The mayhem in the media industry continues. The Wall Street Journal, a News Corp (NASDAQ: NWS) property, is closing its Boston bureau and sending nine employees into the wind. The newswire and MarketWatch operations are going to stay open in Boston, however, with no headcount impact.

The Journal doesn't have any plans to close other offices, according to a memo by managing editor Robert Thomson: "there are no plans, nascent or otherwise, to close any other U.S. or international bureau." The WSJ will still support an "investigative function" in Boston, but the New York-based Money and Investing team will cover Boston's mutual fund industry, which boasts such heavy hitters as Fidelity.

At the same time, magazine company Time Inc., owned by Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) is looking to cut $100 million in expenses, and layoffs will undoubtedly figure into the equation. The company that owns Time, Fortune, People and Sports Illustrated - and falls under the same umbrella as AOL, which owns BloggingStocks - is feeling the squeeze of a media recession that's even worse than the regular recession we've all been battling for what feels like decades.

Continue reading Time and WSJ to lay off more

Time and WSJ to lay off more originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Oil drops below $67

Oil drops below $67 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 28 Jul 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In a perfect world, an ample supply of a commodity at a low price should stimulate demand. Not so with gasoline in America. According to MarketWatch, "Even though prices at the pump are now about 45% lower than they were a year ago and significantly below $2 a gallon, 52% of Americans told Gallup that they have not gone back to their old gas-guzzling ways."

The poll indicates, as might be expected, that lower income drivers are cutting back the most.

The easy reasoning behind the drop in driving is that people will save money in a tough economy. If things were good, drivers would drive more and take advantage of falling prices.

It may not be that simple. The average American is not a boob. He understands that, over time, the amount of oil in the world is finite. Gas prices may not go back up tomorrow, but they will go back up. Getting used to using oil-based products less is good long-term thinking.

Another, less obvious, reason for cutting back on hours on the road is that a car driven less lasts longer. Buying gas may be getting less expensive, but a new car is still an investment of over $20,000 in most cases. People don't have that money. Getting another year of service out of an aging vehicle has a particularly important value in a recession.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Low gas prices don't put drivers back on the road originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 01 Jan 2009 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Herb Greenberg leaving MarketWatch originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Mark Hulbert at MarketWatch

Dow 16,000? C'mon! originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

"Never give a sucker an even break. Never wise up a chump"--W.C. Fields

People will scratch their heads for weeks trying to figure out why the Dow turned around about 600 points today and ended up 300. It is the kind of day folks can can tell their grandchildren about.

Part of the big jump in the Dow was due to the big run in financial components of the index, especially Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C), American Express Company (NYSE: AXP), and JP Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM).

The rise was based on "what the Fed did yesterday and prospects for next week," said Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak in an interview with MarketWatch. That is really no explanation at all. The market is not blind to what the Fed did or what it is likely to do. But no one had a better explanation.

Less than three months ago, the Dow was over 14,000. Today it dropped as low as 11,645. Traders saw some bargains in depressed shares and rushed to get a piece of them. There is no guarantee that many of those people will not take profits a day from now or a week from now. There has been no fundamental change in the dynamics of the market or the economy. No one will know if the Fed move has worked until a few months from now. The stimulus package that the President and Congress are working on could still fall apart.

Any rally now is based in part on a belief that the economy will not fall apart like a cheap watch. That way of thinking would be a mistake. If the next two months are riddled with higher-than-expected home foreclosures or some despot manages to interrupt the oil supply from a big exporter of crude, the market could sell off 5% or 10% again.

The tooth fairy may still exist, but her pockets are empty.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

The market rally: Never give a sucker an even break originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 23 Jan 2008 17:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

CEO encores: Good for investors originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 15 Jan 2008 09:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Dow Jones pulls CNBC ads for FOX Business Network debut originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 16 Oct 2007 11:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• Alain Dassas has been named CFO of Nissan Motor Company (NASDAQ: NSANY), filing a position that has remained open for four years, reported the Wall Street Journal. Dassas runs the Formula One race car team at Renault, which has a 44% stake in Nissan.

• Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), Citigroup Inc (NYSE: C), Lehman Brothers Holdings (NYSE: LEH) and JP Morgan Chase and Company (NYSE: JPM), The banks involved in the underwriting of the TXU Corporation (NYSE: TXU) buyout by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and TPG, have offered to pay the $1B breakup free to convince the private equity buyers to back out, according to the U.K. Times.
• GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) is currently looking for someone to succeed CEO Jean-Pierre Garnier, who will retire next May, and investors are thought to want a CEO that will 'radically overhaul' the company and possible break it up, reported the Guardian.
• The Seattle Times reported that Boeing Company (NYSE: BA) is expected to announce that the first flight of its 787 Dreamliner jet will be delayed at least until late October, according to an inside source.

• Herb Greenberg noted in his MarketWatch blog yesterday that International Rectifier Corporation (NYSE: IRF) disclosed on Friday after the market close how it was committing fraud by having a subsidiary hide products already booked as revenue in "off-books warehouses."

Newspaper wrap-up: Boeing expected to announce more Dreamliner delays originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 04 Sep 2007 09:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In case anyone is still feeling bullish, Paul Farrell of MarkeWatch has produced a list of 20 triggers that will end what he calls "the aging bull." Here are some of his suggestions for possible "tipping points" that will bring an abrupt end to all this fun. Here are some of the ones I think could be particularly catastrophic:

• Trade imbalance
• Real Estate markets problems
• Skyrocketing Oil
• Surging consumer debt
• Issues of international credibility

Interestingly, I disagree strongly with his concern about "Washington politics in endless gridlock." Isn't that a good thing? If the best government is the least government, what could be better than a bunch of bureaucrats in Congress arguing and accomplishing nothing -- i.e. not spending our money?

Take a look at the list and let us know what you think the top concerns are.

Five triggers for a catastrophic market decline originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 02 Aug 2007 10:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Towel Talk: Rupert's top stories originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 30 Jul 2007 14:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Watching the Bancrofts agonize over whether to sell Dow Jones & Co. (NYSE: DJ) to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) for $5 billion is getting to be painful.

The outcome of the family's deliberations is too close to call, according to the Wall Street Journal. One family member, Crawford Hill, told his relatives during a contentious meeting "all these years we haven't done enough to question management.It seems like bad timing to start now." Good point.

As I've argued before, the Bancrofts' interest in protecting the business that's been in their family since 1902 is really late in coming. The family has cashed its substantial dividend checks for years as Dow Jones made bad decision after bad decision. They really have no right to complain about the hand the media world has dealt them.

Murdoch's $60 offer isn't just ridiculous. It's insane. No buyer with any sense would try to top it. Brad Greenspan is proposing a plan he says will boost the shares to $100. It has some interesting ideas such as having WSJ.com take on Yahoo Finance. The problem is that his expectations are extremely optimistic. I just don't see how he can generate a compound annual earnings growth rate of 60 percent.

Besides, if Greenspan's plan is so great why doesn't he present it to some backers and get funding to match or top Murdoch's offer?

Anyone expecting a white knight to come to Dow Jones' rescue is wasting their time. The Bancrofts will certainly face lawsuits from minority shareholders if they turn down Murdoch's bid. Dow Jones will be better off in the long run as part of News Corp.

Dow Jones soap opera too close to call originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 24 Jul 2007 22:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MarketWatch's tech diva Bambi Francisco left the Dow Jones & Co. (NYSE: DJ) Web site late Friday after questions were raised about her financial interest in Vator.TV, a web site that features video interviews with technology executives.

Stories in CNET and The Wall Street Journal pointed out that Francisco regularly wrote about companies that appeared on Vator.TV or had dealings with backer Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal who is now a venture capitalist. Most news organizations forbid journalists from writing about companies in which they have a financial interest.

MarketWatch made an exception for Francisco, who is well-known in Silicon Valley. David Calloway, the editor-in-chief of the site, told CNET that he told Francisco to avoid writing about Vator.TV and the companies that use the service.

That agreement that was doomed to fail since Vator.TV interviewed tech executives and Francisco did the same thing for MarketWatch. Her bosses should have realized that arrangement wasn't working before other news agencies pointed that out to them.

Even though several hours before filing her final column, Francisco told the tech news service that she did nothing wrong, her departure was unavoidable. Advertisers won't pay top rates to advertise with news organizations whose credibility is in question.

Dow Jones deserves some credit for not sweeping this matter under the rug the way that CNBC did with the Maria Bartiromo episode.

Continue reading Bambi Francisco leaves MarketWatch under a cloud

Bambi Francisco leaves MarketWatch under a cloud originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 07 Apr 2007 08:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MarketWatch technology columnist Bambi Francisco is the Dow Jones & Co.'s (NYSE: DJ) website's answer to CNBC's Maria Bartiromo. Now it looks like she's followed the ethical path blazed by the Money Honey.

The Wall Street Journal (subscription) today reported that Francisco invested in Vator.TV, a video platform that links entrepreneurs with venture capitalists. Dow Jones reporters are allowed to invest in whatever they want to, provided that they don't use their position to further their own interests.

MarketWatch executive editor David Calloway said he approved of Francisco's investment under the condition that she "not write about that company, its investors, or the companies using Vator.TV," the Journal said.

That didn't happen.

In January, Francisco posted an interview with a company called PreFound, which had previously uploaded a video on Vator, and in March wrote an item about Helio, which had uploaded a video on Vator, according to the Journal. Four days she wrote about Friendster, the social networking site posted a video on Vator.TV, the paper said.

Francisco has her own personal blog in which she has a video blog called Vator Reports, which she described as
"a show on innovation, based on the many innovative ideas and businesses Peter Thiel and I are seeing on the vator.tv site."

Thiel is the co-founder of PayPal and also an investor in Vator.TV. He's also a backer of Facebook, which Francisco also wrote about. Her bosses apparently never bothered to look on her site or Valleywag, which had this story in November.

Most journalists would have been fired for doing what she did. But Francisco, like Bartiromo, isn't like most journalists. It will be interesting to see what if any punishment she gets from Dow Jones.

MarketWatch's Bambi Francisco is in trouble originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 06 Apr 2007 17:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I always enjoy reading Chuck Jaffe's columns on Marketwatch, even though I don't always agree with his analysis. He provides thoughtful analysis of issues that most other columnists don't bother with. Somehow, I only just found out about his radio show, and I'm excited. On Your Money with Chuck Jaffe (Insipid name. Marketing execs: Think of something better), he takes questions about stocks (and gives more thoughtful analysis than Cramer's Lightning Round), discusses the market, and conducts interesting interviews.

On his most recent show, he spoke with Brent Wilsey of Wilsey Asset Management, who talked about the importance of using ratios in stock selection. I certainly agree that they are a good starting point -- I use stock screeners regularly to find solidly profitable companies trading close to book value with minimal debt. But I would also caution investors that screeners are also just a starting point.

In Ken Fisher's new book, The Only Three Questions That Count, he discusses one of the most important questions for investors to answer: What do you know that others don't? If you're basing your investing decisions on ratios, stock picks from popular websites, or the newspaper, you're probably not acting based on any knowledge that is uniquely your own. My advice: Use the screeners for quantitative measures, but don't be afraid to inject your own knowledge. Is there a hot new product in your industry? Are you a fashionista who has a better grasp of the latest fashion trends than the Wall Street analysts? Thinking about investments this way is the most likely way to find answers to the question: What do you know that others don't?

Chuck Jaffe's radio show: What you know that others don't originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 01 Apr 2007 09:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

For the more sophisticated trader, Michael Ashbaugh, editor of Marketwatch's The Technical Indicator, reivews the technical condition of the market following last week's decline.

And while he believes the drop inflicted "serious technical damage" to the general market, he still finds one sector -- telecom stocks -- showing favorable near-term strength.

As for the overall market, he explains, "When we assess the S&P 500, we look at the 20-day Bollinger bands. A break above or below the bands is statistically unusual, and consecutive breaks outside the bands are even more uncommon.

"Perhaps not surprisingly, the S&P closed way under its 20-day bands after Tuesday's bloodletting. And even with Wednesday's gains, the S&P notched a second consecutive close under the bands."

What does this mean looking ahead? Ashbaugh notes, "Technically speaking, a break under the bands suggests a tension between two time horizons. On a near-term basis, the breakdown suggests an index is oversold and due to bounce. It's edged outside the band that brackets two standard deviations of its 20-day volatility, and a reversion to the mean should be expected.

"Yet on a longer-term basis, the underlying sell pressure has been extreme, and will likely lead the markets lower. In the end, significant technical damage was inflicted on Tuesday, and this is a market to avoid near-term until better signs of a bottom are in place."

Meanwhile, he notes, "The telecom sector may be the best positioned sector after this week's losses. The group has two things working for it in the current market. To start, it remains within a strong uptrend, notching five-year highs as recently as last Monday."

Fundamentally, he adds, "The group also has defensive characteristics that help insulate it from broad-market downturns. The Telecom Index rallied from support Wednesday at the breakout point and the 50-day moving average."

Within the Telecom Index, the technical advisor sees four stocks that he believes appear well-positioned to rise over the near term: Citizens Communications (NYSE:CZN), Qwest Communications (NYSE:Q), Embarq Corp. (NYSE:EQ) and Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S).

Steven Halpern's TheStockAdvisors.com provides a free, daily overview of the latest stock ideas from the nation's leading financial newsletters.

Technician targets telecoms originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 06 Mar 2007 12:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Best of MarketWatch: December 21-27 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 28 Dec 2006 10:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I was wondering what that odd caller id was: www.luvoo.com. Chuck Jaffe from MarketWatch picked up the phone when the call rang into his residence. And it was Carmen Electra (her pre-recorded voice, but still).

She was pitching online dating, but Jaffe thought it notable that she'd mentioned www.luvoo.com's stock was publicly traded. He followed the trail to the web site, where, he says, the "current focus seems to be on its stock; the most prominent feature is a bad head shot of Electra over the words 'Newly Publicly Traded!'"

It seems pretty obvious that Carmen's main goal was not to get Jaffe and myself (both happily married, just for the record) to find each other via the terribly-designed site, but for us to find a quick money-making scheme.

Jaffe goes in-depth and highlights Luvoo.com (LVTI, currently down 12.5 cents on the day to 27.5 cents) as a "stupid investment of the week." Warning flags include daily press releases since the June 9 IPO (most frighteningly, with the CEO talking about how honored he is to have been featured on sites like IPOMovers, "paid marketing conduits"); the lack of any discussion of a business model, or balance sheet; and the fact that the numbers trumpeted in press releases are rather amorphous and without any basis -- for instance, the fact that Carmen's endorsement caused a 400% jump in subscriptions (400% of what? and are any of those monetizable?). There was no press release announcing how the Pauly Shore endorsement affected the company's prospects (licking the bottom of the celebrity endorsement salsa bowl, guys?).

It's a good reminder that stocks shouldn't be evaluated on the basis of the company's celebrity pitch-people, but by the quality of their financial statements. And having a sexy voice on the other end of the phone is likely as much of a red flag as a disappearing business model.

Carmen Electra pitching stupid investments? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 23 Jun 2006 13:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.