It’s been a roller coaster. Most people are selling off on fear and some are buying on fear. Yesterday, the DOW lost 777 points, which was its biggest single-day points loss in history.
No surprise to most, the DOW rebounded today and scooped back 485 points. Expect more up and down action as many feel the market hasn’t hit the bottom yet.
And our politicians can’t seem to stop playing politics for two minutes and actually work on the issues at hand.
On Wednesday Starbucks (SYMBOL: SBUX) announced that it plans to expand its European operations in 2008.
Currently, two stores are planned. Sofia will be the base for the Bulgarian store and Lisbon will be home for the Portuguese store.
Starbucks didn’t announce opening dates, but this may be the first of many as the company looked to extend its leverage overseas.
The news comes as Starbucks’ stock at least temporarily halted its freefall. Three months ago the stock was near $30. This week it neared $20.
The proposed settlement failed and now American Airlines has taken legal action against Google (Symbol: GOOG). The lawsuit is based on Google’s sponsored ads.
According to AA, when a search term that’s trademarked by American Airlines is entered into Google, rivals of American Airlines are also shown in the “sponsored links” section.
American Home Mortgage (Symbol: AHM) is waiving the proverbial white flag as shares freefell 90% on resumed trading—closing all the way down to $1.04.
The company announced that it’s looking into liquidating assets, as it can no longer fund mortgages.
Next stop, bankruptcy? That’s what Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analyst Bose George thinks.
When talking about the ability of American Home Mortgage to survive through this disaster, George said, “the chances are low.”
Caterpillar (Symbol: CAT) has had a nice run over the past year, but its 2Q earnings, which were reported Friday morning, were down 21%, and that sent share prices lower.
Despite a rise in revenue of 7%, earnings sill dropped. The company is citing a weak North American market and higher operating costs—a common theme these days.
Caterpillar posted earnings per share of $1.24, which was 28 cents per share lower than the same period last year and below the expectations of $1.42 – $1.54 per share.
CAT closed at $83.20 on Friday—a drop of $3.78 (4.35%) per share. The stock is continuing to decline slightly in after-hours trading.
Google (Symbol: GOOG) missed earnings expectations yesterday and that gave shareowners a moment of pause. In after-hours trading on Thursday, Google began declining.
Today (Friday) was actually a great day to get into Google or acquire more shares. In intraday trading, Google fell to $509.50, which was almost 8% lower than Thursday’s close of $548.51.
Starbucks (Symbol: SBUX) announced that they’d be offering salads in 4,400 U.S. stores by the end of July 2007. It’s part of their move to appeal to the lunch crowd.
Making an exit will be Jones Soda (Symbol: JSDA). The soda is usually in the cold case by the registers, but at month’s end, they’ll be history.
The Blackstone Group LP (Symbol: BX) is about to become the world’s largest hotel owner. On July 3rd, it was announced that Hilton Hotels Corp (Symbol: HLT) agreed to an all-cash buyout.
In the deal, valued at $20.1 billion, Blackstone will purchase all of Hilton’s outstanding shares for $47.50 each. On a shortened trading day Tuesday, Hilton’s stock closed at $36.05 per share—up $2.18 on the day.
Blackstone’s stock nudged up slightly to $29.72—a 45-cent increase on the news.
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Email: jmartin@financialrebel.com
My name is Jason A. Martin and this is my investment blog. Back in Jr. High School I fell in love with an electrical wiring company's stock on Wall Street. After following the stock daily in the papers—the Internet wasn't around back then—I sent them a letter and they sent me back all sorts of wonderful information about their company.
In High School, we had a stock market contest. All the kids were picking companies that made stuff they consumed. When I announced my beloved company, I was laughed at. Little did they know that my company was going to be the subject of a takeover soon.
Long story short, I won the contest and have made money in the stock market, through real estate investing, currency trading and so forth.
I hope you enjoy Financial Rebel. If you do, please leave your comments and share this site with those you know. I also run a currency trading blog over at CapitalistNation.com.
Jason
