Morning News: February 22, 2012
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on February 22nd, 2012 at 5:49 am

Greek Bailout Wins Two Cheers From Wary Investors

Greek Crisis Raises New Fears Over Credit-Default Swaps

New Bailout Is a Reprieve for Greece, but Doubts Persist

A Battle for Mongolia’s Copper Lode

Oil Trades Near 9-Month High After Iran Denies Access to UN Team

Obama Offers to Cut Corporate Tax Rate to 28%

Watchdog Targets Overdraft Charges

High-End Retailers Report Strong Profits, but Walmart Still Struggles

Dell Earnings and Forecast Fall Short of Wall St. Views

Kraft’s Net Rises 54% on Higher Prices

Alibaba Offers to Take Web Portal Unit Private

Ford Pours $3.8 Billion into Pension Plan, Eyes Shift to Bonds

Peugeot in Alliance Talks After Report of GM Discussions

Shell Offers to Buy Cove Energy for $1.6 Billion

Joshua Brown: What a Waste.

Paul Kedrosky: The Unexpected Physical Consequences of Technology

Every Face Punch in Road House!

Be sure to follow me on Twitter.

After Market Updates
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on February 21st, 2012 at 9:54 pm

Ultimately, the stock market gave back some of its gains this afternoon. The S&P 500 closed at 1,362.21 which was just shy of the post-crash high close of 1,363.61 from May 2nd of last year.

Today’s market was split between large-cap stocks which fared the best and small-cap stocks which fared the worst. The small-cap Russell 2000 was down 0.66% today while the S&P 500 was up 0.98 points or 0.07%. The mega-cap S&P 100 was up 0.27%.

Interestingly, shares of Apple ($AAPL) gained $12.73 or 2.54%. That’s a market cap gain of $11.87 billion. Each point in the S&P 500 is worth $9.05 billion. That means that Apple’s gain was worth 1.31 points in the S&P 500. The index gained 0.98 points so without Apple, the index would have closed just slightly lower today.

In Buy List news, Johnson & Johnson‘s ($JNJ) CEO resigned:

William C. Weldon, who presided over Johnson & Johnson during one of the most tumultuous periods in its history, will step down as chief executive in April, the company announced Tuesday.

Alex Gorsky, head of the medical device and diagnostics business, will take over as chief executive. Mr. Weldon will remain as chairman.

The news of Mr. Weldon’s retirement comes as Johnson & Johnson has struggled to emerge from a swarm of product recalls, manufacturing lapses and government inquiries that tarnished the name of a company that was once one of the nation’s most trusted household brands. In 2010, the company recalled millions of bottles of liquid children’s Tylenol and other medications, as well as tens of thousands of artificial hips and millions of contact lenses.

Much of the blame for Johnson & Johnson’s stumbles fell on Mr. Weldon, the son of a Broadway stagehand and seamstress who became chief executive in 2002 after spending his entire career at the company. Critics said the company’s once-vaunted attention to quality slipped under his watch. The company said in a statement that neither Mr. Weldon nor Mr. Gorsky was available for comment.

Oracle ($ORCL) was downgraded by JMP Securities. They’re paring back their earnings estimates but they add that the stock is not unreasonably valued.

WSJ‘s “Market Beat” notes that DirecTV ($DTV) may soon join the streaming bandwagon.

Here Comes Dow 13,000
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on February 21st, 2012 at 11:16 am

The stock market is up this morning and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is a mere 10 points from cracking 13,000.

I hope this will be different from the eight previous times we’ve broken 13,000. (That’s not an exaggeration. From April 2007 to May 2008, the Dow broke through 13,000 on eight different occasions going by the daily close.) If the Dow had merely kept pace with inflation over the last 12 years, it would be at 13,837 today.

The S&P 500 is currently up to 1,366 which would be a post-crash high. Today could be the highest close since June 5, 2008. That was 44.5 months ago.

On Friday, the Wilshire 5000 Total Return Index, which is about the broadest index possible, closed at its highest level since October 2007. That index includes dividends. By my math, we need a jump of 0.89% to make an all-time high. The Wilshire 5,000 is up 0.33% so far today.

Morning News: February 21, 2012
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on February 21st, 2012 at 6:18 am

Greece Wins Second Bailout as Europe Picks Aid Over Default

Draghi Stays Silent on ECB Role in Greek Bailout

Nordic Currencies Stung in Debt Crisis

U.S. in Accord With Mexico on Drilling

Foreign Investors Fear Japan Banks May Hijack Olympus

China Buys Least Iran Crude in Five Months Amid Price Talks

Rising Gas Prices Give G.O.P. Issue to Attack Obama

Fed Housing Blueprint Lost in Din of Politics

Some Doubt a Settlement Will End Mortgage Ills

Mazda Mulling Raising 170 Billion Yen, Shares Take Beating

URS Agrees to Acquire Flint Energy Services for $1.25 Billion

Wal-Mart Raises Stake to 51% in China Online Retailer Yihaodian

Trademarks Take On New Importance in Internet Era

Pinterest Introduces “NOPIN” to Counter Copyright Concerns

Howard Lindzon: The Incredible Shrinking World…Make It Work for You!

Phil Pearlman: Brett Steenbarger Classics A Must Follow for Young Traders

Be sure to follow me on Twitter.

50 Years Ago Today
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on February 20th, 2012 at 1:06 pm

The Stock Market is Closed for Washington’s Birthday
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on February 20th, 2012 at 11:11 am

The New York Stock Exchange is closed today in honor of George Washington’s birthday. That’s right — on the NYSE, it’s not President’s Day. My apologies to Millard Fillmore but here’s the explanation from the NYSE:

Washington’s Birthday was first declared a federal holiday by an 1879 act of Congress. The Monday Holiday Law, enacted in 1968, shifted the date of the commemoration of Washington’s Birthday from February 22 to the third Monday in February, but neither that law nor any subsequent law changed the name of the holiday from Washington’s Birthday to President’s Day. Although the third Monday in February has become popularly known as President’s Day, the NYSE’s designation of Washington’s Birthday as an Exchange holiday (Rule 51) follows the form of the federal holiday outlined above (section 6103(a) of title 5 of the United States Code).

Morning News: February 20, 2012
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on February 20th, 2012 at 6:46 am

Iron Lady Merkel Bucks German Street on Greek Aid

Greek Rescue Close as Ministers Meet to Resolve Disputes

Greece Eyes Bailout Deal

Pressure, Chinese and Foreign, Drives Changes at Foxconn

China Cuts Reserve-Ratio for Growth as Inflation Deters Interest-Rate Move

In China Movie Pact, More 3-D, Less Reality

Japan’s Trade Deficit Widens to a Record as Export Slump Deepens

Thailand GDP Shrinks 10.7%

Israel Safest for Investors in Past Decade

EU Says It Has Enough Oil Stocks as Nations Cut Iran Imports

Wal-Mart Ups Stake in China E-Commerce

Deals to Split EMI Spur Scrutiny and Criticism

TNT Express Faces Investor Pressure for Better UPS Deal

Lloyds Banking Group Said to Demand Repayment of Bonuses

Epicurean Dealmaker: The Standard Model

Stone Street: My First Forbes Column – So What if Apple Has A Chinese Labor Problem?

Be sure to follow me on Twitter.

“How Your Cat Is Making You Crazy”
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on February 18th, 2012 at 3:58 pm

I don’t know much about this subject matter but I found Kathleen McAuliffe’s article in The Atlantic to be spellbinding. It’s long, but I highly recommend it.

$6 Trillion in Phony Treasuries Found
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on February 17th, 2012 at 1:08 pm

Scary story from Italy:

Italian anti-mafia prosecutors said they seized a record $6 trillion of allegedly fake U.S. Treasury bonds, an amount that’s almost half of the U.S.’s public debt.

The bonds were found hidden in makeshift compartments of three safety deposit boxes in Zurich, the prosecutors from the southern city of Potenza said in an e-mailed statement. The Italian authorities arrested eight people in connection with the probe, dubbed “Operation Vulcanica,” the prosecutors said.

The U.S. embassy in Rome has examined the securities dated 1934, which had a nominal value of $1 billion apiece, they said in the statement. “Thanks to Italian authorities for the seizure of fictitious bonds for $6 trillion,” the embassy said in a message on Twitter.

The saddest part is that even after they were found to be phony, Bernanke still offered to buy them for $10 trillion.

The Lizard People Are Coming
Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on February 17th, 2012 at 12:45 pm

I don’t think people realize how much garbage advertising is on CNBC. But in the field of wretchedness, one commercial manages to stand out.

If you’re a regular viewer of CNBC you may have seen an ad voiced by Alex Jones, the noted conspiracy nut. Jones regularly does us the favor of warning Americans about the New World Order. He is, quite naturally, a 9/11 Truther.

This story actually gets even more insane. The CNBC ad touts a video made by a character named Porter Stansberry. The title of the video is, “The End of America.” One of the experts referred to in this video is David Icke. Mr. Icke believes that the earth is run by a secret cabal of…lizard people.

I swear, I’m not making this up.

At the heart of his theories lies the idea that the world is becoming a global fascist state, that a secret group of reptilian humanoids called the Babylonian Brotherhood controls humanity, and that many prominent figures are reptilian, including George H. W. Bush, Queen Elizabeth II, Kris Kristofferson, and Boxcar Willie.