According to Standard & Poor's (S&P) Case-Shiller home price index, home prices are falling faster in the nation's largest cities.

The index dropped 0.6% in September compared to August (some are reporting 0.7%), with 18 of the cities recording monthly price declines. The largest drop was reported in Cleveland, Ohio, which saw prices drop 3% compared to a month earlier. The only two cities where prices increased were Washington DC (thanks mainly to government spending) and Las Vegas (which has been battered in recent reports).

Continue reading Case-Shiller Index Data Shows Home Prices Are Falling

Case-Shiller Index Data Shows Home Prices Are Falling originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Wednesday morning, Standard & Poor's announced that it may cut AT&T's (T) credit rating because the company could have trouble reducing its debt load within a "reasonable timeframe."

The ratings house placed the communications firm on CreditWatch negative with implications, which includes the company's "A" rating and its "A-1" short-term and commercial paper ratings. S&P stated, that it expects "a potential downgrade of the corporate credit rating, if any, would be limited to one notch." This news has had very little impact on the stock, as shares of the titan of telecom were trading near break-even by late morning.

Continue reading Standard & Poor's May Downgrade AT&T

Standard & Poor's May Downgrade AT&T originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Helmerich & Payne to Be Added to S&P 500

Helmerich & Payne to Be Added to S&P 500 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Housing Market Slides, but Some Silver Lining Visible

Housing Market Slides, but Some Silver Lining Visible originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 27 Jan 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A rally that began last year has already run up the prices of some stocks, creating small bubbles across the market. Some investors might be pushing prices higher ahead of their time for 62 of the stocks in the S&P 500 index. These companies now have P/E ratios of above 70, up from 23 a year ago. Says Robert Maltbie of Singular Research, "We have to temper some of this crazy bullishness." He tells USA Today that when P/E ratios approach 70, a stock can begin to have problems.

So, why are some prices being run up? As usual, any hope of rational price drivers is the domain of dreamers. Investors have found their favorites and sometimes haven't allowed reality to become a constraint on their excitement. Take a look at five reasons below:

Continue reading Five Reasons Mini-Bubbles Are Forming

Five Reasons Mini-Bubbles Are Forming originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 18 Jan 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The private equity market was hit hard by the financial crisis last year, but it's already on the road to recovery, according to a new report by Preqin (pdf).

From the first quarter to the second, this year, increasing returns and valuations have given investors a reason to hope, even though the industry's average return is down 24.1% for the 12-month period ending June 30, 2009. The negative return still outpaced the S&P 500, MSCI Europe and MSCI Emerging Markets indexes, the alternative investment research firm says, which returned -26.2%, -34.1% and -27.8%, respectively -- and the 12-month average improved from -30% for the year-long period ending March 31, 2009.

Continue reading Private equity returns off 24% but still ahead of the broader market

Private equity returns off 24% but still ahead of the broader market originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 12 Dec 2009 13:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

What happens when a bank has to accept the collateral posted for loans? Well, in Russia, it's like the punchline to a bad Yakov Smirnoff joke. "In Russia, when a bank takes collateral, it has to set up a pigpen!"

Well, this is exactly what happened to Alexander Lebedev's OAO National Reserve Bank. It wound up with 40,450 of them. As Russian banks are coping with the financial crisis, they are finding themselves with a variety of hard goods that they never expected to receive.

Continue reading Pigs and panties: Russian banks stuck with unexpected collateral

Pigs and panties: Russian banks stuck with unexpected collateral originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), a distributor of business information and educational materials which counts Scholastic (NASDAQ: SCHL) as a related stock, issued third-quarter results earlier today. Sales contracted over 8%. Net income on a dollar basis dropped almost 14%. Earnings per diluted share decreased a very unlucky 13% to $1.07. At least expectations were taken out. Earnings.com indicates a beat of two pennies for per-share profit.

The declines are pretty understandable. When you think about McGraw-Hill, you understand fairly quickly that the company's business model is tied closely to the economy. Education markets must be tough given all the budget cuts happening in school systems across the country. Plus, spending by administrators is probably done these days very slowly and carefully.

Continue reading McGraw-Hill comes out ahead of estimates in Q3, but stock is having trouble

McGraw-Hill comes out ahead of estimates in Q3, but stock is having trouble originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Economist and president of a research firm that bears his name, Andrew Smithers (not related to the Smithers of Mr. Burns fame) is saying our on-fire stock market is set to burn itself out. The S&P 500 Index is overvalued by 40%, he believes, and we can expect a plunge thanks to central bankers restraining themselves on the securities purchases that have pushed the markets up so far so fast. Also, banks are going to need to sell more shares to raise capital and pump up their balance sheets.

If the S&P 500 were to take a 40% dive today, it would fall to 647.76 (based on the Friday close), below the low it recorded in March.

Continue reading S&P overvalued by 40%, according to economist Smithers

S&P overvalued by 40%, according to economist Smithers originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading First Solar to join the S&P 500 Index

First Solar to join the S&P 500 Index originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 02 Oct 2009 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Closing bell: Eight is enough ... really (DELL, INTC, MOS, SBUX, TRBN)

Closing bell: Eight is enough ... really (DELL, INTC, MOS, SBUX, TRBN) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Today's technical outlook: Obama's bad timing

Today's technical outlook: Obama's bad timing originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 26 Feb 2009 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Standard & Poor's has slashed Motorola Inc.'s (NYSE: MOT) credit rating to junk status, saying that continued operational challenges will lead to weak cash flows.

"Revenues and profits in the first part of the year will be challenged by a narrower, somewhat-dated product portfolio," S&P's Bruce Hyman said in a statement. "Standard & Poor's also expects about 10 percent fewer handsets to be sold worldwide in 2009 at lower average prices than in 2008."

On December 1, BloggingStocks' Doug McIntyre wrote that "As hard as it would have been to imagine a year ago, Motorola may still have to dump its cell operation and perhaps put it into Chapter 11. Its fate is that grim. It needs to escape its employee and creditor obligations to make it."

The company's November 2012 notes are trading at a yield of 8.02% -- hardly a sign of a company in severe distress.

But everything the company needs to do to turn itself around will be made more difficult by a weak credit rating in an environment where it's tough for company's with good credit ratings to secure access to capital.

But the one thing we can see from this is that Carl Icahn's complaint that the company was under-leveraged may not have been the case.

Motorola cut to junk by Standard and Poor's originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 07 Dec 2008 11:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

McGraw-Hill's S&P (MHP) to face tougher regulation in the EU originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Most investors probably think that when an investment ratings service like Moody's, Standard & Poors or Fitch gives a company, financial institution or security the highest rating of "AAA," it carries the least possible level of risk. Most investors would think that this rating would be reserved for United States Treasuries and only the most secure of companies like Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A), Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), or United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS). Actually, this happens to be the case, and these companies are among the very few to receive AAA ratings outside of financial institutions.

So what happened in the case of the Collateralized Debt Obligation (CDOs), where the ratings agencies determined that high-risk securities batched together had a smaller chance of default than the individual securities? Perhaps that is the case, but triple-A? Well, it seems to me that large investment banks knew they needed the AAA ratings to have a marketable security. They went to the ratings agencies that understood this and the agencies created the rational or plausible deniability to support the rating. This may be a bit harsh, but it does seem that the ratings agencies were working in reverse: first establish the rating and then the support for the rating. The ratings services are all heading for cover and many of the previously AAA-rated securities are being re-evaluated.

Continue reading Subprime = Triple-A ratings? or 'How to Lie with Statistics'

Subprime = Triple-A ratings? or 'How to Lie with Statistics' originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 25 Jul 2007 15:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Is tech hand-wringing creating opportunities for savvy investors?

Is tech hand-wringing creating opportunities for savvy investors? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 26 Jan 2007 14:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.