Markets

Oct 30, 2002 at 00:00

Consumer confidence fell 14.3 points to 79.4, a level that has not been seen since November 1993 when the economy was coming out of the last recession, and was the…

Oct 16, 2002 at 00:00

It looks like the stock market is concentrating on companies are beating dramatically lowered estimates and are not worring about the actual level of earnings. As of last Friday, First…

Oct 09, 2002 at 00:00

Looking at the spread historically it is amazing how wide they moved considering how low government bonds are yielding. Last year, Ford paper traded 200 basis points above Treasuries when…

Oct 03, 2002 at 00:00

Earnings pre-announcements continue to be center stage and will until companies start reporting earning in earnest starting the week of October 14. As mentioned last week, FirstCall expects earnings growth…

Sep 26, 2002 at 00:00

Evidence pointing to a recovery is getting scarce. Economic data released this week generally pointed to continued weakness, plus companies continue to lower earnings guidance for the third quarter. On…

Sep 18, 2002 at 00:00

Just when I started to think financial analysts were figuring out that taking charges really are meaningful and not an easy way to push a bad investment or decision under…

Sep 11, 2002 at 00:00

During the stock market bubble, the rules of the game were rewritten. Companies were not valued based on traditional valuation standards. One of the more popular valuation measures involved using…

Sep 04, 2002 at 00:00

There is little doubt that zero-percent financing and other incentives from the automakers are having a dramatic effect on sales. General Motors announced today that it will maintain the zero-percent…

Aug 28, 2002 at 00:00

Tuesday’s release of July's durable goods orders grew 8.7% from June was better than all economists estimated. The median estimate called for growth of 1.5%. Just as economists were finishing…

Aug 21, 2002 at 00:00

The notion that the U.S is in a housing bubble is starting to get some attention, but too many economists and officials fail to see the mounting evidence. Just today,…