“In the coming year, the Securities and Exchange Commission will complete its examination of the [nation’s rating agencies] role in rating residential mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations linked to subprime mortgage loans.” So said… Read More

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) earned $2.7 billion this quarter, up +36% from $2.0 billion in the second quarter of 2008. Morgan earned 28 cents a share, a -47% decline from 53 cents a share a year ago. The results reflected a charge of $1.1 billion, or 27… 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

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

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

IPO market is very thin because companies that aren’t top notch know they’ll get slammed,” says Amy Calistri, editor of StreetAuthority’s Stock of the Month, adding “In this environment, companies that aren’t the cream of the crop are wise to find capital elsewhere… Read More

The first half of 2009 has been nothing short of volatile for Wall Street. Between corporate bailouts, bankruptcies and unprecedented government spending, the news has been full of surprises. The assorted high-profile shenanigans of GM, AIG and others deserve their rightful place in the “Hall of Shame,” but there has… Read More

My in-box is flooded. The other applications on my desktop are lining up two by two. It’s been a deluge. I have 40 pages — 40 single-spaced pages — of questions from readers about how they can benefit from government action. This topic has engendered more feedback… Read More

This closed-end fund mimics the tech-rich Nasdaq 100 Index. The fund’s holdings include tech giants Apple, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Cisco, Google and Intel. While the tech sector is not known for its generous dividends, QQQX boosts income… Read More

The last time U.S. federal government spending topped 28% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in the White House and the nation was fighting all-out war on two major fronts. As the chart shows, total federal government outlays have hovered around 18% to 22% since the early 1980s. But based on projections from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) President Barack Obama’s proposed Budget would push total federal spending to near 29% of GDP in… Read More

The last time U.S. federal government spending topped 28% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in the White House and the nation was fighting all-out war on two major fronts. As the chart shows, total federal government outlays have hovered around 18% to 22% since the early 1980s. But based on projections from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) President Barack Obama’s proposed Budget would push total federal spending to near 29% of GDP in fiscal year 2009; the U.S. federal deficit is projected to be more than 13% of GDP in 2009 and close to 10% in 2010. And there’s a catch: both the CBO and the White House are assuming the U.S. economy grows by an average rate of more than +4% over the coming decade, a generous assumption given current economic conditions. This skews the numbers in terms of percent of GDP — actual federal spending is projected to rise from a… Read More