Archive for September, 2009
(C) Citigroup Exiting Smith Barney
Citigroup Inc.’s (C) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Vikram Pandit indicated that the company will eventually divest its remaining stake in the Smith Barney joint venture with Morgan Stanley (MS). The CEO’s comments came at a conference sponsored by Barclays Capital. Citigroup...
17Sep2009 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(HAL) Halliburton Wins Royal Dutch Shell Contract
Halliburton (HAL) has recently received a contract from Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA) for delivering fluid services on one deepwater rig and one tension leg platform in the Gulf of Mexico. The contract includes delivering clay-free, high-performance fluid systems capable of handling...
17Sep2009 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(EFX) Equifax Gets a New Partner
Equifax Inc. (EFX) recently entered into a partnership with Exchange Solution Inc. [ESI]. As per the terms of the partnership agreement, both the companies will jointly provide solutions to financial institutions to engage in a two way dialogue with their customers and provide...
17Sep2009 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(CHU) China Unicom to Roll Out 3G Services
China Unicom (CHU), the second largest wireless service provider in China, will offically commence the commercial roll-out of its 3G wireless services on Sept. 28, 2009 across 285 cities in China. The company will also offer nine 3G bundled service packages with monthly price...
17Sep2009 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(NVS) Novartis Aims Big in COPD Market
Yesterday, Novartis (NVS) released encouraging data on its investigational respiratory drug QAB149 which is being developed for the treatment of patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The drug, to be used once daily, improved lung function and significantly...
17Sep2009 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(IBM) IBM’s New Weapon is DB2, Their New, Lower Cost Database
International Business Machine (IBM) is getting plenty of new SAP Business Applications clients who are switching from other database software to IBM’s DB2. This new database software provides an attractive alternative because of its lower cost, advanced analytical capability...
17Sep2009 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(JLL) Jones Lang LaSalle Offers Online Auctions
Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated (JLL), a leading real estate investment trust (REIT), has recently tied up with Real Estate Disposition LLC, a global leader in real estate auction marketing, for online auctions of commercial properties. The strategic move is intended to provide...
17Sep2009 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(TM) Toyota Motor Spends Big Bucks on Marketing
Toyota Motor (TM) seems to be regaining consumer confidence in the U.S. at a fast pace. The company has rolled out a plan to spend $1 billion on marketing campaign to boost its U.S. sales in the fourth quarter. The marketing outlay is 30% to 40% higher than the company typically...
17Sep2009 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(BTU) Peabody Energy Sets Up in Singapore
Peabody Energy (BTU) has set up a new office in Singapore, which will serve as the hub for its trading and brokerage activities in Southeast Asia. This will further strengthen Peabody’s access to high-growth seaborne coal markets in the region, especially China and India, which...
17Sep2009 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(MGA) Magna International Gets Chinese Offer for Opel
Magna International (MGA) has been approached by China ’s Geely Automobile Holdings for a partnership deal in the former’s newly acquired Opel unit. Last week, Magna and Russia ’s Sberbank acquired the Opel unit from General Motors. The deal allowed both the buyers to hold...
17Sep2009 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(UTX) United Technologies’ Sikorsky Wins New Helicopter Contract
United Technologies Corp.’s (UTX) subsidiary Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. recently received a $73.2 million contract from the U.S. Army for six Black Hawk helicopters modified for the Brazilian Air Force. The work will be performed in Stratford , Connecticut , and is expected...
17Sep2009 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(COF) Initial Unemployment Insurance Claims Drop Again
Initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped to 545,000, a decline of 12,000 from an upwardly revised total of 557,000 last week, providing a net improvement of 5,000. The four-week moving average fell by 8,750 to 563,000 (7,000 decline net of revisions). As you can see...
17Sep2009 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(APC) Anadarko Petroleum Finds Oil Offshore Sierra Leone
Anadarko Petroleum (APC) has made a new deepwater discovery at the Venus exploration well in block SL 6/07 offshore Sierra Leone. The well was drilled to a total depth of nearly 18,500 feet in about 5,900 feet of water and found over 45 net feet of hydrocarbon pay. Anadarko operates...
17Sep2009 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(MS) Morgan Stanley Issues Senior Notes
On Sep 16, Morgan Stanley (MS) sold 10-year senior notes worth $3 billion that are expected to yield a (yield to maturity) YTM of 5.68% and about 225 bps over the U.S. Treasuries. Morgan Stanley was the sole lead manager for the sale. The notes were issued at a discount at $99.581....
17Sep2009 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(SON) Sonoco Products Company Announces More Cost Cuts
Sonoco Products Company (SON) announced plans to streamline its business structure in order to improve operating efficiency. The company plans to consolidate its 19 separate businesses into six consumer and industrial business units with a direct reporting line to the senior...
17Sep2009 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(IBM) IBM Teams up with Dubuque, Iowa on Smart City Project
International Business Machines (IBM) recently made an announcement that it is entering into a joint collaboration with the City of Dubuque, Iowa to transform the city into one of the first smart cities in U.S. Dubuque is an important city of U.S. and employs forward thinking...
17Sep2009 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(PVSW) Pervasive Software & SuccessFactors Team Up
Pervasive Software Inc. (PVSW) and SuccessFactors, Inc. (SFSF) recently announced the teaming up of that Pervasive and SuccessCloud to deliver integration for SuccessFactors Business Executive Software Suite. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Pervasive provides data management...
17Sep2009 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(ICA) Fluor Subsidiary Wins Big Contract
ICA Fluor, the industrial construction joint venture of Empresas ICA , S.A.B. de C.V. (ICA ) and Fluor Corporation (FLR), announced that Mexico’s state oil company PEMEX Refining awarded the company engineering, procurement and construction contracts for two low sulfur gasoline...
17Sep2009 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued($LVS) Are Casino Stocks a Gamble Right Now?
Some of the fastest moving companies over the past week have been casino stocks. Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS) and MGM Mirage (NYSE: MGM) have climbed up over 80% and 50% respectively. And that includes yesterday’s 7% drop. This morning both stocks started clawing back that...
17Sep2009 | InvestmentU | 0 comments | Continued(IPG) Interpublic Group of Companies’ Units Octagon & GolinHarris Form Partnership
Earlier this week, Octagon and GolinHarris announced a partnership, creating Octagon PR, a unit focused specifically on sports public relations strategy, ideation and execution. The new alliance brings together two agencies of the Interpublic Group of Companies (IPG) that are...
17Sep2009 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(DHI) Apartment Starts, Permits Rise
The August data on Building Permits and Housing Starts show a slight increase for both nationwide, but the gains all came from multi-family structures, primarily in the Northeast. Both the total permits and the total starts numbers were in line with consensus expectations. Looking...
17Sep2009 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(LD) Five Ways to Profit from China’s Environmental Crackdown
Tony Daltorio, Investment U Research China has an environmental problem, something the government has known about it for years. For some time now, polluters have dumped massive amounts of toxic waste into China’s air and water. And since Beijing mandated economic growth at...
17Sep2009 | InvestmentU | 0 comments | Continued(GOOG) Turning a Page With Google Books
Google (GOOG) recently made an interesting move regarding its online books. The company has decided to make 2 million previously scanned books in the public domain available to On Demand Books, the maker of the recently publicized Espresso Book Machine. This would enable the...
17Sep2009 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(CKR) CKE Restaurants’ Profit Slides Marginally
CKE Restaurants, Inc. (CKR) recently reported second-quarter 2010 results amid a crumbling economy, plagued by rising unemployment and waning consumer discretionary spending. The operator of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s fast food chains’ second quarter profit slid less...
17Sep2009 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(APOG) Apogee Enterprises Sees Tough 2011
Apogee Enterprises Inc. (APOG) posted fiscal second-quarter earnings of 46 cents per share, above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 25 cents per share as well as the prior-year earnings of 43 cents per share. However, quarterly revenue was down 23% year-over-year at $187.4 million...
17Sep2009 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(NEM) Newmont Mining is Cautious on New Mine
On Sept. 16, Newmont Mining Corp. (NEM) said it was still evaluating the decision to develop its Minas Conga copper-gold project in Northern Peru. Production at the mine was delayed due to the global economic downturn and credit crunch, which led to a higher projected cost for...
17Sep2009 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(EBAY) eBay’s Skype Sale Suffers Setback
Skype founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom recently filed a lawsuit against eBay Inc. (EBAY), claiming that there had been a breach in agreement by which it licensed key communication technology enabling phone calls over the Internet. Joltid Ltd., a firm owned by the co-founders,...
17Sep2009 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(DD) EI DuPont De Nemours Co, Dow Chemical Keep Agricultural Business
EI DuPont De Nemours Co. (DD) recently said it expects the performance of its seed business, Pioneer Hi-Bred, to grow more than 15% year over year in 2009. The company’s seed business has gained more than 2% of share in the North American seed corn market, which is the largest...
17Sep2009 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(ETFC) E*Trade – Why You Should Buy This Stock Before It’s Too Late
by Louis Basenese, Advisory Panelist Ask most investors about E*Trade and you’ll get a mouthful about why the company is a toxic asset to be avoided at all costs. I can’t say I blame them. After all, the company did make a foolish foray into the real estate lending business....
17Sep2009 | InvestmentU | 0 comments | Continued(CVX) Another Sharp Drop in Crude Oil Stockpiles
Yesterday, the U.S. Energy Department’s weekly inventory release showed a sharp drop in crude stockpiles. However, this piece of positive data was somewhat tempered by reports of increases in refined product supplies like gasoline and distillate fuels. The federal government’s...
17Sep2009 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued