop" Bernanke is Fed chairman. Sheila Bair, the "Bureaucrat's Bureaucrat", is the FDIC chairman. Henry "Sound Dollar Policy" Paulson is Secretary of the Treasury, and Christopher "Big Squeeze" Cox, Chairman of the SEC, is on a selective campaign against nudity. Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, July 25, 2008
US Banking Crisis Warning: Uninsured Depositors At WaMu Are Asking For Trouble! / Companies / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Mike_Shedlock
Anyone with uninsured deposits (those exceeding FDIC limits) at Washington Mutual are begging for trouble. If you work for a corporation that has its payroll or large corporate account (above the FDIC limit) at WaMu and you want to get paid, you better get this message to corporate headquarters right away: WaMu Slumps as Gimme Credit Cites Liquidity Concern .
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Thursday, July 24, 2008
Cash Rich Non-US Companies Trading in the US / Companies / Corporate Earnings
By: Richard_Shaw
In this time of difficult credit conditions, it could make sense to evaluate companies with plenty of cash. One way to measure cash is to subtract all liabilities and see if there is any cash left (Net Cash).
If a company has Net Cash, they could pay off any and all debts and other reported liabilities, and have money left over.
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Thursday, July 24, 2008
US Auto Industry in Meltdown as Ford Loses Record $8.7 Billion / Companies / US Auto's
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The Ford motor companies stock price fell sharply by more than 10% following news of a worse than expected second quarter record loss of $8.7 billion, this follows a first quarter profit of $100 million. Ford has been witnessing a near meltdown in sales from a year earlier with auto sales down 28%, and truck sales down 36%, as following the surge in gas prices the once profitable SUV's have now become a liability by clogging up dealer forecourts with unsold inventory and thus contributing to the sales meltdown.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Beware the Stocks Bear Market Dividend Trap / Companies / Dividends
By: Money_Morning
Alexander Green writes: For years, investors have bemoaned the low dividend yield on stocks. But with the market down roughly 20%, the yield on the S&P 500 Index is up to 2.25%. That doesn't sound terribly rich, I know, but it is only slightly less than the average money market is paying right now.
In the short term, you may sleep a lot better with a big chunk of money tucked safely away in cash. But in the long run, you may lose sleep. After all, your biggest risk as an investor is not market risk - the inevitable rise and fall of your stock portfolio from week to week - but shortfall risk, the possibility that good health and steady inflation may cause you to outlive your investment portfolio.
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Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Death Spiral Financing at Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, WaMu... / Companies / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Mike_Shedlock
Reuters is reporting WaMu has $3.33 bln loss, may be cut to "junk" . Washington Mutual Inc, the largest U.S. savings and loan, posted a $3.33 billion second-quarter loss on Tuesday as souring mortgages forced it to set aside more money for loan losses.
"We are planning for continued softness in housing for the next several quarters," Chief Executive Kerry Killinger said in an interview. "The capital that we have in place is sufficient to manage through this period. We have no plans at this point to raise additional capital."
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Monday, July 21, 2008
Investors Look to Earnings Season for Stock Market Trend / Companies / Corporate Earnings
By: Money_Morning
William Patalon III writes:Earnings season will plug along this week as reports from several banks provide the latest insight into how well the beleaguered financial-services sector is weathering the global credit-crisis storm.
Among the earnings season headlines: Bank of America Corp. ( BAC ) will be issuing its final earnings report of the pre- Countrywide Financial Corp. (CFC) merger era and investors hope that Wachovia Corp. ( WB ) follows in the recent footsteps of Citigroup Inc. ( C ) and JP Morgan's Chase & Co. ( JPM ), the latter two of which both provided better-than-expected (though certainly negative) results.
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Thursday, July 17, 2008
Banking Crisis Not Over, More Writedowns and Bank Failures Despite Short-covering Rallies / Companies / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Hans_Wagner
Are the financial woes of the banks over? To beat the market by investing in the stock market, you should have a good understanding of the factors that are driving the trends in the financial sector. For example, are we close to the end of the loan write-offs? If you are learning to invest, it is important to have well ground perspective on state of the financial sector before making any long-term commitments. Expect the financial woes of the banks to continue and be careful when the market make volatile moves in either direction. Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, July 17, 2008
US Government Selective Enforcement of Regulation Short Sales / Companies / Government Intervention
By: Mike_Shedlock
This is a followup to posts SEC Restricts Shorting 19 Financial Stocks and Tossed To The Dogs? I hinted at this before but I am going to spell it out explicitly in response to several questions I have received. There is already a restriction on naked short shelling. The restriction is called Regulation SHO .
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Thursday, July 17, 2008
SEC Shorting Restrictions Results in Some Banks Tossed to the Dogs / Companies / Government Intervention
By: Mike_Shedlock
While pondering SEC Restricts Shorting 19 Financial Stocks I could not help but notice the financial institutions conspicuously absent from the ruling.With that in mind let's recap the list of shorting curbs placed by the SEC.
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Thursday, July 17, 2008
General Motors and Ford Increasing Probability of Permanent Meltdown / Companies / US Auto's
By: Mike_Stathis
The recent Merrill (MER) research report on General Motors (GM) should not be treated with any urgency, although I agree with the overall assessment of a potential bankruptcy. But I would also add Ford (F) into that picture. As you will recall, we heard the same thing from analysts less than three years ago only to see GM's share price more than double over the ensuing two years.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Abbey and Alliance & Leicester Merger Impact on Customers / Companies / Mergers & Acquisitions
By: MoneyFacts
Darren Cook, mortgage expert at Moneyfacts.co.uk, comments: “The merger of these two high street names will likely briefly bring increased confidence to the industry. However, it will also bring further reduction in consumer choice, which is already under pressure and has seen significant reductions, particularly in the mortgage market.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, July 14, 2008
Fannie & Freddie Bailout: Truth or Consequences / Companies / US Housing
By: Mike_Stathis
Amidst speculation that Freddie and its big brother Fannie are facing insolvency, U.S. Treasury Secretary Paulson said the primary focus was supporting Fannie and Freddie "in their current form as they carry out their important mission." Well, the fact of the matter is that “carrying out their mission” is what got them into this mess to begin with. Paulson delivered the subtle message that has been interpreted by most that he won't bail the GSEs out. But if the GSEs aren't able to raise sufficient capital, it's going to initiate a printing frenzy by Bernanke, with or without a conservatorship. Before we consider exactly what Paulson's statement means, have a look at the following excerpts I put into print in 2006. Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Operation "Rescue Fannie Mae " Underway- Paulson a Blatant Liar / Companies / Credit Crisis 2008
By: Mike_Shedlock
On Friday Treasury Secretary Paulson Said Keep Fannie and Freddie in Current Form .
U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson signaled that a government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac won't be necessary, saying they should continue as shareholder-owned companies with federal charters.