Continue reading Chasing Value: Wells Fargo - squeezing out the shorts!

Chasing Value: Wells Fargo - squeezing out the shorts! originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 04 May 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Kraft (NYSE: KFT), whose supermarket colleagues include Kellogg (NYSE: K) and General Mills (NYSE: GIS), will be reporting Q4 results tomorrow. Analysts expect the foodstuffs company to report $0.44 per share. Unfortunately, Kraft did $0.44 per share in the year-ago period. So the market doesn't think Kraft will grow the bottom line.

Perhaps that will work in Kraft's favor. With expectations so low, management has the opportunity to surprise to the upside. The company has a decent record in beating Wall Street expectations. Kraft certainly has brands that people like. However, things are becoming more difficult for the consumer. Layoffs are everywhere, and job security has taken a sabbatical. Kraft needs to convince people to pay extra for a package of Kraft-branded cheese or a box of Nabisco Ritz crackers when there are less-expensive generic substitutes available.

Continue reading Earnings preview: Can Kraft process growth in Q4?

Earnings preview: Can Kraft process growth in Q4? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 03 Feb 2009 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Wall Street has a habit of riding its booms a bit too long. And that leads to collapse, layoffs, and hand wringing about the future. But it looks like Wall Street is already moving forward. And that means exporting its future by taking its finance franchise to cash rich countries and out of the canyons of Wall Street.

Wall Street's boom and bust cycles tend to eclipse a decade. In the 1980s, junk-bond fueled takeovers created massive amounts of wealth -- and also led to the collapse of junk-bond issuer Drexel Burnham. Wall Street licked its wounds for a few years and by the mid-1990s it had reinvented itself as the headquarters for Internet initial public offerings. That bubble burst in 2000. Then the Fed cut rates to 1% and Wall Street reemerged as a packager of mortgages -- along with servicing hedge funds and private equity moguls.

That all ended last August and the collapse of that bubble led to the demise of Bear Stearns and Countrywide and the loss of about $8 trillion worth of wealth. The New York Times reports that the latest collapse has cost 80,000 finance jobs as well. But Wall Street is already mapping out its future by following the money. And the Times pinpoints where Wall Street thinks that money resides -- based on the growth in the number of Wall Street people moving to various global money centers.

Continue reading Wall Street exports its future

Wall Street exports its future originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 12 Aug 2008 10:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.