Companies Fight Healthcare Costs, Together Companies are banding together to fight rising health care costs with group buying they hope will give them more bargaining power with providers. Louise Radnofsky reports at The Wall Street Journal: Twenty major companies—including American Express Co., Macy’s Inc.and Verizon Communications Inc.—are banding together to use their collective data and market power in a bid to hold down the cost of providing workers with health-care benefits. The newly formed alliance of companies, which cover about four million people among them, plan to share … [Read more...]
The Monday Melee: Is American Manufacturing Over?
American Manufacturing Shrinks for the Fourth Straight Month ISM Survey Points to Worse Environment for Manufacturing than 2012 Exports Perform Worst in ISM Report Source: January 2016 Manufacturing ISM Report on Business … [Read more...]
The Monday Melee: Is Russia About to Collapse?
Russia Deteriorating Kalyeena Markortoff writes at CNBC: Data released Monday shows Russia's economy "worryingly" deteriorated at the end of last year with oil prices in a tailspin only bolstering the odds of a second year of recession for Moscow, an analyst has told CNBC. Russia's state statistics agency, Rosstat, reported preliminary figures Monday that showed its gross domestic product contracted by 3.7 percent in 2015, much worse than the 0.6 percent growth tracked in 2014 but roughly in line with forecasts. Billionaires Hear Russia's Outlook at Davos Russia Burning Through … [Read more...]
The Monday Melee: How Low Will Oil Fall?
Morgan Stanley Analysts Predict $20 Oil Brent Crude Drops Below 2008 Lows Prices Near $31/Barrel Today Nicole Friedman writes in The Wall Street Journal: Brent, the global benchmark, fell $2, or 6%, to $31.55 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe, at the lowest level since April 6, 2004. The global crude market is expected to become more oversupplied as soon as this month if sanctions are lifted on Iran, allowing the country to increase its oil exports. “I don’t see the catalyst that’s going to stop us from falling, at this point,” said Scott Shelton, broker at ICAP. While gasoline … [Read more...]
The Monday Melee: 2016, Outlook Not So Good
Markets' Debbie Downer Opening Day Reading through today's headlines on CNBC would give any investor a bit of a stomach ache. Words like stagflation, plunge, burst, shaking, and slowdown were prominent among the titles. There were a few hopeful headlines, but nothing as powerful as the downers. CNBC's Bob Pisani laid out a smorgasbord of reasons the market was down today: 1) A poor U.S. close to 2015. Momentum traders were sure to press the indifferent, lackluster close to what is normally a positive time of the year. 2) China. Not just the disappointing manufacturing numbers, but the … [Read more...]
The Monday Melee: What Could the Saudis be Thinking?
Saudis Producing Near Record Oil at Low Prices Saudis Run Record Budget Deficit Ahmed Al Omran and Summer Said report in The Wall Street Journal: Saudi Arabia on Monday unveiled plans to cut expenditures and sharply raised domestic fuel prices as the world’s top oil exporter attempts to cope with a new era of cheap crude prices. After years of spending its massive oil wealth to bolster the local economy and provide subsidized energy and other utilities to its 30 million people, a steep decline in oil priceshas forced the kingdom to reassess these plans. On Monday, officials said the … [Read more...]
The Monday Melee: Headwinds for Manufacturing
Manufacturing Corporation Sales Down 3 of Last 4 Months Steelmakers Hurting USAToday reports: Steelmakers are suffering their worst downturn in at least 15 years, partly because oil producers have drastically cut drilling activity and so have less need for steel pipes. This week's drop in oil prices below $40 a barrel could intensify the pain for steel manufacturers by delaying a rebound in energy investment, saysBarclays analyst Matthew Korn. Yet the oil slump only partly explains the steel industry's woes. Steel producers have been hit by a global nose-dive in commodity prices … [Read more...]
The Monday Melee: Waiting for the Santa Claus Rally?
Is Janet Yellen Mrs. Claus? Will U.S. stocks see a Santa Claus Rally after the Fed decision on interest rates? Bloomberg reports: Investors waiting for an end-of-year rally just got a present from Janet Yellen. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index began the second half of December with gains that nearly wiped out its loss for the month, setting it up to close out the year in positive territory with 10 trading sessions to go. The 1.5 percent increase Wednesday nearly equaled the gauge’s average advance in the last two weeks of the year since 1995. The benchmark slipped 0.2 percent as of … [Read more...]
The Monday Melee: Saudis Push Oil Prices Further Down
Lowest Prices in Seven Years NPR reports that after Saudi Arabia told other oil producers it wasn't planning to cut production at an OPEC meeting, prices for crude oil began falling to their lowest levels in years. Oil prices fell to their lowest levels in seven years, after OPEC officials failed to agree Friday on how to address the global supply glut. By midday Monday, Brent crude futures fell 5 percent to $40.68 a barrel, the lowest price since 2009. The U.S. oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude dropped below $38 a barrel. No More Target Proved Reserves Price of Oil … [Read more...]
The Monday Melee: Low Returns in 2016?
Jack Bogle Predicts Low Returns for a Decade The End of the Beginning? While he projects continued bull markets for years to come, Adam Parker, Morgan Stanley's US Equity analyst is quoted by BusinessInsider.com as writing: "While a high percentage of companies were able to show year-over-year margin expansion this year, the combination of muted revenue and negative factors in industrials, energy, and materials, and less benefits from lower oil in terms of consumer spend and lower input costs, have caused us to reduce our 2015 EPS outlook from $124 to $120.5," the analysts added. "We also … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 62
- 63
- 64
- 65
- 66
- …
- 116
- Next Page »