Saturday, July 21, 2007

Financials Are Still Under Pressure

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Remember that financial stocks are the largest percentage sector in the S&P 500, coming in at a little over 20%. Last week there was a ...
Friday, July 20, 2007

Weekend Weimar

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The markets are closed. Get off your computer. See you tomorrow.

Great Paper on the Housing Market's Problems

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Mike Larson -- who writes on the blog Interest Rate Roundup -- has written a paper titled How Federal Regulators, Lenders, and Wall Street ...

So Far, Earnings Look Good

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From Zack's Through the close of Tuesday, Jul 17, a total of 55, or 11.0% of the S&P 500 firms have reported their second-quarter re...

Borrowers Are Sweetening Deals

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From the WSJ: Banks raising nearly $40 billion in buyout-related debt for Chrysler Group and the United Kingdom's Alliance Boots PLC are...
Thursday, July 19, 2007

Fed Still Focused on Inflation

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From the Federal Reserve At its May meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) maintained its target for the federal funds rate at 5-...

Subprime Problems Not Over

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From Bloomberg: Subprime mortgage defaults will increase this year and holders of securities linked to those home loans may experiences loss...

Financials Still Hurting S&P

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Remember that financials are the largest sector of the S&P 500, comprising about 20% of the average. Yesterday the sector dropped beca...
Wednesday, July 18, 2007

JP Morgan Triples Loan Loss Reserves

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From Reuters: JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Wednesday it tripled the amount set aside for loan losses a...

Bernanke's Testimony

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Here is the complete opening statement Here are the highlights. Despite the downshift in growth, the demand for labor has remained solid, wi...

Housing Starts Up 2.3%

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From the Census Housing inventory is at inter-generational highs, home builders are reporting terrible earnings and credit is tightening. Th...

CPI Up .2%

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From the BLS: The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.2 percent in June, before seasonal adjustment, the Bureau...

Pulte Homes Reports Big Loss

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From the Street.com Pulte Homes (PHM - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating) projected a hefty loss for the second quarter and posted a ...
Tuesday, July 17, 2007

This Is Not Good

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From the WSJ Weeks after the meltdown of two prominent Bear Stearns Cos. hedge funds that bet heavily on the market for risky home loans, th...

Homebuilder Confidence Drops

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From Bloomberg: Confidence among U.S. homebuilders fell this month to the lowest level in 16 years, signaling the housing market continues t...

Industrial Production Up

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From the Federal Reserve: Industrial production rose 0.5 percent in June after a decrease of 0.1 percent in May. At 113.4 percent of its 20...

PPI Down -.2%

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From Bloomberg: Prices paid to U.S. producers unexpectedly dropped for the first time in five months, restrained by declines in fuel and foo...
Monday, July 16, 2007

Rail Volumes Down in June

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From the American Association of Railroads: U.S. freight railroad carload traffic fell 2.7 percent in June 2007 compared with June 2006, whi...

Empire State Index Shows Strength

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From the NY Fed: The Empire State Manufacturing Survey indicates that conditions for New York manufacturers continued to improve in July. Th...

Higher Energy Prices Are Here to Stay?

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From the WSJ: World oil and gas supplies from conventional sources are unlikely to keep up with rising global demand over the next 25 years,...