Your doom has begun Europe

Comments »

Upgrades

SNH – Senior Housing upgraded to Buy at Stifel Nicolaus

CHKM – Chesapeake Midstream Partners initiated with a Buy at Janney Montgomery scott

AXL – American Axle initiated with a Buy at Citigroup

UBNT – Ubiquiti Networks initiated with a Buy at UBS

CSE – CapitalSource initiated with a Buy at Jefferies

VE – Veolia Environnement upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at HSBC

WYN – Wyndham Worldwide initiated with a Buy at Jefferies

GLPW – Global Power Equipment assumed with a Neutral from Buy at boutique firm

JASO – JA Solar upgraded to Market Perform from Underperform at Wells Fargo

SPR – Spirit Aerosystems remains a Stifel top pick

Downgrades

GS – Goldman Sachs initiated with a Neutral at Macquarie

BOOM – Dynamic Materials initiated with a Hold at Auriga

MDT – Medtronic upgraded to Buy from Neutral at BofA/Merrill

BIG – Big Lots downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Barclays

ECT – ECA Marcellus Trust downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Citigroup

WGL –  WGL Holdings downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at BofA/Merrill

LDK – LDK Solar downgraded to Sell from Hold at ThinkEquity

CUB – Cubic downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JP Morgan

CMLP – Crestwood Midstream Partners upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS

CIT – CIT Group initiated with a Hold at Jefferies

VAL – Valspar downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JP Morgan

CENX – Century Aluminum initiated with a Hold at Stifel Nicolaus

ABH – Resolute Forest Products downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform at RBC Capital

GILD – Gilead Sciences downgraded to Hold at Argus

DCIX – Diana Containerships downgraded to Neutral from Buy at BofA/Merrill

LUFK – Lufkin Industries downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Suntrust

MDT – Medtronic target lowered to $42 at Brean Murray

JNY – The Jones Group downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Lazard

CUB – Cubic target lowered to $52 at The Benchmark Company

Comments »

Gapping up

SINO +37.7%, TIVO +6.2%, AEZS+4.9%, BSX +3.6%, NOK +2%, DE +6.8%, FDML +0.8%, VIVO +0.7%, JASO +1.9%

Gapping down

HBC -1%, NUAN -1%, NLST -5.5%, BP -2.1%, ING -2.1%, P -2%, ALU -6.3%, STV -5.7%, CVX -1.7%,
SLV -3.7%, MT -3%, FNV -2.8%, CCL -2.7%, RIO -2.6%, BHP -2.2%,

Comments »

In Play 

 

On the Wires

Comments »

“Joy Global Inc. which generated the biggest shareholder returns of any industrial company in America over the past three years, would now be worth about 50 percent more as a takeover target for Komatsu Ltd. or Volvo AB.

Joy Global, subject of renewed takeover speculation in the past month,more than quadrupled (JOYG) in value since 2008 and closed at $81.21 yesterday. With Caterpillar Inc., the world’s largest maker of construction and mining equipment, buying Joy Global’s biggest competitor in July, the Milwaukee-based company may command a record $120 a share in an acquisition, Northcoast Research Holdings LLC and William Blair & Co. said.”

Full article

Comments »

BRUSSELS – Belgium asks France to renegotiate the bailout Dexia Holding, also on the distribution of the state guarantee of 90 billion. The euro crisis plan unfeasible.
From our editors

Coup de théâtre in the Dexia case. While President Jean-Luc Dehaene again yesterday for the special committee appeared to Dexia a clarification of the trap and the dismantling of Dexia, shows a significant proportion of the Belgian-French agreement of October 9 obsolete.

In particular, the rescue plan that Belgium, France and Luxembourg have agreed in early October for Dexia Holding (the remaining bank, save), stands on the slope. And this includes the much talked about 90 billion state guarantee on bank financing of the rest – especially the more massive historical bond portfolio and the daughters of Dexia remain unsold.

Belgium took France by persuading the majority (60.5 percent) of financing the rest with a Belgian bank Dexia state guarantee to cover. This guarantee, Dexia to enable the next year to 54 billion euros from the Belgian bond market to pick up. This would come in direct competition with Belgium itself, that money needs to get his debt and deficit financing.

The Belgian bond market is quickly drying up. This makes it impossible for the coming years tens of billions of Dexia to retrieve. Specialists estimate that for Dexia ‘only’ room for 20 to 25 billion euros from the Market. Since the agreement Dexia Belgium mistrust of financial markets, allowing long-term rates has increased dramatically: the beginning of October is 3.6 percent in Belgium paid ten-year loan, now it is 4.9 percent. And that has consequences for the rest of the financing bank. “Dexia becomes intolerable as it is such high interest rates on the market to pay, insiders warn.

French way

Belgium, France and the European Commission has therefore already stated that the bailout Dexia Holding need re-negotiation. As a possible way a new agreement in which the French, backed by Belgium, one additional share of the funding to take on.

Much time is not. For the euro crisis threatens not only Belgium in need of money to bring the whole bailout for Dexia falters.

Dexia Holding should not only pay high long-term market, it needs also a costly fee for the state guarantee. Total (financing) costs of the massive bond portfolio in the rest thereby threaten the bank proceeds to beat. Allowing the remaining banks are structurally unprofitable.

All parties involved are treated with the hands in the hair. “What now?” The remaining bank fail let go is not an option, it reads. The consequences for Dexia Bank Belgium (DBB) could not be foreseen. “The Belgian state bank to the rest Dexia Bank overdraft – no guarantees, so – given 20 to 25 billion euros, and then we lost all that money.”

Belgium sees the only solution is that France itself the bulk of the money that the rest Dexia bank needs from the French bond market gets. Belgium would be the part that France collects on behalf of our country, with guarantees covering.

But the French are not designed for jumping. They believe that Belgium commits perjury. Paris itself is under great pressure. The credit agency Moody’s yesterday put pressure on France once again by openly to question the sustainability of the French AAA credit rating. In addition, in the spring French presidential elections.

Dexia Belgium ruin.

Source: De Standaard

h/t: @zerohedge

Comments »

Thank you Europe

Comments »

Jefferies has vigorously defended itself and taken some measures to reduce exposure to sovereign debt, but in the wake of MF Global some think more needs to be done.

Full article 

Comments »

Buybacks can help earnings and help a stock to go higher when institutions want stock; but remember ratings agencies warned over credit ratings from excessive buybacks.

Full article

Comments »

I don’t know how much store can be taken in anecdotal pieces like this (I’ve heard this all before, and sometimes it means nothing as people talk depressed but spend away), but here it is:

Some are holding potluck dinners instead of springing for the entire feast. Others are staying home rather than flying. And a few are skipping the turkey altogether.

On this the fourth Thanksgiving since the economy sank, prices for everything from airline flights to groceries are going up, and some Americans are scaling back. Yet in many households, the occasion is too important to skimp on. Said one mother: “I don’t have much to give, but I’ll be cooking, and the door will be open.”

Thanksgiving airfares are up 20 percent this year, and the average price of a gallon of gas has risen almost 20 percent, according to travel tracker AAA. Still, about 42.5 million people are expected to travel, the highest number since the start of the recession.

But even those who choose to stay home and cook for themselves will probably spend more. A 16-pound turkey and all the trimmings will cost an average of $49.20, a 13 percent jump from last year, or about $5.73 more, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation, which says grocers have raised prices to keep pace with higher-priced commodities.

In Pawtucket, R.I., Jackie Galinis was among those looking for help to put a proper meal on the table. She stopped at a community center this week seeking a donated food basket. But by the time she arrived, all 300 turkeys had been claimed.

So Galinis, an unemployed retail worker, will make do with what’s in her apartment. “We’ll have to eat whatever I’ve got, so I’m thinking chicken,” she said.

Then her eyes lit up. “Actually, I think I’ve got red meat in the freezer, some corned beef. We could do a boiled dinner.”

Galinis has another reason to clear out her apartment’s freezer: Her landlord is in the process of evicting her and her 3-year-old son. The unemployment rate in Pawtucket, a city struggling with the loss of manufacturing jobs, is 12.1 percent, well above the national average.

Carole Goldsmith of Fresno, Calif., decided she didn’t need to have a feast, even if she could still afford it.

Goldsmith, an administrator at a community college in Coalinga, Calif., said she typically hosts an “over-the-top meal” for friends and family. This year, she canceled the meal and donated a dozen turkeys to two homeless shelters. She plans to spend Thursday volunteering before holding a small celebration Friday with soup, bread “and lots of gratitude.”

“I think everybody is OK with it,” she said. “They understand. Everybody is in a different place than they were a year ago.”

In suburban Chicago, the Oak Park River Forest Food Pantry got rid of turkey altogether. Last year, the pantry had a lottery in October to distribute 600 turkeys between almost 1,500 families.

The pantry’s management has decided to give all of its families a choice between other kinds of meat — ground turkey, sliced chicken, fish sticks and hamburger patties — along with the other trappings of a Thanksgiving feast. The decision will save $16,000, money that can go to feeding the hungry for the rest of the year.

Comments »

I’d be the first one to tell you to ignore the advice of this piece.

Read here:

Emerging-market stocks are trading at levels 35 percent cheaper than their 15-year average as rising profits and falling interest rates from Brazil to Indonesia buoy investor confidence.

While the MSCI Emerging Markets Index’s 9.7 percent gain from this year’s low on Oct. 4 lifted its price-earnings ratio to 10.3 from 9.7, the gauge is still trading below its mean since 1996, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The measure jumped an average 35 percent after developing-nation policy makers began cutting interest rates in 2003, 2005 and 2008.

Investors pulled $26 billion from emerging-market mutual funds in the first nine months and the stock indexes sank about twice as much as advanced nations after Indonesia, Poland and Brazil raised interest rates. Now borrowing costs are coming down as policy makers seek to spur expansions at a time when export growth and inflation are slowing. The MSCI index may rise 30 percent in a year as record earnings outweigh Europe’s debt crisis, more than 17,000 forecasts compiled by Bloomberg show.

“You still have great relative growth advantages for a lot of the underlying economies and very cheap stocks,” David Donabedian, who oversees about $17 billion as chief investment officer at Atlantic Trust, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “We’ll begin to see better performance out of the emerging markets over the next three or four months and the reason is we’re going to see some positive policy changes.”

Comments »

(Reuters) – Groupon Inc stock slumped as much as 14 percent on Tuesday on concern about increased competition, leaving shares of the largest daily deal company close to their $20 initial public offering price.

Groupon shares fell to as low as $20.03 in late morning action before recovering slightly. The company was the third-largest decliner on the Nasdaq.

Groupon raised more than $700 million in an IPO in early November.

LivingSocial, Groupon’s closest rival, announced plans on Monday to offer more than 20 deals with national merchants over the crucial Black Friday shopping period.

Daily deal companies often subsidize national deals, making them less profitable than offers run with local merchants. The national deals usually bring in lots of new customers, but pressure profit margins.

“In the last few days we’ve been hearing about LivingSocial stepping up promotions,” said Edward Woo, an analyst at Wedbush Securities. “The concern is that there will be much more competition for Groupon going forward.”

Comments »

Read here:

China announced Monday is it set to invest in a $1.7 trillion stimulus program over the next five years to ensure economic growth amid fears of slowing growth at home and abroad.

“Global economic conditions remain grim, and ensuring economic recovery is the overriding priority,” said Chinese Vice-Premier Wang Qishan, Reuters reports. “[And] an unbalanced recovery would be better than a balanced recession.”

Gross domestic product averaged 9.7% in China from 2008 to 2010, but growth has been slowing since the beginning of this year. The country’s GDP slowed to 9.1% in the third quarter, from 9.5% in the second and 9.7% from the first.

There’s been much discussion by economists — even here on The Daily Ticker — over whether China can maintain those near double-digit growth patterns. Evan Smith, co-manager of the Global Resources Fund at U.S. Global Investors, worries about a so-called “hard-landing” in China.

But should GDP in China slow further, the demand from the country’s billion-plus population is not going anywhere. In the accompanying video, Smith and The Daily Ticker’s Aaron Task and Daniel Gross discuss China’s impact on global resources.

From coal to corn to iron ore, China is “impacting the price of almost all commodities,” he says. And in terms of oil, the implications are rather concerning. “There is not enough oil on the planet if they continue grow like they have been growing.”

Comments »

Full Article

Comments »

Upgrades

ATRO – Astronics initiated with a Hold at Auriga

AVGO – Avago Tech initiated with a Buy at Lazard

RIG – Transocean resumed with a Buy at Dahlman Rose

NWSA – News Corp upgraded to Positive from Neutral at Susquehanna

ESL – Esterline Techs initiated with a Market Perform at Wells Fargo

VOXX – Audiovox initiated with a Above Average at Caris & Company

QPSA – Quepasa initiated with a Mkt Outperform at Rodman & Renshaw

DTSI – DTS initiated with an Outperform at JMP Securities

NVDA – NVIDIA upgraded to Buy from Under Perform at Needham

WGL – WGL Holdings upgraded to Buy at Brean Murray

PSS – Collective Brands upgraded to Buy from Hold at Auriga

DRC – Dresser-Rand initiated with an Outperform at Wells Fargo

ICON – Iconix Brand initiated with a Buy at Citigroup

AN – AutoNation upgraded to Neutral from Sell at Goldman

TRLG – True Religion initiated with a Buy at Citigroup

FF – First Financial Fund Inc. initiated with an Outperform at Wedbush

DLB – Dolby Labs upgraded to Outperform at Barrington Research

ALTR – Altera initiated with a Buy at Lazard

INAP – InterNAP resumed with an Outperform at Wells Fargo

DAL – Delta Air Lines initiated with an Outperform at Raymond James

EQIX – Equinix resumed with an Outperform at Wells Fargo

DOLE – Dole Food downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at BofA/Merrill

ENTR – Entropic Comms initiated with a Buy at Mizuho

DAN – Dana Holding initiated with a Buy at UBS

SMP – Standard Motor downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Goldman

Downgrades

MSFT – Microsoft initiated with a Hold at ThinkEquity

TWO – Two Harbors Investment initiated with a Neutral at Sterne Agee

TSL – Trina Solar downgraded to Sell from Hold at Auriga

WYNN – Wynn Resorts downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Janney Montgomery Scott

AMGN – Amgen downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at BMO Capital

TSLA – Tesla Motors initiated with a Hold at Wunderlich

XLNX – Xilinx initiated with a Neutral at Lazard

INTU – Intuit initiated with a Buy at ThinkEquity

FMCN – Focus Media downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JP Morgan

COT – Cott estsimates reduced at Stifel Nicolaus

AFL – AFLAC downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Suntrust

VRUS – Pharmasset downgraded to Hold at Canaccord Genuity

NCIT – NCI downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Suntrust

MTOR – Meritor downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Barclays

AH – Accretive Health initiated with a Neutral at Cowen

Comments »

Gapping up

ZLC +11%, LNG +9.8%,  SIG +4.4%, ADI +2.3%, FMCN +6.9%, DCTH +6.3%, BRCD +4.9%, RENN +1.8%,

YOKU +1.7%, JACK +0.7%, AUY +1.1%, SINA +2%, HMY +1%, SLW +1%,  BWEN +37.9%,  LNG +8%,   TTM +6.4%,

DCTH +8.3%, ABX +0.9%, GDX +0.7%, PPHM +25.6%, GFI +0.6%, CVS +0.7%,

 

Gapping down

FRO -26.8%, JKS -12.3%, PSS -8.8%, PWRD -7.6%, FIO -6.1%, TSL -6.1%, ALU -5.4%, NFLX -2%, HPQ -1.6%,

STP -2.7% , DB -2.9%, BBVA -2.8%, LYG -2.7%, CS -1.4%, HBC -1%,  SFL -9.5%, LEN -2.7%, WYNN -1.3%,

AMGN -0.4%,

 

Comments »

In Play

On the Wires

Comments »

The vampire squid has its tentacles everywhere.

Comments »

I respect your views Mr. Biggs stuff, but i sure hope your wrong!

Full article 

Comments »

Cramer is on CNBC saying Europe is on the cusp of nationalizing its banks and “crunching” bond and preferred holders for $10 trilly.

Comments »