By Don Miller Associate Editor Money Morning Executives from credit card issuers, including Bank of America Corp. (BAC) and American Express Co. (AXP), met with President Barack Obama yesterday (Thursday) to make their case against new limits on transfer fees and higher interest rates. But their pleas fell on unsympathetic ears as Obama pressed forward […]
Archives for April 2009
April 2009 - Page 3 of 11 - Money Morning - Only the News You Can Profit From
Global Investment News Briefs
Existing Home Sales Fell But Prices Rose in March; Fiat Posts Loss But Optimistic For Rest of Year; Receiver Says Stanford Overvalued Assets; UPS Doesn’t Deliver; GM’s Summer Hiatus; Microsoft Crashes; Sales of existing U.S. homes in March fell 3% to an annual rate of 4.57 million but stayed near a four-month average, and prices […]
How Long-Short Investing Can Lead to Profits in Today's Uncertain Markets
[This is the eighth installment of a new series that looks at ways for investors to recover from the U.S. financial crisis. To check out the archive of previous stories in the series, just click on the series logo.] Long-short investing strategies aren’t just for hedge funds anymore. Many investors believed diversified “long-only” portfolios would […]
It's Time to Restructure the Investment Banks
By Martin Hutchinson Contributing Editor Money Morning It’s time to restructure the wheeler-dealers of Wall Street – the U.S. investment banks. Just over a year ago, there were five major investment banks. Now there are only two – or none, depending on how you define the term. While the investment banks have disappeared, most of […]
Bank of America’s Lewis Says Paulson, Bernanke Forced Merrill Takeover
By Jason Simpkins Managing Editor Money Morning Bank of America Corp. (BAC) Chairman and Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis said in testimony before New York's attorney general that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and former Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson pressured him not only to move ahead with a merger with Merrill Lynch despite reservations, […]
Ban Credit Default Swaps? These Corporate Bankruptcies Show We Should
By Martin HutchinsonContributing EditorMoney Morning For frustrated investors looking to justify the ban of credit default swaps (CDS), look no further than last week's corporate bankruptcies of Canadian newsprint producer AbitibiBowater Inc. (ABWTQ) and U.S. shopping center developer General Growth Properties Inc. (GGP). In both of these cases, credit default swaps became an actual bankruptcy […]
A Look at Liquidity: The Real Reason Banks Aren’t Lending
[Editor's Note: In this second installment of a two-part look at whether the credit crisis continues to crimp financing for companies and consumers, Money Morning takes a look at bank lending. In Part I earlier this week, we studied venture-capital-investment trends.] By Don MillerAssociate EditorMoney Morning Since the Obama administration took office almost 100 days […]
Global Investment News Briefs
IMF Cuts Global Outlook; Brazil Hedge Fund Sells Banks, Homebuilders; February Home Prices Up 0.7%; Home Prices in Dubai Could Fall 70%; Apple Tops Forecasts; Feds Search Siemens' Offices; Freddie Mac CFO Found Dead; E-Bay Beats Street In its latest global outlook, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) slashed the growth forecast for every major country […]
Bank Earnings: Morgan Stanley Sinks, Wells Fargo Soars
By Mike Caggeso Associate Editor Money Morning Morgan Stanley (MS) posted its second consecutive loss, missed earnings estimates by a mile and slashed its dividend, while Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) beat estimates with a $3.05 billion net income for the first quarter. The separate earnings reports pushed and pulled investors who've been cheering first-quarter […]
Improvement in Japanese Exports Hints at an Economic Recovery
By Jason SimpkinsManaging EditorMoney Morning Japan suffered its first trade deficit in nearly three decades in the year through March, but the steep decline in the Pacific nation's exports is beginning to show signs of abating – an indication that global demand could be stabilizing. Japan posted a trade deficit of 725.3 billion yen in […]