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Closing Bell: Earnings Season's Tough Start (AET, AA, BAC, CVX, ERTS, KBH, HIG)

Posted Jan 12th 2010 4:00PM by Jon Ogg (RSS feed)
Filed under: Aetna Inc (AET), Alcoa Inc (AA), Bank of America (BAC), Chevron Corp (CVX), KB HOME (KBH), Electronic Arts (ERTS)

Today started out as a down day and it stayed that way. The market tried to recover mid-morning, but that failed. The financial sector was under pressure from guidance and from fears of more reprisals out of Washington D.C. that never seem to go away. The rest of the market pressure was on earnings and a pressure of earnings warnings hitting the stocks.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 10,626.81 -37.18 (-0.35%)
S&P 500 1,136.21 -10.77 (-0.94%)
Nasdaq 2,282.31 -30.10 (-1.30%)

Top Analyst Upgrades
Top Analyst Downgrades

Continue reading Closing Bell: Earnings Season's Tough Start (AET, AA, BAC, CVX, ERTS, KBH, HIG)

How does China protect its basic industries?

Posted Dec 29th 2008 11:00AM by Connie Madon (RSS feed)
Filed under: International Markets, Industry, Competitive Strategy, China, Economic Data, Commodities

Unlike the free market economy in the United States, in China companies that develop raw materials are state owned. In a bizarre twist, China is able to stabilize raw material prices more quickly than other developed countries. So where the US Treasury moved to loan money to the auto industry, the Chinese government can step in directly to stabilize prices.

As an example let's look at China's aluminum producers. Back in October Chalco, China's largest aluminum producer, cut production by 720,000 tons or 18%. At that time the price of aluminum was about $2000 US dollars per ton. Now just two months later aluminum supplies are still increasing and prices are still falling. In an effort to "hold the line" and halt the slide in prices, China'a State Reserve Bureau has stepped in and bought 300,000 tons at about $1800 US dollars per ton.

Do you feel these practices will hurt or help the world economy?