FeedPosted Nov 20th 2009 8:20AM by Michael Fowlkes (RSS feed)
Filed under: Major movement, Forecasts, Bad news, Products and services, Dell (DELL), Technology, Recession, Financial Crisis
After-hours traders punished Dell (DELL) stock Thursday, following a weak third quarter earnings report from the technology giant.
Going into the afternoon earnings release, analysts had been expecting to see the company show earnings of 28 cents per share. Actual earnings came in much lower at 23 cents per share.
Continue reading Dell sells off hard after hours, following weak third quarter earnings
Posted Nov 16th 2009 5:20PM by Joseph Lazzaro (RSS feed)
Filed under: Federal Reserve, Financial Crisis

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke did something Monday that Fed chairs rarely do: he commented on the dollar.
Comments about the dollar are almost exclusively left to the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, but on Monday Bernanke,
in a speech before the Economic Club of New York, said the large movement of capital precipitated by the financial crisis "resulted in a marked increase in the dollar," and those flows are now returning to their former status, due to improved credit market conditions and the stabilization of global economic activity.
Continue reading Bernanke: Fed is monitoring changes in dollar's value
Posted Nov 12th 2009 5:00PM by Joseph Lazzaro (RSS feed)
Filed under: International markets, China, Japan, Recession, Financial Crisis

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Singapore Thursday,
told Bloomberg News he sees "early signs" that the world is addressing imbalances in spending and saving that contributed to the global financial crisis. That's likely to be interpreted as a bullish sign by institutional investors.
Equally important, meeting attendees, which include finance ministers from China, Japan, and Australia, also reiterated a pledge to maintain stimulus efforts "until a durable recovery in private demand is secured."
Continue reading Geithner sees 'early signs' that global imbalances are being addressed
Posted Nov 12th 2009 3:40PM by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed)
Filed under: Competitive strategy, Microsoft (MSFT), Financial Crisis
It's easy to save the world when you've already taken care of yourself. But, we rely on these mavericks -- the wealthy who realize they can make a difference -- to do what we cannot on our own. So, it comes as a relief that Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft (MSFT) believes executive compensation is still too high.
It's a murky topic, and some forms of regulation, Gates believes, won't help. In a discussion on philanthropy at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan, where many of the people Gates criticized send their kids for early education, the former CEO and still rich guy cites the $1 million executive salary cap required by law in 1993 as a big mistake. While compensation has to be controlled, he believes this measure backfired and thinks that other, similar efforts are doomed to fail now.
Continue reading Rich still too richly compensated according to richest of them all
Posted Nov 12th 2009 9:30AM by Mark Fightmaster (RSS feed)
Filed under: Before the bell, Housing, Financial Crisis

According to RealtyTrac, the number of homeowners facing foreclosure
dropped during October, thanks in part to foreclosure prevention programs that helped borrowers. RealtyTrac stated that more than 332,000 households (one in every 385 homes) were recipients of either a notice of default or a trustee's sale. This number is 3% lower than September, making October the third-straight month with a drop in the number of homeowners facing foreclosure. As for homes actually repossessed, the number dropped to 77,000 in October from 88,000 in September.
RealtyTrac noted that one reason for the lower number of foreclosures is new state programs that require a bank to try and work with the homeowner before seizing property. In addition, some lenders are staving off foreclosures by evaluating which of their close-to-default borrowers may qualify for the new federal loan modification program.
Continue reading Foreclosures fall, but are still higher than a year ago
Posted Nov 11th 2009 1:40PM by Connie Madon (RSS feed)
Filed under: International markets, Money and Finance Today, Politics, Recession, Financial Crisis

Treasury Secretary Geithner,
speaking from Tokyo, said that he wants a strong dollar and that the United States is determined to bring budget deficits down.
Mr Geithner has made this statement several times in the past. Yet, this year the dollar has fallen 7.6% and hit a 15 month low of 74.889 on Wednesday.
You are probably wondering why his words are being discounted. The dollar keeps falling. Let's look at the underlying conditions in the US economy that are working against a strong dollar.
Geithner cited unemployment as one factor. He said: "Unemployment is really very, very high, exceptionally higher in the United States. It is still rising. It's probably going to rise for a bit longer, until you see a longer period of growth take hold."
Continue reading U.S. Treasury Secretary Geithner wants a strong dollar
Posted Nov 10th 2009 12:30PM by Elizabeth Harrow (RSS feed)
Filed under: Analyst reports, Amer Intl Group (AIG), Options, Technical Analysis, Financial Crisis
Notorious insurance titan American International Group (AIG) is on the upswing today, after Moody's Investors Service reported late Monday that it expects AIG will be able to repay its government debt. The ratings agency observed that AIG has made progress with its restructuring plan, and the firm's latest quarterly earnings "show continued stabilization of the core insurance operations despite challenging market conditions."
The insurance issue has put many of its non-core assets up for sale during the past year to generate capital and pare its unwieldy size, but some of those plans have been iced by new CEO Robert Benmosche. Moody's likes the new chief's approach, with the firm observing, "We believe that the slower approach to restructuring could help AIG to generate more favorable values from its business portfolio than would be the case under rushed asset sales."
Continue reading American International Group rallies on Moody's report
Posted Nov 6th 2009 5:00PM by Connie Madon (RSS feed)
Filed under: Management, Industry, Market matters, Money and Finance Today, Politics, Headline news, Federal Reserve, Financial Crisis
US Senator Bernie Sanders, independent from Vermont, is known for his straightforward and unbiased positions.
His new legislative proposal is to break up big banks that are deemed "too big to fail." To quote Mr. Sanders: "if an institution is too big to fail, it is too big to exist. We should break them up so they are no longer in a position to bring down our entire economy."
Continue reading Senator Sanders proposes legislation to break up large banks
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