Crude-oil Climbs To Its Highests At $117
April 20, 2008
Crude-oil has reached a record high of $116.69 per barrel after news of a sabotage on pipelines in Nigeria was released and even the fortifying dollar couldn’t stop halt the rise.
After markets closed on Friday, electronic trading saw the price rise even higher, to $117 per barrel. Delivered crude-oil for May has also risen, to $1.83, or 1.6%, which lands it at $116.69 per barrel for the New York Mercantile Exchange. This marks a 6.2% rise on oil prices for the week.
Petition Letter Sent To Release Wecht
April 16, 2008
In the midst of the recent case against the pathologist Cyril Wecht, at least 33 people have sent a petition letter asking the United States Attorney General to dismiss the charges against Wecht.
Information released state that the petition letter challenges the charges that the Attorney General has made against Wecht. The letter challenged that the case was not a strong one, based on the retrial for May 27th. In the previous trial on April 8th, the jury was not able to reach either a not guilty or guilty verdict.
Many upstanding members of the community have signed the letter. For example, attorneys and a retired agent for the FBI.
Drug Company Splits To Remain Competitive
April 11, 2008
PDL Biopharma Inc announced that it will pay a dividend to any shareholder of about $4.25 US dollars after it will split the company.
This will bring the cash benefits of the new company to $375 million US dollars.
The company has an initial cash injection, as well as potential milestone payments, royalties, and sales of its cardiovascular products for the past three years.
After the company is split, it will collect revenue from existing and future royalties of all licensed products. This will distributed as profits to shareholders. The company believes it can achieve sales of more than $240 to $260 million US dollars.
These sales will be on a variety of products, including: Genentech’s cancer drug, and sales of Elan Pharmaceuticals drug Tysabri.
Wall Street Stocks Increase On Good News
April 10, 2008
There was an increase of Wall Street stocks on Thursday. This information was good news to investors after succumbing to the drop in the stock market, earlier in the month. The rise in the stock market was due to an increase in sales by retailers and a decrease in unemployment claims.
Previously unemployment claims rose to a new high within the past month, but this week showed a dramatic decrease in people claiming unemployment benefits, and this strengthened the stock market.
However, many are not sure if this good news will spill into the banking industry, especially with Lehman Brothers Holdings stating they had to liquidate the assets of at least three funds.
4Q Revenues Down For Bed Bath & Beyond.
April 9, 2008
In a statement released on Wednesday night, Bed Bath & Beyond announced that their fourth quarter profits declined to $172.9 million from $205.8 million. That is .66c per share down from .72c per share this time last year. Overall revenues also saw a reduction, from $1.99 billion to $1.93 billion over the last year.
Prior to this announcement, analysts were expecting the company to release a forth quarter profit of .66c per share, which was based on a revenue of $1.97 billion. The company itself is expecting first quarter profits to be between .26c to .30c per share even though analysts are still predicting .38c per share.
Microsoft Speaks Out Over Google-Yahoo Deal
April 9, 2008
Microsoft Corp. made a statement on Wednesday night in which they accused the new ad deal between Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. of creating a greatly reducing the competition in the advertising market when juxtaposed with the proposal that Microsoft had put forward for the acquisition of Yahoo.
The statement from Microsoft said that any deal between Google and Yahoo would place 90% of the search advertising market in the control of Google.
According to the statement, Microsoft has not given up completely as they intend to consider their options further.
A statment was released earlier in the week from Yahoo, in which they announced they will be initiating limited testing of the AdSense for Search application made by Google.
Clinton Adamant About Not Supporting Columbian FTA
April 8, 2008
With recent discussions underway about the possibility of the United States going into a free trade agreement with the South American country Columbia, Senator Hilary Clinton was quick to voice her disproval of the matter.
There has been a lot of drama concerning this issue, as supporters for Hilary Clinton also support the proposed free trade with Columbia.
For example, a Campaign strategist was let go after it was discovered they supported the free trade agreement.
Of course Clinton is not alone in her opposition to the potential free trade with Columbia, as many other labour groups and unions state that a free trade agreement will cause less US jobs.
Clinton vehemently stated that she would not ever support such an agreement.
Many Illegals Filing US Income Tax
April 7, 2008
Even though their immigration status might be illegal, even illegal workers will pay income tax, without the small probability that a refund claim is obtained, and no hope of social security checks in the future.
The US government does collect tax on illegal immigrants, experts agree. How much do they pay the federal government will not be easy to determine because it is not tracked. However, recent data show that the billions of dollars in federal income, Social Security and Medicare taxes for the year, at certain amount was paid by people using fake data, suggesting illegal immigrants.
The IRS is a very important part of the federal government to collect the taxes sourced from the salary of legal workers, as well as undocumented workers. However, some illegal immigrants come and select to file an income tax, using ITIN numbers issued by the IRS, even though they might be owed a refund, that they are too afraid to apply for.
In total, the IRS believes that of the $9 billion US dollars collected since 2005, a percentage of this was paid by illegals working within the country.
Cigarettes To Cost More In NY
April 3, 2008
The state of New York is will become the state with the highest cigarette state tax. This will be after the state has agreed to increase the cigarette state tax to almost $1.25 more per pack. This $1.25 will be added to the current cigarette state tax of $2.75. Therefore the usual price of $5.82 for a pack of cigarettes is expected to rise tremendously with the increase in state tax. This cigarette state tax for New York is in comparison to South Carolina with a cigarette state tax of only 7 cents.
Stocks Drop After Unemployment News
April 3, 2008
There was a drop in the stock market today, after the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke hinted at a possible recession. Stocks mainly fell after it was disclosed that there was an increase in the amount of Americans putting in an application for unemployment benefits. Thus jobless claims increased from to over four hundred thousand. This is the highest the amount of unemployment benefit applications have been since September 2005. However it was only a small drop in Wall Street, which was balanced by the news that only a little change was seen in the services industry.
Utility Stocks On A Rise
April 2, 2008
Even with the state of the economy, analysts released information that shares within the US utility companies rose during this week of trading.
Analysts are quick to point out that even though the US economy might be heading for a recession, as predicted by the Federal Reserve Chairman, they see utility stocks as a “safe haven” with economic downturn. For example, American Electric Power Co. increased its share value by forty-one cents to close at $43.08, while Consolidated Edison Inc. rose by twenty cents to close at $40.89.
McClatchy’s Raitings Reduced By Moody
April 2, 2008
Tuesday saw Moody’s Investors Service decrease McClatchy Co., the newspaper publisher, from Ba2 to Ba3 for both the company’s corporate side and their probability of default.
Moody’s also downgraded McClatchy’s senior unsecured notes from Ba3 to B1, and speculation is that the news mogul could fall further.
This decrease in ratings will have an impact on $2.8 billion in debt, as Moody’s expects the ongoing financial pressure in revenues from the advertising sector to severely reduce the chances for McClatchy to raise their leverage or make serious moves on cost management or reductions on their current debt.
Amdocs Ratings Risen By S&P
April 2, 2008
Based upon Amdocs’ business profile performing so highly, Standard & Poor revised their ratings and late on Tuesday they announced that that they are raising the rating from BBB- to BBB. Amdocs Ltd is expected to hold onto the rating too.
S&P made a statement to coincide with the ratings alteration, in which they said that their new rating for Amdocs is indicative of the high level of customers and their obvious and ongoing revenue structure. Also the fact that the company is using little in the way of debt leverage with their considerable liquidity.
The chance for continued growth for Amdocs was another factor that aided in the new higher rating, as it shows that the company is establishing itself in the telecom market as it matures whilst lowering costs.
S&P Seesaw On Commerce Bancorp Ratings
April 2, 2008
Last Tuesday saw Standard & Poor increase their ratings for Commerce Bancorp so that they matched those of TD Bank Financial Group.
The counter-party credit ratings for Commerce Bancorp were raised from BBB+/A-2 to AA-/A-1+. The ratings for Commerce Bank were also raised to AA-/A-1+ from A-/A-2.
Soon after the upgrades however, S&P announced that they were withdrawing the ratings change on Commerce.
German Bank Writes Down Loss
April 1, 2008
The German Deutsche Bank has released information that it will write down at least $4 billion of its debt in the first quarter of the year. This is attributed to the dismal financial conditions occurring within worldwide financial markets.
The bank itself is stating that it was caught inside the fallout of the US subprime economic crisis, and it has loss of two billion Euros. This write down will be mostly in the area of commercial real estate, loans, or mortage-related securities.
Oil Prices Start To Level Out
March 28, 2008
In the last session of trade, crude oil prices soared after reports of a bombing of a crucial oil export pipeline in Iraq. As more information regarding the bombing is released, fears over the extent of the damage have reduced and prices have begun to level out again.
Future orders for crude oil in May have reduced today by 0.98c, which brings the current price on the New York Mercantile Exchange to $106.60 per barrel.
Oil Prices Soar Again
March 7, 2008
Last Wednesday saw oil prices around the world soar again. This time, the oil price almost reached the $105 per barrel mark. This is the first time that oil prices have risen this high. The increase in price came soon after a report from the government that showed that there was an unexpected dip in the oil supplies to the nation. However, the main reason for the steep hike in the oil price was due to the announcement made by the OPEC which said that they would not be increasing oil production.
In the US, the price of light crude for the month of April was at an all-time high of $104.52 a barrel which was almost $5 up from the previous day. This new hike made it the highest value overtaking the earlier settlement high of $102.59 which was set only last week. Once the settlement was made the oil prices skyrocketed to $104.95 which was the highest ever intra-day high for oil, the previous high coming after a settlement was $103.95 per barrel.
The Energy Information Administration said that crude stocks had fallen by almost 3.1 barrels in the previous week. This was at the same time as analysts were expecting a rise by of around 2.3 million barrels as per a poll conducted by Dow Jones industrial average.
The recent and unexpected hike in oil prices is said to have occurred because of fog in the Gulf Coast area last week, which slowed oil delivery. Some oil might have been lost in the fog, according to analysts, though they had not expected the fog to create any impact on the supply.
Another factor which greatly contributed to the rise in oil price was the decision which was made by OPEC on Wednesday. OPEC, during its meeting in Vienna, Austria, said that they would not be increasing the price of crude oil further than the present levels of production. According a member of OPEC, the decision was made by the body because the demand for oil had weakened by a considerable margin and because they were expecting further decrease in the demand.
However, this idea was hard to sell amongst many analysts who believe that OPEC had come to such a decision solely based on the demand factor. They feel that OPEC is more concerned about the oil prices than they are about selling oil. Analysts have agreed that they could not comprehend the move from OPEC, as maintaining the price of oil at more than $100 per barrel is only going to decrease the amount of oil they will sell.
The decision of the oil Cartel came in spite of the request the U.S. president had made to them asking the commission to take into account the impact that the high price of oil is having on nations worldwide.
Stock Battles Forecasted
March 7, 2008
Wall Street has worked its way back up after sustaining losses in the early parts of Wednesday. As the day came to a close, stocks were able to gain some pace and cut down on initial losses. The reason for the tough session of trading early in the day was because of frail “beige book” report with which the Federal Reserve had come out. The report is basically about the nation’s economy and about bond insurer Ambac’s restructuring plan.
The day also saw the oil prices break previous highs and create a new record. The price of oil at the end of the day was almost $104 per barrels. The price of gold also rose higher to inch closer to the sensitive $1000 per ounce level.
After trading had closed, the Dow Jones industrial average had managed to gain 0.3%, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index and the tech heavy NASDAQ composite gained 0.5%.
Stocks were quite a high again on Thursday, when numerous monthly sales data figures were released from retailers. The day also brought in the weekly report of unemployment claims and the home trade index which was pending.
Throughout the afternoon session, the three main indexes managed to gain as a result of the healthy services sector. This greatly helped the investors turn a blind eye to weak reports for factory orders, as well as employment details in the private sector. Another aspect to the market keeping its head above water was news that banks were trying to negotiate a deal which would help in keeping bond insurer, Ambac, afloat.
Wall Street took a small hit when the company failed to announce a bailout scheme. Ambac instead said that it would be raising almost $1.5 billion by offering common stock and by undergoing a restructure of the company. Prior to the announcement the trading of the Ambac shares had been put to a halt, though once the news came out of the company’s plans, Ambac’s stocks took a dive by almost 15% during the afternoon.
News from the company also took down some other financial stocks and sections of the broader market as well. But Wall Street was able to fight its way back to its earlier position by the end of the day. This is when the Federal report came out, which reported that out of the 12 districts in the country most are facing an economic slowdown which has been occurring ever since the beginning of the year.
Although not all reports are showing degradation in the economy, the general state of the economy is not all that good. The investors however are trying their best to ignore the ongoing talks about the recession and to go about with their business.
Wall Street Hoping For Better Returns This Week
March 6, 2008
As the fears of recession are at there highest, investors are looking to economic data scheduled to be released on the Monday for a brighter outlook. At this stage, investors seem to be quite used to the declining employment market service sector. Some analysts have stated that investors are, however, willing to turn a blind eye to these factors and start investing once again. Wall Street is clinging to the hope that economic reports due this week will indicate some upward momentum, as fears are that reports of another downward moving quarter will once again turn investors away.
The week is scheduled to start off with the Institute for Supply Management’s report on the nation’s manufacturing in the month of February. Forecasts are, however, that these reports will show a decrease in production, especially after the slight increase the industry saw in January. Another report due this week is the ISM’s calculation of the Service Sector activity for February. Economists are again predicting another decline , unfortunately right on the back of the dramatic plunge that was witnessed in the previous month.
The turmoil in the market is only reinforced by the reductions that occurred in the manufacturing industry in December; which was the first time such a decrease had been seen since January 2007. The service sector also showed large-scale reductions in the past few months which is the first time it has done so for the last five years.
However, the most important report to be released this week for Wall Street is employment figures for February. This data is scheduled to be released on the last day of the week. Friday’s report is, irrespective of the data in it, going to pull the investors in one way or the other. Though when one group of economists in the country are predicting a small rise in payrolls, another group are saying that payrolls are likely to dip and make it two months in a row of reductions. Speculations of this nature are fueled by the Labor Department of USA announcing that net jobs for the nation saw a loss for January. This was the first time this had happened in the last four years.
However, the former group of the economists are of the view that the Labor Department might actually revise the January report if they later find out later that jobs had actually risen during the month. This has occurred previously, in August of 2007, and the labor market had then revised figures one month later. According to analysts, Wall Street has its fingers crossed for good figures in the coming economic data, either way.
US Stock Markets Lead To Global Sell Offs
September 6, 2007
The US stock markets have today returned to poor trading, with significant losses on both exchanges leading to worldwide sell offs.
The results came off the back of news that the US economy is in for a significant slowdown over the remained of this year, according to figures released today.
The impact of the sub-prime lending market, with the added weight of the sluggish housing market is expected to make its full extent known over the remainder of this year, still with no indication as to the potential damages lenders could be facing.
Furthermore, with sub-prime exposure still growing in some areas, investors have lost all confidence after what has been a few days of modest but volatile positive trade.
The leading exchange in New York, the Dow Jones traded well down, losing 143.39 points on the day to close at 13305.5 at the bell.
The smaller, tech-based NASDAQ exchange also traded poorly, losing 24.29 points to close at 2606.0, compounding the negative trading from its larger sister exchange. The S&P 500 exchange was down 17.13 points to 1472.3.
The knock-on effect of this was to stimulate major sell offs across European markets, which until today had enjoyed some relatively good trading performances this week.
In London, the FTSE 100 was down by 106.10 points, closing 6270.7 on the index through the close of play, reflecting the same extent of the losses suffered stateside after the gloomy analysis of the future of the worldwide economy.
The CAC 40 exchange in Paris was among the day’s biggest losers, shedding 121.17 points through trade to close at 5551.6.
Meanwhile in Frankfurt, the Dax exchange closed down 133.74 points to 7588.0, with analysts predicting markets could trade positively after interest rate decisions from London and Brussels are announced tomorrow.