PPI Rose Less than Forecast
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on June 16th, 2009 at 9:10 am

Bloomberg reports:

Prices paid to U.S. producers rose less than forecast in May as food expenses dropped, leading to the biggest 12-month slump in wholesale costs in a half century.
The 0.2 percent increase in prices paid to factories, farmers and other producers followed a 0.3 percent gain in April, the Labor Department said today in Washington. Excluding food and fuel, so-called core prices unexpectedly fell.
The lack of sustained gains in sales is one reason companies will need to keep a lid on prices, preventing inflation from flaring. The rising cost of commodities such as gasoline may further limit consumers’ discretionary spending at a time when the economy is showing signs of stabilizing.
“Outside of oil, inflation is still tame,” James O’Sullivan, a senior economist at UBS Securities LLC in Stamford, Connecticut, said before the report. “Given the huge amount of slack in the economy, the broad trend in inflation is more likely to be down than up.”
Economists forecast producer prices would rise 0.6 percent, according to the median of 73 projections in a Bloomberg News survey. Estimates ranged from no change to a 2.3 percent gain.
Compared with a year earlier, companies paid 5 percent less for goods, the biggest decrease since 1949 and reflecting the drop in fuel costs late last year that has since partially reversed.

Meanwhile, Job title inflation reaches alarming levels.

Morning Call
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on June 16th, 2009 at 8:56 am

Detroit now has zero bookstore chains, zero national grocery chains, zero Chrysler Jeep dealers and only four Starbucks.
G.M. Sells Saab to Swedish Automaker
Smithfield swings to loss but bests estimates
European car sales sink 4.9% in May
Volvo says demand has bottomed out

Best Buy posts lower quarterly profit, keeps view
China to Pass Germany as Porsche’s Second-Biggest Market. Apparently, there is a substitute.
One of the world’s largest dairy farms is in…Saudi Arabia?

Captain America Redux
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on June 15th, 2009 at 11:42 pm

The New York Times reports that Marvel Entertainment (MVL) is bringing back Captain America:

More than two years after his comic book death, the sentinel of liberty known as Captain America is returning to the land of the living. “Captain America Reborn,” a five-part series published by Marvel Entertainment, will begin next month and is written by Ed Brubaker and illustrated by Bryan Hitch, one of the comic book industry’s most acclaimed artists. Mr. Brubaker is the regular writer of the Captain America series, including issue No. 25, published in 2007, in which the title hero was felled by an assassin’s bullet. It was a shot heard around the world as many news organizations carried word of the captain’s death. The story of his return begins in Captain America No. 600 (the series is returning to the original numbering from Volume 1, with a cover date of March 1941), which is in comic book stores now. New comics typically go on sale Wednesdays, but in an unusual move Marvel has allowed the comic to go on sale immediately.

Conan O’Brien said they’ll start making Captain America once they get a loan from Captain China.

Stunning Pictures from Iran
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on June 15th, 2009 at 5:15 pm

The Iranian military raided Isfahan University of Technology (warnings graph images).

S&P 500 and Gold Are the Same
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on June 12th, 2009 at 1:06 pm

Gold and the S&P 500 are basically neck and neck today.

Today’s Consumer Confidence Report
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on June 12th, 2009 at 11:13 am

The Michigan Consumer Confidence reading rose again this month. Actually, I think it might be more accurate to say that the level of consumer self-hatred eased a bit in June.
It wasn’t a big increase, going from 68.7 to 69.0. The Street was looking for 69.5. We’re at the highest level since Lehman Brothers went kablooey.
What really jumps out at me is that consumer’s view of the future took a big plunge this month. For May, the reading for the 12-month outlook was 75. This month is was just 61. Youch! Inflation expectations rose to 3.1% from 2.8% in May.

OMG DELL Ernd $3 Mil Off Twttr So How Mch Did Twtte Mke? = $0 LOL :o)
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on June 12th, 2009 at 10:38 am

The New York Times reports:

These days, lots of companies are talking about their “Twitter strategy,” but few have figured out how to measure what amassing hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter does for their businesses. Dell has shown that it can go directly to the top line.
Dell said Thursday night that the company had earned $3 million in revenue directly through Twitter since 2007, when it started posting coupons and word of new products on the microblogging site. In the last six months, Dell Outlet earned $1 million in sales from customers who came to the site from Twitter, after taking 18 months to earn its first $1 million. Dell has also earned another $1 million from people who click from Twitter to Dell Outlet to Dell.com and make a purchase there.
Dell joins companies like Starbucks, JetBlue and Whole Foods as one of the most active corporate Twitter users. “It’s a great way to fix customer problems and hear what customers have to say, it’s a great feedback forum and it leads to sales — how can you miss?” said Richard Binhammer, who works in Dell’s corporate affairs office and is active on its Twitter accounts.
Twitter made exactly $0 from those Dell sales, something that will very likely change. Twitter’s founders have said that it someday hopes to make money from its corporate users, with paid accounts that offer additional features like analysis of the traffic to businesses’ Twitter profiles and verified accounts so customers know they are not dealing with an impostor. When asked whether Dell would pay Twitter for an account, Mr. Binhammer said, “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Small Stocks, Big Dividends
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on June 12th, 2009 at 10:13 am

Barron’s scanned for small stocks that pay generous dividends. They looked for stocks that have raised their dividend over the last five years that have market caps between $800 million and $3 billion. They also knocked out financial stocks or stocks with too much debt.
Here’s what they found:
Flowers Foods (FLO)
Owens & Minor (OMI)
South Jersey Industries (SJI)
ABM Industries (ABM)
Universal (UVV)

Morning Links
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on June 12th, 2009 at 8:49 am

BlackRock to become world’s biggest money manager
Google’s CEO on Bing: “They do this about once a year.”

Parking Space In Boston Sells For $300,000
Volkswagon’s sales rose in May; suck on that recession
OPEC says worst appears to be over for oil market

Lehman to pay Barclays $6 million for its own desks and chairs
Citigroup Bailout Pays Taxpayers Three Times as Much as S&P 500
Roubini: Is Eastern Europe On The Brink Of An Asia-Style Crisis?
A.I.G. Balks at Claims From Jet Ditching in Hudson

World Bank Predicts Deeper Economic Contraction

Volcker says US growth possible this year
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on June 12th, 2009 at 8:44 am

Here are some interesting comments from the always interesting Paul Volcker:

Global financial markets are starting to heal and the U.S. economy could begin to grow again this year, but a strong recovery is unlikely, said President Barack Obama’s top adviser Paul Volcker.
“An expectation of some growth late this year and next in the United States seems reasonable,” Volcker, a former Federal Reserve chairman who leads a panel advising Obama on economic recovery, said in a speech Thursday at a conference of global bankers in the Great Hall of the People, the seat of China’s legislature.
However, “a really strong recovery, typical of most recessions, seems unlikely,” he said. “Rather, it is going to be a long slog, with continuing high levels of unemployment.”
The slump also is easing “most clearly” in Britain, trailed by other European economies, with less evidence of recovery in Japan, Volcker said. He said a “healing process” seems to be under way in financial markets.
Volcker cautioned that U.S. growth depends on stimulus spending and “years of deficit spending far beyond past peacetime experience lie ahead.” However, he said inflationary pressures were unlikely for some time to come. That could allow greater leeway to combat the downturn by expanding the money supply.
The legendary Volcker, 81, served as Fed chairman in 1979-87, when he tamed raging inflation, though at the cost of painful interest rate hikes that triggered a recession. Obama named him in November to lead the Economic Recovery Advisory Board.
Volcker expressed no enthusiasm for initiatives under discussion in Washington, including regulating bankers’ compensation. He said there is “ample justification” for public anger at pay practices that were “wildly excessive” and encouraged risk-taking at the expense of stability. But he warned against too much political involvement.
“It is far better that individual and professional groups come to grips with these matters than heavy-handed and inflexible regulation or legislation,” he told members of the Washington-based Institute of International Finance, a global association of bankers.
Volcker said there is a “strong case” for reviewing so-called “fair value” rules that determine the value of assets of banks, insurers and other institutions. He said efforts to enforce “mark-to-market” rules on assets fueled confusion and uncertainty.
But he said that while more international consistency is required in accounting standards, politicians should avoid excessive involvement.
“Political bodies in Europe and the United States or any other country are simply not the appropriate venue for reaching well-considered judgments that can be enforced internationally,” he said. “We need a bit patience,” he said, as the International Accounting Standards Board carefully reviews the rules.
Volcker expressed support for a global currency, which he called “the ultimate logic of a globalized financial system.” China and Russia have called for such a currency to replace the dominant dollar, but Volcker gave no opinion on any individual proposal.
He said governments should take steps to limit the possibility of bailouts of financial institutions, possibly by making clear that traditional savings banks will receive deposit insurance while those in riskier businesses are excluded.
“A presumption of government protection and support for financial institutions outside the ‘safety net’ should be avoided,” he said.
But Volcker also defended the role of hedge funds, which some blamed for increased market volatility in late 2008. Some U.S. lawmakers are discussing proposals to increase oversight on such funds, which have an estimated $2.5 trillion in assets but operate mostly outside government supervision.
“Hedge funds and private equity funds have an entirely legitimate role to play in providing liquidity and innovation in our capital markets,” Volcker said. “I do not believe they need to be so closely supervised and regulated as depository institutions.”