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Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has a problem. The world's biggest retailer tips the scales at just over $400 billion (U.S.) in annual sales. It is a perpetual growth machine. But it doesn't have a stock valuation to match. At Wal-Mart, repeatedly held out as a winner in this recession as consumers traded down, sales will barely budge in the current fiscal year, ending Jan. 31. Despite the bargain hunters and the demise of weaker rivals, Wal-Mart revenues will edge up just 1 per cent in fiscal 2010. Wall Street fell out of love with "The Beast of Bentonville" (for its Arkansas...

Oct. 31, 2009, 12:01 a.m. EDT Not for the faint of heart As volatility returns, investors face Fed, employment, and earnings By Laura Mandaro, MarketWatch SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Already reeling from huge market swings, stock investors may get that whipsawed feeling again next week, when the Federal Reserve and the monthly jobs report headline a busy schedule. The broad market, coming off weekly and monthly losses, also faces monthly auto sales; quarterly results from Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F) , Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) and Time Warner (NYSE:TWX) ; and Congressional votes on healthcare, financial regulation and homebuyers' tax credits....

Market Outlook: Stocks Could Struggle Amid 'Buyer's Fatigue' Published: Friday, 23 Oct 2009 | 8:21 PM ET By: Patti Domm Executive Editor Stocks could struggle in the week ahead as the market's 7-month rally shows signs of tiring. There is another barrage of third quarter earnings reports, including names like ExxonMobil, Procter and Gamble, Aetna and Verizon. A trader at the New York Stock Exchange. Photo: Oliver Quillia for CNBC.com A trader at the New York Stock Exchange. But investor focus should shift to economic news with the first look Thursday at third quarter GDP. The number is significant in...

TREASURIES-Prices Up As Stock Slide Spurs Safety Bid Tue Jul 15, 2008 9:59am EDT By Ellen Freilich NEW YORK, July 15 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury debt prices rose on Tuesday on safe-haven demand as stocks prices tumbled and as a weak banking sector cut expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates any time soon. As major stock market indexes fell in early trade, U.S. short-term interest rate futures cut back on implied prospects for Fed rate hikes over the next several months. Prospects for a rate hike by year-end fell to 82 percent after being almost fully priced...

You have to play the game, but remember to keep your eye on the ball: as we've smoothly entered this earnings season, broad index plays are a bit inadvisable. There's the usual tango between earnings reports and future guidance, profits and revenues; but it's getting so hard to figure out which datum is leading the dance and which is following. How heavily are investors weighing profits, as the economy's thirsting for revenue growth to affirm a recovery? I posted an article a couple of weeks ago that discussed the Investor's Cycle of Psychology: The rally gained steam through short covering,...

Wall Street to open higher with M&A boost By Rodrigo Campos 1 hr 15 mins ago NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks were set for a higher open on Monday as more merger and acquisition activity and the last days of the third quarter encouraged investors following three sessions of losses. Xerox Corp (XRX.N) will buy Affiliated Computer Services Inc (ACS.N) for $6.4 billion in a cash and stock deal that expands the copier company into technology outsourcing and data management. Xerox shares fell 9.4 percent to $8.17 in premarket trade while ACS shot up 21 percent to $57.27.

Insight: Equities carry too much risk By David Rosenberg Published: September 23 2009 17:00 The banker J.P. Morgan was fond of saying: “I never buy at lows, I never sell at the highs, I play the middle 60 per cent.” Well, from our lens, we are well past that middle 60 per cent point of this bear market rally. At the lows in the equity market in March, the S&P 500 was de facto pricing in a 2.5 per cent decline in real gross domestic product and $50 of operating earnings for the year. Guess what? Far from being grossly...

China threatens to repudiate derivatives contracts and the market floats on air - until today, when suddenly the fake "buying" (that is, computer passing of shares back and forth) in bankrupt firms (AIG, Fannie and Freddie specifically) disappears in a puff of smoke and oops - down she goes!

Shanghai Shares Tumble 6.75% By MARK McDONALD HONG KONG — The Shanghai composite index plunged 6.75 percent on Monday to close out August with a drop of 21.8 percent, the worst performance for the month among the world’s major exchanges. Monday’s fall, coupled with a drop of nearly 3 percent last Friday, has made for “a huge, huge decline,” said Dariusz Kowalczyk, chief investment strategist at SJS Markets in Hong Kong. The overall index was down 192.94 points on Monday to finish at 2,667.75, the lowest closing figure in more than three months. Shares on the Shanghai exchange had rocketed...

"We're Going Right Back Into The Tank" Henry Blodget|Aug. 27, 2009, 11:47 AM|33 Heesun Wee, TechTicker: When retail expert and all-around economy watcher Howard Davidowitz appeared on Tech Ticker in February declaring the worst was yet to come for the U.S. economy and that Americans' standard of living has changed permanently, our comment boards lit up. But surely with the latest rally off the March lows, bearish Davidowitz is more bullish, right? Not a chance. Look at your financial history books. Two of the biggest rallies of more than 40 percent occurred during the Great Depression, says Davidowitz of Davidowitz...

Long Term Treasury Yields: Someone Is Going To Be Wrong Submitted by thetechnicaltake on 08/26/2009 00:12 -0500 10 Year Treasury Economic Recovery Equities REAL Trade Treasury Treasury Bonds Treasury market Unemployment For over 8 months now, I have been chronicling the plight of the 10 year Treasury bond. Based upon the "next big thing" indicator it was my expectation that yields on the 10 year Treasury bond would rise once there was a monthly close above a yield of 3.342%. This occurred at the end of May, 2009. See figure 1 a monthly chart of the yield on the 10...

Shanghai stocks skid 4.7% on a down day for Asia By V. Phani Kumar, Matthew Allen & Kirsty Green HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- China's benchmark stock index skidded 4.7% Wednesday on fears an expected fall in bank lending in the remainder of the year could affect liquidity, a crucial factor behind the heady rally on the mainland markets over the past few months. The drop led a generally down day for Asian stocks. Indian stocks were hurt by persistent concerns that deficient rainfall in several parts of the country would affect rural incomes and delay economic recovery. Most other markets...

Hourly Action In Gold From Trader Dan /snip After yesterday’s big rush to safety, the bond market promptly puked and gave it all back. This is exactly what I am referring to when I state that today’s markets are broken and that hedge fund lunacy is destroying their integrity. The wild price swings are indicative of ZERO analysis being done by human beings. Rather what we are seeing is the result of a dog walking its master on the leash. Computers are running our markets and that is what scares the hell out of me. How does a bunch of...

Note: The following text is a quote: Smart Online CEO and Two Others Found Guilty of Manipulation of Company Stock LEV L. DASSIN, the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that DENNIS MICHAEL NOURI, the former Chief Executive Officer ("CEO") and President of Smart Online, REZA ERIC NOURI, a former Smart Online employee and brother of the CEO, and stock broker ANTHONY MARTIN were found guilty today, after a three-week jury trial before United States District Judge DENNY CHIN. According to the Superseding Indictment and the evidence at trial: From May 2005 through July...

Jun 15, 2009, 11:04 a.m. EST US Stocks In Sharp, Broad-Based Decline; DJIA Down 200 Points Peter A. McKay U.S. stocks and commodities suffered sharp, broad-based declines on Monday as investors unwound some of the bets that pushed blue chips into positive territory for the year-to-date last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average came into Monday's action up almost 23 points for 2009 but recently gave back more than 200 points, trading down 2.3% at 8593.16. All 30 of its components fell. Among the big losers were Alcoa, down 6%; Boeing, down 4.4% and Wal-Mart Stores, down 2.5%. A rebound...

Senators who oversee the $700 billion Wall Street rescue package held stocks in many of the banks bailed out towards the end of last year, according to financial disclosure reports released Friday. According to the reports detailing senators’ finances in 2008, nearly half of the members of the Senate Banking Committee had holdings in financial institutions that have taken funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). The panel has jurisdiction over the bailout fund and other relief efforts directed by federal regulators to save the nation’s financial system.

Population: 9.2 million Citizens among the 20 richest persons on Earth: 2 We Swedes might be awfully PC as well as awfully overtaxed, but at least we know something about running companies.. The secret behind our success: we tax private income and consumption, not our companies and we don't believe in having huge national deficits. The article: "The family which owns clothing giant Hennes & Mauritz is now on a par with the Swedish state as the largest shareholder on the Stockholm stock exchange. Shares in H&M have shot up 20 percent since the start of the year, giving the...

Crude oil has bounced since February to almost $60 a barrel despite worsening fundamental data. Commercial inventories are overflowing, having risen in the first quarter, a period when they usually drop. Moreover, as oil prices have risen, OPEC's discipline has started cracking, with the cartel increasing output last month for the first time since August.

World stocks tumble amid G-20 pessimism By PAN PYLAS, AP Business Writer 1 hr 26 mins ago LONDON – World stock markets fell sharply Monday amid mounting pessimism surrounding this week's G-20 meeting of leaders, more downbeat news from the global banking sector and renewed fears about the fate of the U.S. auto industry. The FTSE 100 of leading British shares was down 86.27 points, or 2.2 percent, at 3,812.58, while Germany's DAX slumped 150.70 points, or 3.6 percent, to 4,052.85. The CAC-40 in France fell 86 points, or 3 percent, to 2,754.62. Earlier in Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 stock...

I grit my teeth every time I hear comments from CNBC or Fox Business News or political hacks about how benefitical the reinstatement of the "uptick rule" will be. First, incidentally, there are so many trades being placed electronically from around the world (I've heard 500 trades per second) that a short seller may have to wait 10-15 seconds to make a short sale if an uptick has to happen. Second, if there are no upticks the stock is in collapse and the results will not change. Third, and most importantly, A SHORT SALE IS A DEFACTO ORDER TO BUY!!!......

Futures point to lower Wall Street open By Barbara Kollmeyer, MarketWatch Last update: 5:52 a.m. EDT March 12, 2009 MADRID (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stock futures were heading south on Wall Street Thursday, with stocks overseas lower on the view a sustained turnaround for stocks can't be called yet, while Genentech agreed to a buyout worth $48.6 billion from Roche. S&P 500 futures fell 5.1 points to 715.40 and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 6.5 points to 1,125. Dow industrial futures fell 45 points to 6,869. U.S. stocks eked out their first back-to-back gains since early February Wednesday after JPMorgan Chase Chief...

The 1979 film Apocalypse Now was about the nightmarish madness of war and its effect upon those caught up in its insanity. The 2009 union measure known as 'Card check' is about the nightmarish madness of liberalism and its effect on the economy and those businesses targeted for the ravages of unionization. And according to Citigroup, Wal Mart is one of those businesses caught up in the insanity of liberalism, and is therefore less valuable as a result: Wal-Mart downgraded to hold by Citi on union bill fears By Steve Goldstein March 10, 2009 LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Wal-Mart Stores (WMT)...

At the moment, only a fool would argue with the premise that the primary trend for the global economy at this time is ‘contractionary.’ ‘Down -- and down hard’ is the best phrase to describe the current global economic trend. Some would argue that in this context, Deflation is the dominant theme in what we have sometimes characterized as the ‘Leaky Bathtub Economy.” Picture the global economy as the bathtub, where on the one hand we have a huge credit deflation taking place where debt is being extinguished, defaulted upon, and wealth is being destroyed at a record rate.

The Obama Economy (Wall Street Journal, 3/3/09, A12) exposes the 800 pound gorilla (or bear to be more precise) in the living room that nobody seems to want to talk about: Barack Obama. The article contends that Obama is himself the real barrier to an economic recovery because of his grossly irresponsible and totally incompetent economic agenda. So what has happened in the last two months? The economy has received no great new outside shock. Exchange rates and other prices have been stable, and there are no security crises of note. The reality of a sharp recession has been known...

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama is comparing the stock market to the daily tracking polls used during campaigns, saying that paying too close attention to Wall Street's "fits and starts" could lead to bad long-term policy. Obama spoke to reporters Tuesday after meeting in the Oval Office with visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Obama said he is not measuring policies against "the day-to-day gyrations of the stock market,"

Obama said he is not measuring policies against "the day-to-day gyrations of the stock market," but by whether lending is flowing more freely, businesses are investing and the unemployed are going back to work.

Springfield MO, 200+ people arrived in 35 degree weather to show their support to the nationwide "tea party" movement, and the disgust at the obscene expansion of wasteful government spending.

George Soros finally gets it February 21, 2009 – 1:56 pm Three weeks ago, the positively schizophrenic Op-Ed page for the WSJ published yet another piece by a big financial brain proposing a “solution” to the financial crisis. While the editorial page itself is so rigidly ideological as to be useless, the op-ed page publishes stuff all over the map. The only common attribute seems to be a big-name byline. Once in a while you’ll get a thoughtful, nuanced and hard-hitting piece by Shelby Steele or Judy Shelton, for instance; occasionally, one of the big names will actually say something...

The flagship liberal newspaper crashing before our very eyes - it simply doesn't get any better.

Hey everyone - This is not for me, but I'm trying to find out some options for a friend. It's possible they have a good case against their broker for negligence and breach of fiduciary responsibility. Anyone who's got some knowledge or background, could you please Freepmail me? Thank you.

The Pictures Tell the StoryBY MICHAEL PANZNERToday, the Labor Department reported that first-time claims for state unemployment benefits rose a greater-than-expected 626,000. Curiously, some commentators have downplayed the fact that claims are back to where they were more than 26 years ago because the labor pool is much larger than it was then.However, even if you graph jobless claims relative to the number of (nonfarm) workers it paints a bleak picture. Using the most recent data (and assuming that tomorrow’s jobs report is in line with expectations), the ratio has just hit its highest level since 1983, lending further support...

Stock futures are pointing to a rising market Tuesday, but I still worry that the market will find a reason to go south instead. Rampant, persistent pessimism is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. The disease already spread to companies and consumers. Can't anyone see the good side of bad? Take Hershey (HSY Quote - Cramer on HSY - Stock Picks), for example. The Pennsylvania chocolate maker said sales and profit rose more than 50% in the fourth quarter as it increased advertising spending on its core brands, Reese's and Hershey's. That's good news, right? But no doubt the market will interpret...

Upbeat in Asia; Ping An, Santos and Honda rise South Korea, Hong Kong shares ride sudden wave of investor optimism By Chris Oliver, MarketWatch Last update: 2:17 a.m. EST Dec. 8, 2008 HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Asian stocks jumped Monday, with investors heartened by signs that governments will roll out more stimulus measures to ward off an economic collapse. Drugmakers were among standouts in Tokyo while energy group Santos Ltd. led gains in the commodity sector in Sydney on reports it may be the target of a takeover attempt. President-elect Barack Obama "has been making some strong statements about the...

Let's see how the liberals spin this: Stocks can't really be predicted or even discussed (disgusted) lately in any rational sense - every day is different with swings up and down that are responding to every announcement from Washington. But notice the very sudden drop (from 8550 at 2:30 to 8200 at 3:30.) Can anybody really say that these changes actually reflect any economic sense at all?

The best reply I got to this post was that the UAW Pension Fund should spend about $7 billion of their own money to buy all of the stock. This would be a great investment for the auto workers as they would find out first hand what it is like to run a big corporation. They would learn some other things too. For example, they would learn how to deal with their own people. In fact, the auto workers have essentially helped to run these corporations for many, many years. They have the knowledge and experience far beyond any that...

8,953.13 down -186.14 -2.04%

DOW 1month FUTURES FUTURES FAIR VALUE (-90.75) 8691.25 8450.0 -324.00 8683.25 8450.0 -233.25 S&P 500 1month FUTURES FUTURES FAIR VALUE (-6.79) 908.11 880.5 -34.70 908.41 880.5 -27.91 NASDAQ 1month FUTURES FUTURES FAIR VALUE (-10.34) 1239.16 1208.0 -45.50 1243.16 1208.0 -35.16

A groundbreaking study by UCLA economists Harold Cole and Lee Ohanian demonstrates that President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s excessively pro-labor, anticompetitive New Deal actually prolonged for seven years the severe economic pain immortalized in John Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath.” Using 1929 data, the two researchers calculated what wages and prices would have been without the New Deal, and then compared them to actual wages and prices at the time. Their findings were startling: In 11 key industries, actual wages averaged 25 percent higher than market conditions warranted, but unemployment was also 25 percent higher as well. Meanwhile, the New Deal pushed...

Going down................

Europe shares slump 8 pct; banks, energy stocks fall Fri Oct 24, 2008 7:35am EDT * FTSEurofirst 300 slumps 8 pct * Fears credit crisis more widespread * Banks, energy stocks lead losers By Joanne Frearson LONDON, Oct 24 (Reuters) - European shares fell 8 percent as investors fear the credit crunch is starting to spill over into the emerging markets and company earnings deteriorate. By 1106 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was down 8 percent at 802.9 points, having fallen to a day's low of 787.29 and hitting its lowest level since April 2003. "Equities...

CNBC's Maria Bartiromo on Thursday excitedly told viewers that an intra-day rally which had brought the Dow Jones Industrial Average from down about 275 to up over 170 was caused by rumors that the presidential race had tightened. I wonder if these rumors will get reported by Obama-loving press members. With about fifteen minutes to go in the trading session, the camera found a suddenly happy Bartiromo on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange gleefully saying the following (file photo): Welcome back, down here on the floor with Dylan. Just walking around, hearing some rumors about one of...

No investor is going to put their money at the curb for the Obama recycling truck to come, pickup, and distribute to someone else. The current movements in the stock market speak volumes as to what is being feared under an Obama Administration. This isn't like the old E. F. Hutton TV commercials, where you had to lean in to overhear what is being said about investment advice. This market is screaming that advice. And, that advice is to watch out for Obama!

Nikkei hovers above 8,000, Hang Seng below 14,000 By V. Phani Kumar, MarketWatch Last update: 11:14 p.m. EDT Oct. 22, 2008 HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Asian markets sold off Thursday on fears about the impact of a global recession, with South Korean and Japanese stocks plummeting as investors dumped shares across the board. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 Average dropped to its lowest level in more than five years as exporters such as Mazda Motor Corp. and Nintendo Co. were hit hard by a rally in the yen and after steep losses on Wall Street overnight. In Hong Kong, the Hang...

Recession fears swamp signs of bank crisis easing By Jeremy Gaunt 7 mins ago LONDON (Reuters) – Fears of global recession overshadowed signs on Wednesday that government attempts across the world to end the gravest global financial crisis in 80 years may be bearing fruit. Stocks from London to Tokyo fell sharply as corporate woes underlined the damage from the crisis, which pushed the global financial system to the brink of collapse, forcing governments to prop up banks and central banks to sustain money markets. But Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England and a major player in Group...

Earth to taxpayers! Owning stocks in banks is not nationalization of the banking industry. It’s trying to solve a problem. The unprecedented financial crisis has caused the Treasury of the United States to take unprecedented measures to help solve the problem of frozen credit and cash flow for U.S. businesses. Most of us had dreams of what we wanted to be when we grew up as children. Some of us wanted to grow up and become a fireman, a policeman, a doctor, a nurse, a lawyer, a teacher, an actor, an engineer, a writer, a dancer, a chef or any...

Wall Street remained tense Thursday, swinging between sharp gains and losses as investors examined mixed economic and earnings data for clues about the health of the economy. The Dow Jones industrials, down 380 at one point, rose more than 200 points in the final hour of trading; the major indexes were also saw broad gains. A rise in shares of Yahoo Inc. over renewed speculation it could cement a deal with one-time suitor Microsoft Corp. helped push the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index up more than 3 percent. Stocks spent much of the session seeking a direction after the previous session's...

It's become another wild day for Wall Street. By 12:30 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 34 points to 8,605 after plunging 733 points on Wednesday, its second-biggest point loss in its history. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 22 to 1,651, after Microsoft (MSFT, news, msgs) Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said a deal with Yahoo (YHOO, news, msgs) still makes sense. Ballmer spoke at a Gartner conference in Florida. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 3 points to 911. On Monday, the Dow had soared 936 points; it was the only day this...

Nikkei tumbles more than 10% in regional sell-off By V. Phani Kumar, MarketWatch Last update: 10:26 p.m. EDT Oct. 15, 2008HONG KONG (MarketWatch) -- Japanese shares suffered a sell-off Thursday, sending the Nikkei 225 down by more than 10% at one point during the session, as investors rushed to dump equities amid fears about a U.S. recession and after stocks dived on Wall Street overnight. The Nikkei 225 Average dropped as much as 10.3% in mid-morning Tokyo trading, before recovering a little, as shares across the board were slammed. The benchmark ended the morning session 9.6% lower at 8,635.56, while...

Stocks were surging today, with the Dow Jones industrials headed toward its largest point gain ever as investors embraced global efforts to battle the global credit crisis. At 3:10 p.m. ET, the Dow was up 660 points, or 7.8%, to 9,112. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 73 points, or 8.1%, to 972. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 137 points, or 8.3%, to 1,786. The Dow has been up as much as 600 points during the session. If today's gain holds, the blue-chip index would have its biggest one-day point gain ever, breaking the existing record of...