Economy Blog

Goole Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) has posted its earnings and the results came in at $4.43 non-GAAP EPS on revenues of $3.39 Billion on an ex-TAC basis, and these are not going to greatly received since Wall Street demand more from Google. First Call had estimates at $4.45 EPS on ex-TAC revenues of $3.45 Billion. Google doesn’t offer guidance, but Wall Street is expecting roughly a 30% EPS gain in 2008 to $20.78 EPS and roughly a 40% revenue gain to $16.59 Billion.Its revenues before backing out traffic acquisition costs was $4.83 Billion. Here were some key metrics: Google-owned sites generated…
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Most good financial planners would tell investors that trying to time the market is a fool’s game. So why do business executives continue to try to cajole consumers into making big-ticket spending decisions as if they’re one-day stock trades?
In November, D…
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Cadence Design Systems (CDNS) posts bad numbers and gets downgrades. Falls to $9.90 from 52-week high of $24.90. Accuray (ARAY) The radiosurgery device maker reported disappointing fiscal second-quarter results. Trades off to $9.26 from 52-week high of $31.90. Rightnow Technologies (RNOW) Poor financial outlook. Drops to $9.70 from 52-week high $23.38. Cirrus Logic (CRUS) Market unhappy with profits. Falls to $4 from 52-week high of $9.44. Harris Stratex Networks (HSTX) Weak results hit stock. Falls to $10.11 from 52-week high of $21.25. Douglas A. McIntyre
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We hear a lot from Indy Street readers about how hard it is for business-to-business shops to drum up media interest and buzz.
Writes one frustrated BtoBer: “Many of us provide sophisticated services and/or products. And that’s where our real challenges lie. How can we get some market exposure without having a big marketing and PR budget, or working with a pricey advertising/PR firm? Let me give you an insight … it’s tough!?…
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Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN) has unveiled a new device today and this looks like many consumers will interpret it as a shot right across the bow of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL). These are actually different markets on the surface, but analysts and consumers may draw more lines into converging markets after the first or second generation of the phones. You could make an anology that Apple was converging mobile computing and communications and iTunes into the iPhone, and Garmin is converging mobile computing and communications with GPS & PND. Garmin is launching the nuvifone(TM) to combine a phone with a…
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Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker is the latest big-name endorsement for Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, lending his gravitas in the financial world to a presidential candidate whose biggest hurdle is to convince voters he is experienced enough to be president.

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Analysts at Birinyi Associates say it would be foolhardy to ignore the elimination of the “uptick” rule, which stated that investors could only execute a short sale when a stock traded higher than its previous sale. This was dumped last summer. “Our concern about this and other changes is that the impact or effect is too often not considered. …
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I hate patents.
Necessary evil at times I guess. Today TIVO looks vindicated for it’s patents.
I am definitely considering the stock on strength above $9 at 5-year highs. It must be ‘in play’ with it’s big court win today?
Thoughts…? What could it be worth?
Definitely Wallstrip worthy at this point. Don’t we all TIVO?
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January’s trade shortfall is the biggest in 11 years.…
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Here are some assorted headlines from my current Bloomberg screen:

"Stocks in U.S. Rally After MBIA Says It Expects to Keep AAA Credit Rating"

"U.S. Personal Spending Slows, Jobless Claims Rise, Boosting Rate-Cut Bets"

"MBIA Says Capital is Adequate, Rejects Bankruptcy Speculation; Shares Rise"

"Bristol-Myers Posts Loss as Subprime Investments Overshadow Palvix Gains"…
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Here are some assorted headlines from my current Bloomberg screen:

"Stocks in U.S. Rally After MBIA Says It Expects to Keep AAA Credit Rating"

"U.S. Personal Spending Slows, Jobless Claims Rise, Boosting Rate-Cut Bets"

"MBIA Says Capital is Adequate, Rejects Bankruptcy Speculation; Shares Rise"

"Bristol-Myers Posts Loss as Subprime Investments Overshadow Palvix Gains"…
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The Federal Reserve?s aggressive rate cuts in the last 10 days are having one unpleasant side effect: they’re boosting bond investors? concern about inflation.
The Fed has long looked at the difference between yields on nominal Treasurys and inflation-protected Treasurys (TIPS) for a sense of what investors expect inflation to be. The difference is the so-called ?breakeven? rate — the inflation rate that equates returns on the two. The Fed also tries to strip out near-term inflation disturbances related to fluctuating energy and food prices by looking at what the market expects inflation to be starting five years from now and running for the next five years (i.e. from 2013 to 2108). This is the ?five-year, five-year forward? breakeven rate.
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Everyone knew homebuilders would turn one day and when they turned it would be fast and in a flurry of buying volume. Much of this may attributed to short covering, but much is because the good old Fed and another 125 basis points in rate cuts within a 10-day period. You know you can’t pay attention to the headlines on home sales or even the earnings out of these, because that is dismal. But traders are taking aim here. In fact some of these are up 100% off of lows already. Meritage Homes (NYSE: MTH) up 12% at $15.26, up…
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The admissions of greater-than-expected writedowns from Swiss bank UBS, along with reports out of major Japanese institutions, means the total amount of subprime- and CDO-related writedowns has surpassed $120 billion, according to WSJ.com estimates.
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Those watching CNBC’s “The Call” circa 11:30 this morning know that Charlie Gasparino lost a bet to Mary Thompson over how the size of Lloyd Blankfein’s package, with Melissa Francis officiating. The terms of the wager stated that the loser had to buy dinner at Campagnola. Interestingly enough, No Sleeves claims that he didn’t lose anything, but was simply doing the chivalrous thing that anybody boy worth his Rego Park salt would do, and treating the ladies (his words: “It’s the gentlemanly thing to do, and I am a gentleman”). Bull shit. The fact that said dinner, which came to $412.40, was paid for with a Visa card bearing the name “Gasparino” (expiration date: 09/08) is irrefutable proof that Charlie Gasparino is a terrible judge of size. Anyway. As NS noted, we enjoy chronicling his every move, from “what deli meats [he] eats to where [he] works out,” so obviously we sent Intern Scott to pose as the pepper grinder and take copious notes, as well as the Visa number with which we bought a bunch of shit for ourselves (mostly Italian delicacies filled with nitrates so the theft would go undetected). His report:
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The US is the world’s sole superpower: it has global influence both politically and militarily which no other country can even dream of. What’s more, it does not hesitate to use that influence in its own best interests.
The one thing the US doesn’t have, of course, is a large amount of money in the bank. In fact, as the world’s largest debtor, it borrows billions of dollars from the rest of the world every day. So my eyebrows rose a little when I saw that former US Treasury secretary L…
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As it to confirm what a disaster its acquisition of NexTel has been, Sprint (S) will write-off as much as $31 billion in goodwill related to the deal. According to Reuters Sprint “might have to write off all of the $30.7 billion goodwill value from its purchase of Nextel Communications and smaller deals as it struggles with customer losses.” At this point, with its stock down from a 52-week high of $23.42 to $10,50, the entire market cap of the company is only $30 billion. Douglas A. McIntyre
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But will central bank actions be enough stem the haemorrhaging?…
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Tom Lauricella and Liz Rappaport write about another buried corner of the credit markets that’s causing problems for big investors, in today’s Wall Street Journal. “At the center of these problems is a little-known but widely held investment known as a ‘tender option bond,’” they …
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