Month: June 2012

IHS (IHS) today had its estimates raised by Credit Suisse (CS) due to new guidance issued by the company. A $113 price target was issued with an outperform rating.

Optimism over the possibility of further stimulus from the Federal Reserve kept the markets in positive territory today. There were mixed results on the economic front as the latest report from the Commerce Department showed a 4.8 percent drop in housing starts in May, to a seasonally adjusted 708,000 units.

Yahoo! Washington Bureau Chief David Chalian interviews Education Secretary Arne Duncan

AK Steel (AKS) was downgraded today by UBS (UBS) to from buy to neutral from buy with a price target of $5 due to underwhelming guided second quarter volumes. Shares are higher by about 3.5 percent.

Multinational electronics manufacturing company Celestica Inc, announced today that they will no longer make products for Research in Motion Ltd, its largest client. The BlackBerry manufacturer will be shrinking its global supply due to weak demand for its products over the past year. RIM products accounted for just 19 percent of Celestica’s first-quarter revenue, down 16 percent from the previous year. The struggling company has recently hired bankers from J.P. Morgan and RBC Capital to assess their strategic options moving forward. Despite the loss of client RIM, Celestica announced that they still expected an adjusted second-quarter profit of 20 cents to 26 cents per share.

Bargain hunters are wise to pay careful attention to insider buying, because although there are many various reasons for an insider to sell a stock, presumably the only reason they would use their hard-earned cash to make a purchase, is that they expect to make money. Today we look at two noteworthy recent insider buys.

Intel Corporation is set to purchase about 1,700 wireless technology patents for $375 million from InterDigital Inc. This has caused shares of the tech company to increase by 27 percent. Intel has been looking to expand its chip business into mobile devices, while InterDigital has been looking for a possible sale of the company or its patents since July 2011. Investors of InterDigital applauded the deal after many had questioned the company’s ability to finalize a patent sale after the company announced it had failed to find a buyer for the whole company. InterDigital is adhering to their original revenue target of $71 million for the second quarter, including the sale of other patents for $9 million in a separate deal.

American households are struggling more than ever. According to the U.S. Census, between the years 2005 and 2010, US households saw their wealth decline by over a third. Due to falling home values, share prices and the current economic instability, the median household net worth dropped 35% to $66,740 in the five year period. In comparison, the median household net worth was $102,844 in 2005, using constant 2010 dollars.The sharp decline is mostly blamed on falling house prices. In addition, the current unemployment rate is at 8.2 percent and has been above 8 percent since February 2009. Despite falling net worth across the country though, households with more education still fared well during these tough economic times. In 2010, households with a graduate or professional degree had a median net worth of $245,763 in contrast to just $42,223 of those with only a high school diploma.

Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) not having any luck when it comes to energy in Poland. The large oil and gas company announced they would stop shale exploration in the country after finding insufficient amounts of natural gas. Exxon Mobil spokesman Patrick McGinn explained the two wells the company was pulling from did not provide commercial quantities of the gas. He added there have also been no other positive signs in the area, leading to the stoppage announcement.Investors are weary of the stock after this news. The energy company is currently down a quarter of a percent to $83.01.

Set just before the financial crisis of 2008, John Lanchester’s ‘Capital’ is what he calls his ‘big, fat London novel.’ Newsweek & The Daily Beast’s books editor Lucas Wittmann talks with Lanchester about why there aren’t more novels about finance, and how London differs from the rest of the U.K. in the age of austerity.