168 Archived Topics
Remove Filter  | Stem cell stocks have been trading higher this week on reports President-elect Barack Obama will allow federal funding of stem-cell research. According to reports from the Wall Street Journal, "Mr. Obama could also lift restrictions placed by President George W. Bush on the type of stem-cell research that can be funded … |
| | With all the focus on the imminent Obama presidency, the actual health of the economy has taken a bit of a back seat. That changed somewhat after President-elect Obama’s high level economic summit on Friday. In a press conference after the meeting, Obama called the economic data “sobering” and warned … |
| | Obama or McCain? The people speak today, but no matter who wins, Wall Street likes the fact that a regime change is underway, and change, by and of itself, is a ray of sunshine on the investment community. That's why the stock market is up over 200 points and let's … |
| | With loan foreclosures up 176% this year, compared to 2007, it’s high time that we took a good look at the software tool – and the company that makes it – that promises to help troubled mortgage holders work out more favorable terms for their mortgages. In doing so, Computer … |
| | At mid-afternoon trading today the Dow was up 339 points and the NASDAQ is up 47 points. I’m a bit surprised because most of the economic news coming out today was negative. Housing prices are down, foreclosures are up, consumer confidence is at its lowest point in 35 years, and … |
| | Stocks are mixed today, which isn't really bad news considering the overseas selloff we saw on Sunday night and early Monday morning. Helping U.S. markets was decent news from the housing sector, where home sales were up 2.7% for September, with some of the country's hardest-hit regions like the southwest, … |
| | Are we near a market bottom? That's the question on every investor's mind this week, even as the stock market falls another 500+ points in Wednesday trading. Lord knows we're on uncharted terrain here, and that we've experienced enough false bottoms to last us a lifetime. But increasingly, more and … |
| | 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 … |
| | 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 … |
| | 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 … |
| | 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'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 … |
| | 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? …  |
| | 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 … |
| | 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 … |
| | 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 … |
| | 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. … |
| | 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 … |
| | A host of tech earnings results are pouring in from all corners, with some confidence-building numbers coming from United Technologies, Nokia and (especially) IBM. Others were a mixed bag. Microsoft checked in with better-than-expected sales of $15.84 billion for the quarter and earnings-per-share (46 cents) was in the range of … |
| | Oh, my - eBay shares dropped 7% in Wednesday trading. That after the company announced in a wide-ranging conference call with analysts that it wouldn’t meet current quarterly sales and revenue projections. That throws cold water on eBay’s reputation as a company that constantly delivers a positive earnings outlook every … |
| | Looking for a “relief rally”? That’s what Wall Street calls a temporary lull in selling that could lead to a more sustainable uptick in broad-based stock prices. Usually, it’s one industry that feeds the bounce-back and Kevin DePew, an analyst and editor at Minyanville.com, which tracks the stock market, says … |
| | A decent day in tech trading, with both the Morgan Stanley “Big 35” tech benchmark and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up from week-long lows. Maybe it’s the first day of the quarter and people are just glad the last one is over, or maybe the July 4th margaritas are going … |
| | Amidst the carnage that is Wall Street this year (the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 20% since last October, classifying the stock market as being in official “bear” territory), there are glimmers of good news, and a good portion of it is coming from the tech sector. The latest … |
| | The stock market is taking another major hit today after consumer confidence numbers came in well below expectations. The Conference Board, which measures the monthly consumer confidence number, reports that June’s number fell to 50.4%, down from 57% in May. Big investors had been anticipating consumer confidence numbers in the … |
| | Nasdaq is up nine points to 2,463 in Monday afternoon trading, with a slew of encouraging news from the technology sector, especially good news on the cell phone front and news that federal regulators will okay the Sirius/XM Satellite merger. Sirius is up five percent, to $2.68 while XM rose … |
| | Everybody's touting Intel as being the trigger for a run-up in chip stocks late last week, although I like the numbers that National Semiconductor is showing. What's beyond debate, however, is that the semiconductor market is on the rebound amid signs that the sector's long decline may finally be over. … |
| | Oh boy, just when we thought we were out of the woods, high oil prices are pulling us back in again. Oil prices skyrocketed by $7 a barrel today to $135 a barrel, gathering even more momentum after Thursday's big bump-up, and that, unfortunately, is the good news. A new … |
| | I know that, technically speaking, airline stocks aren't technology stocks (although I can't think of a more amazing technology that one which enables a 10-ton tube of metal to become airborne in New York and drop you safely in Chicago two hours later) but hear me out. This could be … |
| | Taxes, inflation, oil prices – even the price of corn are dominating the economic headlines these days. But should they overshadow the story of the (briefly resurgent) U.S. dollar? I don't think so - and I don't think anyone in the tech sector should sell the dollar story short, either. … |
| | Is the Tel-Com industry going the way of the dinosaur? If worldwide trends in 2008 are any indication, that very well could be the case. Speaking of case, the tech industry research and analytical firm Heavy Reading is on it. In a study released this week entitled “Reinventing the Telco: …  |
| | Samsung Electronics had good news for the world equity markets, telling investors that it would post a 37% increasing earnings over the first quarter of 2008. The news wasn't so hot at consumer electronics competitor Toshiba Corp., which announced a 95% drop in profits. So why the disparity? Let's tackle … |
| | Harris Associates is typically one of the better value strategists out there - especially when it comes to finding value in technology stocks. One reason is why is the stock-picking acumen of chief information officer David Herro. He was interviewed on Tech Ticker this morning and had some interesting things … |
| | There's a lot of pressure on CEO's to keep costs down in a struggling economy. One way they can do that is by outsourcing their IT services to overseas firms, especially to India. Now, this isn't exactly breaking news, but the rate that company's are turning to lower cost outsourcing … |
| | Tech stocks have been lagging along with the rest of the stock market so far in 2008, but its long-term prospects are much, much better. So says Imran Khan, a JP Morgan senior analysts who specializes in the telecom and Internet markets. Khan is one of my favorite analysts and … |
| | I’ve been tough on Google this year, and with good reason. Part of what I do is write about how technology impacts the financial fortunes of companies and Google has been losing market share to the lousy economy and to other web portal developers in recent months. Look at online … |
The End.