All the best tips from the smartest financial, stock market and foreign exchange gurus.



CrossingWallStreet.com
Eddie Elfenbein
Crossing Wall Street
One more Buy List stock report. Moog (MOG-A) earned 64 cents per share which beat Wall Street's estimates by a penny a share. In 2008, Moog earned $2.75 per share and that dropped to $1.98 per share last year. Last November, Moog said to expect EPS for this fiscal year (ending in September) between...

CrossingWallStreet.com | 30 Jul 2010 | 8:39 pm CDT

The Big Picture
Barry Ritholtz
The Big Picture
I had an interesting discussion with a music buddy about some of the least popular, best discs of the past few decades. The challenge: Name 5 outstanding Rock and Roll albums that 90% of the music buying/downloading public are unfamiliar with. Defining what obscure is was also a challenge — a ...

The Big Picture | 30 Jul 2010 | 6:30 pm CDT

The Big Picture
Barry Ritholtz
The Big Picture
Nice interactive graphic from the FT on reforming the financial system > The financial centers covered in the graphic are: US, European Union, UK, Germany, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan....

The Big Picture | 30 Jul 2010 | 2:00 pm CDT

The Big Picture
Barry Ritholtz
The Big Picture
I honestly have no idea what this means, but jeez, how is this for some cliff diving: > Chart via St. Louis Fed > This is what the BOG reports on the G.19. The footnotes on g.19 state the following: -Outstanding balances of pools upon which securities have been issued; these balances are no l...

The Big Picture | 30 Jul 2010 | 11:30 am CDT

Commentary from Kathy Lien, Director of Research, GFT
Kathy Lien
Forex 360
The end of the month has brought unusual volatility to the financial markets with currencies and equities seesawing throughout the North American trading session. Weaker than expected second quarter GDP numbers were met with stronger manufacturing data out of the Chicago region. The theme in the m...

Commentary from Kathy Lien, Director of Research, GFT | 30 Jul 2010 | 11:25 am CDT

CrossingWallStreet.com
Eddie Elfenbein
Crossing Wall Street
Today's Q2 GDP report came out and it was ugly. The economy grew by just 2.4% in real terms for the second three months of the year. That was below the Street's forecast of 2.6%. The Commerce Department also revised the GDP numbers going back to Q4 of 2006 and it turns out that the recession was ev...

CrossingWallStreet.com | 30 Jul 2010 | 11:15 am CDT

CrossingWallStreet.com
Eddie Elfenbein
Crossing Wall Street
Here are still more stats from NICK's earnings report. The beginning and ending shareholder equity figures for the last quarter were $101,361,000 and $97,437,000. That averages to $99,399,000. NICK earned $3,425,500 for the quarter so that comes to a quarterly ROE of 3.45%. Annualized that comes to...

CrossingWallStreet.com | 30 Jul 2010 | 10:47 am CDT

CrossingWallStreet.com
Eddie Elfenbein
Crossing Wall Street
On July 30, 1914, the Dow plunged 6.9% -- from 56.20 to 52.32. There apparently were some difficulties in Europe. The NYSE then decided to shut down. Gary Alexander explains it: The Federal Reserve was finally formed in 1913 – in the nick of time, right before one of the scariest bank crises of t...

CrossingWallStreet.com | 30 Jul 2010 | 10:09 am CDT

The Big Picture
Barry Ritholtz
The Big Picture
Over the past few years, I have increasingly taken to referring us humans as “Slightly smarter, pants wearing primates.” (here, here and here). When I discussed it in an Forbes interview (Ritholtz’s Monkey Theory)  it generated a ton of email: What is the greatest financial lesson...

The Big Picture | 30 Jul 2010 | 9:41 am CDT

Kathy Lien
Kathy Lien
Over the past 24 hours, there has been a lot of talk about month end fixings. Therefore I think it is worthwhile to spend a few minutes explaining the foreign exchange market’s monthly obsession. A few days ago, central banks around the world announced that the daily volume in the foreign ex...

Kathy Lien | 30 Jul 2010 | 9:10 am CDT

The Big Picture
Barry Ritholtz
The Big Picture
Hank Paulson, the criminally inept Treasury Secretary who shoveled trillions of taxpayer dollars to insolvent banks, facilitated the grand theft of some near $20 billion dollars from AIG by Goldman Sachs (where he was previously CEO), is attempting to change the narrative of the credit crisis and co...

The Big Picture | 30 Jul 2010 | 5:58 am CDT

Commentary from Kathy Lien, Director of Research, GFT
Kathy Lien
Forex 360
Broadly weaker economic data has weighed on risk appetite across the financial markets this morning. Currencies and equities traded lower throughout the European trading session with the losses extending into North America after softer U.S. and Canadian GDP reports. ...

Commentary from Kathy Lien, Director of Research, GFT | 30 Jul 2010 | 3:50 am CDT

Commentary from Boris Schlossberg, Director of Research, GFT
Boris Schlossberg
Forex 360
Euro ran into a wall of profit taking falling against the dollar and all the other major currencies in early European trade today, after German Retail Sales missed their mark and risk aversion fears spread ahead of the US GDP data due later in the day. German Retail Sales printed at -0.9% versus ex...

Commentary from Boris Schlossberg, Director of Research, GFT | 30 Jul 2010 | 12:30 am CDT

CrossingWallStreet.com
Eddie Elfenbein
Crossing Wall Street
When AFLAC (AFL) reported earnings on Tuesday, the company also declared a dividend for the third quarter of 28 cents per share. This news caught my attention because AFLAC hasn’t raised its dividend all year, and the company is famous for its yearly dividend increases. AFLAC has raised its divi...

CrossingWallStreet.com | 29 Jul 2010 | 10:31 pm CDT

Commentary from Boris Schlossberg, Director of Research, GFT
Boris Schlossberg
Forex 360
German Retail Sales missed expectations printing at -0.9% versus forecasts of a flat reading, but rose 3.1% on a year over year basis in real terms. The annual figures were slightly exaggerated by the fact that June had on extra shopping day in comparison with 2009. Overall, sales of food and tobacc...

Commentary from Boris Schlossberg, Director of Research, GFT | 29 Jul 2010 | 9:48 pm CDT

The Big Picture
Barry Ritholtz
The Big Picture
This might generate a bit of buzz tomorrow via the FT:  Wyly brothers accused of MASSIVE insider scandal (how is it that the FT scoops US papers?): This is pretty big: SEC Indictment SEC Announcement Here’s the key paragraphs: “The Wyly brothers reaped more than $550 million in undisc...

The Big Picture | 29 Jul 2010 | 8:08 pm CDT

The Big Picture
Barry Ritholtz
The Big Picture
After a 7 days in Vancouver, I have been busy in the office all week — digging out from under the email deluge, meetings, a few media hits and conference calls. As usual, I have a long list of items that I would like to read, but haven’t gotten to. I used to print them all out for the tr...

The Big Picture | 29 Jul 2010 | 3:51 pm CDT

The Big Picture
Barry Ritholtz
The Big Picture
Pretty cool idea: “Color is a major part of any brand’s identity. Here we’re taking a look at some of the most recognizable color identities in the world, as well as some groups and forums on COLOURlovers that could be valuable for anyone who is working to give their brand a little...

The Big Picture | 29 Jul 2010 | 12:00 pm CDT

Commentary from Kathy Lien, Director of Research, GFT
Kathy Lien
Forex 360
The recent price in the foreign exchange markets indicate that investors really want to sell U.S. dollars. Who can blame them when most economic reports show continued weakness in the U.S. economy, the central bank is sounding dovish while policymakers in other parts of the world are raising interes...

Commentary from Kathy Lien, Director of Research, GFT | 29 Jul 2010 | 11:48 am CDT

CrossingWallStreet.com
Eddie Elfenbein
Crossing Wall Street
Earnings just came out and they're outstanding: Nicholas Financial, Inc. (Nasdaq:NICK - News) announced that for the three months ended June 30, 2010, net earnings, excluding change in fair value of interest rate swaps, increased 65% to $3,426,000 as compared to $2,081,000 for the three months ende...

CrossingWallStreet.com | 29 Jul 2010 | 10:34 am CDT

CrossingWallStreet.com
Eddie Elfenbein
Crossing Wall Street
Becton, Dickinson (BDX) had a great earnings report this morning. They earned $1.29 per share for the quarter which was five cents more than estimates. “We are pleased with our results this quarter, with each of our three segments contributing to our growth. We delivered earnings per share from ...

CrossingWallStreet.com | 29 Jul 2010 | 9:35 am CDT

The Big Picture
Barry Ritholtz
The Big Picture
The Inflation/Deflation debate seems to be constantly coming up — from clients, institutional accounts, and the media. Let’s look at a few points on this: Deflation is a fact. It is happening now, it is real, and we see it in the actual data. Inflation does not exist presently. It is, at...

The Big Picture | 29 Jul 2010 | 8:15 am CDT

The Big Picture
Barry Ritholtz
The Big Picture
(Invictus here, boys and girls) As I have written previously here and elsewhere, I tend to look at everything through the lens of job creation.  What is the correlation of a particular release to the job market, if indeed there is one.  Does it lead?  Lag?  Is it coincident?  If I can find a me...

The Big Picture | 29 Jul 2010 | 6:17 am CDT

Commentary from Kathy Lien, Director of Research, GFT
Kathy Lien
Forex 360
Apparently the SIXTH time is the charm for the EUR/USD, which has finally burst comfortably through the 1.30 level. At this point, a deep retracement would be needed to cause the EUR/USD to end the NY trading session ...

Commentary from Kathy Lien, Director of Research, GFT | 29 Jul 2010 | 4:28 am CDT

Commentary from Boris Schlossberg, Director of Research, GFT
Boris Schlossberg
Forex 360
Risk FX enjoyed a mild rally in early European trade but failure to produce yet another upside economic surprise caused EUR/USD to stall just ahead of the key 1.3050 level. (Note as we go press the euro has taken out the 1.3050 handily and now looks ready to target 1.3100) German unemployment report...

Commentary from Boris Schlossberg, Director of Research, GFT | 28 Jul 2010 | 11:40 pm CDT

Commentary from Boris Schlossberg, Director of Research, GFT
Boris Schlossberg
Forex 360
As expected the RBNZ raised rates by another 25bp bringing the benchmark rate to 3.0%, but a dovish statement by the New Zealand central bank sent kiwi tumbling in post announcement trade and kept the unit under pressure throughout the Asian session. In his statement, Governor Allan Bollard noted th...

Commentary from Boris Schlossberg, Director of Research, GFT | 28 Jul 2010 | 9:16 pm CDT

Commentary from Kathy Lien, Director of Research, GFT
Kathy Lien
Forex 360
Currencies traded heavy for most of the North American session on the heels of weaker U.S. economic data and reports of lackluster growth across the nation. Having bucked the trend yesterday, the U.S. dollar slipped against the Japanese Yen and rose against other currencies as risk appetite retreat...

Commentary from Kathy Lien, Director of Research, GFT | 28 Jul 2010 | 12:20 pm CDT

CrossingWallStreet.com
Eddie Elfenbein
Crossing Wall Street
That's how much cash that non-financial companies in the S&P 500 are currently sitting on. That's worth about 10% of their market value which is much higher than normal. The odd thing about this gigantic cash pile is that these companies are barely being paid any interest by keeping this money in ...

CrossingWallStreet.com | 28 Jul 2010 | 9:19 am CDT

Commentary from Kathy Lien, Director of Research, GFT
Kathy Lien
Forex 360
Currencies are trading heavy this morning with the U.S. dollar retreating further against the Japanese Yen after the surprise decline in durable goods orders. With the Federal Reserve releasing the Beige Book report today, a cloud will be hovering over the financial markets, preventing any meaningf...

Commentary from Kathy Lien, Director of Research, GFT | 28 Jul 2010 | 3:49 am CDT

Commentary from Boris Schlossberg, Director of Research, GFT
Boris Schlossberg
Forex 360
Risk trade continued to be supported in Asian and early European trade today with both euro and pound making fresh highs, but Aussie was felled by softer inflation data and tumbled below .9000 as expectations of additional RBA rate hikes during the summer evaporated. The euro rose to a high of 1.304...

Commentary from Boris Schlossberg, Director of Research, GFT | 28 Jul 2010 | 1:12 am CDT

Commentary from Boris Schlossberg, Director of Research, GFT
Boris Schlossberg
Forex 360
Australian CPI printed at 0.6% versus 1.0% eyed, disappointing investors and sending Aussie below the .9000 level in Asian session trade. On a yearly basis, prices rose at 3.1% pace versus forecasts of 3.4%. The key trimmed inflation measure was even more subdued printing at 2.7% - coming in handily...

Commentary from Boris Schlossberg, Director of Research, GFT | 27 Jul 2010 | 10:21 pm CDT

CrossingWallStreet.com
Eddie Elfenbein
Crossing Wall Street
...

CrossingWallStreet.com | 27 Jul 2010 | 7:18 pm CDT

CrossingWallStreet.com
Eddie Elfenbein
Crossing Wall Street
This is good news. Fiserv (FISV) made $1.00 a share last quarter. They see full-year earnings ranging between $3.96 and 4.07 per share. ...

CrossingWallStreet.com | 27 Jul 2010 | 5:22 pm CDT

CrossingWallStreet.com
Eddie Elfenbein
Crossing Wall Street
So far this year, 142 stocks in the S&P 500 have increased their dividends while just one stock has lowered it. Last year at this time, 93 stocks had raised their dividends while 61 had lowered them. Ten stocks have initiated dividends compared with just one at this time last year. ...

CrossingWallStreet.com | 27 Jul 2010 | 5:09 pm CDT

CrossingWallStreet.com
Eddie Elfenbein
Crossing Wall Street
AFLAC earns $1.35. Operating earnings in the second quarter were $639 million, compared with $562 million in the second quarter of 2009. Operating earnings per diluted share rose 12.5% to $1.35 in the quarter, compared with $1.20 a year ago. The stronger yen/dollar exchange rate increased operating...

CrossingWallStreet.com | 27 Jul 2010 | 4:14 pm CDT

CrossingWallStreet.com
Eddie Elfenbein
Crossing Wall Street
Ladies and gentleman, it is with deep regret that I inform you that Nassim Nicholas Taleb has blocked me from his Twitter feed. Therefore, I will no longer be privy to insights such as: Giving businessreaders my book: like giving vintage Bordeaux to drinkers of Diet Coke and listening to their co...

CrossingWallStreet.com | 27 Jul 2010 | 2:51 pm CDT

CrossingWallStreet.com
Eddie Elfenbein
Crossing Wall Street
The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston found that credit card fees and reward programs have the net effect of transferring wealth from the poor to the rich: U.S. consumer finance data shows that people on a low income are less likely to have a credit card, and those who do, spend less a month on averag...

CrossingWallStreet.com | 27 Jul 2010 | 2:23 pm CDT

CrossingWallStreet.com
Eddie Elfenbein
Crossing Wall Street
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy ...

CrossingWallStreet.com | 27 Jul 2010 | 1:57 pm CDT

Commentary from Kathy Lien, Director of Research, GFT
Kathy Lien
Forex 360
It was comeback day for the greenback, which rose strongly against the Japanese Yen, Swiss Franc and Canadian dollar. Even though the euro, Australian and New Zealand dollars ended the day unchanged against the buck, an intraday U.S. dollar rally forced higher yielding currencies to give up nearly ...

Commentary from Kathy Lien, Director of Research, GFT | 27 Jul 2010 | 11:55 am CDT

Commentary from Kathy Lien, Director of Research, GFT
Kathy Lien
Forex 360
At the start of the NY trading session, risk was being bought aggressively pushing the euro above 1.30 and sterling above 1.55. However as we got closer to the release of consumer confidence, the momentum in the market began ...

Commentary from Kathy Lien, Director of Research, GFT | 27 Jul 2010 | 5:07 am CDT