Archives for February 2009

February 2009 - Page 5 of 11 - Money Morning - Only the News You Can Profit From

Obama Administration Kicks the "Car Czar" to the Curb; Treasury's Geithner to Take the Wheel

William Patalon IIIExecutive EditorMoney Morning/The Money Map Report U.S. President Barack Obama has decided against naming a "car czar," and is instead asking U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and White House economic adviser Lawrence H. "Larry" Summers to head a task force on revamping the U.S. auto industry, Bloomberg News reported yesterday (Monday). The […]

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Gold Setting Records in Non-dollar Currencies

Money Morning Staff Reports Gold's performance in 2008 could look like a real yawner. After all, it only managed to eke out a 5.7% gain. Not the kind you'd normally brag about over cocktails. As we rang in the 2009 New Year, gold at $850 an ounce (in U.S. dollars) was roughly 15% below its […]

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Buy, Sell or Hold: Coca Cola (KO) Keeps it's Fizz

Continuing with the trend of companies that have blasted through Wall Street's earnings estimates of late, The Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) last week announced its ninth-straight quarter of double-digit earnings per share (EPS) growth and a third straight year of meeting or exceeding its long-term-growth targets. Excluding one-time items, the Atlanta-based company's earnings per share […]

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What Companies Are Profiting From China's Commodities Crusade?

By Jason Simpkins Managing Editor Money Morning While the rest of the world is grappling with the global slowdown, China is figuring out ways to exploit it. Over the past few months, China has capitalized on the financial turmoil that has paralyzed the world's "developed" economies by stocking up on cheap commodities, weeding out competition […]

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Outlook 2009: Five Ways to Play Gold's Steady Advance

By Mike Caggeso Contributing Editor Money Morning Gold hit two historic milestones in 2008. First, it hit its all-time high of $1,030 an ounce in early March. Just three months later, the price of gold for December delivery fell to $681 an ounce, a 21-month low and 33.9% drop from its record high. Most gold […]

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Retirement Blues: Financial Crisis Pulls Billions From Pension Plans, Crimping Consumers’ Dreams and Corporate Profits.

Last year was a bad one for pension plans worldwide, with the global financial crisis vacuuming an aggregate $5 trillion from companyoperated retirement plans in such key markets as the United States, Japan the United Kingdom and The Netherlands.

The plunge in stock prices knocked worldwide pension assets down from $25 trillion to $20 trillion, an excruciating decline of 19%, Reuters reported. 

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The Five Most Promising Emerging Market ETFs for 2009

If you're an emerging-markets investor, and you happened to peruse the study that the Institute for International Finance released this week, you must've experienced alarm – if not panic. The IIF expects the inflow of private funds into these markets to plunge to only $165 billion this year – an amount that's just 18% of the $929 billion that flowed into these very same markets in 2007.

For investors, the message is clear: We'd better concentrate on those emerging markets whose inhabitants have hefty piggybanks of their own.

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China's Stimulus Ignites Economy

By Don MillerAssociate EditorMoney Morning China's giant $585 billion (4 trillion yuan) economic stimulus package is showing signs of taking effect. Economists now project that China will be the likely leader of an elusive worldwide economic recovery. Chinese banks heeded the government's call to extend more credit to support the economy as they issued $237 […]

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U.S. Making Same Mistakes that Led to Japan’s Lost Decade, Say Analysts

By Jason SimpkinsManaging EditorMoney Morning Experts on the Japanese financial crisis, which culminated in 10 years of stagnation known as the "Lost Decade," are fearful that the United States is making similar mistakes with its recent bailout efforts. The two meltdowns started in much the same way – with busted stock-and-real-estate bubbles. With both the […]

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EU Economy Contracts 1.5% in Fourth Quarter, Interest Rates Could be Next

By Mike Caggeso Associate Editor Money Morning Europe's gross domestic product (GDP) shrunk 1.5% in the fourth quarter, its biggest decline in the European Union's 13-year history. The contraction was higher than the 1.3% fall economist expected. And while it marked the third straight quarterly decline, grim forecasts from the Eurozone's top economies suggest the […]

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