iBankCoin
Home / 2012 / November (page 17)

Monthly Archives: November 2012

$LOW Posts a 76% Increase in Net Income as Charges Drop and Revenues Rise

“MOORESVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Lowe’s third-quarter net income surged 76 percent, helped by fewer charges and higher revenue. The home improvement retailer also reaffirmed its full-year forecast.

Its adjusted earnings without charges and its revenue both beat Wall Street forecasts. Its shares rose 5 percent in early premarket trading Monday.

Lowe’s earned $396 million, or 35 cents per share, for the three months ended Nov. 2. That compares with $225 million, or 18 cents per share, a year ago.

The current quarter includes charges that lowered earnings by 5 cents per share. In the prior-year period, charges reduced earnings by 18 cents per share.

The adjusted earnings of 40 cents per share beat the 36 cents per share that analysts polled by FactSet predicted.

Revenue rose 2 percent to $12.07 billion from $11.85 billion. That also beat Wall Street’s estimate of $11.93 billion.”

Full article

Comments »

Speculation Rises Over $BP as a Take Over Target, Value Based Notion

“Bob Dudley shrank BP Plc (BP/) to save it.

The onetime Mississippian and current chief executive officer has sold more than $50 billion of assets to pay the costs of the worst U.S. oil spill in history in 2010. Rescued from the brink of collapse, Europe’s second-largest oil company is now seen as vulnerable to a takeover.

BP is the cheapest of the world’s five biggest non-state oil companies by market value relative to reserves, earnings and output. As a result it may become a target, according to people familiar with the strategic thinking of the London-based company and its potential acquirers.

Dudley’s boldest move as the first American in charge of the 103-year-old British company was last month’s exit from a turbulent Russian venture in exchange for a 20 percent stake in state oil company OAO Rosneft (ROSN) and $12.3 billion in cash.

The deal solved one of BP’s two biggest challenges. The other,litigation in the U.S. over fines from the spill, came closer to a resolution last week with a $4.5 billion criminal settlement. The civil claims may vanish in a settlement before the trial set to start Feb. 25.

“You can absolutely make the case that it’s a potential takeover target” once BP’s U.S. settlement and the Russia deal are completed, said Julian Birkinshaw, a professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the London Business School, the U.K.’s best, according to Financial Times rankings. “BP has been fighting wars on both the eastern and western fronts” that held back buyers, he said.

BP shares fell to the lowest since July after the criminal settlement was announced. Shares rose as much as 11.8 pence, or 2.8 percent, to 428.4 pence in London today. The stock traded at 426.6 pence 12:10 p.m. local time.”

Full article

Comments »

Banks in Germany Continue to Clash Over a Banking Union

“The effort to establish a euro-area banking regulator in Frankfurt is exposing deepening fault lines among the city’s banks as policy makers jostle over the shape of the industry.

Deutsche Bank’s co-Chief Executive Officer Juergen Fitschen, an advocate, is among top executives and officials meeting at the Euro Finance Week conference in the currency union’s financial capital today. At the center of the debate will be how much power the European Central Bank, based in Frankfurt, should be allowed to wield.

The argument pits Fitschen, who favors centralized ECB regulation, against more than 1,500 smaller banks who lend more cash to Europe’s biggest economy than he does. The discord over banking union mirrors a wider dispute between politicians, regulators and central banks across the continent that has led the Bundesbank, also based in Frankfurt, to lock horns with the ECB. At stake is a revival of last year’s bank share sell-off, prompted by foot-dragging on steps to stem Europe’s debt crisis.

“The path to banking union leads through Frankfurt and that’s where the conflicts will be focused,” Markus Rudolf, a professor of banking and finance at the WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management in Vallendar, Germany, said by phone. “Frankfurt is the site of very different competing opinions.” ”

Full article

Comments »

Shadow Banking System Grows to $67 Trillion

“The shadow banking industry has grown to about $67 trillion, $6 trillion bigger than previously thought, leading global regulators to seek more oversight of financial transactions that fall outside traditional oversight.

The size of the shadow banking system, which includes the activities of money market funds, monoline insurers and off- balance sheet investment vehicles, “can create systemic risks” and “amplify market reactions when market liquidity is scarce,” the Financial Stability Board said in a report, which utilized more data than last year’s probe into the sector.

“Appropriate monitoring and regulatory frameworks for the shadow banking system needs to be in place to mitigate the build-up of risks,” the FSB said in the report published on its website.

While watchdogs have reined in excessive risk-taking by banks in the wake of the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in 2008, they are concerned that lenders might use shadow banking to evade the clampdown. Michel Barnier, the European Union’s financial services chief, is planning to target money market funds in a first wave of rules for shadow banks next year.

The FSB, a global financial policy group comprised of regulators and central bankers, found that shadow banking grew by $41 trillion between 2002 and 2011. The share of activity based in the U.S. has declined from 44 percent in 2005 to 35 percent in 2011, moving to the U.K. and the rest of Europe.”

Full article 

 

Comments »

The Aussie Dollar Rises Amid Risk On in Equities and Expectations Japan Will Ease

“The Australian dollar rose against most of its major peers after President Barack Obamaexpressed confidence that the U.S. can avoid the so-called fiscal cliff, boosting stocks and buoying demand for higher-yielding assets.

The so-called Aussie reached its strongest level in more than six months against the yen as theBank of Japan (8301) meets today and tomorrow with political pressure mounting for more monetary stimulus. New Zealand’s dollar, known as the kiwi, maintained an advance after data showed its services industry expanded at the fastest pace in almost five years.

“The Australian and New Zealand dollars are being bought as risk assets, so they tend to be correlated with stock moves,” said Hideki Shibata, a senior strategist for rates and currencies at Tokai Tokyo Research Center Co. “Amid the broader sell-off of the yen, the Aussie and kiwi are being chosen as higher-yielding currencies.” ”

Full article

Comments »

Black Gold Jumps on More Mideast Tensions and a Weaker Greenback

“Oil advanced to the highest level in more than a week in New York amid concern that Middle East unrest will disrupt supply and speculation the U.S. will avert automatic spending cuts and tax rises that threaten to throw the nation into recession.

West Texas Intermediate futures climbed to more than $88 a barrel, extending two weeks of gains. Israel will continue to attack Gaza and may intensify operations, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said. U.S. President Barack Obama is “confident” of a deal on the so-called fiscal cliff, he said after Nov. 16 talks with congressional leaders.”

Full article

Comments »

Sports: Classic Les Miles Press Conference

Such a roller-coaster of a game would make any coach sound crazy in their postgame press conference. Luckily for us, it was Coach Miles who reminded us why he is the “Mad Hatter” and the “Most Interesting Coach in the World.”

And just like in those commercials, I’m sure you could make one for Coach Miles that would say, “I don’t always make the right call on fourth down, but when I do, I make sure to make something epic out of it.

“Stay crazy my friends.”

Source

Comments »

Supermarkets Sold Out of Twinkies

The empty shelves at grocery stores and ridiculously high selling prices on eBay tell you all you need to know – people want to get that last Twinkie before they’re gone forever.

Since Friday’s announcement that Twinkie maker Hostess Brands Inc. would close its doors after years of rising labor costs and the changing tastes of Americans, Myrtle Beach area residents have flooded supermarkets hoping for one last taste of the snack cake jokesters said would outlive humanity.

“We sold out early yesterday,” said Michael Byrd on Saturday. Byrd, operator of the Piggly Wiggly at The Market Common said it wasn’t just Twinkies. “Ding Dongs, same thing.”

Comments »

Come Read the Most Fucked Up Message Board in the History of the Internet

Hello Everyone. I’ve been lurking here for years and just recently decided to join up. I’m hoping to get some help here.

I’m a huge fan of MDPV. Not the white hydrochloride – it’s inconceivable that anyone on the planet would willingly put that into their bodies — I’m talking the freebase form. I think many of you that don’t bother to freebase it yourself have at least tasted the freebase version when it was widely available as “tan mdpv”. I think it’s the finest drug evere conceived, not just for the indescribable hypersexuality, but also for the smooth euphoria and mild comedown.

My question is this: How can I more easilly separate the oil from the precipitate using some mechanical means?

Here’s the nightmarish process I’ve been going through so far:

First I precipitate and then place the container on a foot vibrator for 30 minutes to raise the first oil (the oil is heavier than water, by the way):

Full Article

Comments »

Documentary: We – Arundhati Roy

While not a true documentary it is a moving speech examining the world we live in today.

Cheers on your weekend!

[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bCJxquXDXo 450 300]

 

Comments »

What Do Cracks in the Junk Bond Market Tell Us About Equities

“The market for junk bonds – or high yield debt – has been on a tear as investors have poured money into the asset class.

But that market has recently started to show some cracks.

Bloomberg’s Lisa Abramowicz reported earlier in the week:

Investors yanked a record volume of cash from BlackRock Inc. (BLK)’s exchange-traded fund that buys junk bonds as the notes lose value for the first month since May.

The $16.3 billion fund reported an outflow of 2.4 million shares yesterday, equal to about $218.9 million, according to data compiled by BloombergThat’s the biggest daily withdrawal in the five-year history of the iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond Fund, the largest of its kind.

The obvious question, then, is where the market goes from here – do the redemptions continue, or does activity level out? ”

Full article

Comments »

EIA: Shale Resource Under Santa Barbra CA. is 4 Times Larger Than the Bakken

” In the wake of the International Energy Association’s extremely bullish report about America’s hydrocarbon potential, the San Diego Union Tribune has published an editorial calling on California Gov. Jerry Brown to tap the state’s mammoth shale oil resources.

How big are they?

According to the EIA, the Monterrey Formation, which covers an enormous chunk of Southern California and terminates near Santa Barbara, has 15.4 billion barrels of recoverable crude — four times as much as the Bakken formation in North Dakota.”

Full article

Comments »

ECB Official Says Greece Will Need Another Haircut

” It is open whether Greece may need another writedown on its debt, but such a step should only be taken once Athens has implemented necessary structural reforms, European Central Bank Governing Council member Jens Weidmann said on Friday.

“I regard as an open question whether the need for a haircut in debt arises,” Weidmann, who also heads the German Bundesbank, said at an event organized by the newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung in Berlin.

“One can pose the question whether the leap of faith that you give (with a haircut) sets the right incentives or whether it would not make sense, to set a haircut, which one will need in the end to regain capital market access, as a perspective for when the reforms… have been implemented.”

Weidmann also said he was confident France would be able to fix its budget and added that the population profile works to the country’s advantage.”

 

Full article

Comments »