May 18, 2012
Global stock markets are reacting nervously to the European debt crisis. Depositors in Greek banks are withdrawing deposits ala "It's a Wonderful Life" for fear that their Euros will be converted into new Drachma. If that run on the banks spreads to Spain or Italy it will require strong and decisive action by European political leaders.
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May 17, 2012
Facebook priced its Initial Public Offering of stock at $38 / share. This values the company at about $104 billion. If Facebook were in the S&P 500 Index, that would place it behind Verizon, Merck and Pepsico and ahead of Amazon.com, Abbott Labs and Qualcom.
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May 16, 2012
One of the better articles on why the European Union is under so much stress. My personal belief (since 2010) has been that at least some countries will re-adopt their own currencies. This action will set the stage for a rebalancing of the disparate national economies.
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May 11, 2012
JP Morgan's (JPM) loss of $2 billion was a shock to markets but that figure should be put into context. JPM has a net worth of $183 billion and earned $17 billion over the last 12 months.
April 30, 2012
Barnes and Noble CEO, William Lynch stated that e-books market share will increase from 5% today to 30% within the next two to three years. Firms fighting for market position include Apple (iPad), Amazon (Kindle) and now Microsoft through in investment in Barnes and Noble (Nook).
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April 27, 2012
Standard & Poor's reduced its rating on Spain's government debt from A to BBB+, a two-notch downgrade. Global stock markets seem to have taken this news in stride. Most bourses are trading flat to slightly higher. Market resilience in the face of the downgrade suggests the action was not a surprise to investors.