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Cramer on BloggingStocks: Standing firm but alone on housing

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says the bears simply won't hear the positives -- but he'll keep hammering them home.

Lots of things are coming together for housing, but nobody seems to care. We had Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) (Cramer's Take) the other day offer attractive interest-only mortgage loans to those in trouble, a bet that eventually housing will go higher. We had Fannie (NYSE: FNM) (Cramer's Take) allow people in trouble to rent to stay in their homes, and the government is going to extend the tax credit for homebuyers and broaden it. Plus, mortgage rates went under 5% again.

But nobody cared. No one.

Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: Standing firm but alone on housing

Earnings highlights: Boeing, Coca-Cola, eBay, Microsoft, Pfizer, UAL, Yahoo! ...

Here are some highlights from last week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

Continue reading Earnings highlights: Boeing, Coca-Cola, eBay, Microsoft, Pfizer, UAL, Yahoo! ...

Closing Bell: The good off day (BA, JAVA, SLM, WFC)

Today was one of those days where it felt like it would be an up-day and most traders were feeling good, but the last hour's trading came down so far so fast that traders had little feel whether we'd have an up or down session until right before the closing bell.

Oil inventories were not a huge surprise like the week before, but the data sent oil much higher and then a weak US dollar only added to oil price gains. Some may use the Beige Book as the reason for the sell-off, but it might be how little the government expects Wall Street executives to work for if they are a TARP bank.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 9,956.91 -84.57 (-0.84%)
S&P 500 1,081.36 -9.70 (-0.89%)
Nasdaq 2,150.73 -12.74 (-0.59%)

Top Day Trader Alerts
Top 10 Analyst Calls
Top Stock Rumors

Continue reading Closing Bell: The good off day (BA, JAVA, SLM, WFC)

Wells Fargo sees third-quarter earnings top expectations

Wednesday morning kicked off with news that Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) saw third-quarter earnings rise to $3.24 billion (56 cents per share) from $1.64 billion (49 cents per share) last year. The results handily trounced the consensus estimate of 37 cents per share.

Wells Fargo also reported revenue of $22.47 billion , which was better than both a year ago and the consensus estimate. The company stated that net charge-offs for the quarter came in at $5.1 billion (2.5% of average loans), compared to $4.4 billion (2.11% of average loans) in the second quarter. The bank did note that it expects credit losses to continue increasing, but at a slower pace thanks to a slowing of the pace of deterioration.

Continue reading Wells Fargo sees third-quarter earnings top expectations

Wells Fargo (WFC): 'Ride the financial wave'

"Banks had taken a brutal beating over the last two years was brutal; the S&P Sector SPDR Financials dropped 72.0% from its high last September to its low in March," notes Brandon Clay.

In his Invest with an Edge, he explains, "One bank in particular is exerting itself again as a dominant player: Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC)." Here's his review.

"The painful declines in bank stocks appear to have stopped for now, as bank stocks have exploded off the March lows. As we've observed, financials have 'friends in high places.'

"Banks in general are showing promise as credit becomes easier. There's still a long way to go for complete recovery, but the trend is pointing up.

Continue reading Wells Fargo (WFC): 'Ride the financial wave'

Closing Bell: A great day that may feel empty (AA, PEP, VG, LEN, RPRX, PLUG, MMM, WFC)

Today was one of those up-days that might be a disappointment to many bulls because the gap-ups were not met by follow-on buying throughout the day. A better weekly joblessness report may have been muted by Asian central banks intervening to protect the US Dollar.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 9,786.79 +61.21 (0.63%)
S&P 500 1,065.31 +7.73 (0.73%)
Nasdaq 2,124.41 +14.08 (0.67%)

Top analyst upgrades and downgrades
Top market rumors
Top day trader alerts

Continue reading Closing Bell: A great day that may feel empty (AA, PEP, VG, LEN, RPRX, PLUG, MMM, WFC)

Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: ADBE, AZO, EBAY, GS, NOC, WFC ...

Analyst upgrades:

  • Deutsche Bank upgraded Clorox (NYSE: CLX) to Buy from Hold on valuation and believes upside to earnings forecasts is likely. The firm raised its target on shares to $66 from $65.
  • Kaufman Bros. upgraded eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) to Buy from Hold on expectations improved Marketplace fundamentals will serve as a positive catalyst for shares. The firm raised its price target on the stock to $29 from $22.
  • Roth Capital believes Zumiez (NASDAQ: ZUMZ) is well positioned for improved results and margins. The firm, which upgraded shares to Buy from Hold and raised its target to $22 from $16, said September back-to-school results bode well for the holiday season and demonstrate that Zumiez can drive conversion during peak shopping periods.
  • Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) was upgraded to Sell from Conviction Sell at Goldman.
  • Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE) was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Baird.
  • Monster Worldwide (NYSE: MWW) was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan.

Continue reading Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: ADBE, AZO, EBAY, GS, NOC, WFC ...

What a deal! Office rents drop as demand slows

Starting your own business? Need some extra space for your needlepoint habit? You're in luck ... office space comes cheap these days. In fact, rent for office space is sliding lower at the fastest rate since 1995. In the third quarter, office rents dropped 8.5% on a year-over-year basis.

Falling prices typically go hand in hand with falling demand and in fact, vacancies are on the rise as layoffs increase. New York-based real-estate research firm Reis says the office vacancy rate has hit a five-year high of 16.5%. Last quarter, tenants returned 19.6 million square feet of commercial rental space to their landlords.

Continue reading What a deal! Office rents drop as demand slows

Cramer on BloggingStocks: The future for BofA is with Moynihan

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says the faction supporting Greg Curl as new CEO doesn't realize he would be a step backward for the bank.

From day one my money's been on Brian Moynihan to run Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) (Cramer's Take). But the drumbeat grows louder from Charlotte, N.C., that Greg Curl's the man.

Why?

I think the reasoning is simple. Bank of America is like the Balkans. It's got all of these little countries within it and they all want hegemony. Nation's Bank. Bank of America. Fleet Bank. Ken Lewis always reminded me of Josip Broz Tito, holding together Yugoslavia as long as he was alive, although knowing Tito the way I did, he would never have overpaid for so many painful acquisitions.

Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: The future for BofA is with Moynihan

Closing Bell: The bull returns ahead of earnings (GE, WFC, FOLD, CIEN, VG)

Last week's sleeping bull market was brought back to a woken bull market. Despite warnings from Nouriel Roubini that things were up too much too fast, the services sector actually came in above the expansion line after 11 straight months of contraction. This caused most of the excitement for the day.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

DJIA
S&P500
NASDAQ

Today's top analyst upgrades and top analyst downgrades
Today's top day trader alerts
Today's top rumors

Continue reading Closing Bell: The bull returns ahead of earnings (GE, WFC, FOLD, CIEN, VG)

Goldman Sachs upgrades banks, Wells Fargo rallies

Monday morning has greeted the Street on an optimistic note toward large banks, as Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) has upped its coverage on the banking sector to "attractive" from "neutral." Goldman went as far as to name some specific banks, including Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), which it upped to "buy."

Goldman believes that Wells Fargo's capital position is improving, with it eventually benefiting from its takeover of Wachovia. The brokerage stated that Wells Fargo purchased Wachovia at a "distressed price" and that will help its assets increase 70% from the second quarter of 2007 to the second quarter of 2009.

Continue reading Goldman Sachs upgrades banks, Wells Fargo rallies

Cramer on BloggingStocks: Moynihan's the man for BofA

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says Brian Moynihan's job running BofA's consumer banking unit makes him the odds-on favorite.

My bet: Brian Moynihan. That's who I would appoint to be the head of Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) (Cramer's Take).

When all is said and done, Bank of America must become the best consumer bank in America in order to make the acquisitions work, and Moynihan's job, his experience running consumer banking, to me makes him the odds-on favorite.

Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: Moynihan's the man for BofA

Cramer on BloggingStocks: Here comes the death of the bearish funds

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says this year will see the mirror image of last year, when redemptions ended the game for many managers.

One year ago today, a quarter ended that put hundreds of bullish hedge funds out of business. Today, a quarter ends that will put hundreds of bearish hedge funds out of business.

Oh, sure, last year some of the bulls were able to stumble through the fourth quarter, but October was a horror show and they ended up getting huge redemption letters and spending the rest of 2008 selling into the strength of the rally to return capital to investors and lock in losses.

Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: Here comes the death of the bearish funds

Comfort Zone Investing: Earnings will look great but ...

We're wrapping up the third quarter soon. Earnings will be out in October for most companies, certainly the largest names. They should look very good ... when compared to the third quarter of last year. And the fourth quarter will most likely look even better when comparisons are made.

There's the rub. The percentage increase in earnings will be strong for most companies as many of them wrote down assets, especially in the financials, last year at this time. Mortgages that weren't paying, loans that were way past due, they were losses. Every kind of asset a bank or thrift owned was under scrutiny. Many financials bit the bullet and wrote off large numbers, to get the bad news out of the way. Others nibbled at it, stretching out the pain over several quarters. By now many of those write offs have been taken, and those kinds of losses will be lighter, making earnings much better.

Continue reading Comfort Zone Investing: Earnings will look great but ...

Closing bell: home sales don't help (AONE, BAC, WFC, GE, CHTP, JPM)

The market seems to want to go up each day as it has relentlessly almost every trading session since April. But yesterday, it had a tiny setback after the FOMC announcement. Today the culprit was housing. The National Association of Realtors said existing home sales declined 2.7% in August. Every economist worth his salt said the number would rise.

Good news on the unemployment front did give the market an early boost this morning. Within an hour, though, bad news on the housing sales front wiped out the gains and moved the major indices into negative territory, where they have remained.

Here were today's unofficial closing numbers:

Dow 9,706.99 -41.56 (-0.43%)
S&P 500 1,050.78 -10.09 (-0.95%)
Nasdaq 2,107.61 -23.81 (-1.12%)

Continue reading Closing bell: home sales don't help (AONE, BAC, WFC, GE, CHTP, JPM)

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Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA+17.4610,023.42
NASDAQ+7.122,112.44
S&P 500+2.671,069.30

Last updated: November 08, 2009: 03:42 AM

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