After looking at some of will have a better journey elsewhere. 10. Croatia With its long, beautiful coastline down the Adriatic Sea, tourism accounts for about 20% of the country’s GDP. The slowdown in that industry explains a big portion… Read More
Results
Healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) said this morning that second-quarter earnings amounted to $1.15 a share. The results, a -4.7% decline from a year ago, beat expectations, despite challenges facing the company’s pharmaceutical unit and a stronger dollar. The company said… Read More
Smaller business inventories and increased sales are good signs in a recession. Economic data released today show the first has already happened and the second appears to be happening. Consumer products and basic materials shares gained on the news, up +1.2% and +1.5%, respectively,… Read More
There is no doubt that investors flock to gold as a safe haven hedge during times of political and/or economic distress and instability. And up until recently, the economic backdrop was about as bad as it could get. Furthermore, with the printing presses… Read More
A key measure of wholesale prices rose in June at nearly twice the increase economists had forecast. It was the sharpest rise for the index since November 2007. The Producer Price Index, which tracks how much it costs for manufacturers to make things,… Read More
Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) earned a record $3.4 billion in the second quarter, setting a record and handily exceeding even the most optimistic forecasts. The results were +64.5% higher than a year ago, illustrating how quickly the investment bank has recovered from the… Read More
Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) opened its first store in India’s northwest Punjab region today. Wal-Mart plans to build 10 to 15 more stores during the next three years. The discount retailer operates 3,685 international stores in 15 countries. Local vendors called Wallahs control 97% of India’s retail trade. To protect their… Read More
Star banking analyst Meredith Whitney upgraded Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) from “neutral” to “buy,” saying she expects second-quarter earnings to be $4.65 per share compared with the average analyst estimate of $3.65. Goldman is scheduled to report earnings tomorrow before the market opens. Read More
When will the recovery come? Has it already begun? These are questions experts can answer only in hindsight. But just because no one knows exactly when the recovery will arrive doesn’t mean it’s not coming. It always has, so one can say with a fair degree of certainty that it… Read More
Recent hot spots are looking cold. What country will deliver the big gains we’ve seen in other international markets? To answer this question, we devised a proprietary system that considers each country’s GDP forecasts,… Read More