Cohan: Wall Street Justice System Is a Kangaroo Court

Posted by on January 14, 2012 No comments

(Bloomberg) By William D. Cohan

William Cohan

There has been a fair amount written recently about various institutional cartels that are thriving in the U.S. despite antitrust laws designed to prevent their existence.

My previous column compared Wall Street’s few remaining investment banks to a cartel, with explicit pricing power over its hundreds of thousands of customers, an advantage that will only grow greater as the economy improves and the number of thriving banks continues to diminish.

Likewise, Joe Nocera, a columnist for the New York Times, has been on a crusade about the powerful grip the National Collegiate Athletic Association exerts on college sports. Nocera has argued eloquently — if not entirely persuasively — that college athletes should be paid to play. On Jan. 6, Nocera dubbed the NCAA’s system of justice a “Star Chamber” and shared the sad story of how Devon Ramsay, a fullback on the University of North Carolina’s football team, suffered needlessly from NCAA-imposed penalties.

Mass S&P downgrade, Greek debt impasse hit euro zone

Posted by on January 14, 2012 No comments

(reuters) Credit: Reuters/Tony Gentile/Files By Matthias Sobolewski and Dina Kyriakidou

The map of Europe is featured on the face of a two Euro coin seen in this photo illustration taken in Rome, December 3, 2011. REUTERS/Tony Gentile/Files

The map of Europe is featured on the face of a two Euro coin seen in this photo illustration taken in Rome, December 3, 2011.

BERLIN/ATHENS | Sat Jan 14, 2012 6:42am IST

(Reuters) – Standard & Poor’s downgraded the credit ratings of nine euro- zone countries, stripping France and Austria of their coveted triple-A status but not EU paymaster Germany, in a Black Friday the 13th for the troubled single currency area.

“Today’s rating actions are primarily driven by our assessment that the policy initiatives that have been taken by European policymakers in recent weeks may be insufficient to fully address ongoing systemic stresses in the eurozone,” the U.S.-based ratings agency said in a statement.

S&P to Cut France by One Notch

Posted by on January 13, 2012 No comments

(wsj)

By GERALDINE AMIEL, PATRICIA KOWSMANN and COSTAS PARIS

PARIS—Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has notified the French government of its decision to downgrade the country’s credit rating, the country’s finance minister said Friday, a move that marks the long-awaited blow to France’s international standing and knocks the country out of the top financial league of the euro zone.

S&P has informed the government of France, Europe’s second-largest economy, that the country’s triple-A rating will be lowered one notch to double-A-plus.

Standard & Poor’s ratings agency could announce downgrades to the credit ratings of a number of European governments as early as today, Charles Forelle reports on Markets Hub. (Photo: Philippe Huguen/AFP/Getty Images)

S&P has also notified other European governments of looming ratings downgrades, according to people familiar with the matter. One of these people said an S&P notice is being circulated among euro-zone governments and that an announcement “could be imminent.”

Baum: An Upside-Down Recovery Goes Back to Square One

Posted by on January 13, 2012 No comments

(Bloomberg) By Caroline Baum

The U.S. recession may have ended in June 2009, according to the official arbiter of the business cycle. But by all signs, the recovery is just beginning.

Expected fourth-quarter growth of 3 percent to 3.5 percent is already being dismissed as another flash in the pan: been there, done that. After all, in late 2009 and early 2010 the U.S. economy produced three consecutive quarters of real gross- domestic-product growth just shy of 4 percent, only to see it fade. Real GDP rose less than 1 percent in the first half of 2011.

What’s different now? For starters, the composition of current growth more closely resembles that seen in the early stages of recoveries, according to Joe Carson, the head of global economic research at AllianceBernstein LP in New York.

 

China Advisor Says Geithner Told Him No Tools Left For QE3

Posted by on January 12, 2012 No comments

(Forexlive) BEIJING (MNI) – A senior advisor to the Chinese government said he
was told by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner this week that the
Federal Reserve doesn’t have “tools or ammunition” left for another
round of quantitative easing.

But Li Yang, vice-director of the Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences, said he was told by the Treasury Secretary on Wednesday that
recent coordinated action by global central banks amounted to some form
of QE3.

NYSE Deal Nears Collapse

Posted by on January 11, 2012 No comments

(WSJ) The proposed merger of the owner of the New York Stock Exchange and Germany’sDeutsche Börse headed toward collapse Tuesday after European antitrust regulators urged rejection of the deal.

The proposed merger of the owner of the New York Stock Exchange and Germany’s Deutsche Börse are headed toward collapse with European antitrust regulators expected to block the deal. Matthew Dalton reports on the News Hub. (Photo: AP)

A regulatory ruling on the deal would cap a frantic year of attempted consolidation among exchanges that has mostly been unsuccessful. Would-be partners have faced resistance based on a combination of nationalist sentiment, antitrust concerns and other pressures.

2011 Year-End Portfolio Review

Posted by on January 8, 2012 No comments

(Value Uncovered)

Despite all of the fear and worry surrounding the markets, the S&P managed to finish flat on the year – but not without some extreme doses of volatility along the way. Many fundamental value investors fared even worse:

2011 Hedge Fund Performance *Hat-tip to Greenbackd for originally posting the image

Stock Research: 10-Year Historical Financial Statements

Posted by on January 8, 2012 No comments

Finding historical financial information is often difficult and expensive. Here is a list except from Quora, that can help you find free and easy historical data.

While the SEC Edgar database is the time-consuming method, it is also the most accurate, and the only source I would trust if I was truly looking for thorough due diligence.

However, there are several other sources for historical financials:

MSN - http://moneycentral.msn.com – MSN provides 10-year financial summary information, but the summary is missing many key pieces (such as cash flow information).

SmartMoney - http://www.smartmoney.com/quote/… – Enter stock quote, click on financials, then change to the annual option (income statement, balance sheet, or cash flow statement). Must toggle between 5 years at a time and can’t export.

ADVFN - http://www.advfn.com – One of the most comprehensive sources of information, ADVFN provides financial statements that often cover a date range as far back as the EDGAR filings (1993 for many stocks). Search for a stock, then click on company information to find a host of ratios, charts, and links to the annual reports. However, you are limited to seeing a 5 year period at one time.

GuruFocus - http://www.gurufocus.com – Search for ticker symbol, click on 10-Year Financials. Provides single-page view of last 10 years AND last five quarters. Export to excel option is only available for premium members ($250/yr)

Morningstar - http://www.morningstar.com – Search for Ticker symbol, click on Financials. 10-year financials are only available for premium members ($185/yr). However, the export to excel option is available for the past 5 years of financial information. IMO, the cleanest and fastest export option with nicely formatted information.

SMF Excel Plug-in - http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/… – My personal favorite by far, this free excel plug-in allows you to build your own custom spreadsheets to pull updated information using over 14000 data points from various financial websites. 10-year financials, insider ownership, valuation ratios, etc. Requires some excel knowledge. For true flexibility and power, it’s hard to beat.

Personally, I spend most of my time in EDGAR but these other options can provide a provide a quick signal that further due diligence is required.

Retail Sales Likely Improving

Posted by on January 8, 2012 No comments

(Bloomberg) - Sales (RSTAMOM) at U.S. retailers probably rose in December as Americans bought discounted holiday items, a sign the economy picked up heading into 2012, economists said before a report this week.

The projected 0.3 percent gain in purchases would follow a 0.2 percent advance in November, according to the median (RSTAMOM) forecast of 56 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News ahead of Commerce Department figures on Jan. 12. Other data may show consumer confidence rose this month.

Economy Brightening in 2012 Initial Data From U.S. Belying Grim Investors

Posted by on January 7, 2012 No comments

(Bloomberg)

The U.S. is starting the year on a positive note, a sign that investors may be too gloomy. Payrolls rose 200,000 in December, double the gain in November. A weekly measure of consumer confidence ended 2011 at a five-month high. And manufacturers reported their business in December grew at the fastest pace in six months. The combination indicates the world’s largest economy has enough staying power to withstand a recession in Europe and a slowdown in China.