Archive for December, 2011
Chinese Home Prices (and Stocks) Continue to Tumble
The Shanghai Composite Index traded lower on Monday, closing down 0.3% after dropping over 2% earlier in the session. The move represented yet another drop in recent weeks. In the month of December, the Shanghai Composite has traded lower in nearly every session. While the move on Monday may have been motivated primarily by the [...]
Gold Prices Crushed
Gold has been experiencing a notable sell-off in recent weeks, as the price of the precious metal has pulled back from about $1,800 an ounce in mid-November to the high $1,500s just last week. The reason for gold’s sell-off has been attributed to a variety of things. Commentators have cited everything from the bursting of [...]
Financial Layoffs, Downgrades Continue
On Thursday, Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) announced that it was laying off 1,600 employees. In the big picture, this round of layoffs is not majorly significant, as it represents only 2.6% of the company’s workforce—a relatively small percentage of the more than 60,000 employees in total. Still, it is yet another example of a major [...]
Is the Kindle Fire Beating the iPad?
On Thursday, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) released sales figures for its Kindle lineup of tablets and e-readers. Amazon’s flagship Kindle currently is its Fire—a 7-inch tablet running an adaptation of Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android operating system. According to Amazon’s figures, the Kindle lineup is selling one million units per week. At this rate, the company could [...]
Merkel and FOMC Ruin Euro Party
Early on Tuesday, the EUR/USD currency pair briefly rallied. Conflicting forces may have been acting on the pair, as traders weighed the effects of various events on the market. On the one hand, speculation over the future of the euro remains in doubt. It seems as if, on a daily basis, market sentiment will shift [...]
Poor Retail Data Casts Doubt on Black Friday
Earlier this week, retail sales were reported for the month of November. While the numbers were net positive, the magnitude of the gain was far below Wall Street’s expectations. Analysts had hoped for a positive gain of 0.8%, while the data showed a measly 0.2%. Adding to the disappointing retail sales were earnings reported by [...]
McDonald’s Investors Are Lovin’ It
On Thursday, McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) reported a larger than expected rise in November same-store sales, prompting shares of the fast-food company to rally to over $98. McDonald’s reported that comp-sales rose 7.4% globally. Analysts were anticipating a rise of 4.6%. Even in Europe, McDonald’s beat estimations, as same-store sales rose 6.5%. Expectations were for an [...]
Is Microsoft Preempting Apple with Xbox Live Content Addition?
While Netflix’s (NASDAQ: NFLX) stock has taken a significant beating this year, there has been no shortage of interest in the content streaming space. Last week, reports indicated that Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) was considering hiring a TV network executive to help the company implement exclusive programing for its Xbox Live service. Microsoft is planning to [...]
India’s Economy Stumbles on Rate Hikes
Markets traded lower early on Monday, as the euro fell against the dollar and commodities retraced recent gains. Although increasing speculation over the fate of the eurozone may have been the primary catalyst, perhaps contributing to the move was news from India. Overnight Sunday, data out of India indicated that the country’s industrial production in [...]
Draghi Disappoints the Market
On Thursday, the European Central Bank (ECB) opted to cut its benchmark interest rate, dropping the figure by 25 basis points from 1.25% to 1.00%. There had been some market chatter that the rate could be cut to 0.75%. This is the second interest rate cut for Mario Draghi, the ECB’s new president, and comes [...]
