Archive for the 'Market Matters' Category
Morningstar: eBay is 41% undervalued, Cisco 35%
A Morningstar advertisement asking “Is The Market Cheap Yet? We Think It Is” got my attention in a recent issue of Barron’s. Promoting its fairness Research service, Morningstar discusses the NASDAQ sell-off that year, stating that in July of 2007 the market was 6% overvalued, but now it is 15% …
Eliot Spitzer should resign immediately
New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who crusaded against corporate malfeasance, apparently lived in a glass house. He should immediately resign in the wake of his admission that he was caught up in a prostitution scandal.
Spitzer made the prefunctory televised mea culpa, saying, “I apologize first a…
401(k) participants get permission from the Supreme Court to sue
In a landmark decision that will help millions of workers who participate in 401(k) plans at work, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday that participants could sue 401(k) administrators whether they believe the administrators of their 401(k) did not follow directions and that lack of action resulte…
Are derivatives the next shoe to drop?
Whenever Wall Street starts packaging a product for the masses that’s used by sophisticated investors, you know that there is big trouble ahead. There is no way that an individual investor will be able to value and understand the drivers of that investment’s value. And it’s fairly assured that W…
Market highlights for next week: Apple to report quarterly earnings
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Monday, January 21
Martin Luther King Jr. Day Holiday
Tuesday, January 22
Wachovia (NYSE: WB) is reporting Q4 earnings; conference shout at 11:00am.
Technology giants Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) are reporting earnings after the market closes. Apple’s confe…
U.S. market set to lead world in ‘08
With investors taking a breather nowadays from the recent stock market rout, some unexpected good news for the U.S. market came from all places, Europe. News that Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse put an overweight on U.S. stocks — the first duration that decade — is certainly a surprise from …
The dangerous ability of the Bernanke Put!
The Federal Reserve, particularly its current chairman, has received fairly a bit of criticism for its performance during the final several months in dealing with the profitable turmoil in the markets. The primary complaint is that the Fed is behind the curve in dealing with the profitable slowd…
American spending drops like a stone
I’m not certain why the story in today’s New York Times seems like such a surprise to everyone, The Times headline screams, “Americans Cut Back Sharply on Spending.” I’ve been expecting it ever since the subprime mortgage mess started to hit the news in the middle of final year. public have been…
Drug stocks stage major breakout
There’s lately been plenty of evidence that investors are growing more cautious. Among other things, they are increasingly favoring defensive groups such as consumer staples and health care.
Not surprisingly, drug stocks, in specific, have plus been attracting their fair share of institutional fu…
Merrill Lynch to write down another $15 billion in subprime losses
Analysts expected Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER) to write down about $12 billion more in losses from its mortgage investments, but The New York Times reports that dawn that it will actually write down $15 billion, or $3 billion more than anticipated when it reports earnings next week. That’s in addition …
FINRA investigates sales of mortgage securities
FINRA (The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) decided to look into whether risky subprime mortgage securities were sold inappropriately to individuals who aren’t suitable targets for these risky collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs), Bloomberg reports that dawn.
On its website, FINRA w…
Iowa to Wall Street: Drop dead
Much as I would like to ignore them, there is no escaping the Iowa caucuses. Every pundit within 1,000 miles of Des Moines is weighing in on their meaning, or lack thereof. But there is one report coming loud and clear from the campaign from average voters that will continue to be heard, regardl…
Levitt & Sons’ bankruptcy kills retirement dreams for many Baby Boomers
Buyers of properties in Levitt & Sons’ retirement communities that dot the Southeast face years of waiting for homes to be finished, whether ever, and possible losses of thousands of dollars in deposits for homes that may never be built. Levitt & Sons filed for bankruptcy in November, listin…
Australia’s Centro may be sold considering of naughty bet on U.S. shopping malls
Australia’s Centro Properties Group bet big on U.S. shopping malls, financing more than $15 billion during a spending spree in 2007. Thanks to the credit crisis caused by the U.S. subprime meltdown, Centro can’t refinance debt due Feb. 15 and has put itself up for sale [subscription required]. The…
