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Closing Bell: Can't go up every day (BAC, HE, HPW, COMS, BRCD, WMT, AMD)

Posted Nov 12th 2009 4:00PM by Jon Ogg (RSS feed)
Filed under: Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), General Electric (GE), Wal-Mart (WMT), Intel (INTC), Bank of America (BAC)

Jobless claims almost went under 500,000 and gave one of the lowest readings this year. Unfortunately that wasn't enough for the market because these likely need to get under 400,000 or so before unemployment will stop rising. Oil inventories took some fuel from oil, but the weak 30-Year Treasury auction and the government's budget deficit kept the six day rally from turning into a 7-day rally.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 10,197.47 -93.79 (-0.91%)
S&P 500 1,087.21 -11.30 (-1.03%)
Nasdaq 2,149.29 -17.61 (-0.81%)

Top Analyst Upgrades/Downgrades
Top Day Trader Alerts
Top Stock/Market Rumors

Continue reading Closing Bell: Can't go up every day (BAC, HE, HPW, COMS, BRCD, WMT, AMD)

Citi down 20% as Credit Default Swap premium spikes 55%

Posted Jan 14th 2009 3:17PM by Peter Cohan (RSS feed)
Filed under: Citigroup Inc. (C)

Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C) has gone below $5 a share which triggers the dreaded sell-off by institutional investors who are not allowed to own stocks that trade below that level. And rumors of Vikram Pandit's departure from the CEO role are beginning to accumulate.

Unfortunately, the Credit Default Swap (CDS) market is now also kicking in. When this happens, it generally means that a company needs to come up with lots of cash to continue to insure its bonds. And since Tuesday, the CDS premium for Citi bonds rose 55% -- the annual cost of protecting $10 million of Citi debt against default for five years rose to $410,000 on Wednesday from $265,000 on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, CNBC's Charlie Gasparino claims that "the market is betting that Vikram Pandit's days are over." And with Citi just announcing that it will move up its quarterly reporting date from the 22nd to the 16th, the bad news should be out soon. I am sorry to say that it looks like the value of Citi's equity is about to hit bottom and never recover.

Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and is the author of You Can't Order Change: Lessons from Jim McNerney's Turnaround at Boeing. He owns Citi shares.

Is Jamie Dimon the reincarnation of J.P. Morgan?

Posted Sep 26th 2008 10:05AM by Jonathan Berr (RSS feed)
Filed under: Management, General Electric (GE), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), , Financial Crisis

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) Chief Executive Jamie Dimon is the new king of Wall Street whose power rivals his company's namesake John Pierpont Morgan.

Over the past year, Dimon managed to steer JPMorgan away from the subprime credit crisis while managing to keep his company's stock from cratering like his competitors'. First, he absorbed Bear Stearns after it went out of business. Now, Dimon has managed to pick up Washington Mutual Inc. (NYSE: WM) -- the good parts of it anyway -- for $1.9 billion. The deal is accretive in 2009.

Dimon is proving to be Wall Street's shrewdest manager. He did not get to be so successful by being a teddy bear. Indeed, reports abound about his abrasive personality. But unlike other Wall Street CEOs, Dimon knows his job is to work for the shareholders. Dimon's zeal for cost-cutting knows no bounds. He got rid of expensive technology outsourcing contracts, figuring the company could do the work cheaper itself.

Continue reading Is Jamie Dimon the reincarnation of J.P. Morgan?

Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA-51.4710,399.48
NASDAQ-10.722,165.29
S&P 500-4.101,102.14

Last updated: November 24, 2009: 09:55 AM

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