When it comes to small banks, this year is starting out a lot like 2010. A lot of community lenders are in their death throes, even as survivors jump out of the closet with improved financials and uptrending stock prices.
While it would be callous to view Egypt’s situation in purely financial terms, it is one of several political dramas that illustrate how globalization and instant news can magnify the fiscal ramifications of a single ruler’s questionable judgment.
Last Friday was just an ugly day to be long on stocks, but two stocks that stood out like green thumbs offered a sign of weekend news to come. Alpha Natural Resources (ANR), the third largest U.S. coal producer, and Massey (MEE), the largest coal producer in Central Appalachia, both closed the day higher as the bulls started charging into these stocks late in the day.
Presumably most traders were a little too busy dealing with Friday’s market carnage to pay attention to a minor-league insider-trading case that is more than a year old. But for those in need of a few laughs, try the story of Yonni Sebbag and Bonnie Hoxie.
Rising political tensions in Egypt have been a boon for oil bulls, sending futures up 4.3% on Friday alone on concerns that what started as a Tunisia-specific problem could become a region-wide contagion.
Less than four weeks since its $450 million investment into Facebook, Goldman Sachs has experienced its fair share of controversy over the deal that values the social networking empire at $50 billion.
It is rare to hear the CEO of a global bank advocate for more, not less, blood in the streets, especially in this post-crisis era of industrial-strength financial sector subvention.
So, Netflix knocked the cover off the ball with its fourth-quarter earnings report that was released Wednesday after the close, and the high-flying stock has taken things up a few more levels today, moving above $200 and touching a new all-time high.
Chicago Merc trader Richard Dennis became famous for his Turtles, two groups of fledgling traders he trained more or less from scratch in 1983 and 1984
The folks at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission better watch out because those agencies could find themselves in the cross-hairs of the House GOP’s spending reduction efforts.
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