Free Republic

Where Credit Is DueA new study of the largest issuers of corporate debt shows that recent gains in creditworthiness are more fragile than you think.Ronald Fink, CFO Magazine November 01, 2003 Unless you're willing to bet that stock prices bear little or no relation to corporate financial strength, you're wise to take the recent improvement in the capital markets with a large grain of salt. In fact, a new study shows that major issuers of corporate debt have not shored up their balance sheets as much as is widely believed.To be sure, other signs suggest that corporate creditworthiness has improved...

Earnings season is upon us, and with each announcement the market seems to surge on new ecstasies or retreat with disillusionment. Each new announcement is cut open, like so many sheep, to see what its entrails will divine to us about the future, as if one more bit of fresh data will give us the clear forward vision we think we so desperately need. Is the bull finally back? Are we climbing a wall of worry, or just on another fool's errand, rising in a bubble toward the inevitable pin? Yet, earnings are up by more than 100% since the...

October 23, 2003 Déjà Vu by Chad Hudson UNEDITED During the first two week of October the market rallied about 5% coming into earnings season. Investors clearly were anticipating third quarter results to meet forecasts and guidance for fourth quarter would be favorable. By and large results have been ahead of analysts estimates. Almost half of the S&P 500 has reported third quarter results with 64.9% reporting earnings that were higher than projections and only 10.5% missing forecasts. The majority of the companies are also maintaining their guidance for the rest of the year. This is shown by analysts...

Positive Economic Commentary US Corporate Profits and the Peachy GreenbackOctober 24, 2003 Once again it's earnings season. And for the first time in recent memory pundits, analysts and the financial press can't seem to say anything but good things ? you know the Dow-10,000 talk and whatnot. Ever the contrarian, I figure if Larry Kudlow is salivating like one of Pavlov?s dogs, then maybe there is less to these reports than everyone would have you think. There have been a few articles about the positive effect that the falling dollar has had on US corporate profits. So I thought...