293 Posted Topics
 | Anxiety over corporate earnings is driving the stock market down this week, with stocks dropping 232 points on Tuesday and the futures market dipping downward in early Wednesday trading. While many companies (like Apple, covered below) are hitting their Q3 numbers, most are forecasting a gloomy revenue picture going forward … |
| | Let’s get the bad news out of the way first. The Red Sox lost and it’s the Tampa Rays (hard to believe I’m even writing these words) who will move on to play the Phillies in the World Series. It’s not like I can count on the Patriots this year, … |
| | Google's stock is up 10% today, and the stock market is up over 250 points (at 2 PM EST), and I don't think the twin spike is merely a coincidence. Why? As I wrote yesterday, the market looks to major tech players like Google, Apple and IBM, just to name … |
| | The stock market has responded favorably, relatively speaking, to the rumor that Microsoft is once again making a bid for Yahoo. Traders are buzzing over whether Steve Ballmer will make the same $33 per share offer now that he made a few months ago. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if … |
| | Today's stock dive - over 700 points - is being linked directly to this month's retail sales number, which fell 1.2% for September. That's twice as much as analysts had expected. Retail sales are of particular interest to the technology sector, which counts heavily on consumer spending to buy its … |
| | Last week, in the middle of the worst stock market meltdown since the 1930's, U.S. Secretary Henry Paulson called on some of the banking industry's leading lights to figure a way out of this mess. Paulsen, with Lloyd Blankfein (Goldman Sachs), John Mack (Morgan Stanley), Vikram Pandit (Citigroup), Jamie Dimon … |
| | At the end of trading today (Friday) it looks like the stock market won't end up in positive territory, but it will come close - an event every trader and investor on the planet planet will take in a Wall Street minute. No rhyme or reason why, it just seems … |
| | Grasping, clawing, and scratching for a single slice, however thin, of good news out of the worst stock market week ever. Okay. IBM’ earnings were actually pretty good. Tech spending for software and services – what Big Blue does best – is holding up, and if there is a soft … |
| | A coordinated effort by global central banks, led by the U.S. and the Federal Reserve Board’s 0.5% emergency rate cut today has more or less calmed the financial markets this morning (down about 100 points in mid-morning trading). I say “more or less’ because who really knows? But the economists … |
| | The stock market seem to be stabilizing, aided by news that the Federal Reserve will buy up short-term debt in order to get companies financially interacting again. I won't get into the gruesome details, but buying up short term debt (known as commercial paper on Wall Street - a mechanism … |
| | The impact from the ongoing credit crisis is finally starting to translate into layoffs for the tech sector. The folks I'm talking to say that AT&T, Apple, Yahoo, Sun, eBay, Microsoft, Nortel, HP, EDS, and even Google are going to be passing around pink slips with alarming aggressiveness in weeks … |
| | Well, as they say in Vegas, in for a dime, in for a dollar. Or in the case of the Congressional bailout that President Bush wasted no time whipping out his sharpie and signing into law, how about $700 billion? The revote in the U.S. House of Representatives was never … |
| | The stock market seems to be playing a waiting game with a Congressional bailout taking on a new shape in Washington. I’m hearing about a new bailout plan that would raise FDIC insurance limits from $100,000 to $250,000 and would include some kind of capital gains tax relief to ease … |
| | I might have mentioned that I wrote the book proposal and the first two chapters for Peter Schiff (aka "Dr. Doom) and his increasingly prescient book "Crash Proof: How To Profit From the Coming Economic Collapse." Schedule conflicts made it impossible to keep working on the book, but Schiff finished … |
| | I’m writing this post on Sunday night, just hours after the U.S Congress tapped into our wallets for up to $700 billion in funds to bail out Wall Street for its addictive reliance on bad loans and risky credit deals. In the process, and what you won’t read or see … |
| | I've been writing for a year now on how the information technology sector would be impacted by an economic downturn. Well, it looks like we're going to really find out. As I've written, when credit dries up and loans and capital are hard to get, tech companies hunker down and … |
| | While we play "wait and see" for Congressional leaders to hammer out some kind of bailout package for lenders and banks, there's other news going on - believe it or not - on Wall Street. While switching between CNBC, CNN and Fox News to get the latest on the financial … |
| | The market is hovering around positive territory - but barely - after billionaire financier Warren Buffett announced that he was plugging in $5 billion to newly-minted commercial bank Goldman Sachs. The investment was seen as a vote-of-confidence in the splintered financial sector by one of America's most respected market visionaries. … |
| | The stock market is down 370 points after Monday trading and nobody is really sure where we go from here. I’ve been around Wall Street for over 20 years and I’ve never seen anxiety like this – people are scared to death and a run on investment accounts - including … |
| | Some good news - rare good news - from the U.S. stock market late today as reports and rumors seem to point to a new U.S. government agency to assume and/or manage bad debts for financial services companies. The new agency, similar to the Resolution Trust Corp of the early … |
| | Technology workers are nervous enough without worrying about the health and safety of their investment deposits. While I think what I'm bringing to you now is nine parts hyperbole and one part reality, it makes for an interesting and even frightening discussion. Specifically, are your bank and investment deposits safe? …  |
| | One of the year’s biggest disappointments has to be Seagate Teachnology. The high-tech heavyweight is taking on so much water that barnacles are starting to grow on its bottom line. Hey . . . at least something is growing on Seagate’s bottom line. Before I get into Seagate’s woes, I … |
| | Telecom stocks are emblematic of how skittish investors are over the tech sector today. Some telecom giants are taking a beating over reduced consumer demand for their products, both here in the U.S. and abroad (especially around the once-robust Pacific Rim). Here's a quick snapshot . . . AT&T Inc … |
| | That little spike in semiconductor stocks we saw in Q1 may be coming to a screeching halt, if the new numbers we're seeing are any good. Actually, the drop in semiconductor revenues from Q1 2008 to Q2 is fairly amazing, and I don't mean that in a good way. Here's … |
| | In Part I of our look at the proposed economic policies of John McCain and Barack Obama, we found that each candidate brings his parties economic idealism to the table, whether that's a good or a bad thing. McCain will be a no-taxes, free-trading, domestic drilling supply sider right out … |
| | There’s an old joke that the definition of a successful politician is a person who can stand on a fence and make voters believe it’s a platform. That’s a tall order, however, for presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama – especially when it comes to their economic policies (and … |
| | For the record, I don't think there is a lot of money in web browsers. They don't draw a lot of advertising money (although many of the web sites they send users to make money via advertising) and nobody has found a great profit-making model out of browsers, either. Just … |
| | The big news in the financial markets today is that New Orleans largely escaped the wrath of hurricane Gustav, which hit land about 85 miles west of the city, and lost some of its luster on the way in to shore. Still, oil companies haven’t tallied any potential damage yet … |
| | In the words of the immortal Chris Farley . . . “Holy Shnikey’s!” That was my reaction after watching Dell’s stock tank after what pundits are billing as an “underwhelming” second quarter earnings performance. Investors seemed to agree on Thursday, as Dell stock fell 13% to under $22 per share … |
| | Just getting back from Virginia and an investment conference on Monday and Tuesday. A good friend of mine who runs a five-star Morningstar market neutral fund says that, for the first time in a year, he can see the clouds breaking for the financial markets. He said that large cap … |
| | A lousy way to start off the week on Wall Street. Stocks were down 250 points by 1 PM Monday, mostly from downbeat earnings expectations from financial giant AIG. Adding fuel to the fire was a modest spike in oil prices (to $115 per barrel) mostly due the onslaught of … |
| | It's football season and time for the old "option" play - with Cisco Systems, IBM and Hewlett-Packard lining up in the backfield. Options are a riskier way of investing on stocks. Essentially, options allow you to buy or sell a company's stock at a stated price and a stated date. … |
| | Salesforce.com is one of those companies that business writers and Wall Street investors refer to as an “upstart” or a “growth” company. But those days may be over. The company pioneered the concept of software-as-a-service, which enables companies and individuals to access software over the Internet via a web browser. … |
| | I spend a lot of time on this blog talking about specific technology companies that could take off and add some real beef to your financial portfolio (or warn you about tech stocks that could cut into your market gains). What I'd like to do more is to discuss countries …  |
| | Last week saw a potential top in commodities prices, as both oil and gold prices seem to have stalled out from their upward march in 2008. That should have spelled relief for the stock market, which has been down by 13% in 2008, as measured by the Dow Jones Industrial … |
| | I've written about the importance of knowing your investments before you buy them. You might remember the story about Fidelity Magellan mutual fund legend Peter Lynch, who would spend his Saturdays walking around Boston looking to see where shoppers were spending their money. Then he'd invest Magellan's money in the … |
| | Markets are down about 50 points in mid-afternoon trading on Tuesday, mostly due to investor worries about continued woes in the financial services sector. In short, nobody is buying the notion put forward by Wall Street optimists that the credit crunch – now one-year-old – is coming to an end. … |
| | Internet Broadband subscribers are being peeled away by cable television and there’s really not much the phone companies can do about it, analysts say. That could move a lot of money around on Wall Street. According to Leichtman Research Group, cable companies added 887,000 high-speed Internet subscribers in the 2nd …  |
| | This week doesn’t bode well for the overall stock market, even though the Dow Jones was up 300 points on Friday, and even though tech stocks have held up well over the past few weeks in a volatile traading environment. My chief concern is the Russia military action in Georgia. … |
| | Oil is falling again, off $31 from its July high of $148 a barrel, but some analysts think this is bad news. Paul Kedrosky, a strategist at Ten Asset Management sees oil falling more and settling as low as $90 a barrel and takes his case to Tech Ticker today … |
| | Here’s a factoid that might interest you. The one-day record holder for a movie premiere is Spiderman 3, which brought in $59 million in ticket sales on its opening day. The one-day record for a video game – Grand Theft Auto IV – earned $310 million on its opening day. … |
| | A good friend of mine thinks that data technology access kingpin Qualcomm can be to the wireless market in the 2010’s what Microsoft was to software in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Granted, Qualcomm is smack in the sweet spot – the premier provider of high-speed data access products and services … |
| | Three questions for the week, plus a new opportunity for profit growth in the technology market . . . 1. What Will the Fed Do? - The Federal Reserve is in a fragile position, as is the economy. With the Fed scheduled to announce its next move on interest rates … |
| | Thursday saw another horror show on Wall Street, with the Dow tanking 200 points over the weaker-than-anticipated GDP number and the shaky job market (the U.S. unemployment rate rose to 5.7% today). Still, tech stocks seemed to navigate the tumult of bad news in surprisingly robust fashion. We covered Motorola … |
| | First, the not-so-good news, then on to some encouraging revenue numbers for Motorola. Below I’ve condensed today’s big economic news as reported by the Associated Press, with the second quarter gross domestic product numbers coming in less than expected . . . -- Economic growth clocked in at a 1.9 … |
| | Information Week has a great piece out on how IT CEO’s are riding out the rough economy. Surely, the 266 hike in the Dow Jones Industrial Average today, thanks to lower oil prices and a report indicating increased consumer sentiment, should soothe the jangled nerves of even the most downcast … |
| | I was going to write that the Q2 quarterly numbers (not just in the tech sector but across the board) were better than most experts predicted. For the most part, that’s true. U.S. companies have performed fairly well for the past quarter, thanks especially to increased sales overseas and a … |
| | Stocks are up this morning - up 56 points a half-hour after the open - thanks to a higher-than-expected durable goods report. In real-speak, that means that heavy equipment and bulk manufacturing buyers broke open their checkbooks last month and bought more bulldozers and crates of metal than Wall Street … |
| | The good news in the stock market today is the continued drop in oil prices, with a barrel of sweet, light crude dipping below $125 for the first time since June. Already, commuters are seeing that decline priced in at the pump, with a gallon of gasoline falling below $4.00 … |
| | AT&T’s stock is up two percent today after announcing that second quarter revenues rose 30 percent – an uptick that many pundits are ascribing to its booming wireless business. Me? I’d say that, more directly, the high profile partnership with Apple and the iPhone have fueled that boom in wireless … |
The End.