Archive for the 'Bad News' Category
Bagel & pizza costs skyrocket — think gas is high, read that!
Brian and Andrea get up at 4:30 AM so that their customers may get steaming hot bagels and mini-pizzas every dawn on their way to work. New York Bagel & Deli (NYBD) is the wake-up shout for the Santa Monica neighborhood I work in, and recently we got one heck of a wake-up.
Brian informed …
Sharper Image gift cards null and void
Have your eye on an Ionic Breeze air cleaner, a top-of-the-line massage chair, or an interactive droid? You may be out of luck whether you were counting on using your Sharper Image gift card. The retailer of whimsical electronics and housewares recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, re…
With all resistance removed, sky is now the limit for oil
First oil traded through and closed above the penultimate psychological resistance — the incomparable, the dreaded $100 per barrel resistance level.
Now oil has traded above its final resistance — the all-time nominal high of $103.76 set back in April 1980. Oil traded at $103.95 Monday to break…
Buffett sees recession, Bush not
How deep in the gap do you have to be before you confess you’re in one? For some, it might be when they’re in by their head. final week, President Bush very clearly stated to the nation that we are not in a recession. Yesterday, Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) said v…
Will Penguin pull fake gang story “Love and Consequences” off shelves?
Did we memorize nothing from A Million Little Pieces? Come on, folks. whether you’ve got a good story to tell, but it’s largely out of your imagination rather than your memory, consider wiring a novel. The latest scandal to rock the literary world concerns Love and Consequences: A Memoir of Hope…
BP sets aside more funds for legal settlements
BP plc (NYSE: BP) stock is falling that dawn after the company announced that it has raised its claim fund to $2.13 billion for the 2005 explosion at its Texas City refinery. Lower oil futures are additionally hurting the stock. whether you think that stock won’t be rising too far in the coming …
Another Wall Street anguish: A (potentially) flawed risk formula
You can add another item to the list of things the market has to be worried about.
In that month’s Portfolio magazine, Michael Lewis wonders whether the Black-Scholes formula — the formula used to calculate and manage risk all through the financial world, including determining the risk of trade …
Will Citi hit $15?
Bloomberg News reports that Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) may need more capital on top of the $7.5 billion it’s already gotten from Abu Dhabi. And that announcement has caused Citi stock to fall to a nine-year low of $21.
A few months ago, I posted that Citi would keep dropping and that it might be a …
Boeing (BA) slides on lost Air Force contract
Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) stock is falling that daylight after the company lost a $35 billion contract which was awarded by the U.S. Air Force to two of its rivals. Under the contract, European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. and Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) will build as many as 179 KC-45A refueli…
U.S. interpretation spending falls 1.7% in January, worse than expected
U.S. construction spending declined 1.7% in January 2008, as private builders continued to pull-back amid the housing slump, the U.S. Commerce office announced Monday.
Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had expected interpretation spending to decline 0.7% in January 2008. interpretation spendi…
ISM Manufacturing Index falls to 48.3 in February, indicating contraction
The Institute for Supply Management Manufacturing Index for February 2008 fell to 48.3 from 50.7 in January 2008, the institute announced Monday.
Readings above 50 indicate profitable growth; readings below 50, profitable contraction. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had expected the index t…
Economists get more gloomy
It is tough to believe that economists could get more down-in-the-mouth, but that is precisely what is happening. The National organization for commerce Economists did a poll of members by the first half of that month. According to Reuters, “Of the members polled for the NABE semiannual profitable P…
Is Bernanke right to disregard inflation?
With wholesale inflation running at a 12% annual rate, prices are raging out of control. But Fed Chair Ben Bernanke is wagering that the risk of profitable contraction is greater than the damage from inflation. He might be thinking that it took 15 years to get us out of the Great Depression but …
Consumer spending weakness bodes poorly for Mastercard (MA)
Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE: MA) stock is declining that daylight after the Commerce department reported that consumer spending grew a scant 0.4 percent in January. While that reading beat economists’ predictions, inflation-adjusted consumer spending, which is used to compute overall profitabl…
