Archive for March, 2011
(MDT) Medical Devices Industry Outlook – April 2011 – Industry Outlook
Last year was challenging for medical device companies given the exigent economic conditions and an uncertain healthcare environment. The MedTech industry was hit by several macro headwinds in 2010 including price/volume and utilization pressure and a more restrictive regulatory...
31Mar2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(BA) Boeing Announces Ten Orders For 777
International aerospace giant The Boeing Co. (BA) announced that it received orders for ten 777-300 extended range (ER) from GE Capital Aviation Services (“GECAS”), the aviation unit of General Electric Co. (GE). The total cost of the airplanes is $2.8 billion at list prices. Boeing’s...
31Mar2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(MET) MetLife Seals Taiwan Deal
The Wall Street Journal has reported that MetLife Inc. (MET) has finally been able to vend its Taiwan life insurance unit to Chinatrust Financial Holdings Co. for about $180 million. This is the second desperate attempt of the company to move out of Taiwan given the limited scope...
31Mar2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(FDO) Family Dollar Stores Second Quarter 2011 Earnings Preview
Family Dollar Stores Inc. (FDO), the operator of the self-service retail discount store chain, is slated to report its second-quarter 2011 financial results before the bell on Wednesday, March 30, 2011. The current Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter is 98 cents a share....
31Mar2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(APC) Anadarko Petroleum Announces Deepwater Find in Ghana
Oil and natural gas exploration and production company, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (APC) announced that it made a deepwater discovery in its Teak-2 prospect, located in the West Cape Three Points Block, offshore Ghana. The well discovered approximately 90 net feet of high-quality...
31Mar2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(SINA) Sina Drops Google Search
A leading online media company and a provider of mobile value-added services in China, Sina Corp. (SINA) announced that a contract which allowed it to use Google Inc.’s (GOOG) search engine has expired. Currently, Sina uses its own proprietary technology instead of Google’s...
31Mar2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(AMZN) Amazon Wins the Battle For Online Storage Over Google and Apple
Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) beat both Google Inc (GOOG) and Apple Inc (AAPL) in the race to provide online storage of media content, including documents, photographs, music and videos in any format whatsoever, enabling anytime anywhere access to all. Amazon has announced two new cloud...
31Mar2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(CFSG) China Fire & Security Group Buyout Offer Under Scrutiny
The buyout offer received earlier this month by China Fire & Security Group Inc. (CFSG) from a global private equity firm is being investigated by Goldfarb Branham LLP. The firm is investigating whether the board of China Fire violated shareholder protection laws in connection...
31Mar2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(DHI) U.S. Home Prices Keep Falling
In January, home prices continued to slip, although the declines were less widespread than in recent months. The Case-Schiller Composite 10 City index (C-10) fell 0.22% on a seasonally adjusted basis, and is down 2.03% from a year ago. The broader Composite 20 City index (which...
31Mar2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(RSH) RadioShack Analyst Increases Shares to Neutral
We are upgrading our recommendation on RadioShack Corp. (RSH) to Neutral based on (1) its current valuation (2) launch of iPAD2 in its 500 stores from March 29, 2011. The stock price has plummeted nearly 37.5% in the last year and is now trading at the low-end of RadioShack’s...
31Mar2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(NFLX) Netflix Announces Partnership with Paramount Pictures of Viacom
Netflix Inc.(NFLX) has entered into a multi-year licensing agreement with Paramount Pictures, a division of Viacom Inc. (VIA) in Canada. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The deal will not only enable Netflix to expand in Canada but will also add to the long...
31Mar2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(BHI) U.S. Oil Drilling Rig Count Surges
In its weekly release, Houston-based oilfield services company Baker Hughes Inc. (BHI) reported a rise in the U.S. rig count (number of rigs searching for oil and gas in the country), primarily reflecting an increase in the tally of land rigs. The Baker Hughes rig count, issued...
31Mar2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(EIA) Stock Market News for March 31, 2011 – Market News
Markets enjoyed an extended stay in the green following reports of new jobs being created in the private-sector. Domestic data was strong enough to counter any concerns arising from the euro-zone debt woes, Libyan unrest and the Japan nuclear crisis. The Dow inched closer to...
31Mar2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | ContinuedInvestment & Unemployment – Pre & Post 1990
Recently John Taylor, the Economics Professor at Stanford and the author of the Taylor Rule which is often used in monetary policy, caused a bit of a dust up in the Economics blogging community with the following graph showing a very tight correlation between the percentage of...
31Mar2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(ACXM) Company News for March 31, 2011 – Corporate Summary
• According to a report from Bloomberg, Valeant Pharmaceuticals (NYSE:VRX) made a hostile bid to acquire Cephalon (NASDAQ:CEPH) for about $73 a share in cash or about $5.7 billion, after earlier bids were rejected • Standard & Poor’s said the world’s biggest asset...
31Mar2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(WMT) Initial Claims for Unemployment A Bit Worse Then Expected
Were Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance up or down? Well how about both? They fell by 6,000 last week to 388,000, but last week were revised up by 12,000, so one could see it as a 6,000 increase. This was a bit worse than the expected level of 383,000. The trend in initial...
31Mar2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(CAM) Cameron International Expects Lower First Quarter Earnings
Oil drilling equipment maker, Cameron International Corp. (CAM) announced that it expects to record total charge of approximately 17 cents per share in the first quarter of 2011, bruised by the turmoil in the Middle East. Cost overruns associated with a subsea project delay in...
31Mar2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(COSI) Cosi Narrows Loss on Growing Comps
Cosi Inc. (COSI), a premium casual dining restaurant chain, reported a loss of 5 cents per share in the fourth quarter of 2010 compared with the loss of 11 cents delivered in the prior-year quarter. The loss narrowed down due to positive comparable store sales growth and shrink...
31Mar2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(JPM) ATM Withdrawal Fees Set to Climb Again
Some banks have started raising fees (or imposing new ones) on customers who withdraw money from ATMs, according to Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal. The move is a part of the banks’ strategy to recoup their financials from the impact of various financial regulations. Banks...
31Mar2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(GG) Goldcorp Plans Organic Growth
Costs are becoming a growing concern for gold miners across the world. In this regard, Goldcorp Inc. (GG) has decided to set aside its acquisition strategies for the time being and concentrate only on developing its large pipeline of projects in America. In the previous year...
31Mar2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(BAC) Will Cash for Keys Fix Foreclosure?
An immediate “cash for keys” solution to the foreclosure mess is probably knocking at the door. Mortgage servicers have long been striving to reach a single broad settlement for critical deficiencies related to the foreclosure process, but this is yet to materialize due to...
31Mar2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(VOD) Vodafone Group & Frontier Communications Are Top Picks
Companies such as Vodafone Group PLC (VOD) and Frontier Communications Corporation (FTR) remain well placed in the telecom industry with good returns even after severe recessionary times. Given the importance of telecommunication services worldwide, these companies have certainly...
31Mar2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(INTC) Texas Instruments Fabs in Japan Hit by Tsunami
Leading analog chipmaker Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN, or “TI”) reported that two of its fabs in Japan have been impacted by the Tsunami. Share prices had held relatively stable during the day, but dropped off 2.05% after hours when the company announced the damage. The worst...
31Mar2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(BOBE) U.S. Housing Starts Plunge Yet Again
Housing Starts plunged in February to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of just 479,000 from 618,000 in January, a drop of 22.5%. As a small silver lining, the January numbers were revised higher from 596,000, so it is possible to see the decrease as 117,000, or “just”...
31Mar2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(WMT) U.S. Jobless Claims Still Falling
Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance fell by 16,000 last week to 385,000 (last week was revised up by 4,000, so one could see it as a 12,000 decrease). This was a bit better than the expected level of 386,000. The trend in initial claims is downward, although there have...
31Mar2011 | vitalstocks | 1 comment | Continued(DHI) U.S. Housing Industry Still Struggling
The prolonged weakness in the housing industry has extended up to February 2011. Housing starts fell 22.5% year over year to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 479,000 units in February, in contrary to an expectation of an improvement to 580,000 units. The drop in housing starts...
31Mar2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(KR) Core Consumer Price Index Inflation Still Tame
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose by 0.5% in February, up from a 0.4% increase in both January and December. While that sounds bad, year over year it is up just 2.1%. Looking a little bit deeper, the problem is mostly with energy, and to a lesser extent, food prices. Energy...
31Mar2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(CCL) Carnival Corporation – Bear of the Day
Carnival Corporation’s (CCL) first quarter 2011 earnings matched the Zacks Consensus Estimate. However, surging fuel prices are acting as the major hindrance to the company’s growth. Moreover, greater exposure to a sluggish European market, overall inflationary outlook,...
31Mar2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(HP) Helmerich & Payne Incorporated – Bull of the Day
With the industry requiring increasingly complex well designs, there is high demand for modern, technologically sophisticated rigs. Given its newest and most technologically-advanced land rig fleet, Helmerich & Payne (HP) is well positioned to take advantage of this scenario,...
31Mar2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued(CBG) CB Richard Ellis Group Publishes Report on Germany’s Commercial RE Market
According to a report published by CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. (CBG), the world’s largest commercial real estate services company (on the basis of 2010 revenues), global real estate investors are increasingly focusing on commercial real estate (CRE) properties in Germany, marking...
31Mar2011 | vitalstocks | 0 comments | Continued