Continue reading Penn National Gaming (PENN) rises after Ohio casino vote

Penn National Gaming (PENN) rises after Ohio casino vote originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Shares of Huntington Bancshares Inc. (NASDAQ: HBAN) fell Friday afternoon after three days of gains as investors reacted negatively to news that the company planned to sell $400 million worth of common stock. At mid-afternoon Friday, shares of the Columbus, Ohio-based bank were down more than 2% to $4.41 a share.

On Friday, Huntington said it priced the shares at $4.20 a share, selling 95.2 million shares totaling some $400 million in gross proceeds. Deal underwriters have an 30-day option to buy another 14.3 million shares, the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Continue reading Huntington Bancshares stock falls with newest stock offer

Huntington Bancshares stock falls with newest stock offer originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB) expects almost half of all U.S. homeowners to be underwater -- figuratively, of course -- by 2011.

Declines in home prices and the fact that some of those difficult mortgages just aren't going away put 26% of homeowners in this situation by the end of last March, and it seems the situation is only going to get worse. Unlike the early stages of the credit crisis, which were driven by subprime mortgages, the next iteration will have a greater effect on prime mortgage borrowers, which comprise two-thirds of the loans outstanding.

Continue reading Half of all mortgages to be underwater by 2011

Half of all mortgages to be underwater by 2011 originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

AK Steel Holding Corporation

Continue reading AK Steel earnings preview

AK Steel earnings preview originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Rising unemployment will result from more than just trouble in private industry, and that could help push the jobless rate closer to 10% as the year passes. States and municipalities are working harder and harder to cut their work forces, or at least curtail their work hours and benefits.

According to the AP, "Unions argue their members shouldn't be singled out and are even more vital in hard times -- securing neighborhoods and prisons, educating children and providing social services to growing numbers of citizens." That may be accurate, but states running huge deficits will grasp at any life preserver they can find.

The problem raises the subject of how the $825 billion stimulus package can be be used. Putting it into infrastructure projects may work, but that will take time. Building out roads, the energy grid, and broadband systems can require months of planning. Those are months the economy does not have.

Putting money directly into state treasuries has a nearly immediate positive impact. Tens of thousands of workers in places from California to Michigan could keep their jobs. It may not create new employment, but is certainly keeps joblessness from spiking higher.

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

More pressure on employment: States push for jobs cuts originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 24 Jan 2009 10:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

There is increasing evidence that states like California and Michigan, which are running huge budget deficits, will need federal aid to keep their essential services operating. They could plummet an already battered federal budget billions of dollars further into a deficit.

The need for state bailout funds seems to be growing and growing quickly. According to MSNBC, "In Ohio, which has shed 100,000 jobs in the past year, Gov. Ted Strickland (D) and his budget team spend a lot of time delivering bad news to constituents and plotting ways to wring money from the federal government." The state's two-year budget deficit could rise to well over $7 billion.

In places like Ohio and Michigan, matters are only going to get worse. Big industrial states are extremely likely to lose more jobs and businesses as sectors from automotive to retailing may see some companies disappear completely.

The issue that becomes more troubling every day is whether there is a finite limit to what the federal government can spend to save the national economy. Of course there is, but no one knows that number, which means no one can predict which industries and municipalities will get capital.

With so many beggars, the new Congress and administration are going to run low on hand-outs.

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

State governments look for hand-outs originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 29 Dec 2008 07:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This post is part of our Big Company, Small Town series, featuring large companies and the small towns in which they are headquartered.

The town of Orrville sits on the northern edge of the Ohio Amish area, and has that same bucolic feel. A friendly town that once was no more than a railroad stop for the agriculture, and a bedroom community for the heavy industries, of Wooster and Massillon, it is now best known as the jam capital of America, the home of the big (and growing) J.M. Smucker Company (NYSE: SJM).

Smucker has more than just its office in Orrville. For over 100 years, it has made jam in its factory right in the center of town. Of the 8,500 Orrville residents, 1,100 currently work for Smucker. It also operates the Simply Smucker's store in town, where visitors can view 350 varieties of Smucker's products, some available for taste-testing.

Since its fortunes and Orrville's are intertwined, it's fortunate for the community that Smucker appears on Fortune magazine's annual list of the top 100 companies to work for year after year, even finishing number one in 2004. The company is also known for its local charitable contributions. This year, for example, Smucker and its employees provided almost half of all funds raised by the United Way of Orrville.

Continue reading Big company, small town: J.M. Smucker & Co., Orrville, Ohio

Big company, small town: J.M. Smucker & Co., Orrville, Ohio originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY), which is the third largest bank in Ohio, has survived many challenging market environments. After all, the bank's roots go back to 1825.

However, the latest credit crisis has been particularly tough. Over the past year, the stock price has plunged from $37 to $11.46.

Well, this week, KeyCorp raised $1.65 billion from a common and preferred stock offering. Actually, the company was able to sell 10% more than expected.

Like other banks, KeyCorp binged on loans over the past few years. In fact, a big piece of the lending was for residential real estate construction (especially in California and Florida). Needless to say, those loans are shaky now.

Something else: KeyCorp needs to take a sizable charge for an adverse court ruling because of leveraged lease transactions.

As a result, KeyCorp expects to report a $1.1 billion to $1.2 billion loss for Q2. And, after 43 years of increases in dividends, the company also had to slash its payout by half.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

KeyCorp goes hat-in-hand to investors originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 14 Jun 2008 17:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In the April 23, Wall Street Journal, Senator Sherrod Brown, (D) Ohio, made a realistic assessment of current government trade policy and how it is diluting the strength of our country. I think that Senator Brown was just a bit gentle with his words, and understandably so when given his position. Suffice it to say that I agree with him for the most part, but he should have just cut to the chase. The American working class has been sold out. He also failed to make one critical point about NAFTA. It was his party and the guidance of Bill Clinton that navigated that document into law.

Partisan politics aside, I believe that current American trade standards are something we need to be ashamed of. As a free market capitalist, I have nothing against the survival of the fittest in the worlds of manufacturing and business. However, we're beholden to good sense to provide a level playing field and to maintain benchmark standards. In that regard, American workers have been shorted. Our trade deficit is a testament to the decline of the American Dream. It's a dream, while not referred to by that name, that resides in the hearts of workers the world over. Every parent wants their children to have a greater degree of opportunity and safety than they had.

Continue reading An Ohio senator opines on free trade

An Ohio senator opines on free trade originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 26 Apr 2008 16:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Hillary can't wait for Pennsylvania

Hillary can't wait for Pennsylvania originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A CNNMoney piece looks at the rise of payday lending in Ohio, aided (or perhaps exacerbated is a better word) by the subprime debacle that has given many home owners with toxic mortgages difficulty making their payments.

While people probably aren't using payday loans directly to pay their mortgages, that's the net result: Soaring monthly payments are eating up a big chunk of their paychecks, and they're resorting to payday lending to pay for other expenses.

The problem with that is that, on an annualized basis, interest rates on payday loans can end up being well over 400%. However the lenders counter, not wrongly, that the loans are not meant to be used for a year so quoting an APR is meaningless -- They charge a service fee for a short-term cash advance.

Continue reading Taking out a payday loan to pay the mortage -- that's stupid!

Taking out a payday loan to pay the mortage -- that's stupid! originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 15 Dec 2007 13:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

BloggingStockCast: Housing slump in Middle America? Not so much... originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 21 Sep 2007 15:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Here's an interesting little tidbit I recently culled from United Press International last week: It seems that a firm in Cincinnati is planning to market some snazzy electric retrofit cars.

The strategy is to take General Motors (NYSE: GM) Saturn vehicles, including four-door sedans and SUVs, rip the internal combustion engines out of them, and replace those engines with plug-in electric power plants, batteries, and some computer stuff. The company is called Advanced Mechanical Products Inc. and is reportedly headed up by partners Jack Kuntz and Steve Burns. The claims are that the cars will accelerate from 0 to 60 in about 6 seconds, run about 150 miles between charges, and will sell for under $50,000.

I'm wondering what the company will do with those left over Saturn engines. I'm also wondering why the choice of Saturns to retrofit. And I'm wondering where I put that ten-foot pole I had. No matter, I wouldn't touch this scenario with one anyway. Perhaps when those guys drive one from Cincinnati to my house, I might think about it, but until then my opinion is: Beware in Ohio.

Electric Saturns: This had to come from Cincinnati originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 01 Jun 2007 11:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Think before you answer.

What would a $200,000 salary get you in New York, and what in Cleveland? Well, let's strip it down:

• What would be your purchasing power after accounting for the cost of living? New York's cost of living, for example, is double the national average.
• What about effective tax rates? The tax rate in New York is 25.4% for the $200K salary vs. a tax rate of 20.4% in Cleveland for the $100K salary.
• Different inflation rates? May annual inflation rate in New York metropolitan area was 4.8%, in Cleveland, the rate was 3%.

All these should be considered before deciding. So, have you changed your answer?

Let's start by saying that if you have that choice (of making a six figure salary), then congratulations are in order. You are part of the 5% of Americans who do (according to 2004 census reports). But the real question is - where do you live?

CNNMoney.com used data from 6FigureJobs.com and TheLadders.com to figure out the equivalent of $100,000 after adjusting for the cost of living in the top cities that have the largest numbers of six figures jobs listings. In New York, a $100,000 equivalent salary would require a salary of over $205,000, in Boston more than $137,000, about $101,000 in Cleveland and less than $89,000 in Houston.

So while many six figure jobs are indeed offered in higher cost of living areas, there are still many cities such as Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Cleveland and Denver as well as a few others that also have relatively high numbers of six figures jobs to offer. And as if that isn't enough to convince you, sometimes, just to attract talent, companies in those "lesser" cities would offer the same high salaries as in, say, New York.

Would you rather make $200K in NY, or $100K in Cleveland? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 15 Sep 2006 13:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.